System News for Sun Users - The Blog

Solaris Containers or Zones are lightweight virtual Solaris instances similar to a full Solaris OS instance but which share a single Solaris kernel. They are easy to provision, require only a small amount of incremental disk space, and can be rebooted as needed in seconds. Containers can also be cloned, detached, moved and reattached. In a blog by Michael O’Connor, he shares the advantages of combining multiple applications onto a single server using lightweight Solaris Containers versus hypervisors.

In a follow-up entry, he explains that in some rare cases, applications are unable to run in a local or non-global zone and should go through a qualification process to identify potential installation or runtime issues, especially if root permission is needed to install or run the application.

“Local zones operate with a reduced set of process privileges relative to the global zone. As a result, all processes running in a non-global zone also have reduced privilege and certain system calls may return errors,” O’Connor writes. “Again, 99% of applications will run just fine in non-global zones but it pays to take the time to fully qualify new or migrating services before attempting a production deployment.”

Resources for ISVs and system administrators interested in taking a more cautious entry into Solaris Zones:

• Bringing your Application into the Zone
• Qualification Best Practices for Application Support in Non-Global Zones
• System Administration Guide: Solaris Containers-Resource Management and Solaris Zones
• Zones and Containers FAQ at OpenSolaris.org
• Virtualization Blueprints at wikis.sun.com

Learn more about Sun virtualization technologies in a webcast with accompanying slide presentation by Hugo Rivero, senior staff engineer in the Partner group at Sun, who discusses problem issues in the data center and how virtualization can resolve many of today’s challenges.

The general problem facing what is termed the traditional data center is that they have been stocked with many small servers, which are dedicated to a single function (web server, database server, email server, etc.), and are not being utilized to their full capacity. Rivero says in many data center assessments, utilization may be as low at five percent.

To simply define what virtualization is, a single system is used and an illusion is created that there are multiple systems by providing an image up to the applications. There are many different ways to create virtualization - from hard partitions to very light-weight research management control. The main difference is in how flexible these solutions are in terms of assigning the resources and how isolated they are in terms of the applications.

“It is not a one-size fits all,” Rivero says. “People need to pay close attention to what their own individual needs are and based on that make a good decision. Fortunately, there are a lot of solutions within the industry from Sun and other vendors that can address this problem in different ways.”

In this presentation, Rivero breaks down the variations of virtualization into four solution categories:

1) Hard partitions: Implemented mostly in hardware seen in mid-range to high-end SMP servers.

Sun solutions: Dynamic System Domains and Dynamic Domains

2) Virtual machines: Physically run multiple instances of an operating system and different flavors, if desired.

Sun solutions: Logical Domains, VirtualBox, xVM Server

3) OS virtualization: A single version of the OS is run and the OS has some kind of virtualization capabilities.

Sun solutions: Solaris Containers, Solaris Trusted Extensions, Solaris Containers for Linux Applications, Solaris 8 Migration Assistant, now known as Solaris 8 Containers

4) Resource Management: Very light-weight and not considered full virtualization.

Sun solution: Solaris Resource Manager

To find out specifically what these virtualization technologies and solutions do and how they work in varying situations, tune in to the Sun Engineering Webcast Series: Sun Virtualization Technologies. The presentation is a little over 25 minutes.

Sun has added data de-duplication in its new Sun StorageTek VTL (virtual tape library) Prime, which can be used as a stand alone VTL or may be implemented with Sun StorageTek VTL Plus.

Sun StorageTek VTL Prime replicates only the unique data to significantly reduce the bandwidth requirements and enable cost effective disaster recovery and business continuity. This new solution is eco-friendly, and can help lower TCO and shrink storage requirements through the use of virtualization technologies.

Early access units of the Sun Storage VTL Prime are available this month starting at a list price of less than US$40K.

For more information, please see www.sun.com/storage