Sometimes we all need to lighten the load a bit.

BigAdmin is here to help. This handy list will tell you which features have been removed from Solaris 10 10/09, the latest release of Solaris 10:

Features Removed From the Solaris 10 OS

If you're curious about what's been added, you'll enjoy these links:

• New Patching Features in Solaris 10 10/09
• New ZFS Features in Solaris 10 10/09
• BigAdmin's Solaris 10 Hub for System Administrators

- Rick

Synergy.

Intel has been developing hardware that takes advantage of the capabilities of Solaris, and Solaris has been optimizing its features to run on Intel platforms. Specifically, on the next-generation Intel Xeon processor.

Why should a sysadmin care? Because the capabilities that resulted from this collaboration will let you do get more work out of fewer resources while increasing reliability and saving energy.

Highlights:

• Performance: the combination of Intel's Hyper-Threading Technology and the Solaris multi-threading capabilities work together to increase the performance of multi-threaded workloads while reducing power consumption.
• Reliability: Intel's Machine Architecture Recovery feature works with the Solaris Fault Manager to detect memory and cache errors and correct them before they cause a fault.
• Power Efficiency: Intel's Intelligent Power Technology allows system administrators to set policies for the optimal mix of processing power and energy use, or Solaris to optimize it automatically.
• Flexible Virtualization: the OpenSolaris xVM hypervisor supports the virtualization capabilities of Intel's next generation Xeon processor, including network virtualization.

Details here:

• White Paper: The Solaris OS and Intel's Nehalem EX
• Nehalem-Related Resources on BigAdmin

- Rick

Debbie Doyle sent me this link from VoIP Tech Chat:

The Annoyatron

It's a clever use of VoIP and a PBX server to route telemarketers to a programmed recording that annoys them back.

I've used many devices to annoy telemarketers before the Do Not Call Registry was devised. My favorite was to ask them, with a sincerity that matched theirs, to please hold. I'd put the phone down for several minutes. Then I'd pick it up and ask them if they were still there. If they were, I'd thank them for holding and hang up. Unfortunately, I pulled that on my auto loan company once, thinking it was just another telemarketer. It was a courtesy call to inform me that they hadn't received my payment. Boy, were they mad.

Be sure to listen to this guy's two actual recordings. They're terrific.

photo courtesy of The Glamorous Life Association, which offers other suggestions for dealing with unwanted calls from telemarketers.

- Rick

I saw this picture and it set me to wondering....

Now, I'm not gullible enough to believe every picture I find on the web. After all, there are plenty of artists sufficiently skilled in Photoshop to fool even the most discerning skeptic. I would need independent verification, I decided. So I went to my usual sources. The best I know.

First, I went looking for a Minnesotan. I found Paul Kasper. Paul writes the Information Center for the SunRay Software. I'm pretty sure he's a Minnesotan, though he may be from WisCOLDsin, instead. I get the two confused. In any case, I can always rely on his common sense.

Rick: Did Elvis Write Solaris?
Paul: Wasn't he supposed to be dead?

Since that conversation didn't yield any useful results, I went to my second source, my 16-year old daughter. I can always rely on her sincerity.

Rick: Did Elvis write Solaris?
Beth: Well, if she was his girlfriend, then I certainly hope so. Because boys never write girls any more. It would be very sweet to receive a letter from a boy. As long as I liked him. But not if I didn't like him. Because that would be awkward.

I thanked her for sharing her opinion with me and walked outside, where I was met by my trusted advisor, my hyperactive boxer Buster. Since Buster doesn't actually speak English, I had to get forehead-to-forehead with him and use Canine Telepathy.

Rick: Did Elvis Write Solaris?
Buster: Play with the stick? PLAY WITH THE STICK! PLAY WITH THE STICK! PLAY WITH THE STICK!!

It was clear that I needed to expand my search. So I started digging around. Everywhere. And guess what I found? I found out that despite the best efforts of the name police, Solaris is often referred to by its unofficial names. For example:

Solaris 10 10/08 is often referred to as Solaris 10 update 7
Solaris 9 9/02 is often referred to as Solaris 9 update 1

That can make it pretty tough to communicate, ya know? In fact, John Petersen, a BigAdmin reader, asked us if we could do something to help. Well, thanks again to Bruce Hill, we have a little cheat sheet for you.

BigAdmin's Guide to Unofficial Solaris Names

It lists all the official names of Solaris and the vernacular by which they are sometimes referred to (tsk tsk). If you're not feeling moved to click on the big letters up above, you can get to it by clicking on the little letters below:

Do you have to climb Las Torres Del Paine in oven mitts and Florsheim dress shoes with the shoelaces missing just so you can find out which version of which firmware goes with which version of Solaris on whichever dang version of the SPARC server your boss wants to buy?

Photo courtesy of Live for the Outdoors

Not any more!

Bruce Hill and Robert Weeks have teamed up to bring you the BigAdmin Software Stacks Page. It's a list of Sun's SPARC systems and the software stacks supported on each one. We've just started the list, so there will be updates to it every week until we have them all.

Let Us Know What You Think!

It's been a bit tricky to summarize this info without making it too complicated or too simplistic or too difficult to keep current, so please, please, POR FAVOR! let us know what you think and what we can do to make the content more useful to you.

Notice how Torres del Paine contains the word pain? Those Chilenos, my paisanos, are clever dudes.

- Rick (Ricardo)

Click on the image to buy this print of Street Credible Art by John Robertson.

Dave Miner is a co-author of The OpenSolaris Bible. He is also wicked tall. We used to play ball back in Boston. Since I'm neither tall nor particularly talented, you can guess the outcome.

Any time that I did not spend getting pounded under the rim I spent writing the install guide to the precursor of Solaris 2.0, code-named Zeus. It was about 300 pages long and did not contain any "stinkin' pichures" (sic). To install Zeus without reading that manual gave you instant man points.

Today we are suffering from a shortage of men. I blame i-phones. And Sex in the City. Today's man would never bother to attempt something that took 300 pages to explain.

Sun's forward-thinking execs had a way of predicting this trend, so they told their engineering teams to, ahem, "fix" the problem. Several engineering teams tried and failed. Dave's team succeeded. Though it took OpenSolaris to do it. But as you know, that functionality will find its way into Solaris soon enough.

Alas, you no longer have to be a man to install Solaris. Nope. It's easy. I put on my little red skirt and tried it myself. OpenSolaris, that is. It was easy.

Dave has graciously accepted our request to serve as a BigAdmin XPert on the topic of OpenSolaris installation. So, if you're ready to hang 'em up and install OpenSolaris (and eventually Solaris) the easy way, show up on Monday and ask Dave your questions.

You should take a look at The OpenSolaris Bible. I hate to admit than any engineer can write, but this is an excellent book.

Read Dave's blog if you want to keep up with the latest news on install.

Click on the image to buy this print of Street Credible Art by John Robertson.

- Rick