Solaris Containers are sprouting lots of new features! Over the next couple of weeks, we'll drill down to cover new Containers features available in the Solaris Express Developer Edition 5/07 and Solaris 10 7/07 releases.

In the meantime...

Here's what's new in both releases:

• Improved zonecfg procedures, which create containers that leverage the resource management capabilities of the system and eliminate the manual steps required previously

• IP Instances, which provide the full flexibility of the Solaris network stack to zones

Here's what's new in Solaris 10 7/07:

• Brandz, the lx brand
• Ability to use DTrace in a zone
• System V resource controls for zones
• Zones boot enhancements
• Zone unique identifier

Overviews and usage information for all features can be found in an advance copy of the System Administration Guide: Solaris Containers--Resource Management and Solaris Zones posted on the Zones community site. Jerry's blog on containers covers new zones containment features. For more information on IP types in zones and links to design documents, read Donghai Han's Weblog.