FAQ

Access to OpenSolaris 2009.06 and 2008.11 AMIs requires no registration.

If you would like email updates and information regarding new AMIs from Sun and access to the pre-2008.11 and SXCE AMIs, please complete this registration form.

Currently, Sun is making the following AMIs available for Amazon EC2.

• OpenSolaris 2009.06
• OpenSolaris 2008.11
• OpenSolaris 2008.05
• Solaris Express Community Edition

There are a variety of Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) offered by Sun:

• OpenSolaris 2009.06 — Sun's latest supported offering of OpenSolaris.
• OpenSolaris 2008.11 — Sun's current supported offering of OpenSolaris.
• OpenSolaris 2008.05 — Sun's first supported OpenSolaris offering.
• Solaris Express Community Edition — Sun's binary release for OpenSolaris developers. It is built from the latest OpenSolaris source and additional technology that has not been published in the OpenSolaris source base.

These AMIs are available under the terms of this license agreement.

Once you register and are approved, Sun grants access to OpenSolaris AMIs for your account identifiers so that you can request provisioning on instances. You will be notified by email within 1 business day once approved.

Access to OpenSolaris 2009.06 and 2008.11 AMIs requires no registration.

If you would like email updates and information regarding new AMIs from Sun and access to the pre-2008.11 and SXCE AMIs, please complete this registration form. AMI might contain features and fixes that have not yet been integrated into OpenSolaris release.

For technical support

• Email the support email address provided upon registration or email the "Technical Support Team" on the OpenSolaris on Amazon EC2 blog.
• Include your Amazon Web Services account number in the email.
• For the latest OpenSolaris AMI updates, check out the OpenSolaris on Amazon EC2 blog.

For Amazon EC2 account, pricing, and billing issues

• For questions regarding your account or billing issues, send an email to webservices@amazon.com and include your Amazon Web Services account number in the email.

OpenSolaris 2009.06 and 2008.11 AMIs are openly available on Amazon EC2. The current list of all available OpenSolaris AMIs can be found here.

During beta period, Sun does not charge extra to run OpenSolaris on Amazon EC2. Read details about Amazon EC2 pricing for information.

OpenSolaris and Solaris Express Community Edition AMIs work on various instance types available from Amazon EC2. Amazon EC2 has three instances sizes to meet your varied computing needs. See this Amazon EC2 page for information on instance types.

Sun collaborates with several hosting service providers that offer discounted hosting services and infrastructure suitable for various types of applications and services. See Sun's On Demand page for a list of partners and more information on how Sun can help with hosting and on-demand services.

Currently Sun is offering OpenSolaris and Solaris Express Community Edition AMIs. Sun intends to update the Solaris Express Community Edition AMI and any critical kernel patches and security fixes will be applied as needed. OpenSolaris AMI allows users to download additional packages and updates from network package repositories. Email the support email address provided upon registration or email the "Technical Support Team" on the OpenSolaris on Amazon EC2 blog for any technical issues you discover in OpenSolaris and Solaris Express Community Edition AMIs.

Amazon Web Services charges you based on your usage. You pay only for what you use and there is no minimum fee. For Amazon EC2, pricing is per instance-hour consumed based on instance type used. Usage charges are billed to your credit card on a monthly basis. Read details about Amazon EC2 pricing.

OpenSolaris on Amazon EC2 can be used in all of the countries and geographies where Amazon EC2 Web Service is available. Check with Amazon about availability of Amazon EC2 and other Amazon Web Services.

Sun continues to evaluate performance and SLA requirements for developing and deploying applications on OpenSolaris on Amazon EC2. Email the support email address provided upon registration or email the "Technical Support Team" on the OpenSolaris on Amazon EC2 blog if you are interested in support plans for OpenSolaris on Amazon EC2. Sun will make support available for OpenSolaris on Amazon EC2 after the beta period.

On-demand computing is a mechanism for delivering computing resources and software services in a pay-as-you-use model. Companies like Sun Microsystems and Amazon Web Services (AWS) offer on-demand computing solutions. See Network.com and Amazon Web Services for more details on their respective offerings.

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is a Web service available from Amazon Web Services that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud. Amazon EC2 allows you to quickly scale capacity, both up and down, as your computing requirements change and only pay for capacity used. Learn more about Amazon EC2 features and functionality.

Network.com offers flexible access to the pay-per-use computing resources of the Sun Grid Compute Utility and its growing catalog of high performance computing applications. ISVs and software developers can use the Network.com platform to easily build, test, and deploy their on-demand applications to anyone on the Internet. For more information read the white paper.

On-premise typically refers to hardware and software that is owned or leased by the end user and deployed at their site. Hosted refers to facilities that house hardware and lease systems to end-users. Users can either manage the systems or pay the hosting company to manage them. In a hosted environment, you pay for capacity whether you use it or not. On-demand, or utility computing is a pay-as-you-use model, where you only pay for the computing resources you actually use. Some on-demand solutions offer only capacity, some offer capacity, OS, and tools (such as Solaris on Amazon EC2), and some offer a complete package of capacity, OS, and specific applications.