Student Views and Reviews: Sun on Campus

I am always on the lookout for tutorials written by members of the OSUM community to re-publish here to hopefully help and serve a wide audience.  So, I was pleased to find a new and informative one in the OSUM blogs forum written by Masafumi Ohta, an active member of the OSUM community from Japan.

Masafumi recently purchased a new Eee named 'N10J' with a Nvidia G105M.  He said while it works well on OpenSolaris, the operating system did not recognize the driver as Nvidia because it wasn't supported. Masafumi ultimately found the driver on the Nvidia Web page under drivers for Ubuntu, and described how to install it in his N10J with OpenSolaris build 126 in this tutorial. 

The tutorial is great as Masafumi walks through all of the issues he ran into, and linked to his information sources. Now that the driver is up and running Masafumi is able to use it for games such as Second Life, but said unfortunately, most of the keyboard shortcuts are not working -- something he is hoping will be fixed quickly!  

So, if you have a similar issue with an Nvidia driver in a new system running OpenSolaris this may be a great tutorial for you to bookmark and keep handy.  Thanks for sharing Masafumi!

If anyone else has a tutorial for a Sun product post the link in the comments below or send it to me at maijaliisa.burkert(at)sun.com! 

Fellow Sun Intern Victor Castillo sent out this fantastic summary of the capabilities and features OpenSolaris offers for physical and virtual networking.  I am republishing it in its entirety here, because I think it is a great summary and could help a lot of students looking to give it a try!

"I'll start with Crossbow (http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Project+crossbow/WebHome): Crossbow is the basis for network virtualization and resource control in OpenSolaris. It allows you to create virtual NICs to be used either by a networking service (HTTP, FTP, and others) or by virtual machines (Zones, VirtualBox...). Each of those vNICs has it's own priority and assigned bandwidth in order to guarantee QoS (via Flows) and prevent DoS by isolating the effect of any attack to just one vNIC and not the physical device. Crossbow also allows you to create a virtual switch connecting the vNICs, so you could create a complete virtual network inside OpenSolaris (called vWire). A GUI to build and test the network-in-a-box has been released and while it is at alpha quality at the time, it works nicely for demoing and testing: http://blogs.sun.com/observatory/entry/crossbow_virtual_wire_demo_tool . Also of interest, after the inclusion of Crossbow in OSol, similar solutions have been announced for inclusion in FreeBSD (http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/3835846/FreeBSD-to-Upgrade-Routing-Architecture.htm) by Blue Coat and in Linux (http://openvswitch.org/) by Citrix, proving how OpenSolaris is once again ahead of the competition.

Recently, the Integrated Load Balancer (ILB: http://wikis.sun.com/display/OpenSolarisInfo/Integrated+Load+Balancer) has also been added to OSol (http://www.c0t0d0s0.org/archives/6072-Loadbalancing-with-Opensolaris-or-PSARC-2008575.html), adding L3/L4 (transport and network layers) load balancing to the OS by default.

Project Clearview (http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Project+clearview/WebHome) includes components such as re-designed IP tunneling and IP Multipathing (IPMP) for better behavior and observability of the networking devices. The final component of Clearview (IP Tunneling DD) were integrated in Nevada build 125 (http://blogs.sun.com/seb/entry/clearview_ip_tunneling_in_opensolaris).

Integrated Quagga (http://www.quagga.net/), IP Filter (http://coombs.anu.edu.au/~avalon/ip-filter.html, http://blogs.sun.com/tonyn/entry/firewall_configuration_in_opensolaris_2009) and IPSec (for network routing, firewall and packet authentication and encryption (including VPN tunneling). (http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/819-3000/ipsectm-1?l=en&q=mobile+ip&a=view)

And of course, DTrace can be used to debug networking problems (http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Community+Group+networking/dtrace_networking_cookbook)

It's important to remember that all of these capabilities can be used simultaneously, according to our needs. One example of this is the Virtual Network Router appliance project ( http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Project+vnm/VNRP) that combines Crossbow, Quagga and Zones (and all managed trough Webmin: http://www.webmin.com/) to create an integrated edge-router, to separate intranet traffic from internet traffic.

For further reading, you can visit these links:
http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Community+Group+networking/WebHome
http://www.opensolaris.com/learn/features/networking/networkall/
check the attached presentation, and also, check the Storage Projects for information on different connectivity options that OSol offers (pNFS, NFS, FC, IB, iSCSI among others): http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Community+Group+storage/WebHome."

As many of you know, September 19^th was Software Freedom Day, and was celebrated by FOSS enthusiasts all around the world. Many of these SFD celebrations included “install fests,” generally involving the OpenSolaris OS.

For those of you who did not have a SFD event nearby, or were unable to attend, here is an excellent resource that will walk you step-by-step through getting started with OpenSolaris.

Even though OpenSolaris is distributed as a CD, you can download the image file and use a CD burner to create your own, or just order an OpenSolaris CD for free.

So, for those looking for an open-source OS, check out this guide to getting started with OpenSolaris. Maybe by next year's SFD you will be such a pro you will be leading an install fest yourself!

In my day-to-day work at Sun, I track product reviews for OpenOffice, JavaFX, VirtualBox, NetBeans, and OpenSolaris. I am used to hunting down product reviews and how-to tutorials on the Internet on a regular basis. So, I was more than pleased to come across a great OpenSolaris how-to article today in OSUM, written by Andrew Browne, a student from the Queensland University of Technology in Australia.

In Andrew's blog post, he described how he set up a zone on his OpenSolaris box to host a webstack made up of Apache 2, MySQL, and PHP. It's obvious Andrew did his homework, because he cited a few locations for additional info. – a most appreciated tactic in these types of tutorials!

He even warned that the tricky part was in starting the servers, but gave a fair bit of guidance for getting through the main issues he faced.  Overall, Andrew concluded by saying: "Zones are cool.  They have the security and separation of VM's without all the overhead of another OS."

Many thanks to Andrew for taking the time to share his experiences and help others learn! Please check out Andrew's great blog post here in OSUM. And I am on the hunt for more how-to tutorials or reviews like this from students for an upcoming revamp of the Sun Student Reviews site, so please keep them coming!

Vasudha Amrit, a Sun Campus Ambassador at Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal, India, recently wrote about the Institute's first technical talk of the year, which Vasudha reported "was an out and out success." 

Vasudha noted that the publicity and preparation for the event was intense with posters put up information desks set up around the school, along with e-mails, SMS messages, and announcements that were made in all the classes.  All that work certainly paid off since 240 students from all four years of engineering attended -- even more than expected!

The topic of the Tech Talk was OpenSolaris, and Vasudha reported that Abhishek conducted the lecture, and talked about the ins and outs of OpenSolaris.  Vasudha noted that the talk went into great detail about "newly added features like time slider, device drivers, package manager, etc." now available in the 2009.06 release.

Vasudha reported that although the talk was almost three hours and highly technical, the attendees were very engaged, and even refused to break during the talk! Because of the overwhelming interest in OpenSolaris, Vasudha announced an OpenSolaris "install fest soon by public demand!"

The event sounds like it was a great success and a fantastic way to start out the new academic year! Congratulations to Vasudha for organizing the event and thank you for sharing your experience -- click here to read her complete blog on the event. Hopefully the turnout will continue to beat expectations at the Manipal Institute of Technology, if so, I think that means it's time to find a bigger room!

The tenth FISL (Forum Internacional de Software Livre or OpenSource International Forum) took place from June 24-27 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and hosted more than 8,000 attendees.

The event was supported by Sun Campus Ambassadors in Brazil who talked about OSUM, including how to join as well as how to create a new club if a student's university does not already have one.  Renato Porto Puccini reported that more than 1,500 students registered in FISL's club in OSUM at the event! 

Sun's Campus Ambassadors also helped with OpenSolaris installations.  One Sun Campus Ambassador estimated that they installed more than 180 OpenSolaris operating systems on Friday alone!  

The Campus Ambassadors also helped answer questions, translate, and spent some time blogging about and taking pictures of the event.  Renato has posted some pictures from the event -- you can have a look here.  Campus Ambassador Diogo has also posted a gallery here.

Make sure you click HERE to see a picture of Brazilian President Lula wearing an OpenSolaris cap, who posed for a picture with some students!

Congratulations to the Sun Campus Ambassadors for helping to make the event a success!

Eze Singer, a Sun Campus Ambassador and OSUM leader blogged about a link to a GREAT resource for tips on some of the lesser known features of Solaris 10/OpenSolaris.

The PDF is a 333-page document with tutorials that describe some typical uses of OpenSolaris and describe the configuration of a feature to match.  It isn't meant to be a replacement for the Sun documentation that explains how to use the program, but rather is an addendum for tips and tricks on how to squeeze the most out of OpenSolaris. The great part is at the end of every feature there are links to more information about the feature that was just described.

Additionally, the document delves into the new project Crossbow, one of the highlights of the latest 2009.06 release.  Check out the PDF here (original Web site is here).  And thanks to Eze for passing along such a great resource!

Sun Campus Ambassador Renato Porto Puccini continues to test out different Sun software technologies and share his experiences with others.  Thank you Renato!

He recently published a blog that shows how to install Sun Studio on OpenSolaris.  Sun Studio software provides a C, C++, and Fortran developer toolchain for Solaris, OpenSolaris, and Linux operating systems.  As Renato notes, the Sun Studio IDE is focused on performance, and therefore "allows the creation of highly optimized programs from the viewpoint of use of system resources."

In Renato's blog he walks through the step-by-step installation process and has posted screen shots to make the installation even easier.

Again, many thanks to Renato for sharing his experiences in his blog -- please continue to do so!

And to all students that read this blog, please point me to where you have blogged about your experience with Sun's technologies or your tutorials, like Renato's.  You can ping me here on my OSUM page, or send me an e-mail at maijaliisa.burkert(at)sun.com.

Renato Porto Puccini recently wrote two blog entries on how to install OpenSolaris, as well as how to install OpenOffice.org once you are up and running in OpenSolaris.  

His first blog covers everything you need to get started using OpenSolaris including a link to request the OpenSolaris CD and a step-by-step guide Renato created (with screen shots) to walk a new user through the process.

His second blog covers the installation and setup of OpenOffice.org in OpenSolaris and has already received some comments regarding alternatives to his setup.  The comments are a great place for other users to tell what worked/didn't work for them and to offer other solutions.

Check out Renato's full blogs here.  Please keep blogging about your experiences with Sun's products and then share the link with me either by tagging it in my OSUM page, or by e-mailing me directly at maijaliisa[dot]burkert[at]sun.com and maybe you too will get featured here! 

Marc Moreau, a student at the University of Lethbridge and member of the OSUM community, has been playing with ZFS in OpenSolaris, which he recently installed as a guest OS through VirtualBox.  Marc has been curious to play in ZFS because he is interested in "seeing what it can really do."  

Marc has written an impressive blog about his experience in playing with ZFS, and also compiled some great reference articles he used as a learning tool. His objectives in trying out the system were to:

1. Install OpenSolaris on a Mirrored ZFS root partition
2. Write random data to disk and see what ZFS does
3. Learn some of the ZFS commands and how they work.

Marc began by learning how disks are labeled in Solaris and gives a quick summary in his writeup.  He then successfully got his system up and running by following instructions in articles he links to in his original blog.  After playing around with the different toys Marc noticed he had amassed some silent errors.  He wasn't surprised and states "we caused the errors, expected them to occur, and now we are happily rolling along as if nothing ever happened."

Check out Marc's blog to get the complete rundown on his installation, setup and testing along with links to helpful articles for anyone who is also interested in playing around in ZFS.  And thanks to Marc for writing such an informative review to share with the student community!  Please continue to send your reviews or how-to articles through my page in OSUM or by e-mailing me at reviews[dot]program[at]sun[dot]com.

Douglas Ramiro is a Sun Campus Ambassador at Catholic University in Brasilia, Brazil.  He is an Open Source and Java enthusiast with three certifications:

•  SCJA - Sun Certified Java Associated
•  SCJP - Sun Certified Java Programmer
•  LPIC 1 - Linux Professional Institute Certification 

Douglas has been writing a very informative series of blogs on how to install OpenSolaris in VirtualBox.  He begins with how to install VirtualBox, and follows that post with a three-part tutorial on how to install OpenSolaris.  In the tutorial he covers how to configure VirtualBox to boot a local image from OpenSolaris, and concludes with a step-by-step screen shot breakdown through the entire process to get OpenSolaris up and running on a virtual machine.  

I encourage everyone to check out his blog, his tutorial is quite well done.  

I also encourage everyone to write your own blogs and reviews about the different programs you are trying out -- whether it be in your student programs or on your own just for fun -- it is a great way to learn and teach at the same time!