topic Re: Decommissioning a machine in Operating System - HP-UX

Decommissioning a machine

Jim Lynn — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 17:33:24 GMT

Its running 10.4 and we think there is nobody using this server but does anyone own a script that would let me possitive ? We think there may be mail transactions...but anything ??

Re: Decommissioning a machine

Patrick Wallek — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 17:37:15 GMT

10.4? I don't think there is such a version of HP-UX.

Anyway, to check on mail activity, if you are using sendmail, you can check /var/adm/syslog/mail.log and see what is being logged there.

You could also use glance or top to see what processes are being run and see what is using CPU time. If there is user activity you should see something there.

Or, as a last resort, you could turn the machine off and see who screams when you do. :)

Re: Decommissioning a machine

harry d brown jr — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 17:39:06 GMT

Use the last command. and when in doubt, shut it down for a week and see if anyone complains.

Re: Decommissioning a machine

Santosh Nair_1 — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 18:22:16 GMT

Also if you want to check if mail is being sent to your machine, you can see in /var/mail. If there are files there that have been touched recently, then there is a good chance that mail is being delivered to this machine. You can also use elm or mailx with the -f option to check the mail files to see if they're anything important.

As for any other processes, I guess ps -ef should give you a list of processes running on the machine. Look for anything not system related.

Finally, turn the machine off and see if anyone complains...always a good way to check the activity of the machine.

Hope this helps.

-Santosh

Re: Decommissioning a machine

Bernie Vande Griend — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 18:22:28 GMT

Some things to check/do when deciding when to decommission:

-Check login history using last.
-Check cron log: /var/adm/cron/log
-Check mail log: /var/adm/syslog/mail.log
-Check syslog for any messages that indicate activity: /var/adm/syslog/syslog.log
-Check if being used as a server for services like NFS, NIS, DNS, Samba for which you wouldn't see user logins.
-Check history of print jobs: /var/spool/lp/log
-If nothing important found, do a full backup.
-Disconnect system from the network to see if anyone is concerned.

Just some ideas, hope it helps.

Re: Decommissioning a machine

Michael Tully — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 21:18:31 GMT

Hi,

and once the system has been identified as
officially dead.... You will (well I would)
remove all data pertaining to that system.
You could do what all SA's think about from
time to time and that is.... dare I say it
Oops perhaps a backup is in order first!
then....

# cd /
# rm -rf *
Or you could do an export of all of your
volume groups
# vgexport -mapfile.vgx /dev/vgx

my 2 cents worth
-Michael

Re: Decommissioning a machine

Robert_Jewell — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 22:16:35 GMT

Definitely a backup first. There is always someone who will come looking for data as soon as you wipe the drive. To perform such wiping, you could do the following:
-Remove from machine and install into a running one.
-From that system perform a mediainit on the drive from the old system. This will format the drive and it will be ready for future use.

And those are my 2 pennies...

-Bob

Re: Decommissioning a machine

Bill McNAMARA_1 — Fri, 19 Oct 2001 07:57:23 GMT

Hey Jim,

If you're just going to throw it in the bin.. I'll find it a nice owner in my garage!

Later,
Bill

Re: Decommissioning a machine

Wodisch — Fri, 19 Oct 2001 16:45:30 GMT

Hello Jim,

was it 10.24? VVOS, then? Just curious...
Well, in any case do not forget to erase everything from all your disks - "medianinit" or a fairly huge hammer spring to mind, really!

Just my $0.01,
Wodisch

Re: Decommissioning a machine

harry d brown jr — Fri, 19 Oct 2001 16:51:30 GMT

Wodisch, I couldn't agree more with you about 10.24 (VVOS). I replaced over twelve huge K's ruining (not a typo) VVOS, with 11.00 and 11i and bastian host procedures. It sure makes the developers a lot happier, and it makes securities job a lot easier also. No more inside outside crap. We used to spend countless hours bringing the tgp back up, but not any more!