BigAdmin Newsletter - April 2009

April 2009, Vol 8 No 3

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin

What's new in the BigAdmin web site, community, wiki, and blog. Once a month by email.

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Issue Highlights

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* BigNews and Announcements

* Techie Toolbox

* Sun BluePrints Articles

* Community, Blogs & Wikis

* Developer Corner

* Product Spotlight

* Offers and Events

* MOTD Round-Up

BigNews and Announcements

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* Phase 2 EOSL for Solaris 8 OS Has Arrived

http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/lifecycle.xml

It's time to sign up for Solaris 8 Vintage Patch support if

you want to continue running your applications on Solaris 8.

- More info on Solaris 8 Vintage Patch Service

http://www.sun.com/service/eosl/Solaris8.html

* BigAdmin Newsletter Going Text-only in May

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/newsletter/

Please note: This is planned as the last HTML edition,

and future versions will be in text.

* Updated: Restrictions for Using Solaris Live Upgrade

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/features/articles/live_upgrade_patch.jsp

Sun engineer Enda O'Connor has revised this article to

provide the most up-to-date info.

* Patching a Miniroot Image on the Solaris 10 OS

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/features/hub_articles/patchmini.jsp

Here's how to install the latest Kernel Update patch, using a

SPARC or x86 miniroot image for the JumpStart installation

program.

* Updated Resource Centers for Sys Admins:

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/topics/

- Logical Domains (LDoms)

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hubs/ldoms/

- Upgrading to Solaris 10 OS

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/topics/upgrade/

* Updated FAQ: Patching for the Solaris OS

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/sundocs/articles/patch-faq.jsp

A new section covers issues with patching the Solaris 10 OS

from Solaris 8 or 9.

* Managing I/O Topology Changes Due to CPU Chip Failures

in OpenSolaris

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/features/techtips/device_remap.jsp

The device_remap Perl script, included in OpenSolaris build

106, can manage I/O topology changes that occur due to CPU

chip failures in multi-node sun4v platforms.

Techie Toolbox

---------------

The Techie Toolbox often features scripts and content submitted

by members of the BigAdmin community and may not be appropriate

for all organizations.

* checkmessages_net

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/jsp/descFile.jsp?url=descAll/checkmessages_net

This script checks the logs on the hosts, and if it finds

anything wrong, the script sends email to the system

administrator.

* checkdisk_net

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/jsp/descFile.jsp?url=descAll/checkdisk_net

The checkdisk_net, host02_checkdisk, and host03_checkdisk

scripts check predictive disk failure on the hosts.

* Change Passwords (Remote)

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/jsp/descFile.jsp?url=descAll/change_passwords

This is another version of the passmass (expect) script,

especially for systems where security is tight.

* ifalias (nvalias)

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/jsp/descFile.jsp?url=descAll/ifalias_script

Use ifalias from a running instance of the Solaris OS (for

example, right after JumpStart), and it creates nvalias entries

in the OBP according to your interfaces in the path_to_inst.

* Zone Swap Cap Utilization

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/jsp/descFile.jsp?url=descAll/zone_swap_cap_utili

This script examines zones running on your host and reports the

current swap utilization compared to the zone.max-swap resource

cap set on the zone.

Sun BluePrints Articles

-----------------------

To download Sun BluePrints documents, login or

registration is required.

* Energy Efficient Datacenters: Electrical Design

http://www.sun.com/offers/details/820-6213.html

Read about the electrical design principles that Sun has

used in energy-efficient, pod-based datacenters worldwide.

* Virtualizing Desktops With Sun Ray Software and VMWare

View Manager

http://www.sun.com/offers/details/820-7120.html

This reference implementation for desktop virtualization

deployments is designed to provide resilient, secure

desktop environments.

* Improving MySQL Database Scalability

http://www.sun.com/offers/details/820-7447.html

Find out how to configure MySQL databases to scale performance

and use the chip multithreading (CMT) capabilities of Sun

SPARC Enterprise T5440 servers and the Solaris OS.

* High Availability MySQL Database Replication With Solaris

Zone Cluster

http://www.sun.com/offers/details/820-7582.html

Read about the benefit of deploying the master and slave

databases of MySQL Replication using Zone Clusters.

* MySQL Guide for Sun Storage 7000 Unified Storage System

http://www.sun.com/offers/details/820-7350.html

Sun's unified storage systems can share NFS and iSCSI

file systems with MySQL database servers deployed on

Sun SPARC and x86 servers, running the Solaris OS or

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.2.

* Zone Clusters - How to Deploy Virtual Clusters and Why

http://www.sun.com/offers/details/820-7351.html

This paper introduces the zone cluster, a virtual cluster in

which a Solaris Zone is configured as a virtual node. The zone

cluster supports the consolidation of multiple cluster

applications on a single cluster.

* Lustre File System - Demo Quick Start Guide

http://www.sun.com/offers/details/820-7390.html

This cookbook for non-Linux users shows how to set up a

demo of the Linux-based Lustre file system (a scalable, secure,

robust, and highly available cluster file system for large

computing clusters).

* Using RAID 6 for Increased Reliability and Performance

http://www.sun.com/offers/details/820-7395.html

This article describes the Sun RAID 6 solution for improved

data reliability, with best practices for implementation.

* Running MySQL Database in Solaris Containers

http://www.sun.com/offers/details/820-7367.html

This article, part of a series, describes the deployment of

MySQL database in virtualized environments using Solaris Zones

partitioning technology.

Community, Blogs & Wikis

-------------------------

* Get BigAdmin Gifts for Sharing Your Experience

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/giveaway/

Send us your scripts and tech tips, or submit useful links,

and earn "Bucks" to use for a USB memory stick or other gifts.

* Tech Tips From the BigAdmin Community:

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/collections/community_submitted.jsp

- Installing and Configuring Logical Domains (LDoms) for the

Solaris 10 OS on CMT Platforms

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/content/submitted/ldom_config.jsp

- Installing the Solaris 9 OS From a Flash Archive Dynamically

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/content/submitted/flash_arch_dynam.jsp

* Community Contributions to BigAdmin Wiki:

http://wikis.sun.com/display/BigAdmin/

- How to Change the Output of the uname Command in the

Solaris OS

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/jsp/descFile.jsp?url=descAll/how_to_change_the_o

- Using ZFS and rsync to Create a Backup Solution With

Versioning

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/jsp/descFile.jsp?url=descAll/how_to_use_zfs_and_

- Errors Related to NICs on Solaris 10 05/08 and 10/08 Releases

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/jsp/descFile.jsp?url=descAll/bgetfile_error_on_s

* OpenSolaris: Accessible Live CD Instructions

http://opensolaris.org/os/project/indiana/status/accessibility/AccessibleLiveCd/

Follow steps for booting to live mode and using the installer

as well as notes on the wireless setup GUI.

* Subscribe to the OpenSolaris Ignite Newsletter

https://subscriptions.sun.com/subscription_center

Developer Corner

----------------

* Sun Studio Express 3/09 Available

http://developers.sun.com/sunstudio/overview/earlyaccess/index.jsp

This is the official build used for the Sun Studio 12

Update 1 Early Access Program. The EA build is available

on Solaris, OpenSolaris, and the latest Linux distributions.

- Sun Studio Express - March 2009 README

http://developers.sun.com/sunstudio/downloads/ssx/express_March2009.html

- Podcast on SSX Release and Early Access Program

http://mediacast.sun.com/users/ikroopdhillon/media/sunstudioexpress0309/details

* Host Your Open Source Code With Project Kenai

http://kenai.com/?cid=927326

This cloud computing environment offers popular community

collaboration tools, source code repositories (Mercurial

and Subversion), and issue tracking (Jira and Bugzilla).

* Writing Your First Ruby-on-Rails Web Application

http://developers.sun.com/solaris/articles/rubytutorial/index.html

Learn how to use NetBeans 6.5 and GlassFish v3 Prelude to

create a web app in OpenSolaris 2008.11 without coding.

* Other Technical Resources From Sun Developer Network:

http://developers.sun.com/

- Meet Masood Mortazavi, Part 2: Java DB, Project Models,

and More

http://java.sun.com/developer/Meet-Eng/mortazavi_pt2/

- GlassFish and MySQL, Part 4: Creating a RESTful Web Service

and JavaFX Client

http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/glassfish/GFandMySQL_Part4Intro.html

- A Java Developer's Quiz

http://java.sun.com/developer/Quizzes/javaexperts/

- Profiling MPI Applications With Sun Studio Performance Tools

http://developers.sun.com/sunstudio/documentation/techart/mpi_apps/

- Seeding Cloud Computing: A Conversation With Java Champion

Alan Williamson

http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Interviews/community/williamson_pt1_qa.html

Product Spotlight

------------------

* Update to Logical Domains for CoolThreads Servers

http://www.sun.com/servers/coolthreads/ldoms/index.jsp

LDoms provide built-in, no-cost virtual-machine capabilities

for CMT servers. Version 1.1 extends capabilities, performance,

and usability, to help you increase server utilization,

lower costs, and consolidate workloads.

* Solid State Drives Across Sun System Portfolio

http://www.sun.com/storage/flash/

Sun is integrating SSDs in Sun Blades, CMT platforms, and x64

servers. Find out about potential power and space efficiencies.

- Video (on SSD Tech Resources page)

http://www.sun.com/storage/flash/resources.jsp

* A Guide to Getting Started With Cloud Computing

http://www.sun.com/offers/details/cloud_computing_primer.html

Sun's free guide explains the differences between public,

private, and hybrid clouds. (Registration required.)

- More Cloud Computing info on BigAdmin blog:

http://blogs.sun.com/bigadmin/entry/as_the_old_song_said

* Video: Internet Archive and Sun Modular Datacenter

http://sun.com/sunmd

Sun and the Internet Archive have built the Wayback Machine

Sun Modular Datacenter. This digital library preserves past

versions of web sites, as well as content from TV, movies,

music, and books.

- Internet Archive web site

http://archive.org

* Solaris Crash Analysis Tool (CAT) 5.1

http://blogs.sun.com/solariscat

This release is available for download. For more details,

see the SolarisCAT blog.

* Technical Articles in Chinese on Multilingual Hub

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hubs/multilingual

Three Sun articles discuss the use of fonts (in

simplified Chinese):

- Part 1: Category of Font by Look and Feel

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hubs/multilingual/simp_chinese/content/font_1.jsp

- Part 2: Category of Font by Data Format

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hubs/multilingual/simp_chinese/content/font_2.jsp

- Part 3: Font Size

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hubs/multilingual/simp_chinese/content/font_3.jsp

* Solaris 10 Applications for SPARC and x86/x64 Platforms

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/apps/

Explore over 11,000 Solaris Ready business applications

that are available.

Offers and Events

-----------------

* Try a Sun Product Free for 60 Days

http://www.sun.com/tryandbuy/

No cost, no risk. If you like it, you can buy it at 20-40% off.

If not, return it; we pay for shipping both ways. (The video

"Try and Buy Overview" gives more info.)

* Sun Startup Essentials Program

http://www.sun.com/emrkt/startupessentials/

Rock-bottom prices on Sun systems and storage for start-ups.

Available in many countries, including US, Canada, China,

India, Israel, UK, France, Germany, and Sweden.

* Earn College Credits for Sun Training With American Council

on Education

http://www.sun.com/training/ace.html

Training for Java and Solaris technologies can qualify for

college credits with many ACE Cooperating Colleges and

Universities.

* Special Student Discount on Certifications

http://www.sun.com/training/savings/associate.html

Two all-inclusive packages can help you reach entry-level

certification on Sun Solaris and Java technologies. Student

price is US$40.00 or 95% off country list price (until

June 30, 2009).

* SunLabs Contest for JavaFX Developers

http://javafx.com/challenge/

First prize is $25,000, and there is a student category. Up to

100 honorable mention prizes with $25 Amazon Gift certificate.

MOTD Round-Up

-------------

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/motd/032009.html

* Community Tech Tip in Spanish: Desarrollo y Deploy de Web

Services con Sun Java System Application Server 9.

* Videos on Solaris Cluster 3.2 1/09 cover topics such as agents,

optional fencing and optional dedicated partitions, exclusive IP

in Solaris Containers, RAC in Zones, and quorum monitoring.

* Here's a SunSolve doc., SPARC: Using Solaris Live Upgrade

to Upgrade From Solaris 8 to Solaris 10 05/08 (or Later Solaris

Releases).

* Sun took 496,000 square feet of Colorado datacenter space and

collapsed it to 126,000. Take a tour and see how it was done.

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LINKS

-----

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http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/collections/recently_updated.jsp

Visit the BigAdmin Site:

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/

BigAdmin Newsletter Archives:

http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/newsletter/

Solaris and OpenSolaris Developer Center:

http://developers.sun.com/solaris/

RESOURCES FOR

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Developers:

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Partners:

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Products:

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Services & Solutions:

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Training:

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Downloads:

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Documentation:

http://www.sun.com/documentation/

How To Buy:

http://www.sun.com/sales/index.jsp

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