Chapter 8: Managing Network Printers and System Processes

Overview

One of the services operating systems offer is to manage the execution of programs submitted by a user. A program can launch more than one process. A process is a piece of a program that has its own execution thread and address space. The processes use system resources such as CPU and disk space, and they can damage the system, depending on what they are set to do. Therefore the processes need to be managed. As a system administrator, you need to perform process management, which includes viewing, controlling, and scheduling processes.

There are two kinds of processes: the processes that a user starts (such as a script or a command), and the processes that run in the background and perform tasks for the system. The latter kind of processes is called daemons—for example, the lpsched daemon that manages print requests on a system. As a system administrator, you need to administer the print service on the Solaris system, as well.

The central question to think about in this chapter is: how are the processes administered on a Solaris 10 system, including the processes for managing the print service? In search of an answer, we will explore three thought streams: viewing and controlling processes, scheduling processes, and managing the LP print service.