Topic summary

• Zones
  • Purpose of zones
  • how zones exist within a standard Solaris 10 system
  • creating a zone
  • zone configuration
  • including disk and network resources
  • controlling zones (booting
  • halting
  • etc)
  • zone limitations
  • zone resource capping and resource pools
  • software installations and packages within zones
  • zones FAQ
  • how zones are likely to be developed
• User Authentication
  • Password history checking and nobody account changes
  • Least Privilege and the ppriv command
  • least privilege and RBAC (Role-Based Access control)
  • kerberos changes
• File System Features
  • Changes to UFS
  • the new ZFS (Zettabyte File System)
  • Creating and managing storage pools with zpool
  • adding new devices to a storage pool
  • creating mirror and RAID Z devices
  • creating and managing file systems with zfs
  • assigning properties such as quotas and NFS sharing to ZFS file systems
  • creating snapshots and clones of filesystems
  • exporting and importing storage pools
  • using zfs backup and restore
  • the new ACL model (NFS v4) as used within ZFS filesystems
  • emulated volumes
  • using ZFS within a zone
  • troubleshooting
• Fault and Service Management
  • The Fault Management Architecture (FMA) - overview
  • the Service Management Facility (SMF)
  • changes to /etc/inittab
  • the svc.startd process
  • the svc.configd process
  • using svcs to list and obtain information about services
  • using svcadm to control system services
  •   using svccfg to modify service definitions
  • examination of the /var/svc and /lib/svc directories
  • using SMF facilities to trace services failures
  • adding services (creating scripts
  • XML files
  • etc)
  • the use of legacy scripts under SMF
  • how inetd services are affected.
• Dtrace Basics
  • dtrace is a facility for monitoring low-level system activity for fault tracing and performance management.
  • Using dtrace effectively relies upon a solid programming foundation especially the C language.
  • This section will introduce administrators to the fundamentals of dtrace with lots of example dtrace programs to try out.
  • Students are not expected to have a formal programming background.
  • dtrace is not a part of the Solaris certified Administrator curriculum.
• Internet Protocol features in Solaris 10
  • Solaris 10 includes a number of enhancements (mostly transparent to the administrator)in the area of IP networking.
  • These will be explained with practical examples where possible including Quality of Service (IPQoS)
  • Performance improvements (Fireengine project)
  • MDT multi-data transmission (Solaris 9 in fact) and others.
• NFS Version 4
  • Solaris 10 introduces a new version of the Network File System protocol which includes a number of changes and new features including a stateful architecture. This section will cover NFS in depth.
• Security features
  • The new Solaris OS Cryptographic Framework
  • A facility for developers to ease the use of encryption signing random number generation and so on
  • Availability of hardware encryption accelerators
  • The Solaris IP Filter firewall facilities
• Other Changes to Networking
  • The System Management Agent (SMA) (an SNMP agent that is based on an open source project
  • Net-SNMP at http://www.net-snmp.org.)
  • DHCP under Solaris 10
  • routing changes.
• Solaris 10 OS Installation
  • Although the basic installation mechanisms of Solaris 10 will be familiar to experienced administrators there will be a number of changes of which they should be made aware of including:
    • installation media
    • the ability to configure multiple network interfaces
    • modify hard disk partitions using a VTOC
    • minor changes to Jumpstart and flash archives
    • Live Upgrade enhancements
    • using the WAN boot facility
    • the new web patching and update facility.
    • Significant Solaris changes in recent history
  • Not all those coming to Solaris 10 will have experience in intermediate versions so this section documents (and will cover if required) significant changes in recent versions such as:
    • IP Multipathing
    • Flash Archive creation and use in Solaris installations
    • the fssnap utility for freezing file system before backup
    • Solaris Volume Manager
    • the integrated advanced disk management facility previously know as Online: DiskSuite.
  • This section will also review the Solaris Management Console in its latest incarnation showing:
    • how to modify it to add servers
    • make it Name Service aware
    • how to add legacy applications
    • show the working of RBAC (Role Based Access Control) a feature combined in SMC but prevalent throughout the Solaris system