When Solaris Containers for Linux Applications is released into the source code with Update 4 on Aug. 27, Sun customers will be able to run unmodified Linux binaries made for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS. Formerly called BrandZ, Solaris Containers for Linux Applications is an upgrade to the Containers operating system virtualization technology already included in Solaris 10. The update will be released at no charge to existing Solaris customers.
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Member since:2006-12-28
Corporate crap talking is always worth a good laugh IMO, well pointed out :-).
As far using hardware virtualization as a better solution for Linux virtualization, I agree with you. I would rather see hardware virtualization integrated within the BrandZ framework though as, frankly, too many frameworks make for annoying administration.
Still, In time, who knows what other Solaris virtualization solutions will be provided. The questions are, are they gonna be any use?
Member since:2005-07-06
1) Their customers asked for this
2) They are doing virtualisation, this is just another solution
3) Containers have advantages that hardware virtualisation does not provide
Usually I agree with your posts, but you are way off the mark here.
You seem to believe there is only "one proper way" to do things. There is not. There are many ways to provide solutions to the same problem. Solaris Containers are just one of many solutions.
Sun is giving great value to their customers by providing them with multiple solutions so customers can choose the solution that best meets their needs.
Oh, and by the way, Ian Murdock thinks brandz is great. So there's a list one well-known Linux-affiliated person who likes them. if you say, "He works for Sun, so of course he would like them!" -- you'd be wrong. He's already indicated many things Sun has that he does not like.
Edited 2007-08-27 19:43 UTC
Member since:2006-01-03
"1) Their customers asked for this"
They did? I seriously doubt it. Sun, having lost dominance in the hardware business to the likes of Dell and HP (and IBM), needs something to avoid becoming just another hardware vendor. That something is Solaris.
Their customers are going the Linux way just like everybody else's customers. Why the hell someone would ask Sun to support Linux applications on Solaris if they can just go for the real thing? (And if you are willing to risk all sorts of trouble with this "emulation" stuff, why not risk less with one of the free Linux distros even...?)
This is just Sun trying to catch the Linux wave while still keeping their "Solaris is the real UNIX" position.
"3) Containers have advantages that hardware virtualisation does not provide"
And that's why you should just go for OpenVZ if you really need Linux applications running inside containers.
Member since:2005-07-08
Look, I have nothing against Containers. In fact, I think that OS virtualization is the better solution for most of the typical use-cases for hardware virtualization. If your workloads can deal with a common platform, then by all means go with the lightweight solution.
But Branded Containers tries to use OS virtualization for the opposite situation, where you need different platforms for different workloads. Sun doesn't (to my knowledge) have a hardware virtualization solution, so they aren't providing choice, they're doing the best they can with what they have. And like I said, interoperability is good even if it isn't perfect.
If I could pick only one kind of virtualization to use on my platform of choice, it would be OS virtualization. But if I had to pick only one kind of virtualization to offer my customers, it would have to be hardware virtualization. How would Sun implement a Windows Branded Container? I'm not sure that's technically feasible.
Edited 2007-08-27 20:14
Member since:
2005-07-08
I enjoyed this little nugget from Sun's website:
Solaris 10 effectively becomes the premier platform for developing, testing, and deploying Linux applications.
Right... A 4-year-old Linux userland ported to a non-native kernel is better than the real thing. Developing and testing Linux applications on a system that kinda-sorta complies with LSB 1.3. Seems like a leap of faith to me.
Don't get me wrong, this is very useful for running the odd proprietary Linux application that isn't available for Solaris. I'm a staunch supporter of interoperability, even if it isn't 100%. But to suggest that Solaris is now the premier Linux platform is like saying that Mono is the premier .NET platform. They're both a couple generations behind and have their fair share of gotchas.
From a design perspective, I question the use of OS virtualization to provide non-native OS support. I mean, the nature of the beast is that OS-level virtual machines share a common OS. In a containerization frenzy characterized by the misuse of hardware virtualization, Sun makes the opposite mistake.
There were a number of false starts
This is another one, IMHO. Sun, the proper way to support multiple platforms on the same box is... (drumroll please) hardware virtualization. Yes, this is a rare chance to use it appropriately. Finish the Xen dom0 port you've been working on, or better yet, implement the KVM strategy in the Solaris kernel.
Slightly OT: Check out Glick. It's the most interesting application bundling approach I've seen:
http://blogs.gnome.org/alexl/2007/08/07/experiments-with-runtime-le...