Using the Service Access Facility

You can set up terminals and modems with the Solaris Management Console's Serial Ports tool or the SAF commands.

The SAF is a tool that is used to administer terminals, modems, and other network devices. The top-level SAF program is the Service Access Controller (SAC). The SAC controls port monitors that you administer through the sacadm command. Each port monitor can manage one or more ports.

You administer the services associated with ports through the pmadm command. While services provided through the SAC can differ from network to network, the SAC and its administrative commands, sacadm and pmadm, are network independent.

The following table describes the SAF control hierarchy. The sacadm command is used to administer the SAC, which controls the ttymon and listen port monitors.

The services of ttymon and listen are in turn controlled by the pmadm command. One instance of ttymon can service multiple ports. One instance of listen can provide multiple services on a network interface.

Table 10.1. SAF Control Hierarchy

Function

Program

Description

Overall administration

sacadm

Command for adding and removing port monitors

Service Access Controller

sac

SAF's master program

Port monitors

ttymon

listen

Monitors serial port login requests

Monitors requests for network services

Port monitor service administrator

pmadm

Command for controlling port monitors services

Services

logins, remote procedure calls

Services to which the SAF provides access

Console administration

console login

Console services are managed by the SMF service, svc:/system/console-login:default. This service invokes the ttymon port monitor. Do not use the pmadm or the sacadm command to manage the console. For more information, see ttymon and the Console Port, How to Set the ttymon Console Terminal Type, and How to Set the Baud Rate Speed on the ttymon Console Terminal.