NFS over RDMA screencast
The NFS over RDMA project is coming in for landing. This project updates the Solaris NFS/RDMA implementation to match the relevant IETF specifications, and to realize the level of performance expected from using NFS over this transport mechanism. Just WHAT level of performance is expected, you ask?? Check out the screencast developed by one of our external Open Solaris developers from Ohio State University:
http://frsun.downloads.edgesuite.net/sun/08C01476/index.html
Not only does this screencast show off the expected capabilities of the new NFS/RDMA implementation, but the fact that most of the work for the project and the screencast was done by community developers is WAY COOL!
Posted at 11:13AM Mar 05, 2008 by Don Traub in General | Comments[1]
Connectathon 08 is now open for business
Registrations are now being taken for Connectathon 08. Please see:
For details. This year, we expect there to be a lot of buzz around pNFS testing. The NFSv4.1 spec is moving forward, and we hope to see all the vendors bring their implementations to test against. We also expect CIFS testing to continue, and look for participants in iSCSI, NDMP, and even SSH. We look forward to seeing you there!
Oh yea, and we'll have cool t-shirts too! 
Posted at 03:24PM Feb 04, 2008 by Don Traub in General |
The Solaris NFS Team is Hiring!
The Solaris NFS Team is hiring!
We're looking for an intern to join our development team in Austin, TX. The ideal candidate can start part-time prior to working full-time throughout the summer. Please refer to:
For details on the position.
We also just posted a newgrad (or junior engineer) postion, which is posted at: http://www.sun.com/corp_emp/search.cgi?req=557932&p=
Please share with anyone you know who may be interested and qualified!
Posted at 01:54PM Jan 28, 2008 by Don Traub in General |
NFSv4 Mirror Mounts and a CEO who cares
First, let me congratulate the NFS team on delivering Mirror Mounts! This greatly simplifies how NFS clients view and manage a server's namespace. From Tom Haynes' blog:
Mirror Mounts enhances the NFSv4 clients to automatically mount filesystems when they are encountered at the NFSv4 server; this enhancement does not require the use of the automounter and therefore does not rely on the content or propagation of automounter maps. An example of the utility of this feature is in the presence of ZFS at the NFS server. With the ease of creation and management of numerous ZFS filesystems, the enhanced NFSv4 client will immediately provide access to the newly created and shared ZFS filesystems.
Gotta love it. I guess this project is reflective of the geographically distributed nature of the team - one team, many locations.
Now, for fear of being accused of copious brown-nosing...
With all of Sun's recent announcements about innovation in storage software within Solaris, getting an email from one's CEO congratulating and encouraging our team on the progress made goes a long way to keeping morale high. Such an email from a CEO could easily be content and emotion-free (eg: "Thanks."
. Well whoopdeedoo for us. But that's not Jonathan. Even if his emails are brief, they're sincere and specific. He really does care about what his staff is up to. Thank you, Jonathan, it is appreciated!
Go Rockies! Red Sox fans, meet Matt Holliday. For those at Fenway Park siting in the outfield, be sure to bring your gloves. You're gonna need them.
Posted at 03:43PM Oct 23, 2007 by Don Traub in General |
Japanese version of pNFS screencast now available
We are pleased to announce that a Japanese translation of the pNFS screencast is now available at:
http://opensolaris.org/os/project/nfsv41/pnfsdemos/japanese_basics/
This screencast provides an overview of pNFS, along with a demonstration of our pNFS prototype. We encourage you to view the demo, and visit our OpenSolaris project page at:
http://opensolaris.org/os/project/nfsv41
Also, we just posted new source code and BFU archives at:
http://opensolaris.org/os/project/nfsv41/downloads/The release notes for this post can be found at:
http://opensolaris.org/os/project/nfsv41/downloads/082007releasenotes/Let us know if you're downloading the code, as we'd love to get your feedback!
Posted at 04:01PM Aug 10, 2007 by Don Traub in General |
CIFS Client Alpha Now Available!
Our CIFS Client project team just reached a great milestone yesterday evening, delivering our Alpha code drop to Open Solaris! You can download the packages from:
http://opensolaris.org/os/project/smbfs/
There's assiciated release notes that you should check out when downloading this code.
The CIFS Client allows Solaris to natively mount a CIFS share from Windows, Samba, or any other server exporting CIFS shares. Once mounted on Solaris, the files and directores are accessed through standard Solaris I/O interfaces just like any other file system. The Alpha drop provides read-only access to the data, but writes and other capabilities are coming very soon.
We encourage you to download it, and send feedback to smbfs-discuss@opensolaris.org.
Posted at 11:02AM Jul 20, 2007 by Don Traub in General | Comments[1]
3 years of Blogging@Sun, what's changed since then?
Happy Birthday bloggers! 3 years, wow, how time has flown. Since we've starting bloging at Sun, what's changed? What impact has it had on Sun and the community? Does anyone actually read these? Am I just talking to myself? Will I get spammed by putting my name out there? Will I get fired if I talk about what I'm doing? What do I write about, anyway?
So many questions like this I've heard, and guess what: It has made a difference, people do read these, yes, I sometimes talk to myself, no, I don't get spammed by blogging, and I haven't gotten fired yet. Better yet, there is TONS to talk about at Sun! The greatest revelation is that we are all in marketing. Of course, there's company confidential information that we need to keep under wraps, but doing Solaris development in the open now translates to a level of transparency many of us are unaccustomed to. In fact, that expected level of transparency makes many people very nervous about sharing. However, once someone does their first blog (following guidelines, of course), they quickly get a sense of how much they have to contribute by sharing via blogs. Better yet, seeing people read one's blog, and getting affirming remarks back, boosts morale and one's sense of purpose. I'm never more amped at work than after talking with a customer. Blogging provides a similar adrenaline high, but more importantly, it's a critical venue to get information out to those who need it. So, if you're reading this, THANK YOU! We appreciate the opportunity to share what's going on!
Posted at 02:21PM Apr 27, 2007 by Don Traub in General | Comments[1]
NFSv4 Namespace Extensions requirements documents are now posted
Rob Thurlow just posted requirements docs for our NFS Mirror Mount and Referrals projects on our OpenSolaris NFS Namespace Extensions page:
http://opensolaris.org/os/project/nfs-namespace/We invite the community to have a look at these, provide feedback, and consider contributing to the effort.
Posted at 12:39PM Apr 27, 2007 by Don Traub in General |
pNFS screencast now available
Hopefully by now you've heard about pNFS (Parallel NFS). Well, now you can see what we're talking about! Our team just created a screencast for pNFS, that includes several slides covering an overview of pNFS, design goals, and a demonstration of our pNFS prototype. The screencast can be accessed from the page pNFS Demo link. pNFS is still in the early stages of planning and development, so command syntax and such will evolve over time, but this should give you a good feel of what's coming.
Posted at 08:49AM Apr 24, 2007 by Don Traub in General |
Dude, where's my data?
Apparently, it's out in the parking lot! Project blackbox just rolled up, and was so dominating that even the snowstorm predicted for Denver cowared away in fear of the great and powerful box. We're all lined up to tour the Blackbox today, and we look forward to the public and press coming by to check it out. We'll have a FROSUG booth there as well. Come on buy (by)! More information on Project Blackbox can be found here.
Posted at 07:26AM Apr 13, 2007 by Don Traub in General |
Hello World! Announcing Storage at OpenSolaris.org
Rise and shine. Today, we launched the Open Solaris Storage site. Check it out!
http://opensolaris.org/os/community/storage/
It has links to the Open Solaris project pages, along with pointers to related communities. The one project I neglected to mention in one of my last blogs was the opensourcing of WebNFS, now referred to as Yet-Another-NFS (YANFS). WebNFS has been around for years, but never gained much attention. Recently, though, several major customers have shown interest in this technology, so we've made it available via java.net. Within the community, we plan to expand YANFS beyond it's current implementation.
Posted at 08:56AM Apr 10, 2007 by Don Traub in General |
Coffee, the 5th major food group
Riddle me this, Batman:
Q: What do you get when you mix a manager with a Peet's 4-shot latte right after a brisk morning run at the gym?A: 2 blogs in one day!!
Actually, guilt took over, as it's been way too long since I've posted. SoOOOOOOooooo, what's new in NFS and CIFS land? Lots! Pour yourself a hot cup of joe, and read on...
We've fired up several new OpenSolaris projects:
- NFS Server in non-Global Zones - We just fired up this project, with the intent of seeking input on what the use-cases are for supporting this. This work is not staffed, but if there's engineering resources within the community that would like to pick this up, let us know!
- NFSv4 Namespace Extensions - This project delivers Mirror Mounts and Referrals. We have working prototypes, that we tested at Connectathon '07. We'll be posting a requirements doc shortly to prompt discussion and communicate progress.
- NFS RDMA transport update and performance analysis - This project will update the OpenSolaris implementation of RPC for infiniband transports. The work is being done primiarily by students at Ohio State University. This is an excellent example of the community contributing to OpenSolaris. OSU has made great progress, and we're working with them to get this work delivered this Spring. Watch the project page for further developments.
- Sharemgr - This wasn't an OpenSolaris project, but we recently delivered into build 53 of Nevada. It delivers a much-improved and greatly simplified administrative model for managing NFS shares. Check out Doug McCallum's blog for details.
- In-kernel Sharetab - While also not an OpenSolaris project, Tom Haynes's blog discusses the details of this work, which just went into Nevada. This is one more step in simplifying Solaris administration.
- NFSv4.1 pNFS - This project delivers an implementation of pNFS, which is coming out of the NFSv4 IETF Working Group The specification is nearing completion. We have a prototype implementation today, which we recently tested at Connectathon. Watch the OpenSolaris project page, as we'll be updating it shortly with documentation and prototype code.
- CIFS Client - This project will create a virtual filesystem for Solaris to provide a CIFS/SMB client which can connect to machines exporting CIFS/SMB shares. We have many operations working, and expect to deliver this into Nevada this summer, with hopes to backport to a Solaris 10 Update shortly thereafter. We'll be posting the latest bits on the project page shortly, so grab them, kick the tires, and let us know what you think.
- Dtrace Provider for NFS - This project introduces a new DTrace provider that instruments NFSv4 clients and servers. The probes and their arguments represent the NFSv4 protocol. Not much progress on this over the last few months, but we're getting some engineering resources back onto this to crank this out.
That's all for now. Tune in next time for my next caffeine rush. C'ya.
Posted at 10:56AM Apr 05, 2007 by Don Traub in General |
Connectathon '07
Introduction to Connectathon
Connectathon is the premier industry event for storage interoperability. Each year, storage developers from all vendors gather to drive standards, and to test their solutions with each other. Customers benefit from the interoperability resulting from the collaboration among these vendors. Sun Microsystems has sponsored Connectathon for 20 years.The Network File System (NFS) is the predominate technology tested at Connectathon, with the focus on NFSv4.1 (http://www1.ietf.org/html.charters/nfsv4-charter.html). Other technologies tested include NFSv2 and v3, NDMP, CIFS, and Secure Shell.
How Connectathon Works
For each technology, a Technology Coordinator is identified to coordinate testing throughout the event. A kickoff meeting is held to gather participants and review testing strategies. During the event, participants perform their tests, identify and work through issues identified, and collaborate on future interoperability topics. Participants use the Connectathon Billboard software to identify tests and track test results for each technology.In addition to testing, attendees give presentations on technology and standards advancements, both within their company and across the industry, as well as within the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Presentations are open to the general public, not just Connectathon registrants. Presentations for the current event, along with many years prior, are posted on the Connectathon web site at http://www.connectathon.org/talks07/index.html.
Connectathon 2007
Connectathon 2007 was held February 2nd through the 8th at Parkside Hall in San Jose, California. We returned to this venue and a full eight days of testing following last year's event at Sun's Santa Clara Campus. This year's event was attended by engineers from Apple, Attachmate, CITI (University of Michigan), Commvault, Data Domain, EMC, Hewlett Packard, Hummingbird, IBM, Network Appliance, Panasas, Red Hat, Samba, SGI, Sun Microsystems, and VanDyke Software.This year, Sun demonstrated successful pNFS client interoperability against a Solaris and Linux server, and successful pNFS server interoperability against Solaris, Linux, Network Appliance, and Panasas clients. A number of NDMP servers were tested against Commvault's NDMP client. The Samba team coordinated CIFS client and server testing among multiple vendors. ISCSI testing was dropped due to insufficient participation, and will be reevaluated for inclusion in next year's event. There were many familiar attendees this year from each vendor, and we welcomed Apple's return to the event.
Connectathon 2008
Connectathon 2008 will be held in San Jose once again, exact location and dates are being determined, but late February is likely. We expect an increased coverage of NFSv4.1 features, and seek increased participation from the CIFS and Network Attached Storage (NAS) communities. We plan to broadened our marketing communications through direct marketing to past and potential attendees, and advertising in key publications and Internet sites.How to Participate
Connectathon's success comes from regular and active participation by all vendors delivering networked data technologies. Technology owners should be subject matter experts, and can and should come from any vendor participating in the event. Vendors should begin planning their participation no later than the Fall time frame prior to the event, securing funding and equipment for registration, travel, and testing. Vendors are strongly encouraged to present on technology trends. Presentations should not commercially promote a company's products. Vendors should help grow the storage community through evangelizing the event both within and outside their organizations.Watch the Connectathon web site (http://www.connectathon.org) starting in September 2007 for information on Connectathon 2008, including registration and technologies being tested.
Posted at 09:37AM Apr 05, 2007 by Don Traub in General |
Long time no blog!
Forgive me father, for I have sinned. It has been 3+ months since my last blog. 
Sun Microsystems, in co-sponsorship with EMC, Hewlett-Packard, Hummingbird and Network Appliance, announces the 2005 NAS Industry Conference. Conference dates are Tuesday through Thursday, October 18th-20th. See:
http://www.nasconf.com
Sign up today!
Posted at 01:52PM Sep 26, 2005 by Don Traub in General | Comments[0]
SunRays Rock! Kool-Aid anyone?
While not specifically data related, I gotta make noise about our SunRay product.
I've had a SunRay on my desk for some time now, and it's been working like a charm. In fact, it's only gotten better over time. It's running JDS, it's small and quiet, and has been rock-solid, in terms of reliability and performance. What more could I ask for?
Well, how about a SunRay at home?
My wish was granted! A little while back, I got a SunRay at home, and it JUST WORKS. Check this out: At the end of the day with my desktop apps running on my SunRay, I pull out my badge or lock my screen. I go home, put my badge back in my SunRay at home or unlock my screen, and PRESTO, there's my desktop right where I left it at the office! Performance at home over my cable modem is not an issue.
Does this sound like I've drank the SunRay Kool-Aid? You bet, and I'm going back for seconds! (or is it thirds?) I just ordered a SunRay laptop from Tadpole, with wireless support. How slick will it be to walk into a conference room to give a presentation, pop in my badge, up comes my desktop on my laptop, and away I go. Yea, there will still be times I need disconnected compute cycles, so my old laptop (which is running Solaris 10 happily, by the way ) won't be put out to pasture just yet. However, I hear the airlines have been given the goahead to have wireless internet connections, so SunRays at 40,000 feet, here we come!
Posted at 03:51PM Jun 08, 2005 by Don Traub in General | Comments[2]