Managing Systems and Workgroups: A Guide for HP-UX System Administrators

Configuring a System
Reconfiguring the Kernel (HP-UX 11i Version 2)
Chapter 3316
• The running kernel configuration is automatically backed up before
each configuration change (if desired).
• The system automatically maintains a detailed log file of all kernel
configuration changes.
• Kernel modules and kernel tunable parameters now have
descriptions associated with them. Kernel tunable parameters have
online documentation, and descriptions of the relationships between
them.
• All kernel configuration commands can produce output in both
user-friendly and script-friendly formats. HP supports
release-to-release compatibility for the script-friendly formats.
What Is a Kernel Configuration?
Logically, a kernel configuration is a collection of all of the administrator
choices and settings needed to determine the behavior and capabilities of
the HP-UX kernel. In this implementation, the collection includes:
• a set of kernel tunable parameter value assignments
• a set of kernel modules, each with a desired state
• a primary swap device specification
• a set of dump device specifications
• a set of bindings of devices to device drivers
• a name and optional description of the kernel configuration
Physically, a kernel configuration is a directory under /stand that
contains the files needed to realize the specified behavior. The directory
includes:
• an HP-UX kernel executable
• a set of HP-UX kernel module files
• a kernel registry database, containing all of the above settings
• a system file, describing the above settings in human-readable form
• various other implementation-specific files
In addition to the configuration of the running kernel, HP-UX systems
can have any number of saved kernel configurations, limited only by the
disk space available in /stand.
Overview of Kernel Configuration Commands
There are three primary commands used to manage kernel
configurations: kconfig, kcmodule, and kctune.