It is the last of these scenarios which most often concerns you as an administrator, since there will be times when you need to reach the ok prompt. The section “Methods To Reach the ok Prompt” on page 19 lists several ways. For detailed instructions, see “Getting to the ok Prompt” on page 21.
Methods To Reach the ok Prompt
There are several ways to reach the ok prompt, depending on the state of the system and the means by which you are accessing the system console.
Note – These methods of reaching the ok prompt work only if the system console has been redirected to the appropriate port. For details, see “System Console OpenBoot Configuration Variable Settings” on page 23.
The methods are:
■Graceful shutdown
■system controller break and console command pair
■
■Manual system reset
Adiscussion of each method follows. For
Note – As a rule, before suspending the operating system, you should back up files, warn users of the impending shutdown, and halt the system in an orderly manner. However, it is not always possible to take such precautions, especially if the system is malfunctioning.
Graceful Shutdown
The preferred method of reaching the ok prompt is to shut down the operating system by issuing an appropriate command (for example, the shutdown, init, or uadmin command) as described in Solaris system administration documentation. You can also use the system Power button to initiate a graceful system shutdown.
Gracefully shutting down the system prevents data loss, enables you to warn users beforehand, and causes minimal disruption. You can usually perform a graceful shutdown, provided the Solaris OS is running and the hardware has not experienced serious failure.
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