Solaris 10 Upgrade Resources for System Administrators

Karen Perkins, last updated on 2009-10-21

Wondering how to move up to the Solaris 10 OS from earlier Solaris releases (or from Linux)?

We have lots of info for you, including these resources:

• Using Solaris Containers to Host Solaris 8 and 9 Environments on the Solaris 10 OS describes how to use Solaris Containers technology to upgrade your system to the Solaris 10 release from an earlier Solaris release. Solaris Containers can enable you to update to the Solaris 10 release from the Solaris 8 and 9 releases even if you are running applications that cannot be ported to the Solaris 10 platform.

  Similarly, Solaris Containers for Linux Applications enable you to upgrade to the Solaris 10 OS from Linux even if you are running applications that cannot be ported to the Solaris 10 platform.

• The Restrictions for Using Solaris Live Upgrade article provides important information about Solaris Live Upgrade restrictions. It also provides procedures for the correct way to use Solaris Live Upgrade to upgrade from the Solaris 8 or 9 OS to the Solaris 10 OS.

• These resources explain how you can upgrade directly from the Solaris 8 OS for SPARC platforms to the latest Solaris 10 release:

  • SunSolve article SPARC: Using Solaris Live Upgrade to Upgrade From Solaris 8 to Solaris 10 05/08 (or Later Solaris Releases)
  • Now possible to upgrade directly from Solaris 8 SPARC to latest Solaris 10 release blog by Gerry Haskins

• In this XPerts session, Running Solaris 8 and 9 Applications on Solaris 10 with Solaris Containers, a Sun engineer answers your questions about how you can move Solaris 8 and 9 applications to systems running the Solaris 10 OS by using Solaris 8 and 9 Containers.

For more info about upgrading to the Solaris 10 OS, see the following sections of this site:

• Why Upgrade?, which provides links to resources that explain the advantages of the Solaris 10 OS and describe new features
• What to Consider Before You Upgrade, which describes important things to consider before you upgrade, such as various ways to upgrade, the support status of Solaris 8 and 9, and how to keep your legacy applications
• Upgrade Tools and Resources,which provides lots of links to tools, applications, documentation, training, and other resources that can help you make the transition and get up to speed afterwards
• Services and Support, which provides info on the suite of Sun tools and services that can help you successfully upgrade
• Patching, which provides excellent patching resources, plus the location where you can download previous releases of Solaris, in case you need to update your systems in two steps (first to a previous Solaris release and then to the Solaris 10 OS)
• Legacy Apps, which describes Solaris Containers, which enable you to upgrade to the Solaris 10 OS from Solaris 8, Solaris 9, or Linux even if you are running applications that cannot be ported to the Solaris 10 OS

How to Keep Running the Solaris 8 or Solaris 9 OS

You can continue to run your business or favorite applications on the Solaris 8 OS, even though the Solaris 8 OS entered End of Service Life (EOSL) Phase 2 on April 1, 2009. Find out how.

New On April 28, 2009, Sun announced the Solaris 9 Operating System End of Life transition to customers and partners. For more details, see the Solaris 8 and 9 support status info in the What to Consider Before You Upgrade section of this site.