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OpenSolaris 2008.11: How to create a new zone for an Apache web server

Wednesday Dec 10, 2008

For those of you that want to install a web server in an OpenSolaris 2008.11 zone (e.g. for separating a web server from a file server while using the same hardware), here's a short howto. The procedure is a bit different from previous OpenSolaris releases as the zone files are not immediately available after the zone is installed - might have something to do with the new ipkg zone brand. The zone installation is now much faster than before. Here's how I got it installed:

Create a parent zfs filesystem for the zone's root, if it does not yet exist:
$ zfs create -o mountpoint=/zones rpool/zones

Create a zone configuration file:
```
$ cat > /var/tmp/webserv-z.cfg
create
set zonepath=/zones/webserv-z
set autoboot=true
add net
set address=192.168.0.20/24
set physical=ADAPTER
set defrouter=192.168.0.1
end
verify
commit
exit
```
Please replace ADAPTER by the name of your network adapter (can be seen in the output of ifconfig -a | nawk '!/^[\t]/&&!/lo/{gsub (":", "");print $1}' or just ifconfig -a, for example). In my case, it was sfe0 on one system and bge0 on another.
Then, configure the new zone:
```
$ zonecfg -z webserv-z -f /var/tmp/webserv-z.cfg
```

Install the new zone:

$ zoneadm -z webserv-z install
A ZFS file system has been created for this zone.
  Authority: Using http://pkg.opensolaris.org/release/.
      Image: Preparing at /zones/webserv-z/root ...
      Cache: Using /var/pkg/download.
 Installing: (output follows)
Refreshing Catalog 1/1 opensolaris.org
Creating Plan /                        
DOWNLOAD                                    PKGS       FILES     XFER (MB)
SUNWPython                                  6/52    213/7862    1.71/72.41 
Completed                                  52/52   7862/7862   72.41/72.41 

PHASE                                        ACTIONS
Install Phase                             3637/12939

Wait! Before booting the zone, mount it first:
zoneadm -z webserv-z mount
Create a configuration file with the name sysidcfg (for sample files and a detailed explanation on the syntax, see: this link on http://docs.sun.com) in directory /zones/webserv-z/root/etc so you don't have to go through all the configuration screens after connecting to the new zone the first time:
```
$ cat > /zones/webserv-z/root/etc/sysidcfg
system_locale=C
timezone=Europe/Berlin
terminal=xterms
security_policy=NONE
timeserver=localhost
root_password=PASSWD_STRING
name_service=dns {domain_name=DOMAIN.TLD
   name_server=DNS_IP_ADDR_1,DNS_IP_ADDR_2
   search=DOMAIN.TLD
}
network_interface=primary {hostname=webserv-z
   ip_address=192.168.0.20
   netmask=255.255.255.0
   protocol_ipv6=yes
   default_route=192.168.0.1
}
nfs4_domain=dynamic
```
Before proceeding, please replace the placeholders DOMAIN.TLD, DNS_IP_ADDR_1, and DNS_IP_ADDR_2 by the names or addresses of your choice! For PASSWD_STRING (root_password parameter), you may use the old (short) password string from a Solaris 10 /etc/shadow file. If you do not use the root_password parameter in the sysidcfg file, you will be asked for the root password during initial zone boot.
Wait! Before booting the zone, unmount it first:
zoneadm -z webserv-z unmount
Now you can boot the zone:
$ zoneadm -z webserv-z boot

root@soly:/# zlogin -C webserv-z
[Connected to zone 'webserv-z' console]
Loading smf(5) service descriptions: 27/68
...
68/68
Reading ZFS config: done.
Mounting ZFS filesystems: (5/5)
Creating new rsa public/private host key pair
Creating new dsa public/private host key pair
Configuring network interface addresses: sfe0.

After a while, a series of screens will be displayed which ask you to select missing system configuration information. Use the <F2> key or <esc> 2 to go from one screen to the next. After that, a login prompt will be displayed, and you can login to the newly created zone:

webserv-z console login: root
Password: 
Dec  8 10:12:14 webserv-z login: ROOT LOGIN /dev/console
Sun Microsystems Inc.   SunOS 5.11      snv_101b        November 2008

The output of the df -k command should display the following file systems (probably with slightly different values in the "used" column and totally different values in the "avail" column (depends on your disk and swap space size):

root@webserv-z:~# df -k
Filesystem            kbytes    used   avail capacity  Mounted on
/                          0  240451 186876163     1%    /
/dev                       0       0       0     0%    /dev
proc                       0       0       0     0%    /proc
ctfs                       0       0       0     0%    /system/contract
mnttab                     0       0       0     0%    /etc/mnttab
objfs                      0       0       0     0%    /system/object
swap                  775608     196  775412     1%    /etc/svc/volatile
/usr/lib/libc/libc_hwcap1.so.1
                     187116614  240451 186876163     1%    /lib/libc.so.1
fd                         0       0       0     0%    /dev/fd
swap                  775412       0  775412     0%    /tmp
swap                  775420       8  775412     1%    /var/run
root@webserv-z:~#

Install Apache and prerequisites in the local zone:

$ pkg install SUNWapch22
root@webserv-z:~# pkg install SUNWapch22
Refreshing Catalog 1/1 opensolaris.org
Creating Plan \                        
DOWNLOAD                                    PKGS       FILES     XFER (MB)
SUNWapch22                                   0/4      0/1342     0.00/5.85
SUNWperl584core                              3/4    913/1342     4.21/5.85

Start the web server:
root@webserv-z:~# svcadm enable apache22

Point your browser to http://webserv-z or http://192.168.0.20 and see the first web page!
Now you can change the file /var/apache2/2.2/htdocs/index.html according to your needs and watch the web page changing after reloading it in the browser!

Note: If you need to clean up the configuration, I suggest using the following commands:
$ zoneadm -z webserv-z uninstall -F
$ zonecfg -z webserv-z delete -F
$ zfs destroy -r rpool/zones

Be careful! These commands perform uninstall, delete or destroy actions without confirmation!. The zfs destroy command shown will also destroy all other zfs file systems that were created for other zones with zone root path starting with /zones!

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