Chapter 11 Using SunPCi III Software 119
For complete information about the sunpcidadm command and its options, see the
sunpcidadm man page. See “How to ViewSolaris Manual Pages” on page 5 for
further information on using man pages.
Virtual Network Computing (VNC)
VNC is a customized version of a GNU Public-Licensed (GPL) software product
from AT&TLaboratories that allows remote administration of the SunPCi III
product. VNC enables SunPCi III software to run on a server that might either have
no display hardware connected (headless) or have no normal X11display available
(for example, before a user logs in to the system).
The version of VNC shipped with the SunPCi III 3.2.1 release contains two
components:
■Xvnc - A modified X11server that renders data into a virtual frame buffer
■vncviewer - An X11client that enables the contents of the Xvnc virtual frame
buffer to be displayed on another X11display
The installation and setup of Microsoft Windowsor Linux via VNC is not
recommended for the following reasons:
■Multiple cursors appear in the window,making mouse use confusing.
■The amount of window data generated during installation is high because of
constant updates by the VGA emulation, which slows the installation process.
For optimal performance, complete the installation process while displaying
information on a local monitor.If this option is not possible, complete the
installation while displaying to a remote monitor is a better option than using VNC.
Installation using VNC is strongly discouraged and should only be used as the last
option. This issue is present for the installation of all operating systems that can use
VNC.
The Xvnc server allows SunPCi sessions to display to what appears to the software
as a normal X11display. Xvnc is ordinarily started by the SunPCi daemon before
starting the SunPCi sessions.
The vncviewer enables system administrators to interact with the SunPCi cards,
either locally on the server where the cards are installed (assuming that the server
has a display attached), or remotely on any Sun machine (including a Sun Ray™
display) that is running a Sun X server.With the combination of the vncviewer and
SunPCi displaying to the Xvnc server,it is possible to attach “on the fly” to a
currently running VNC session from any Sun machine on the network, and to
interact with SunPCi sessions running on a remote server.The VNC session can be
detached and later reattached from a totally differentmachine. The SunPCi sessions
continue running even though no one is interacting with them.