Solaris 2.6 is the latest 32-bit release of the Solaris
operating system from Sun Microsystems and runs on both SPARC
(Sun) and Intel microprocessors. Read this article for
information on the new enhancements and improvements in Solaris
2.6, reasons why you should consider using Solaris 2.6, as well
as some handy administration information.
By
Jamie Wilson
Questions and comm
ents regarding the approach outlined in this
article should be directed to the author at
wilson@sju.edu
.
What is Solaris 2.6, and who do I contact to
purchase it?
Solaris 2.6 is the newest version of the Solaris operating
system from Sun Microsystems, Inc. It runs on Intel and SPARC
microprocessors, and is an ideal choice for networks that demand
high upti
me and scalability from their servers. Solaris was
meant to be run on powerful machines, so even though the minimum
system requirement for a SPARC install is a SPARCclassic, a
higher-end machine will be needed to function comfortably. The
minimum install requires up to 300 Mbytes of disk space and 16
Mbytes of RAM, but in order to utilize some of the new Solaris
features, a machine should have at least 48 Mbytes of RAM.
Solaris 2.6 promises to be more ``Web-based'' as well as being
``reliable, fast, expandable, easy to use, and accessible.'' as
described on
Sun's Web-enhanced
Solaris page
(<URL:http://www.sun.com/solaris/strengths.html>)
Sun offers many ways to obtain Solaris 2.6, with a variety of
licensing and purchasing options. Sun's preferred method of
purchasing Solaris is their ``
Get Current/Stay Current
''
subscription, which requires organizations to purchase a two-year
contract with Sun, af
ter which they will receive all major
Solaris releases within that two years, as well as all Sun
patches. This is perhaps the best purchase plan for any
organization that is either fully using, or is considering a move
to Solaris. Sun also offers other plans, including a one year
Sun contract, as well as one-time purchasing options. More
information on Solaris subscriptions can be found on Sun's
Solaris
Subscriptions for Sun SPARC Hardware Customers Web page
.
(<URL:http://www.sun.com/software/subscription/sun/>)
Solaris 2.6 costs about $695 for limited-user licenses, and
$1,295 for an unlimited right-to-use license. It is very
important to note that Solaris support is
NOT
included
in the price of the Solaris licenses and software. For more
information on pricing and ordering Solaris 2.6, or Solaris
support, call Sun at 1-800-SUNSOFT (1-800-786-7638).
Extensive product information and documentati
on can be found
on Sun's
Solaris Products Web page
(<URL:http://www.sun.com/solaris/>), including FAQs,
tip sheets, white papers, as well as product road maps.
Furthermore, Sun has decided to publish all of the Solaris 2.6
documentation on their
Documentation Web
site
(<URL:http://docs.sun.com/>). These two Web sites
have proven invaluable to Solaris users who are looking for more
Solaris information or support.
What are some of the new features in Solaris
2.6?
General Solaris improvements
Sun has made many improvements in Solaris 2.6 over previous
versions. Some of the ones that should be noted include:
- Vastly improved Web server performance with Sun's Web server
- Improvements in virtual memory and large file support
- Improved network throughput by widening the pipes in TCP, as
well as changes to NFS (incl
uding WebNFS)
- Increased focus on Java with a Java installer, Web browser,
and Java-based answerbook
- Full year 2000 compliance out of the box (previous versions
require Y2K patches available on Sun's
Access Site
(<URL:http://access1.sun.com/>) - search for ``
y2000
'' under FAQ & Patch Search)
- TotalNET server software that allows connections from any
type of client on the network
Web Install
One of Sun's more crowning achievements with Solaris 2.6 has
been a Web-based version of their installation program. Prior to
2.6, users were forced to use command-line installation,
which required users to answer a series of questions from either
the command line, or in OpenWindows. Sun has taken this exact
same process, but moved it to the Web via a Java-based installer.
The installation process now looks much more appealing and is
much easier to use. An interactive demo of the Web install can
be fou
nd at Sun's
Web Start
page
(<URL:http://www.sun.com/solaris/webstart/>).
Although the Web installation is an excellent interface to the
install program, it does have some major drawbacks. First, the
Web install program itself requires a shocking 48 Mbytes of RAM.
While most servers should meet this requirement, many workstation
machines may fall short, and thus can't use the Web install
program. Another major drawback is that you can not upgrade from
a previous version of Solaris using the Web install program. It
was designed only to be used on machines doing a fresh install of
Solaris 2.6. Furthermore, users also have less options when
trying to customize the software they want to install on the
system when doing a Web install.
Overall the Web install is a definite step in the right
direction. Users who enjoy using Solaris will certainly want to
try out this excellent new feature. Users who have systems that
do not
meet the minimum Web install requirements can still do the
old familiar interactive command-line or OpenWindows-based install, depending on what kind of monitor is being used.
WebNFS
It has always been Sun's primary goal to provide its users
with a better, more stable, and more secure way to access data
with its NFS protocol. In the past, Solaris clients had built-in
NFS support, with the ability to do automounting, mounting with
fall-over capabilities, and cache mounting. PC clients had to add
a separate layer of software to access NFS, usually with Sun's
various NFS clients. As part of Sun's WebTone initiative, their
latest method of accessing NFS partitions on an NFS server is
through the Web using WebNFS.
The concept is simple: if a browser supports HTTP- and
FTP-protocol transfers, then why not support NFS-protocol
transfers? This way clients capable of running a Web browser
could access NFS partitions without the need for extra software.
Sun has made this
NFS transition to the Web an easy one. There
is only one extra administrative step that needs to be taken to
enable WebNFS access, namely:
Edit the
/etc/dfs/dfstab
file so that the NFS
share you want to make Web-accessible has the new ``public''
option, as in:
share -F nfs -o -ro,public /export/sharedir
This allows any user to access the
/export/sharedir
partition over the Web. Finally,
run the
shareall
program.
Again there are a few drawbacks to this new feature. The most
obvious is that you need an ``NFS-capable'' Web browser that
supports the NFS protocol. As of now, the only browser that does
support this protocol is Sun's own
HotJava browser
. Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator do not support this protocol yet, making WebNFS inaccessible to most of the people who would need it the most. Furthermore, using NFS from the command line
had its own security implications, publishing these shares to the
Web should cause administrators to re-examine the security of
their Web and WebNFS sites.
Sun's WebServer (SWS)
Solaris 2.6 is the first version of Solaris to include a Web
server bundled with the OS. Sun WebServer 1.0 is Sun's
Solaris-native Web server designed to offer superior Web server
performance. The Sun Web Server offers multithreaded Web
serving, as well as support for SSL and virtual hosting.
Setup and administration of the SWS could not be easier.
After installation, a Web site could be up within minutes.
Online administration makes customizing the Web server very easy.
In order to access the online administration, you must make a
connection to
http://
your-server-hostname
/admin/admin.html
,
which will then launch the Java-based administration tool.
However, there have been some problems getting this Java program
to work properly,
see administration tip
s section
below
.
SWS 1.0 is available for free to Solaris licensees from
Sun's
WebServer page
(<URL:http://www.sun.com/webserver/>),
and will run on Solaris 2.5.1.
TotalNET Advanced Server software
One of the more intriguing new additions to Solaris is the
inclusion of the TotalNET Advanced Server software (TAS).
TotalNET is software that Sun has licensed from
Syntax, Inc.
(<URL:http://www.syntax.com/>) for use in Solaris 2.6. TAS
mimics different file servers using different protocols.
Specifically, TAS can effectively create an NT (NetBEUI), Netware
(IPX), and AppleShare (AppleTalk) server.
TAS is is an incredibly useful and powerful bit of software,
as Solaris administrators can create these various file servers
so that any client on their network can connect to it, without
adding extra software. PC clients with NetBEUI or IPX
installed
can browse the server as if it were an NT or Netware server.
Macintosh clients can access the server through the Chooser as
though it were a native AppleShare server.
As with the Sun WebServer, administration of TAS can be done
very easily through a Web browser interface. In order to
administer TAS, all you need to do is connect to the server at
http://
your-server-hostname
:7777
. The TAS
software listens on port 7777 for any incoming connections, and
then returns to the administration interface.
What are some Solaris administration tips and
important issues?
One of the more important Solaris 2.6 considerations is the
issue of minimum hardware requirements. The documentation claims
that a SPARCclassic with 16 Mbytes of RAM is the minimum
requirement to run 2.6. But with all of the advanced functions
that Solaris servers must now perform (Web serving, TAS
functions), it is obvious that more is better. Solaris 2.6 is
best suited for
the Ultra line of machines from Sun, or high end
Pentiums in the x86 world. The more memory the better, with 96
Mbytes of RAM and plenty of swap space being recommended.
Sun licensing remains a mystery and a concern to many Solaris
users. An extra booklet is included with Solaris 2.6 outlining
what components of the OS you have the right to use, along with
license numbers that may or may not be required. The licensing
is confusing and convoluted, often requiring the administrator to
call Sun and receive a license number. In some cases (as with
TAS), the licensing information in the booklet contradicts the
TAS documentation itself.
If at all possible, try out the new Web-based install program.
It is very well written and is easy to use. It makes installing
a Solaris server a fairly comfortable experience.
Much of the networking in 2.6 has been taken directly from
2.5.1. Experimentation can be done with tuning the kernel
variables in
/etc/system
as well as tuning the
nfsd
daemon. Remember, the numeric argument to the
nfsd
daemon specified on the invocation command line
should equal the maximum number of clients that will access the
NFS server at any one time. Experiment with this value to
optimize the system's performance.
SWS and TAS are two of the more important improvements in
Solaris 2.6. Take the opportunity to experiment with both of
them. Consider using WebNFS as an alternate way to access NFS
file systems. Consider using TAS server software, and native
Microsoft client software to access NFS file systems on a PC.
Both SWS and TAS offer little or no compatibility with NIS or
NIS+. This can be a problem when trying to export existing users
into an SWS or TAS user list. Sun is considering offering more
integrated support of the NIS naming system.
The SWS Java administration tool seems to have a bug that
causes it not to run or authenticate properly when using the
Netscape Communicator browser. This bug does not
affect Internet
Explorer clients connecting to the SWS administration tool.
There is a separate section in the Solaris 2.6 documentation
regarding 2.6 and SPARC Storage Arrays. Read this section very
carefully if you are upgrading or installing a Storage Array as
it contains critical information.
As always, it is critical to stay current with Sun's patches.
These patches fix many performance and security issues. Patches
are available on Sun's
Access Site
(<URL:http://access1.sun.com/>).
What is the future direction of
Solaris?
Sun has definitely committed a large majority of its resources
to the development and support of Solaris. The next major
release of Solaris, Solaris 2.7, is due out in the second half of
1998. While information on this release is not readily
available, one of the major changes is that 2.7 will be a fully
64-bit system. Sun is making the focus of 2.7 fast computation,
with t
otal support for 64-bit applications. It can also be
surmised that 2.7 will have more emphasis on Java, and be even
more tightly integrated with the Web.
Summary of Solaris 2.6
Solaris 2.6 is an excellent release of the Solaris operating
system. When used on high-end machines, it can provide the power
and scalability that is so important in today's network
environment. The new features in Solaris 2.6, namely Web
Install, WebNFS, TotalNET, and Sun WebServer, make Solaris an
excellent package solution for any network with multiple clients.
Network administrators should definitely investigate Solaris for
use on their own networks.
Author Biography
I work at
Saint Joseph's
University
as a network analyst, where we are currently
evaluating Solaris 2.6 for use on our network. I am a Certified
Solaris Administrator who has spent many years working with
Solaris and Sun products.
.
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