An installation method new to Solaris is WAN Boot (9 4/04), where a Solaris machine can be booted and have Solaris installed over a remote network without having Boot Servers installed on every subnet like what is required for JumpStart. WAN Boot requires a client machine that supports WAN Booting or by booting off the Software 1 of 4 CD and loading the wanboot program then proceeding with the installation. A WAN Boot server uses a web server to deliver the OS to clients, this can be done via http or https using certificates.
Most people end up turning on UFS logging to improve performance and help prevent disk related issues when machines are shut down dirty. Now UFS logging is turned on by default, and can be turned off by editing /etc/vfstab, making the appropriate changes, and rebooting.
The Desktop Experience
A lot of noise has been made about Sun's choice of Gnome as the alternative Graphical User Interface, replacing OpenWindows. Then with Build 69, Sun introduces the Java Desktop System (JDS) to Solaris 10 bringing a new look and functionality. As I tested the OS, I started to really like JDS, it is clean, simple and easy to navigate. Many would say that it has a “Windows” look and feel, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Sun is trying to capture the Enterprise desktop with JDS, as opposed to the typical Unix user. Most Windows users would easily be able to use JDS without much training, and Sun has provided the tools necessary to further customize JDS to meet specific requirements.
For integration with Windows I was able to map a shared directory from my Windows XP laptop to my Ultra 10 in Network Places and create a shortcut to that location without any configuration! The inclusion of Evolution as an e-mail client along with StarOffice makes JDS really sweet. Another thing I liked was the being able to set up a non-PostScript printer without “pulling teeth” to get it done. Using Print Manager I was able to set up my LaserJet 6L connected to a Netgear PS-110 Print Server in under a minute! Anyone familiar with trying to configure a printer on a SVR4 Unix machine will appreciate this.
Service Management Facility
One of the biggest changes to Solaris 10 is the Service Management Facility (SMF), introduced in Build 69 SMF controls the starting and stopping of system and other services. For example previous to Solaris 10 to start the NFS server you would type:
/etc/init.d/nfs.server start
Under SMF you would type:
svcadm enable /network/nfs/server/default
The real benefit of SMF is the ability to automatically restart services based on the configuration of the system. This allows the system administrator to control what can or cannot be restarted by SMF, while you might want syslog to automatically restart, you might not want your Oracle database to be restarted after a dirty shutdown. SMF gives the administrator fine grained control over the starting, stopping, and restarting of services, and can make a system administrator's life a little easier.
- "Solaris 10, Page 1/3"
- "Solaris 10, Page 2/3"
- "Solaris 10, Page 3/3"
