OpenSolaris NEXT

OpenSolaris NEXT


So, what is next for OpenSolaris???

Glynn Foster, OpenSolaris product manager at Sun, speaks at Oracle Open World 2009.

• March 2010 Release
• Installation & Package Management Enhancements
  
• New packages in the network repository
  
• Interactive text install for SPARC & x64
  
• Virtualization upgrades for Crossbow
  
• Xen upgrades for xVM Server under x64
  
• packaging updates for Solaris Containers
  

Interactive SPARC installation and xVM Server updates for x64 look like the big winners in March 2010!

Solaris 10: Configuring a Stock Apache Server

Solaris 10: Configuring a Stock Apache Server

Abstract:

Sun had been a tremendous advocate of Open Standards for decades. One of the most influential standards advocated by Sun had been Hyper Text Transfer Protocol, or "http". This protocol is most often served by a server program, called a "daemon". Many people and organizations create "httpd" servers, one such group is the "Apache Software Foundation", where employees from Sun had been elected to the board, and members of the board had served in authoritative positions on other Sun open source projects. The "httpd" daemon from "Apache", one of the most popular http servers in the world today, is bundled into Sun's Solaris Operating System.

Identifying the Apache Service:

Solaris 10 comes shipped with an HTTP server, but it is disabled by default. The services infrastructure shows the server, even if you are uncertain how to identify the service.

Ultra2/root$ svcs apache2
STATE STIME FMRI
disabled 17:01:42 svc:/network/http:apache2

Ultra2/root$ svcs http
STATE STIME FMRI
disabled 17:01:42 svc:/network/http:apache2

Configuring the Apache Service

The Apache "httpd" server uses a configuration file, which must be minimally configured, before it will operate.

Ultra2/root$ cp /etc/apache2/httpd.conf-example /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

Ultra2/root$ vi /etc/apache2/httpd.conf
...
ServerAdmin user@fully.qualified.domain
...
ServerName fully.qualified.domain
...

Enabling the Apache Service

The service can be enabled in Solaris 10 via the Service Administration command.

Ultra2/root$ svcadm enable svc:/network/http:apache2

Ultra2/root$ svcs apache2
STATE STIME FMRI
online 1:07:55 svc:/network/http:apache2

Document Location

Documents are located in the following UNIX directory tree:

Ultra2/root$ ls -al /var/apache2/htdocs/index.html* | head
-rw-r--r-- 1 root bin 1663 Nov 21 2004 /var/apache2/htdocs/index.html.ca
-rw-r--r-- 1 root bin 1583 Nov 21 2004 /var/apache2/htdocs/index.html.cz.iso8859-2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root bin 2202 Nov 21 2004 /var/apache2/htdocs/index.html.de
-rw-r--r-- 1 root bin 1508 Nov 21 2004 /var/apache2/htdocs/index.html.dk
-rw-r--r-- 1 root bin 1828 Nov 21 2004 /var/apache2/htdocs/index.html.ee
...

Thin Clients: Sun Ray WAN Firmware

Ultra Thin Clients: Sun Ray WAN Firmware

Abstract:

Sun Microsystems had started as a UNIX workstation vendor based upon BSD UNIX. Most of these workstations were based upon diskless or dataless environments, where user data was stored on centralized servers. After an investment from AT&T, Sun has moved from predominantly a workstation vendor to a server, using AT&T SVR4 UNIX multi-processor scalable source code. In the process of moving it's core business to servers, Sun refocused their efforts on even lower costing thin clients. The SunRay line of ultra-thin clients provides virtually all processing on the server, with virtually all the data on the server, with merely providing the display, keyboard, mouse, and local ports through a multiplexed network connection. Sun recently provided Wide Area Network capability to the SunRay clients.

Finding a Sun Ray on a Dedicated Network

When a Sun Ray is attached to a dedicated network, the Solaris platform will provide for it an IP Address via DHCP. The physical address is written on the DTU, so the IP can be correlated via the "arp" command.

Ultra2/root$ arp -a
Net to Media Table: IPv4
Device IP Address . . Mask . . . . . Flags Phys Addr
------ --------------- --------------- ----- -----------------
hme0 224.101.101.101 255.255.255.255 . . . 01:00:5e:65:65:65
hme1 224.101.101.101 255.255.255.255 . . . 01:00:5e:65:65:65
hme1 IGMP.MCAST.NET. 255.255.255.255 . . . 01:00:5e:00:00:16
hme1 192.168.2.68. . 255.255.255.255 o . . 00:03:ba:26:9f:92
...
hme1 Ultra2-hme1 . . 255.255.255.255 SPLA. 08:00:20:89:ed:d3
hme0 Ultra2. . . . . 255.255.255.255 SPLA. 08:00:20:89:ed:d3
hme1 BASE-ADDRESS. . 240.0.0.0 . . . SM. . 01:00:5e:00:00:00

Determining the Firmware

Once can query the Sun Ray (by IP address) to determine the firmware level. Note, there is no WAN firmware on this unit, since there was no "GUI" prefix on the firmware identification.

Ultra2/root$ utquery -d 192.168.2.68
terminalID=0003ba269f92
terminalIPA=192.168.2.68
model=CoronaP2
currentAuth=192.168.2.252
currentFW=4.2_77_2009.10.19.17.01
...

Upgrading Sun Ray Firmware

The firmware must be upgraded to the GUI version. This is done using the user teriminal firmware administration tool, by the hardware address.

Ultra2/root$ utfwadm -A -f /opt/SUNWut/lib/firmware_gui -e 00:03:ba:26:9f:92 Unit "0803BA269F92" will be upgraded at its next power-on if it is served by host "Ultra2" and is connected to the network and is not already running firmware version "GUI4.2_77_2009.10.19.17.01". ### stopped DHCP daemon ### started DHCP daemon ### reinitialized DHCP daemon

Validating the Sun Ray Firmware

After booting the desktop unit, a second query will reveal the new firmware with the GUI prefix.

Ultra2/root$ utquery -d 192.168.2.68
terminalID=0803ba269f92
terminalIPA=192.168.2.68
...
currentFW=GUI4.2_77_2009.10.19.17.01
...

The desktop unit is now ready to be leveraged across a WAN.