ZFS and unbreakable upgrades were introduced in an earlier article. XercesTech has written a detailed article on how apt-get and zfs join forces to provide a worry-free upgrade experience. “While some operating systems provide the ability to roll back changes, they usually require significant time, or an experienced user with some external repair tools. The goal here is to be instant, if something goes wrong with an upgrade, it should be possible to boot into the old system without running any terminal commands, booting any rescue system or installation disc, or otherwise manually rolling things back.”
I’ve been using Nexenta on my home server for about 6 months now. Initially I only installed it for ZFS, but I’ve since come to love it. In fact, the more I use it, the more I wonder how I coped before without Solaris Zones, ZFS and the lark.
Edited 2009-03-26 19:43 UTC
I had it installed for a period of time as well. Its sort of tough to love. Yes the zfs and all the solaris goodies are there, but there aren’t many packages available for desktop use.
That would be because it’s not targetted for desktop use.
If you want desktop Solaris then you’d be better off with OpenSolaris.
Failing that, there’s also FreeBSD – which supports ZFS and has ‘jails’ (FreeBSD’s equivelent to Solaris Zones) as well as an already proven track record of success on the desktop.
No apt-get though, but the ports system is as good as it is different from Debian.
Yeah, but I want Zfs + gnu toolchain + gui.
FreeBSD, eventually? 🙂
Maybe Debian GNU/kFreeBSD could fit the bill?
I’m itching to try it on a test box, I just need to get my hands on one.
VirtualBox isn’t quite it if I want to actually use it.
Sweet, that looks promising. Thanks for the info, I’ll have to give that a try.
Though NCP is server focussed, we have XFCE4 and gnome-core for NCP2.. so you can install these WMs.
http://www.nexenta.org/os/FAQ#head-dd78578189a3eaf21a70dff59c9a2d1b…
-Anil
Gnome core must be new. Is it in the unstable / experimental repository? I thought I looked there, without success last October/November.
No, it’s really old actually. You have to add a now defunct repository IIRC
OpenSolaris is getting more and more GNU toolchain. Soon it will truly be a GNU/Solaris distro.
I cross my fingers. There are plenty OSS IDEs targeting gcc. However if you happen to use Netbeans CND then SunStudio is nicely supported.
FreeBSD’s toolchain isn’t that much different to Linux’s.
But if it has to be Linux, then run ZFS via FUSE. Just don’t expect the same speeds you’d get with native kernel support.
However, I still think you’re selling FreeBSD short. It’s a wonderful OS