iTechNote

Solaris 10, the most advanced UNIX has recently announced its third update. The following is a summary of features, functions and benefits of the new build.

I. Security

• Solaris Trusted Extensions - Customers with government mandated security requirements can now enforce strict access controls based upon data sensitivity in addition to it’s ownership. The Mandatory Access Control policy is the heart of the trusted extensions, which meet the CAPP, RBAC and LSPP at EAL4+.
• Secured by Default Networking - Less experienced customers running Solaris with the Secure Networking by Default profile feature will immediately reduce their risk of exposure on the Internet or LAN.
• Configuration Solaris Container Privileges - Security and system administrators may now configure Solaris containers to allow certain security windows of capability.

II. Virtualization

• Solaris Container Renaming, Cloning and Moving - These crucial Solaris container related commands are now available.
• Logical Domains for CoolThreads servers - Customers can now subdivide an UltraSPARC T1 based system’s resources (CPU, memory, I/O and storage), creating partitions known as Logical or Virtual Domains up to a maximum of 32.

III. Performance

• Network Layer 7 Cache - HTTP cache in the Solaris kernel.

IV. Multimedia & Desktop Enhancements

• Macromedia Flash Player v7 for Solaris
• Sun Java Desktop System Configuration Manager - Centralized policy distribution and enforcement mechanism for Sun Java Desktop.
• Access Control Lists in Nautilus - The Nautilus file manager can now display and set Access Control Lists for the UFS.

V. System Management

• ZFS Enhancements - Support for hot spares, RAIDZ2 (aka RAID-6), clone promotion and fast snapshots.
• File System Monitoring Tool - fsstat command allows for quick reporting on important health and throughput statistics of file systems.
• SNIA Multipath Management API Support - Sun’s implementation of the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) Multipath Management API (MP API).
• Resource Pools Facility Integration with SMF
• Sun Java Web Console Enhancements

VI. Hardware Enhancements

• Support for PCI Express (PCIe)

VII. Availability

• Sun Fire X4500 SATA Disk Integration with Solaris Predictive Self-Healing

VIII. Other Enhancements

• Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 8.2
• Sun Java System Message Queue Platform Edition 3.7
• Japanese Input Method Language Engine Support for Wnn8

For a more elaborated list, check out the What’s New document.