Installing OpenSolaris 2008.11 for the Enterprise (Part 2)

So I'm sitting in the back of a training room waiting for my turn to present, so I'm taking the opportunity to update my blog. :-)

To continue from the last blog, I want to configure my server with two active network ports named geppetto and pinocchio with the following configuration:-

e1000g0 - xx.xx.xx.51/24 - geppetto
e1000g1 - xx.xx.xx.52/24 - pinocchio

Default router for this network is xx.xx.xx.200/24.

Network Automagic (NWAM) doesn't currently support two NICs, so I had to go back to the old school files-based configurations. So first, the hosts file needs to be populated with the correct values, like so:-

# vi /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1 localhost loghost
xx.xx.xx.51 geppetto
xx.xx.xx.52 pinocchio

Then off to populate the local files:-

echo geppetto > /etc/hostname.e1000g0
echo pinocchio > /etc/hostname.e1000g1
echo xx.xx.xx.200 > /etc/defaultrouter
echo geppetto > /etc/nodename
touch /etc/notrouter


Just in case you missed it, that last line is there to tell Solaris not to route between the two interfaces. Not strictly necessary but helps save some hair pulling if you need to debug a network problem later.

So, now the next step is to turn off NWAM and turn on the old-style files-based network configuration. Make sure you do this next step from the console (i.e. directly on the keyboard connected to the server, off the serial port, or off the RKVMS on the ILOM).

# svcadm disable network:nwam
# svcadm enable network:default

So now, NWAM is turned off, and your static IP files-based configuration should be active, assuming you got all the correct values entered.

Voila! My server is now running with two active network ports. Next article, installing 3rd party software packages.

Posted at 08:25AM Nov 24, 2008 by samktan in Solaris  |  Comments[0]

Installing OpenSolaris 2008.11 for the Enterprise (Part 1)

So I've just got the latest version of OpenSolaris 2008.11 build 101a RC2b (it's a long story!) and I immediately got to work installing it.

Three installs later, I think I've finally got it working in the best compromise possible. Keep in mind, I'm not saying that OpenSolaris is flawed, but there are a couple of caveats that wasn't necessary with Solaris 10.

Scenario

OK, so here's the configuration of my server:-

• Sun Fire X4600
• 4 x 73 GB hard disks
• 4 x network ports (2 ports cabled)

And here's what I wanted:-

• ZFS Boot with all 4 hard disks in one pool
• No additional users nor packages in the global zone
• 3 zones each with its own user list and installed packages
• All zones to use 2nd network port

After the first install, I discovered a couple of annoyances that I managed to get around but I'd hoped I wouldn't have to.

Firstly, NWAM (Network Automagic) only supports one wired interface and one wireless interface. That is to say, I had two out of the four on-board NIC ports connected to the switch, NWAM plumbed all four ports but only activated one. The other three had no IP addresses assigned.

Secondly, I can't add additional hard disks to the root pool (yet!) so I had to create another pool to store all my data.

Thirdly, because I wanted to keep a "clean" global zone, I wanted to install all my software packages in local zones, but local zones in OpenSolaris 2008.11 does not have the pkgadd command. Why do I need pkgadd instead of pkg? Because not all packages are available yet via pkg and I wanted to use blastwave which requires the pkgadd command. Sigh! (Note to self: make a list of packages that aren't available via pkg and port them in my copious spare time.)

Anyway I made some compromises to my desired configuration, reinstalled and reconfigured things, and I've finally got a machine with both ports running and the software packages running (somewhat) like how I wanted them.

Details to be provided in the next blog.

Comments? (c) samktan@sun.com

Posted at 12:18AM Nov 18, 2008 by samktan in Solaris  |  Comments[0]

DTrace

So here's a file that I found in one of my many folders on my computer, apparently I downloaded it and printed out a copy but that's as far as I got with it. Perhaps someone else can benefit from this DTrace Guide. Enjoy, I hope.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Posted at 07:57PM Apr 27, 2007 by samktan in Solaris  |  Comments[0]

Solaris Express Developer Edition for Parallels

As a follow up to my previous posting about various VMware image files being available from Sun, here is the first one in Parallels, containing Solaris Express Developer Edition 02/07. You can download it from http://www.sun.com/download/products.xml?id=461d6b7d just make sure you have about 8 GB of disk space.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Posted at 07:41AM Apr 17, 2007 by samktan in Solaris  |  Comments[0]

Solaris + JES + VMware = solaris.vmdk

If you've got an itch to try out VMware with Solaris 10 and the Java Enterprise System suite of products (web server, application server, mail server, calendar server, LDAP server, proxy server, etc) but can't bear the thought of how long it will take you to install all that, just point your browser at http://developers.sun.com/solaris/downloads/solaris_apps/index.jsp#vmware and under the heading "Solaris Enterprise System Virtual Appliance for VMware", just download the version that you want.

Four versions of the software that run on any standard x86/x64 desktop or server in a self-contained, isolated environment are available for download now for evaluation purposes. Solaris 10 1/06, Solaris 10 6/06, Solaris 10 11/06, and Solaris Express, Developer Edition are provided as fully pre-installed and pre-configured application and operating system environments.

Enjoy!

Posted at 09:48PM Apr 11, 2007 by samktan in Solaris  |  Comments[1]

Sun Learning Connection

If you're interested in boning up your Solaris skills, run, don't walk, to http://learningconnection.sun.com/ for a smorgasbord of Solaris online tutorials, covering everything from "Basic Networking Setup" to "Advanced Installation Procedures" and more.

If you're a current Sun employee, you're are entitled to free access, for instruction on how to register yourself, go to this link which will open an OpenOffice file, scroll to slide 19. You must be on SWAN or VPN and you must login with your LDAP password. Enjoy!

It goes without saying that you should *never* provide the registration information to anyone outside of Sun, otherwise the owners of this website will take access away from all of us.

Posted at 09:58AM Apr 05, 2007 by samktan in Solaris  |  Comments[0]

Solaris Performance Tuning

Running Solaris? Want to make it run faster? Or just want to know how it is running? Then you need to check out http://www.solarisinternals.com/wiki/index.php/Solaris_Internals_and_Performance_FAQ and when you're done, go buy a copy of Solaris Internals 2nd Edition and Solaris Performance Tools for the ultimate reference manuals on Solaris 10.

Posted at 07:04PM Apr 04, 2007 by samktan in Solaris  |  Comments[1]

Yet another example of a good use for DTrace

So there's probably so many DTrace scripts and blogs out there by now that no one can read them all, but if you want a simple example to prove to you how significant DTrace can be to optimizing the performance of your system, then just read this blog. It's a little dated, but it's still relevant and convincing.

Posted at 05:12AM Mar 30, 2007 by samktan in Solaris  |  Comments[0]

ZFS + AVS (StorageTek Availability Suite)

If you want to run a fileserver on ZFS but are concerned about availability, check out the ZFS+AVS project at http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/avs/Demos/AVS-ZFS-Demo-V1/ .

This project shows you step-by-step instructions on how to setup two ZFS fileservers that are network-mirrored that allows for read and write on both servers.

Really really cool!

Posted at 09:38AM Mar 29, 2007 by samktan in Solaris  |  Comments[0]

Solaris Express, Developer Edition

If you're interested in developing applications on Solaris, get a copy of Solaris Express, Developer Edition (SXDE) at http://developers.sun.com/solaris/downloads/solexpdev/download.jsp which will give you a single DVD that installs Solaris Express, NetBeans, StarOffice 8 and Sun Studio 11. This saves you a lot of time because you don't have to individually download and install all the developer tools.

And if you're interested, there is a competition running called "Temple of the Sun" for all you hackers out there, try it out at http://www.sun.com/templeofthesun and win some prizes.

Posted at 05:11AM Mar 29, 2007 by samktan in Solaris  |  Comments[2]

Get OpenSolaris

Want a copy of OpenSolaris? Don't want to download it? Get a free DVD at the OpenSolaris website @ http://get.opensolaris.org/.

Posted at 09:28AM Mar 27, 2007 by samktan in Solaris  |  Comments[0]