Solaris Management Console Overview

The Solaris Management Console uses the concept of a toolbox to provide a view of various system administration tools or applications -- possibly on different servers -- within a common user interface. The Solaris Management Console has three primary components:

See To Start the Solaris Management Console for instructions for starting each of the Solaris Management Console components. See Console Description for a description of the Console window and its components.

A Solaris Management Console toolbox is a toolbox that has been registered with smcconf(1M). It is a hierarchical collection of folders, tools, legacy applications, and links to other toolboxes. See To Open a Server Toolbox or To Open a Local Toolbox for instructions. See Solaris Management Console Toolbox Editor Overview for information about creating or editing a toolbox.

The root toolbox or container is called "Management Tools." Its default behavior is to look for a toolbox on the host machine ("This Computer") and link to it when the Solaris Management Console is started. You can add (link) multiple toolboxes to Management Tools. See To Add a Toolbox to Management Tools for instructions for adding a toolbox to the primary server toolbox.

A toolbox allows for the grouping of tools into a consistent, user-oriented hierarchy. The toolbox called This Computer, the default toolbox for a Solaris Management Console server, includes the following categories (folders) and tools, by default:

Using the Solaris Management Console Toolbox Editor you can modify existing toolboxes or create additional toolboxes for various purposes, including management of multiple servers from one toolbox and grouping of similar tools in a toolbox.

A toolbox can include folders, tools, and links to other toolboxes.

A folder is a container for grouping tools within a toolbox.

A tool is a Solaris Management Console-compatible application/applet that integrates seamlessly into the Console. A Solaris Management Console tool is built using the Solaris Management Console SDK. See To Load a Tool in the Console for instructions for viewing a running tool in the Console.

A toolbox URL or link is a pointer to another toolbox which may be on the current Solaris Management Console server or any other Solaris Management Console server.

A legacy application is an application that is not a Solaris Management Console tool. A legacy application could be a script, X application, or a URL.