Fast Track to Solaris 10 Adoption: Predictive Self-Healing

Please click on a question below or download a pdf version.

1. Is access to the SUNW-MSG-ID limited to the Internet, or will it be hosted locally with the FCM?
2. Is the Sun acquired cluster technology going to be leveraged for PSH to applications? What is SMF?
3. Are PSH features intended to be used by app developers?
4. What will it be able to heal? Anything like (or better than) a system restore function?
5. Can customized agents be created by the customer, in particular with respect to monitoring zones, or is FMD restricted to the global zone?
6. Are there going to be enhancements to utilizing systems calls to better capture the full features provided with self-healing? This also ties in to use of DTrace functions.

Q: Is access to the SUNW-MSG-ID limited to the Internet, or will it be hosted locally with the FCM?

A: We're considering providing a way for customers to cache the information locally and customize it at their site. Stay tuned to future PSH announcements.

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Q: Is the Sun acquired cluster technology going to be leveraged for PSH to applications? What is SMF?

A: Not yet, but there are plans to move PSH technology up our software stack. This includes middleware software such as Java and Solaris Grid Container technology, Cluster, SunCluster, etc. SMF is the Service Management Facility. There is a technical white paper that describes PSH and SMF, available at http://www.sun.com/bigadmin

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Q: Are PSH features intended to be used by app developers?

A: Absolutely. Whether you're using it to take corrective actions on your development, or taking advantage of the full set of APIs, there's something you can use if you're a developer.

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Q: What will it be able to heal? Anything like (or better than) a system restore function?

A: Assuming by "system restore" you're talking about disaster recovery features, then yes, the new Service Management Facility (SMF) coming as part of PSH will include features to help. SMF permits administrators to take snapshots of the service configuration, give them human-readable names, and restore them on demand. SMF will appear in the next release of Solaris Express.

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Q: Can customized agents be created by the customer, in particular with respect to monitoring zones, or is FMD restricted to the global zone?

A: In the current implementation, FMD runs in the global zone. Future connections with zones will allow PSH diagnosis and response (agent actions) in local zone configurations.

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Q: Are there going to be enhancements to utilizing systems calls to better capture the full features provided with self-healing? This also ties in to use of DTrace functions.

A: Future enhancements to PSH will allow applications and services to receive fault information and respond based on the resources it uses. There are no direct ties with DTrace.

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