Cannot open '/etc/path_to_inst' - (Solaris)

by Jeff Hunter, Sr. Database Administrator

For those who have ever come across the error: Cannot open '/etc/path_to_inst',
this article provides an easy way in which to rebuild this file.

The error indicates that the system can not find the /etc/path_to_install file. It is
possible that the file may be really missing or corrupted and needs to be rebuild.

To rebuild this file, boot the system with -ar option as follows:

ok>boot -ar
Press enter to select default values for the questions asked during booting and select yes
to rebuild /etc/path_to_install
The /etc/path_to_inst on your system does not exist or is
empty. Do you want to
rebuild this file [n]? y
The system will continue booting after rebuilding the file.

Using NFS - (Solaris)

by Jeff Hunter, Sr. Database Administrator

This brief article touches on several of the important commands that are used to NFS a
file system on Solaris. Now keep in mind that with most Solaris configurations; enabling
a Sun Solaris server to mount or share a file system, the required daemons will already be
running. If not, this article may help you with this process.

The first thing to ensure is that the proper daemons for running NFS are started. If unsure,
I will typically just run them when I cannot determine whether or not they are running:

$ su -
$ cd /usr/lib/nfs
$ ./mountd
$ ./nfsd
NOTE:

• mountd: RPC server that answers requests for NFS access information and file
system mount requests

• nfsd: The daemon that handles client file system requests

Sharing A File System

 The following example will share a file system /software so that others
may be able to mount it:

# share /software

If I want to check all file systems being shared from my system:

# share
- /software rw ""

How to NFS A File System

Now, from another machine, I want to NFS the file system that is being
shared above:

# mount -F nfs alex:/software /mnt/software

How to Unmount an NFS File System

Finally, let's unmount the previously mounted file system:

# umount /mnt/software