Solaris 11.2 Highlights [Part 1] in 6 Minutes or Less

This is not the complete list, of course. Just a few hand-picked ones.

First things first, Solaris 11.2 beta is out.

URLs: Download | What's New in Solaris 11.2 | Information Library (documentation)

Highlights:

Zones related ..

Kernel Zones

Kernel Zones bring the ability to run a non-global/local zone at a different kernel version from the global zone and can be patched or updated independently without the need to reboot the global zone. In other words, kernel zones are independent and isolated environments with a full kernel and user environment.

Creating a Kernel Zone:

1. If not available, install the kernel zone brand

   # pkg install brand/brand-solaris-kz
   

2. Create and install a kernel zone using the existing zonecfg and zoneadm commands. The only difference compared to creating a non-kernel zone (the zones we have been creating for the past 10 years) is the template to be used -- by default, SYSdefault template is used. To create a kernel zone, use SYSsolaris-kz template instead.

   # zonecfg -z <zone-name> create –t SYSsolaris-kz
   # zoneadm –z <zone-name> install
   # .. continue with the rest of the steps to complete zone configuration ..
   

Kernel Zones can be used in combination with logical domains (Oracle VM for SPARC), but cannot be used in combination with other virtualization solutions such as Oracle VM VirtualBox that does not support nested virtualization.

Live Zone Re-configuration

This release (11.2) added support for the dynamic re-configuration of local zones. Now the following configuration changes do not require a zone reboot.

• Resource controls and pools
• Network configuration
• Adding or removing file systems
• Adding or removing virtual and physical devices

Read-Only Global Zones

Recent releases of Solaris have support for Immutable Non-Global Zones already. Solaris 11.2 extends the immutable zone support to Global Zones. Immutable zones will have a read-only zone root.

Make a Global Zone Read-Only/Immutable by:

# zonecfg -z global set file-mac-profile=fixed-configuration

Installing Packages across multiple Non-Global Zones from the Global Zone

• -r option of pkg can be used to install/update/uninstall software packages into/in/from all non-global zones from the global zone.
• Use -Z option along with -r to exclude a zone in applying the package operation. Similarly use -z along with -r to apply the intended package operation only in a specific zone

Multiple Boot Environments for Solaris 10 Zones

Multiple BE support has been extended to Solaris 10 Zones in this release. This feature is useful when performing operations such as patching within an Solaris 10 environment running on a Solaris 11 system.

SR-IOV VNICs

This is not a zone specific feature per se, but including here since VNICs backed by Virtual Functions (VF) can now be assigned to a zone (including a Kernel Zone). This feature may result in improved network performance.

CMT Aware Zones and Resource Pool Configuration

It is now possible to allocate CMT based resources -- vCPUs, Cores and Sockets, using the existing zonecfg and poolcfg commands. This is useful from performance and/or licensing point of view as it provides flexibility and control for managing licensing boundaries or dedicating hardware resources solely to a zone.

Cloud related ..

Centralized Cloud Management with OpenStack

Solaris 11.2 is the first release to incorporate a complete OpenStack distribution. OpenStack allows managing and sharing compute, network and storage resources in the data center through a centralized web portal. In other words, now administrators can set up an enterprise ready private cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) environment with ease.

Check this quick How-To article out at Oracle Technology Network -- Getting Started with OpenStack on Oracle Solaris 11.2

Cloning and Disaster Recovery with Unified Archives

Unified Archives is a new native archive type that enables quick cloning for rapid application deployment in the cloud, fast and reliable disaster recovery. Both bare metal and virtual environments are supported. Check the archiveadm(1M) man page for details.

eg.,

Create a clone archive of a system
# archiveadm create ./clone.uar

Create bootable media
# archiveadm create-media ./archive.uar    /* USB image */
# archiveadm create-media -f iso <other options> ./bootarch.uar /* ISO image */

Create a full system recovery archive
# archiveadm create --recovery ./recovery.uar

Extract information from a Unified Archive
# archiveadm info somearchive.uar

To be continued .. Stay tuned.