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]