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OpenIndiana 151a is released! Comments Off on OpenIndiana 151a is released!

Another milestone has been reached by the OpenIndiana team. Release 151a is now out, bringing several key new changes to the table. The biggest one is that OpenIndiana now integrates Illumos, and also includes the kernel virtual machine (KVM), as recently released by Joyent.

You can grab the downloads from http://openindiana.org/download, with several options to choose from:

  • Desktop DVD ISO
  • Desktop USB installer image
  • Server text-based CD ISO
  • Server text-based USB installer image

You can browse the full OpenIndiana 151a release notes at http://wiki.openindiana.org/oi/oi_151a+Release+Notes

Checking which package a file belongs to with IPS Comments Off on Checking which package a file belongs to with IPS

I’d previously written up a brief note on how to use pgchk to check which package a file belongs to in Solaris. With IPS replacing SYSV packages in Solaris 11 and OpenIndiana, I thought I’d add an update to that post, showing how to accomplish the same thing in IPS.

IPS makes things a lot simpler for us, using the ‘search’ option to pkg.

Let’s check it out on an OpenIndiana oi_147 machine:

-bash-4.0$ uname -X    
System = SunOS
Node = grond
Release = 5.11
KernelID = oi_147
Machine = i86pc
BusType = 
Serial = 
Users = 
OEM# = 0
Origin# = 1
NumCPU = 4

The format of the search option is simple – just give it the full path to the file you’re interested in. In this example, I want to see which IPS package contains /usr/bin/ssh:

-bash-4.0$ pkg search /usr/bin/ssh
INDEX      ACTION VALUE       PACKAGE
path       file   usr/bin/ssh pkg:/network/[email protected]

Nice and simple, and certainly a lot easier than the old method of invoking pgchk.

pkg search will take a number of extra options:

-bash-4.0$ pkg search -? 
Usage:
        pkg search [-HIaflpr] [-o attribute ...] [-s repo_uri] query

pkg search will also allow wildcards, like ? and *, as well as specifying a particular IPS repo, with the -s option – which is very handy when you have a custom repo for your infrastructure.

OpenIndiana OI_148 is now released Comments Off on OpenIndiana OI_148 is now released

After the Release Candidate was pushed out before the weekend, some last minute issues have been tidied up, and the OpenIndiana project has now officially release the OI_148 development release.

Existing OpenIndiana users can upgrade using the normal image-update process.

Various format images – GUI install, text mode install, USB and AI images – can be downloaded from http://openindiana.org/download/

Release notes can be found at http://openindiana.org/support/documentation/release-notes/ and the Bug Tracker is at http://bugs.openindiana.org/

As always you can head over to the #openindiana IRC channel on Freenode.

OpenIndiana b148 RC images now available Comments Off on OpenIndiana b148 RC images now available

The OpenIndiana project has made Build 148 Release Candidate images available for testing. Albert Lee has posted details out to the oi-dev mailing list last night.

If you want to contribute to the b148 testing, please grab an RC image and throw it into VirtualBox to test. The more people who can thrash on these, the better the final b148 release of OpenIndiana can be.

With these RC images now being pushed out, hopefully we can expect a final OpenIndiana b148 build pretty soon.

You can find the paths to download all the different images, plus a list of resolved issues, in Albert’s post to oi-dev, archived at http://openindiana.org/pipermail/oi-dev/2010-December/000102.html

Solaris 11 Express is out Comments Off on Solaris 11 Express is out

Well, the covers have come off and Solaris 11 Express is out. This is going to come as a shock to any Solaris sysadmin who hasn’t played with OpenSolaris or OpenIndiana.

Out with the old:

  • no more UFS root
  • no more patch* commands
  • SVR4 packaging is still there, but deprecated in favour of IPS
  • no more Jumpstart
  • no more flash archives

In with the new:

  • ZFS everywhere
  • ZFS de-duplication
  • ZFS encryption
  • ZFS diff – see the changes between ZFS snapshots
  • AI (the Automated Installer) is how you’re going to be installing Solaris 11
  • IPS is the default packaging/patching system
  • the root account is now an RBAC role

Solaris 11 Express is basically free for any use other than production. The default IPS repository will be updated with critical bug fixes and security patches (think the old Recommended patch clusters) and there is a support repository, for those who have support contracts, which will have full access to all patches and updates.

Solaris 11 Express also qualifies for Oracle Premier Support. If you have SPARC kit, you’ll need at least OBP version 4.17 to use the Automated Installer (AI), but it looks like you can still use the text installer with older OBP versions.

You can find more details in the Solaris 11 Express FAQ.

snv_151 seems to be the the ON build used, which is a bit newer than snv_147 used for OpenIndiana (the team are working on an oi_148 release at the moment – have a look at the OpenIndiana Wiki)

All in all, Solaris 11 Express looks to be pretty much what was expected. It’s going to be ‘commercial’ OpenSolaris – it was pretty much always my understanding that OpenSolaris would push new features, and that those would be rolled into the Solaris product as and when they matured. Things didn’t quite work out that way over the last few years – OpenSolaris became too new, with too many new features, and with the dropping of Solaris SX:CE, there was no real merging of products going on.

What I want to know is – how will JASS work with the new operating environment?

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