Solaris SMF Manifest for EZproxy

Solaris Service Management Facility

Starting with Solaris 10, system services are controlled by the Service Management Facility. This facility simplifies management and control of non-interactive services such as EZproxy. Institutions running EZproxy on Solaris 10 may wish to have EZproxy controlled by SMF.

This article will not tell you all you need to know about Solaris 10's Service Management Facility. It is intended only as a guide for getting started in implementing an SMF manifest for EZproxy. You can read more about SMF by following links in the further reading section.

These instructions have only been tested on a non-production server and you should do your own tests before running live with this.

Create the SMF service

Service configuration files

Copy the manifest file for EZproxy to the site-specific manifest location:

# mkdir -p /var/svc/manifest/site/application
# cp ezproxy.xml /var/svc/manifest/site/application/ezproxy.xml

Create a symbolic link to your EZproxy program file for use by SMF when starting, stopping or restarting the EZproxy process:

# ln -s /your/ezproxy/binary /lib/svc/method/ezproxy

The manifest file provided on this page depends on the existence of this symbolic link.

Importing the service into SMF

Once you have the manifest file in place, and the symbolic link created, you can import the manifest into the service configuration repository.

Firstly, use svccfg to validate the manifest file before importing:

# svccfg validate /var/svc/manifest/site/application/ezproxy.xml

Be sure to fix any errors reported by svccfg.

Next, import the service configuration into the repository:

# svccfg import /var/svc/manifest/site/application/ezproxy.xml

Check that the manifest was imported successfully:

#svcs ezproxy
STATE          STIME    FMRI
disabled       12:10:37 svc:/site/application/ezproxy:default

Or if you prefer more detail, you can run svcs verbosely:

# svcs -vx ezproxy
svc:/site/application/ezproxy:default (EZproxy server)
 State: disabled since Fri Apr 21 12:10:37 2006
Reason: Disabled by an administrator.
   See: http://sun.com/msg/SMF-8000-05
Impact: This service is not running.

Starting the new service

You can now start the SMF-controlled EZproxy process:

# svcadm enable ezproxy

If all goes well, running svcs you will see:

# svcs -vx ezproxy
svc:/site/application/EZproxy:default (ezproxy server)
 State: online since Fri Apr 21 12:11:57 2006
   See: /var/svc/log/site-application-ezproxy:default.log
Impact: None.

To Do: Explain what happens if all does not go well ;)

The manifest file (ezproxy.xml)

This is the ezproxy.xml manifest file that you can copy and use on your Solaris 10 server:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE service_bundle SYSTEM "/usr/share/lib/xml/dtd/service_bundle.dtd.1">
<!--
	Copyright 2006 RMIT University Library, All rights reserved.

	Solaris service manifest for EZproxy

	EZproxy.xml : Ben Couldrey, ben.couldrey [at] rmit.edu.au

	Note, you should do a few things before this manifest will work:

		1. Choose an appropriate FMRI, I've chosen the site-specifc location
		2. Create a symbolic link in /lib/svc/method pointing to your EZproxy binary
			(ln -s /your/ezproxy/binary /lib/svc/method/ezproxy)
		3. Add, change or delete the instance dependencies as necessary for your system
		4. Test, test, test.
-->

<service_bundle type='manifest' name='ezproxy'>
<service
	name='site/application/ezproxy'
	type='service'
	version='1'>

	<single_instance />

	<instance name='default' enabled='false'>
		<dependency name='loopback'
			grouping='require_all'
			restart_on='error'
			type='service'>
			<service_fmri value='svc:/network/loopback:default'/>
		</dependency>

		<dependency name='physical'
			grouping='optional_all'
			restart_on='error'
			type='service'>
			<service_fmri value='svc:/network/physical:default'/>
		</dependency>

		<exec_method
			type='method'
			name='start'
			exec='/lib/svc/method/ezproxy start'
			timeout_seconds='60' />

		<exec_method
			type='method'
			name='stop'
			exec='/lib/svc/method/ezproxy stop'
			timeout_seconds='60' />

		<exec_method
			type='method'
			name='restart'
			exec='/lib/svc/method/ezproxy restart'
			timeout_seconds='60' />
	</instance>

	<stability value='Evolving' />

	<template>
		<common_name>
			<loctext xml:lang='C'>
				EZproxy server
			</loctext>
		</common_name>
		<documentation>
			<doc_link name='usefulutilities.com'
				uri='http://www.usefulutilities.com' />
		</documentation>
	</template>

</service>
</service_bundle>

Further reading

Sun documentation

Solaris Service Management Facility - Quickstart Guide
Solaris Service Management Facility - Service Developer Introduction
BigAdmin Predictive Self-Healing Discussion Forum

Man pages

Check the manual pages of the utilities referenced on this page:

• smf(5)
• svcs(1)
• svcadm(1M)
• svccfg(1M)

Author

Ben Couldrey, Library Systems Officer, RMIT University Library
Submitted by: Ben 04:29, 21 April 2006 (EDT)