BigAdmin XPerts

1. How can I find out about the new features of the Solaris 9 OE?
2. Why should I upgrade to the Solaris 9 OE?
3. How can I get the Solaris 9 software?
4. Where can I get more detailed information on the Solaris OE?
5. ....Is it possible to...re-create a full system automatically...?
6. Which software supports print sharing for the MacOS client?
7. Can you use the LDAP directory in Solaris 9 as the repository for users, groups, etc.?
8. Will Solaris 9 support usernames and passwords that are longer than 8 characters?
9. Why can't all devices attach to the sun machine? .... How do I identify the users password...?
10. Is there an application included in Solaris 9 that makes use of the extended file attributes that are mentioned in man fsattr?
11. ...Can you please tell me which books I can read to learn about Solaris?
12. When will we see Solaris 9 OE for the Intel platform?....
13. Does Solaris 9 allow users to run a UNIX based program like Gaussian?
14. What is the end of service date for the Solaris 9 release?
15. When will GNOME 2.0 be included in the Solaris 9 operating environment?....
16. I am looking for the free Sun ONE Application server & Sun ONE Directory Server that is included on the Solaris 9 CD.
17. Can we upgrade directly to the Solaris 8 or Solaris 9 releases or are there steps we need to follow?
18. I have noticed that the uname -v command in the Solaris 9 operating environment returns "Generic"....
19. Will the Solaris 9 operating environment work on an Ultra 1?
20. I have heard rumours that the NIS+ FNS will be replaced by LDAP in Solaris 9...
21. Is there an eject command or script that I can use to eject a backup tape media...?

A: The Family Comparison Chart shows the features of the Solaris 9 OE compared to previous releases.

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A: The top reasons include performance enhancements, more security features, and included functionality which may actually save you money. There are also available tools to make the upgrade easier. Please see the Solaris 9 Upgrade Site for more information.

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A: The software may be downloaded or you may purchase a media kit.

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A: There are a number of white papers and datasheets that may help you. In addition, the features and benefits of Solaris 9 OE are organized by the following categories:
Management, Availability, Security, Scalability, and Compatibility.

Other Links:
* Whitepapers
* Data Sheets

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A: Standard backup utilities have not changed in Solaris 9, however, we have introduced a new feature called Solaris Flash (also known as Web Start Flash), which allows you to capture an image of a system. You can then use that image either to make fast, replicated installs of other systems, or to use on the original system for disaster recovery.

You can read more about this in the Solaris 9 Installation Guide.

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A: There is no specific printing support in the Solaris OE for a MacOS client. However, if a client can use the standard "BSD-style" network printing support protocols, the client can connect to a Solaris-based print server.

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A: Yes, this is exactly what the directory services are designed for. The license for the Sun ONE/iPlanet directory server that is now integrated into Solaris 9 includes a license for 200,000 user identities, as well as support for system entities.

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A: There have been no changes in Solaris 9 to allow for longer usernames. There have been some preliminary investigations in to how to make this possible and it would require some significant changes and planning to extend usernames without breaking compatibility with earlier Solaris releases and other standard UNIX operating environments. You may wish to have your local support contact ask to have your site added to an existing Request for Enhancement that is open on this topic.

There is also currently no change to how passwords are handled. But stay tuned as this may be made more flexible in a Solaris 9 update.

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A: My interpretation of your first question is that you're asking why all hardware devices are not supported on Sun systems. Although Sun system interfaces are based on common open standards, the ultimate support for peripherals is dependent on the manufacturers of these devices; this is not directly under Sun's control.

Sun is the largest UNIX hardware vendor, both for servers and for desktop systems; if a company provides support for a UNIX system, the odds are in favor of them picking Sun as the first platform they support. However, no platform of any kind is supported by every hardware device vendor, but a very broad range of peripheral devices are available for Sun systems.

Your second question appears to relate to Sun's market strategy. We design our systems for a broad range of appeal; however, we do not target the home consumer business. We believe ordinary people do use Suns in large numbers, but at work rather than at home (and of course, huge numbers of ordinary people use Sun systems from home and work every day as they access the most popular sites on the Internet.) We've done a lot to make Sun systems easier to use in the enterprise and on power desktops, and you'll see even more of this in the future, most notably with the upcoming adoption of the GNOME desktop in Solaris 9 (and support for GNOME on Solaris 8 as well).

As to how an administrator can identify a user's password: they can't. A UNIX password is intentionally designed to be one-way, so that only the user has knowledge of their own password. If a user loses their password, all an administrator can do is change it, or set the account so that the user is prompted to enter a new password the next time they log on.

(The above answer sidesteps the idea of the administrator "cracking" a user's password using various utilities that have been developed and made available on the internet. Users should be encouraged to choose passwords that are not as susceptible to dictionary search and other brute force cracking methods.)

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A: No, nothing yet; the framework for creating and managing extended attributes is in place, waiting for applications that can take advantage of it.

As the fsattr man page notes, it is possible to manipulate attributes at the command line level, so it would be possible to make use of attributes today in shell scripts. For example, you could use the find command to find files to which you have assigned extended attributes and then go on to do something interesting based on the attribute values.

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A: I would say the best place to start is the What's New in the Solaris 9 Operating Environment document included in the Solaris 9 documentation set. This is a particularly handy document because it not only tells you what's new in Solaris 9, but it also covers what was new in both the Solaris 8 and Solaris 7 releases. In addition, the online version includes links to more in-depth information on the various new features that are listed.

For general information on the Solaris OE, please visit the Solaris 9 Operating Environment web site. For detailed information, visit the Sun Blueprints web site. Of course, you can always find more information on the BigAdmin web site. For an overview of the general design of the Solaris Operating environment, there is a white paper entitled, "Better By Design - The Solaris 9 Operating Environment.

There are also Sun Microsystems Press books published about the Solaris OE.

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A: The SPARC and Intel editions of the Solaris OE are built from the same source tree, so the core Solaris OE is essentially the same. The main differences would occur in the area of hardware support. For example, Dynamic System Domains are unique to the SPARC hardware environment, so is not supported on the Intel platform.

As you've probably heard, Sun has made the business decision to defer release of Solaris 9 for Intel systems. You may have also heard that we have gotten much feedback on this decision from the Sun user community, which we are actively evaluating. Any developments on the deferred status of Solaris 9 for Intel will be announced on the Solaris Operating Environment, Intel Platform Edition web site.

Meanwhile, Solaris 8 for Intel systems continues to ship and be available for download and continues to be fully supported. It was updated along with Solaris 8 for SPARC systems in February of this year.

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A: I'll admit that I do not know much specifically about Gaussian, but Solaris is UNIX. Specifically, Solaris has UNIX 98 branding from the Open Group, so I would not expect there to be a problem running any program described as being UNIX-based.

A quick search for Gaussian and Solaris on Google returned several hits, including http://www.gaussian.com/g98_req.htm. This site lists Solaris and other UNIX and non-UNIX operating systems that are supported by Gaussian.

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A: End of support for the Solaris 9 release is planned to be approximately 5-1/2 years after the second following release, per the Solaris Lifecycle Model. Since we plan releases approximately every two to three years, you could estimate the end of support date to be no earlier than November, 2011.

Technical support is available in various ways. Given the number and variety of relationships that companies have with each other, it's hard for me to know which would apply in your case. Your Sun account team has the best information for you about about how to contact Sun technical support.

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A: GNOME 2.0 is scheduled to be included in one of the Solaris 9 updates, exactly which update is still to be determined, based on the GNOME project and Sun internal engineering schedules.

The OpenWindows desktop and OpenLook Deskset tools are not included in the Solaris 9 OE, nor are development tools for the XView and OLIT OpenLook toolkits. However, execution and display of existing OpenLook applications is still supported.

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A: Sun ONE Directory Server is integrated into the Solaris 9 operating environment. You will find it as packages IPLTdsr, IPLTdsu, IPLTdsman, IPLTdscon, and IPLTjdsu. These packages are on the Solaris 9 Software 2 of 2 CD.

Sun ONE Application Server Enterprise Edition Version 6.5 is on the Sun ONE Advantage Software CD, which is in the Bonus Software folder in the Solaris 9 media kit. This version of the Application Server is provided for development and evaluation purposes. Sun plans to include Sun ONE Application Server 7, Platform Edition, as an integrated component in a future Solaris 9 update.

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A: You can upgrade directly from the Solaris 2.6 or Solaris 7 releases to the Solaris 8 or Solaris 9 releases. This is supported by both the standard upgrade process and by Live Upgrade.

There are several documents that might be of interest about the life of Solaris support. A list of currently shipping and supported releases, along with upcoming support milestones, can be found on the Solaris Release Information web site.

A description of the Solaris Lifecycle Model that explains Sun's release strategy and timelines can be found on the Life Cycle web site.

A description of the various support levels for the Solaris software and the relevant dates for all Solaris releases can be found in SunSolve InfoDoc 10012.

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A: The initial release of any version of the Solaris operating environment will not have a kernel update integrated into it, so there is no kernel patch number. You would see this in earlier versions as well. For example, in the initial Solaris 8 release in February 2000, uname -v returned only "Generic". Subsequent Solaris 8 updates included kernel updates, which were reflected in the output of uname -v or showrev -p.

Put another way, uname -v in the Solaris 9 release is giving you tracking info about the kernel patch level by telling you that there is no kernel patch present.

The Solaris 9 9/02 release will include the first Solaris 9 kernel update.

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A: Yes. The Solaris 9 release supports all Sun systems that are supported by the Solaris 8 release, with one exception. The older sun4d kernel architecture is no longer supported, which only affects two older Sun servers (circa 1993), the SPARCcenter 2000 and SPARCserver 1000.

For a complete list of systems supported by the Solaris 9 release, see the Solaris 9 Sun Hardware Platform Guide.

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A: For question 1:
Yes and no (or no and yes, in this case :-) Nothing has been removed or replaced in Solaris 9, but Sun's direction is to move to LDAP as our global directory service. In the Solaris 9 release notes, we say that NIS+ may not be supported in a future release, and we now include tools to help move from NIS+ to LDAP.

For question 2:
The earliest we might remove anything would be Solaris 10, which is still a couple of years out. Whether we actually do this in Solaris 10 or wait for later would depend on whether or not the bulk of our customers have successfully moved from NIS+ to LDAP. It's also likely that the NIS+ server would be removed in one release, and NIS+ client support in a later release.

For question 3:
There has been no statement on removal of NIS support, which means that any changes would be no earlier than Solaris 11, which is at least four years out.

And finally:
See http://www.sun.com/directory/nisplus/transition.html. Also, in the Solaris 9 9/02 documentation, chapter 19 of the Naming and Directory Services system administration guide discusses transitioning from NIS+ to LDAP. The link to the manual is http://docs.sun.com/db/doc/816-4856/.

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A: Yes, there is an "eject" command in Solaris. Also, the "ufsdump" and "mt" commands allow for taking devices offline and ejecting the volume, if the device supports it. I remember doing this with a 9-track tape drive (Sun used to sell one that let you insert a tape reel much as you would a cartridge), so support for this has been there for quite a while.

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