A frequent support issue we get with Solaris 10 management hosts is the user can not access the webconsole remotely. When they point their browser to the URL https://<management host hostname or IP address>:6789 the browser returns with "Failed to Connect" (Firefox) or "Can not display the webpage" (IE). The reason this happens is because beginning with Solaris 10 11/06 (Update 3) the Secure by Default Network Profile was introduced. This profile hardens the default configuration of Solaris systems by either disabling network services or limiting them to local requests only. In the case of the Java Web Console it is configured to respond to local requests only. This is what is behind the browser connection failure messages. Enabling Remote Access to the Java Web Console has the procedure for enabling remote access to the webconsole.
A few additional things to point out are
- During a Solaris initial install you are asked "Would you like to enable network services for use by remote clients?". The default answer is no. If you answer yes then remote access to the console will be enabled but so will remote access to many other services.
- If you apply Solaris Patch Clusters which include patches 125952/125953 for the Sun Web Console and you have remote access enabled then after patch application remote access will be reset to disabled. This is a known issue and the appropriate bug has been filed against the Java Web Console.
In the next release of CAM we will automatically enable remote webconsole connections on Solaris hosts since the procedure it scriptable. For Linux and Windows hosts it will be up to the user to ensure that the webconsole port is open. The CAM install guide has a table which lists which ports need to be open for incoming and outgoing network connections.
Posted by Owen Hall on October 08, 2009 at 04:00 PM PDT #