Audience Learns Where Oracle Will Focus Its Attention
Writing in eWeek Europe about the audience reaction to the presentation made by Oracle executives to 500 Sun customers and partners in London, Peter Judge assessed the response positively, saying, “The most surprising thing about the event was the complacency. Many of the delegates suggested that this merger, billed as one of the most cataclysmic ever (in a good way or a bad way), might simply lead to business as usual, with the products and support coming from the usual partners and executives, and the roadmap continuing.”
In no uncertain terms, the Director of Solaris product management at Oracle Dan Roberts says OpenSolaris will continue as an open source entity and Oracle will actively support and participate in the community. There are some questions regarding which direction Oracle will take in open sourcing some of OpenSolaris’ technologies and the level of support that will be offered, but generally speaking, all is well, affirms Roberts.
Updated Core Directory Server, Significant Improvements in Read/Write Performance
Sun OpenDS Standard Edition (SE) 2.2 provides improvement to the core directory server as well as a new proxy server capability to manage requests between LDAP client applications and remote LDAP servers (either Sun OpenDS SE 2.2 or Sun Directory Server Enterprise Edition (DSEE) 7.0). It also includes a web-based “Namefinder” lookup sample application to browse users in the Directory.
A Skeptic Changes His Mind about the Viability of the Procedure
Sun’s Federal Services Chief Technologist Peter Colson has written a post entitled, “Introduction to iSCSI Booting for x86/x64 Platforms.” Initially a skeptic about iSCSI booting, Colson is now a convert, having realized that the technique offers better storage utilization, economy, and easier, less risky disaster recovery.
Configuring a Development Environment to Practice OpenSolaris, Solaris Cluster Technologies
Learn how to set up a single x86-based system with OpenSolaris, configuring a training and development environment for Solaris 10/Solaris Cluster 3.2 and using VirtualBox to set up a two node cluster. These instructions can be found in the white paper “Practicing Solaris Cluster using VirtualBox” by Thorsten Frueauf. The presented configuration can be used to practice using various technologies such as Crossbow, COMSTAR, ZFS, IPsec, software quorum, and zone clusters.
There is now a VirtualBox Appliance Image available for Solaris 10 10/09, or so Bruce Hill, Sr. Manager, SPARC Platform Software Release Engineering, reports in his blog “Solaris 10 10/09 VirtualBox Appliance Image.” Hill writes that the latest version of the Solaris 10 operating system - 10/09 also referred to as Update 8 - can be downloaded as an importable VirtualBox OVF appliance image, which will enable users to get started working with Solaris 10 in the VirtualBox 3.x environment on x86/X64 machines.
Updated for New Solaris 10/09 Release: x86 Installation Check Tool
This tool detects whether your x86 system is able to run the Solaris 10 OS. Version 1.7 loads the Solaris 10 10/09 kernel.
Community Tech Tip: Creating a Solaris 10 x86 OS Bootable DVD or CD A sys admin from the BigAdmin community posted this tech tip on our wiki. The author explains how to create a bootable DVD or CD for the Solaris 10 OS on x86 platforms, which you can then use for system recovery and bare-metal rebuilds. http://sun.com/bigadmin
Get more details on the September announced new release Sun Ops Center 2.5, which introduces several new features involving Solaris Zones, Logical Domains (LDoms), Storage Library Management, Oracle Enterprise Linux, Windows patching, Live Upgrade, installation and deployment, smart groups, Enterprise Controller, enhanced upgrade experience, and more browser support.
Adds New Virtualization Management Capabilities for Solaris and SPARC
Sun Ops Center combines discovery, provisioning, updating, monitoring, and management of physical and virtual systems. This latest release extends lifecycle management capabilities across the full range of Sun’s x86 and SPARC servers, virtual technologies including Solaris Zones and Logical Domains, and heterogeneous server and operating systems environments. The lifecycle management features involve asset management, automated provisioning, intelligent patching, centralized management and comprehensive monitoring.
