Solaris 11 Features and Enhancement

Whenever we get into the new version of the Operating System, our intention would be the new feature which is available on latest release. In this post, we are going to discuss about the new feature of Solaris 11.

In Solaris 11 having many more features than Solaris 10. For our better understanding, we will go through  the new features one by one in briefly.

Few of main features on Solaris 11:-

Features	Descriptions
IPS	Image Packaging System (Advanced feature (Repo)) of packaging.
AI	Automated Installer (In place of Jump start).
Network	Profile based configuration method (NCP) and more features.
Live Upgrade	Managing Boot Environment features (beadm).
ZFS	Default filesystem of Solaris 11 and more features.
ISCSI LUN	Sharing the LUN between the servers (COMSTAR) and more features.
Security	New System Security Features - Basic Audit Reporting Tool (BART)
Zone	New features and enhancement of Zones.

IPS (Image Packaging System)

Image packaging system which is main feature in Oracle Solaris 11, Its a network based package management (Repositories) and it provides complete software administration such as installation, upgrade and removal of Packages in easiest way. 

• Secure system upgrades with ZFS boot environments.
• Automatic dependency checking and downloads efficiently.
• Spacious package publishing methods.
• No Patches concept here, as all system updates through one mechanism (IPS)
• Configure and updating method of IPS 

AI (Automated Installer)

Automated Installer which is also one of the main feature in Oracle Solaris 11. Jump start feature has been completely redesigned as Automated Installer which can be performed as hand-free installation methods. Automated Installer (AI) is network-based feature which will resolves package dependencies and also provides flexibility.

• Reducing more time while installing multiple servers.
• Hand-free installations on SPARC/X86
• Installadm command creates, lists and configuring the installation services.
• Configure and updating method of AI.

Network

Especially network changes is one of the main concern in Solaris 11. Significant development in network side when we comparing with Solaris 10. Solaris 11 comes with profile-based network configurations which contains manual (Fixed Network configuration profile - NCP) and Automatic (reactive-Network Configuration profile - NCP) modes. Also introduced Network Auto-Magic (NWAM) features.  

• If DefaultFixed NCP is active, then network configuration is managed by using dladm and ipadm. 
• If Automatic NCP is active, then network configuration is managed by using  netcfg and netadm.
• Network Configuration profiles contains configuration of network links and interfaces (IpAddress).
• Network Bandwidth allocation between the Zones and  Aggregation between the Interfaces and IPMP enhancement. 
• Configuring Network and troubleshoots

Boot Environments

Live Upgrade concept comes with new features as called as Boot Environment in Oracle Solaris 11. Multiple boot environments can be maintained on a system. "beadm" utility which help us to administrate the Boot Environments.

• Boot Environments can have different Software versions installed.
• Make update Safe , Reliable and recoverable 
• Reduce Risks and Increase availability.
• Configuring and administration of Boot Environments.

ZFS

Oracle Solaris 11 is come up with ZFS as default filesystem.  Its scalable, Easy to administer and robust. Oracle Solaris 11 ZFS come up with advanced data protection, deduplication, compression and self healing mechanism which prevents the data corruptions.

• Supports Deduplications
• "zfs diff" ZFS snapshot difference and ZFS shadow migrations.
• Common Multiprotocol SCSI target (COMSTAR)
• "zone split" command to split mirrored ZFS storage pool
• Creation and administration of Oracle Solaris 11 ZFS.

Oracle Solaris 11 Zones

Oracle Solaris 11 Zones is having many more features than Solaris 10. Oracle Solaris 11 zones are whole root zone only, there is no sparse root zone concept, although we have the option to create read-only zones. whenever we have very less resources, we can prefer the read-only zones. 

• Exclusive IP concept for Solaris 11 zones.
• Solaris 10 can be only the branded zone in Solaris 11.
• "zonestat" utility is available for better resources monitoring of zones.
• Delegated network administration of solaris 11 Zones
• Solaris Zones can be NFS servers.
• Creation and administration of Oracle Solaris 11 Zones.

Oracle Solaris 11 Security
In Solaris 11 to make more secure they designed the root user as role account (RBAC). Assisting the compliance with security logs and auditing  with Basic Audit Reporting Tool (BART).

Please continue to reading this post to get the step by step configuring and troubleshoots methods of Solaris 11 features.

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