Thursday, October 12, 2006

BrandZ integrated into snv_49

Hi.

BrandZ project is finally integrated into snv_49. For all of you who don't know it means you can install Linux distribution in a Solaris Zone and run Linux applications. Those Linux applications run under Solaris kernel which means you can use Solaris Resource Manager, DTrace, ZFS, etc. For more details see BrandZ Overview Presentation. BrandZ are expected to be in Solaris 10 Update 4 next year. Right now you can get it with Solaris Express Community Edition and soon with Solaris Express.

Is it hard to install Linux in a zone? Well, below you can see what I did - create a Linux Zone with networking and audio device present for Linux. Basically it's just two commands!

# zonecfg -z linux
linux: No such zone configured

Use 'create' to begin configuring a new zone.

zonecfg:linux> create -t SUNWlx

zonecfg:linux> set zonepath=/home/zones/linux

zonecfg:linux> add net

zonecfg:linux:net> set address=192.168.1.10/24

zonecfg:linux:net> set physical=bge0

zonecfg:linux:net> end

zonecfg:linux> add attr

zonecfg:linux:attr> set name="audio"

zonecfg:linux:attr> set type=boolean

zonecfg:linux:attr> set value=true

zonecfg:linux:attr> end

zonecfg:linux> exit

# zoneadm -z linux install -d /mnt/iso/centos_fs_image.tar.bz2
A ZFS file system has been created for this zone.

Installing zone 'linux' at root directory '/home/zones/linux'

from archive '/mnt/iso/centos_fs_image.tar.bz2'


This process may take several minutes.


Setting up the initial lx brand environment.

System configuration modifications complete!

Setting up the initial lx brand environment.

System configuration modifications complete!

Installation of zone 'linux' completed successfully.

Details saved to log file:

"/home/zones/linux/root/var/log/linux.install.10064.log"


#

2 comments:

  1. Hi, this is awesome news and I've already lupgraded to snv49, but I've a question: is that centos tarball somewhat "crafted" for brandz? Can I manage to install every linux distro from the iso or is there something specific to do? tnx for the post!

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  2. Out of the box only CentOS is supported - you don't have to use provided tarball, you can use ISOs from standard CentOS distribution. Other distribuitons will also work but require manual tweaking. People managed to get working Debian, Fedora and other. Right now technical limitation is that distro has to be 2.4 kernel based. For more details see BrandZ comunity archives at OpenSolaris.org

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