Logfile on changes in the Solaris 2.x tuning document set
I'm afraid you have to read German date formats: DD.MM.YY. On popular demand
I created this changelog file for your convenience. With the help of this
changelog file, you can determine recent changes at one glance. If a file
changed without an entry here, only spelling and other minor mistakes were
corrected.
24.05.2002
Sean O'Neill made me (consciously) aware of the
tcp_mss_min
parameter.
01.02.2002
Changed several typographical errors on the
index page, kindly pointed out by
Joel dot Shandelman at optionable dot com Joel Shandelman.
13.01.2002
Added recommendation not to lower
tcp_ip_abort_interval, as this might result in Veritas backup failures amongst other things: socket write error. Pointed out by tanvir at mail dot orgTanvir Hassan, thanks.
Added maxphys, pidmax,
reserved_nprocs, physmem, and
lwp_default_stacksize.
Changed your-tune scripts to nettune
script to maintain compatibility with YaSSP.
March 2001
Moving to my own domain sean.de.
17.01.2001
Yermilov Sergey provided me with the URI of the SUN Tunable Parameters
Reference Manual.
05.12.2000
Added a section to the ethernet problems which describes how to
enable the distinct ethernet MAC address for each interface.
13.09.2000
dave at srce dot hrDrazen Kacar pointed
out the new Solaris 8 6/00 features concerning the DNLC:
dnlc_dir_max_size, dnlc_dir_min_size and
dnlc_dir_enable.
12.09.2000
Solaris 8 has a default soft limit of 256, pointed out by
dave at srce dot hrDrazen Kacar.
Also fixed some of the wording for the soft- and hard limits.
The 64 bit ABI stacks do not include the execute bit by default.
The fixes to noexec_user_stack were pointed
out bydave at srce dot hrDrazen Kacar.
07.09.2000
Added nfssrv:nfs_portmon to the descriptions of
/etc/system variables, kindly pointed out by Mr. Amos
(HK Hosting Ltd.).
02.08.2000
Added more emphasize to the fact that TCP watermarks will be rounded
up to the nearest MTU. jason at pattosoft dot com dot au
Jason Patterson pointed out that using a maximum
of 65535 will be rounded up to 66608, thus silently turning on the
window scaling which is incompatible with IP-Filter.
Removed some outdated Squid-1 remarks. Nobody should use a Squid-1
these days!
19.07.2000
Corrected some naive assumptions in the archaic section on
tcp_conn_req_max, brought up by Demian Hanks.
18.07.2000
Updated the information for pt_cnt according
to the Solaris 8 Admin Answerbook. Pointed out by dave at srce dot hr Drazen Kacar.
Added tcp_slow_start_after_idle just to have it there.
Added more insights to tcp_rtt_updates.
Modified recommendations for tcp_deferred_ack_interval.
10.06.99
Added rudimentary information on the parameters
tcp_rtt_updates and
ip_ire_cleanup_interval as were seen on the tcp-impl
mailing list (pointed out by mbennett at netcom dot com Mike
Bennett).
Added a link to docs.sun.com to the literature section.
11.02.99
Added a pointer to the Solaris FAQ to the literature section.
27.01.99
Blair Zajac (author of ORCA, a webserver
monitor) provided corrections for over fifty misspellings, or
over hundred, if you count AE and BE differences as mistakes. Which
makes me think, should I fashion my style more to AE or more to BE?
Michael Fromme forwarded an
email from the multimedia conference list, stating that early ethernet
interfaces on low versions of Solaris were only capable of participating
in 64 multicast groups simultaneously.
12.11.98
Inserted a new chapter
What's new containing a few of the most exciting new features in
Solaris 7.
Added a note to tcp_deferred_ack_interval
which mentions its influence on slow bulk data transfer. Shobana
Narayanasw (MIL3) had me look into the matter.
11.11.98
Jens Elkner again:
Fixed rlim_fd_* notions
about breaking the license server and RPC. Both services only look at
the softlimit; the hardlimit may be increased without harm.
Shobana Narayanasw (MIL3) made me aware of the fact that my
tcp_deferred_acks_max
documentation was mistaken. Actually, the ACKs max parameter does
influence bulk data transfer, and thus limits the number of segments
for which an ACK may be outstanding.
Fixed missing backslash in the ndd.pl script; now works fine with Perl 5.005.
There doesn't exist any tcp_recv_lowat, though a socket
option exists. tcp_sth_rcv_lowat and
tcp_snd_lowat_fraction are still in need of some
explanations.
Rearranged equation (2).
Mentioned tcp_slow_start_initial in the LFN
section as worthwile diversion.
26.10.98
Reworked the literature links and the literature section.
Bertold Kolics pointed out that the
Cockroft, 2nd edition changed its
homepage. This is important.
20.09.98
What started as fixes on the design actually enhanced the meta
tags, fixed dangling and missing end-tags. The general appearance
was reworked to be more consistent.
The framed version was scratched due to the frame-inherent difficulties
with the title bar and the overhead for superflous design gimmicks.
One CSS1 conforming stylesheet was introduced, but only for visual
enhancements, as even Netscape 4.x does not print what is declared in
the stylesheet. And a printed document with all structuring tags removed
is virtually worthless.
Have a guess... I love motorbikes ;-) Click it in a spare
minute.
18.09.98
Many minor changes, partially in sequence of paragraphs, partially
in layout.
Reworked externally pointing hyperlinks to be shown in one
frame of their own.
17.09.98
reworked the introductive section to
contain more information on the use of
ndd. Also moved the table of
contents to the very beginning, and the introductory words into the
introduction.
Changed the ndd.pl script for examining values
to contain a help, and fixed the tabular values.
Moved the 100 Mbps section again to
provide a more logical reading flow.
Refreshed links to the HTTP/1.1 protocol from 3rd to 4th revision.
Added noexec_user_stack
and noexec_user_stack_log to the
/etc/system section, in accordance with CA-98.06. Be warned
to try out this option thoroughly before using it on a production
system.
Exchanged section 7.3 and 7.4, since readers told me about "using ndd
to display hme values", even though I mentioned it someplace later. Now I
want to point directly (in the next section) to ndd
for extracting current
information from network driver loadable kernel modules.
Added a shell script to displays some
/etc/system tunable kernel parameters to the
scripts section. The script was kindly
supplied by andre at online dot ee Andres Kroonmaa.
Added the 10 Mbps downgrade hme_adv_10fdx_cap and
hme_adv_10hdx_cap options to the
fast ethernet section, as several readers
mentioned them, Mr. Kannemann among them.
Fixed a few quite severe bugs with the first
startup script, pointed out and fixes suggested by
chouanard at parc dot xerox dot com Jean Chouanard
(Xerox PARC).
Added ip_forward_directed_broadcasts,
ip_forwarding, and
ip_respond_to_echo_broadcast to the
common parameters section, also pointed
out by Jean Chouanard.
Worked on tcp_slow_start_initial relevant sections,
initiated by mbennett at netcom dot com Mike Bennett.
Updated ip_icmp_err_interval.
Found and added the explaination for *_max_buf.
24.06.98
Just added Sun's public TCP/IP and Data Communications Administration Guide to the literature section, kindly pointed out by Richard Murphy (SwRI). Especially the high-speed TCP stuff needs some more work in my document.
19.06.98
Added reasons for the recommended buffer sizes.
Added TODO item to look into possible NAGLEing of HTTP requests.
Extensively reworked the buffers, windows
and watermarks section.
Now contains a picture which should make things much clearer. Also
reworked the recommenations.
Changed the startup script to work with the
new recommendations. Also improved on the $osver variable.
Cleared up misleading paths in the connection queue section, made aware of by
p at patrick dot netPatrick Killelea.
Fixed mispelled maxusers, caught by
jw at wede dot de Jan Wedekind (UUNET Germany).
22.05.98
Updated the startup script not to assume that
/var is mounted at the time the script is called. Now will work
on more Solari than before, and does verbose output. Solaris < 2.5.1
will need to modify the patch-finder part of the script.
Corrected my statements to the Solaris 2.6 parameter
tcp_deferred_acks_max due
to experimentations with this parameter. The information is still not
definitive.
Added new section of of things in need
to be done (TODO list). The section is a meta-section covering
material I
intend to dig into. Thus you get ample warning about things which might
change in the foreseeable future.
06.04.98
Added the use_mxcc_prefetch parameter.
Removed advice to fiddle with maxusers.
04.04.98
sfx at unix-ag dot org Lars Eilebrecht made me aware of
a the formula concerning ufs_ninode and
ncsize.
He also pointed out the default behaviour of bufhwm and
maxusers.
Adrian Cockroft reported that his new book which is due to appear
on 10th of April 98 clarifies some of my open issues. Added to the
literature section. I expect it will correct many errors I made along
the way, too.
Changed example startup script: Moved sections
around a little and added tcp_slow_start_initial.
The formerly mentioned book helped me to completely revise the chapter
about buffers, windows and watermarks. I
went as far as to add another picture in order to clarify a few things.
moved the previously uncommented parameters tcp_deferred_ack_interval and
tcp_deferred_acks_max
into the section about retransmission. These parameters might be of
interest for HTTP/1.0 users.
07.01.98
Update the relation between tcp_recv_hiwat,
udp_recv_hiwat, tcp_xmit_hiwat and
tcp_xmit_hiwat on one hand with the Squid configuration
checks on the other hand.
Updated the TCP transaction document. Now the
figure contains also the HTTP transaction and accounts for ten
exchanged segments. The text is also updated.
Added the cited SunWorld article on 2.6 to the literature section.
21.10.97
Corrected default values for rlim_fd_cur
and rlim_fd_max. The defaults are much smaller
than expected - and measured the last time I looked. Relevant
to Squid is the hardlimit rlim_fd_max.
Also, the filedescriptor tweaks set the hard- and softlimits,
not, as I previously thought to have detected, a per-user
and per-system limit.
Cosmetic changes to the section layout, now with numbering.
Section seven got partitioned into several subsections.
fixed many bugs along the way, especially on the SYSV IPC page.
updated the patchlist.
03.09.97
updated hints to the TCP patchlist.
Documented new parameters tcp_conn_req_max_q and
tcp_conn_req_max_q0. They seem to spring into
existence after applying patch 103582 > pl13. The new parameters
replace the extensive description of tcp_conn_req_max.
19.08.97
Corrected spelling of tcp_ip_abort_cinterval.
Corrected semantical errors in the documentation of
tcp_ip_abort_cinterval and
tcp_ip_abort_interval, referenced SYN flood attacks.
Got the first indication of a kernel patch (yes, this is still
possible with Solaris) increasing the hard limit of
tcp_conn_req_max above 1024.
06.08.97
Documented parameter hme:hme_adv_autoneg_cap
as seen with Mr. Hüsemann
(RRZN).
31.07.97
Improvements on the SYSV IPC parameters. Added a small program
to dynaload the necessary streams modules into the kernel.
Clarifications on the maximum number of possible file descriptors.
Test programs for processes and file descriptors. Yes, there are
other ways to find out about those, but why not just do the very same
thing your server do when they die unexpectedly.
100 MBit ethernet tunings kindly supplied by Mr. Nebel
(IS).
Moved SYSV IPC documentation into a document of its own.
Added Steven's APUE to the list of books.
22.07.97
Made all RFC references real hyperlinks.
Re-Introduction of my change log.
21.07.97
Documented small changes on the default values.
Verification of all defaults with Solaris 2.5 and 2.5.1 (Sparc only).
Reworked the section about windows and buffers, now
with more in depth knowledge, still threading deep waters without ground
under my feet.
xx.07.97
Reworked all pages for my new employer.
Added extra page about transactions via TCP from my thesis paper.
Verification of some data, improvement on up-to-dateness.
Reworking the literature section.
20.01.97
Update of the patch links.
Small cosmetics on the windows section.
17.10.96
New section about windows and buffers, made aware
by Mr. Sauerteig (CCN)
on a local mailing list. He also pointed out the
resource with documentation for
tcp_cwnd_size
tcp_recv_size
tcp_xmit_size
Added recommended patches for Solaris.
15.08.96
Some personal remarks concerning
tcp_close_wait_interval with an interval of 30 seconds
instead of the original suggestion of 1 second (too low).
Added a few links to other documents.
13.08.96
Added in-page hyperlinks to reference sections and important
parameters.
Added new knowlegde concerning the connection between
udp_largest_anon_port and traceroute.
Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun Logo and Solaris are trademarks or
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and other countries.
Please send your suggestions, bugfixes, comments, and ideas for new items to
soltune at sean dot de In hope of supplying useful information, Jens-S. Vöckler
Last Modified: Thursday, 22-Sep-2005 16:15:50 MEST
Please send your suggestions, bugfixes, comments, and ideas for new items to
soltune at sean dot de