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Below is a collection of the most commonly asked questions about setting up and working with SmartMachines.

In this topic:
At a Glance

This topic points out commonly asked questions to Joyent Customer Support about working with SmartMachines.

What is the difference between an Accelerator and a SmartMachine?

SmartMachine and Accelerator are both names used to describe the same thing – a zone running on Joyent SmartOS. Accelerator was the name used prior to May 2010.

What is the name of my SmartMachine?

Your SmartMachine name is the default name associated with your SmartMachine when delivered. It looks like: z12345AA, z12345AB, or fjsliyaa, fjsliyab. To find the name of your SmartMachine use this command:

How can I find the IPs for my SmartMachine?

The public and private IP of your SmartMachine is in the welcome e-mail. You can also find your public or private IP by using this command:

Private IPs typically start with 10, 192, or 172.

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) has reserved the following three blocks of the IP address space for private networks:
  • 10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
  • 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
  • 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255

For more information on private IPs, see this.

Where can I get a SmartMachine image to use on my local computer?

Currently we do not have a publicly available SmarthMachine image. However, setting up a SmartMachine is relatively simple. We run Solaris Express Community Release and Pkgsrc.

  • You can get the Solaris Express Community Release image here.
  • For information on updating pkgsrc, see this.

How do I reset my SmartMachine to a clean image?

If you ordered your SmartMachine through the my.joyentcloud.com customer portal, delete the SmartMachine from your account and replace it with a newly provisioned SmartMachine.

If you ordered your SmartMachine through a different channel, submit a ticket that you would like to wipe your SmartMachine clean and start fresh.

Ensure you back everything up prior to the request.

What is wrong with Webmin?

If Webmin is failing to load, you have one of two problems: The process is hung or you are hitting your memory limit.

First, verify that you have not exceeded your memory limit.

  1. Log in to your SmartMachine.
  2. Run this command:
  3. Look at the RSS column in the summary. 

If this value is close to the size of the available memory in your SmartMachine, you will need to shut down services to free-up memory.

If this is not the problem, restart the Webmin process with these commands:

Why are paths failing to resolve using /usr/bin/env?

The reality is /usr/bin/env is just fine. The problem is that env was not originally intended as a cure-all for automatically resolving binary paths. It will fail if it cannot find, for example, ruby in its path. Also, the default system PATH does not include paths for the pkgsrc layer installed by Joyent (/opt/local). Your best option is to set those values in an interactive login profile (for example, the root .profile).

To see the path that is set for your processes, use the pargs command. For example, to see the path set for the munin-node process, run this:

Chances are you will see it run with a limited PATH.

This normally is not a problem in your login shells because login shells pull the full env from /root/.profile. However, this is a problem with utilities that run with a limited environment by default, such as SMF or Cron.

So, you want to do one of the following:

  • Always use full paths for the shebangs you include in scripts. This can get tedious, especially with third-party scripts.
  • Modify the system profile to include full PATH.
    You should avoid doing this if possible.
  • Change your SMF profile to set the right PATH.

The third option is the best option. Joyent recommends that you always set PATH in SMF profiles.

Here is an example of mongrel setting the path:

What is preventing Cron from running a script?

One of two things can cause this:

Path issue: Cron runs under a different environment. A best practice is to always use full paths to any program that gets called in a script. For example if you are backing up MySQL with mysqldump, you need to call that program with:

Permissions issue: Ensure that the script is executable and the Cron credentials you are using have the correct permissions. This includes:

  • execute all programs in the script
  • write to the directory (if backing up)
  • access the database (if accessing a database)

How do I prevent log rotation from occurring during Apache maintenance?

Log file rotation occurs at 0030 GMT. If you notice Apache going into maintenance during that time, you may need to adjust when your server rotates log files.

  1. Log into Virtualmin.
  2. In the left pane, follow one of two paths:
    1. For older versions of Virtualmin: System Settings > Module Config > Log File Rotation
    2. For newer versions of Virtualmin: System Settings > Server Templates > Default Settings > Log File Rotation
  3. Change the Directives field to # postrotate and click Save.
  4. At the top of the left pane, click Webmin.
  5. Go to: System > Log File Rotation > Edit Global Options
  6. Change the Truncate log file in place option to Yes and click Save.
Joyent provides Virtualmin as a third-party administrative portal to help you manage your SmartMachine. However, Joyent is not responsible for supporting it because Virtualmin is open source. As such, Joyent will make the best effort to solve your problems. However, you may need to turn to the Virtualmin Support community for further support.

How do I fix existing domains?

Check /opt/local/etc/logrotate.conf and if any config blocks resemble the following:

Remove the contents of the curly brackets. For example:

Why does Apache restart at 0310?

Verify your settings are correct.

  1. Open /etc/logadm.conf
  2. Look for this:
  3. Change it to this:

How do I add more SmartMachines to an existing account?

You can add more SmartMachines through your my.joyentcloud.com. These machines are created without respect to any existing infrastructure you may have. If you have special requirements to ensure that your SmartMachine are set up to work well with your existing infrastructure you can contact Joyent Support at support@joyent.com with your request.

The inetd service is in maintenance mode. How do I fix it?

You can use svcs -vx to check the status of inetd. The svcs -vx command displays the status of services that may require maintenance or provide a status description for the specified service or services. If inetd is in maintenance, you will see messages similar to the following in the log file:

Follow these steps to take the service out of maintenance and enable it:

  1. Try to clear the service:

    Typically, the service will almost immediately shift into maintenance mode when you clear it. You can verify this with svcs -p inetd.

  2. Look at the output of dmesg. You should see a entry like this:

    You will need to export the SMF file specified by the entry.

  3. Export that SMF
" class="external-link" rel="nofollow">file:
  • Add this property value line to ftp.xml.
    Add it to the section that contains other property value entries for inetd.

  • Import the SMF
    • " class="external-link" rel="nofollow">file:
  • Clear the inetd service:
  • Verify that the service is online:
  • Verify that the dependent service is also online:

    • How do I resolve encryption issues with ssh/sftp?

    In Ruby, you will see an exception like this:

    This issue can also produce a cipher error when attempting access through ssh from another application. You will need to add the cbc encryption types.

    To add the cbc encryption types, do the following:

    1. Login as the root user. You can do this with su:
    2. The system will prompt you for a password. Enter the root user password that you received in your welcome email.
      You can also find the root user login credentials in your [my.joyentcloud.com] portal.
    3. Run the following command:
    4. Restart ssh for the changes to take effect:

    This should resolve your encryption issues.

    How do I update RMagick-2.11.1 to RMagick-2.11.1nb1?

    If you are experiencing issues with RMagick, you may need to update it. You can easily update it through pkgsrc by doing the following:

    Why do I see different values for disk usage?

    If you run du and compare it with the output of df, on rare occasions the numbers do not add up. This is most like caused by an open file handle to a deleted file. The du command will not recognize the file as existing, even if the filesystem still has data allocated to that file.

    The du command counts file by file, counting the total space on the filesystem. The df command differs from this in that it directly calls the filesystem and queries the current disk space used.

    For more information on the differences between these commands, see http://sunsolarisadmin.blogspot.com/2007/03/du-and-df-show-different-values-for.html

    Typically, a process is responsible for keeping the file handle open (database, apache, daemons). Once that process exits, your filesystem usage will report correctly.

    My disks are running out of room. How do I manage disk usage?

    There is a free monitoring service at NodeFly.com that monitors disk usage and alerts you before you run out of disk space.

    You can monitor disk usage in one of two ways:

    • Run the du command as root and follow the trail:
    • Run this command:

      You can increase or decrease the size (+200000 in the above example) depending on the length of your list.

    Changing Time Zones

    We recommend that you leave your server in GMT so that you won't have to worry about daylight savings issues.

    By default the TimeZone is set to GMT.  You can change this by modifying the  TZ variable in your profile (.bash_profile, .bashrc, .profile, depending on what shell you prefer):

    $ date
Thu Nov 16 22:26:39 GMT 2006
$ export TZ="PST8DST"
$ date
Thu Nov 16 14:26:50 PST 2006

    Alternatively, if you want to simply change the default timezone for your entire SmartMachine, edit /etc/TIMEZONE and change the TZ variable there.
    You can find a complete list of all the timezones supported by Solaris (which is a lot!) in /usr/share/lib/zoneinfo.

    After changing the /etc/TIMEZONE file you will need to reboot your SmartMachine.

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