HP-UX System Administrator's Guide: Configuration Management

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. The
collection includes:
• A set of kernel tunable parameter value assignments
• A set of kernel modules, each with a desired state
• 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; and two other commands: kcpath and kclog.
The kconfig command manages whole kernel configurations. It allows configurations
to be saved, loaded, copied, renamed, deleted, exported, imported, etc. It can also list
existing saved configurations and give details about them. For more information, see
“Managing Saved Configurations with kconfig” (page 189) or the kconfig(1M) manpage.
The kcmodule command manages kernel modules. Kernel modules can be device
drivers, kernel subsystems, or other bodies of kernel code. Each module can be unused,
statically bound into the main kernel executable, or dynamically loaded. The kcmodule
command will display or change the state of any module in the currently running
configuration or any saved configuration. For more information, see “Managing Kernel
Modules with kcmodule” (page 160) or the kcmodule(1M) manpage.
The kctune command manages kernel tunable parameters. These are variables that
control the behavior of the kernel. They have many uses; common ones include
controlling the allocation of system resources and tuning aspects of kernel performance.
The kctune command will display or change the value of any tunable parameter in
the currently running configuration or any saved configuration. For more information,
see “Managing Kernel Tunable Parameters with kctune” (page 170) or the kctune(1M)
manpage.
154 Configuring the Kernel