New Features in Solaris Express 7/06

This section describes all features that are new or have been enhanced in the Solaris Express 7/06 release.

Ability to Validate a Non-Global Zone Migration Before the Migration Is Performed

This system resources enhancement is new in the Solaris Express 7/06 release.

Starting with this release, a zone migration dry run is performed before the actual non-global zone migration. The zoneadm detach subcommand can now generate a manifest on a running zone without actually detaching the zone. The zoneadm attach subcommand can then read this manifest and verify that the target machine has the correct configuration to host the zone without actually doing an attach.

For more information about procedures for migrating a non-global zone to a different machine and performing a dry run before the actual move, see the following:

zoneadm(1M) man page
“Migrating A Non-Global Zone to a Different Machine” in the System Administration Guide: Virtualization Using the Solaris Operating System

Mailbox Size Enhancement

This networking enhancement is new in the Solaris Express 7/06 release.

The mail.local program delivers mail on the Solaris OS. In releases prior to Solaris Express 7/06, the mail client could support a maximum mailbox size of 2,147,483,647 bytes (or 2Gbytes - 1). This limitation has been removed. Now the mailbox size can be as large as any other Solaris supported file system.

For more information about mail.local, see the mail.local(1M) man page.

Exclusive Link-Based Failure Detection for IPMP Singleton

This networking enhancement is new in the Solaris Express 7/06 release.

Some sites use single-interface IP Multipathing (IPMP) groups in environments that cannot support probe-based network failure detection. Starting with this release, these sites can successfully deploy Solaris IPMP.

For more information about IPMP, see System Administration Guide: IP Services.

Runtime Linker Configuration File

This developer tool enhancement is new in the Solaris Express 7/06 release.

Runtime linker configuration files are created and managed with the crle command. These configuration files are used to alter default options for the Solaris runtime linker. In releases prior to Solaris Express 7/06, the runtime linker configuration files would encounter problems when used on AMD64 platforms. Starting with this release, the format of the runtime linker configuration files has been improved to resolve these problems. This improved format enables better file identification and ensures that the runtime linker does not use a configuration file generated on an incompatible platform.

Linker configuration files contain platform-specific binary data. A given configuration file can be interpreted by software with the same machine class and byte ordering. However, in releases prior to Solaris Express 7/06, the information necessary to enforce this restriction was not included in the linker configuration files.

Starting with this release, linker configuration files contain system identification information at the beginning of the file. This additional information is used by the crle command and the runtime linker to check the compatibility with linking configuration files. This information also allows the file command to properly identify linking configuration files. For backward compatibility, older linker configuration files will still be accepted but without the identification and error checks that are now available. When the update (-u) option is used on an older linker configuration file that lacks the system information, the crle command does not add system information to the result.

For more information, see the following man pages:

Solaris Fibre Channel Host-Based Logical Unit Number Masking

This device management enhancement is new in the Solaris Express 7/06 release.

The Solaris fibre channel logical unit number (LUN) masking feature enables system administrators to prevent the kernel from creating device nodes for specific unapproved LUNs.

For more information, see the fp(7d) man page.

Solaris Trusted Extensions

This security enhancement is new in the Solaris Express 7/06 release.

Starting with this release, the Solaris Trusted Extensions software provides multilevel security for the Solaris OS, including mandatory access control for the following:

Files
File systems
Processes
Removable devices
Networking
Desktop environments
Printing

The Solaris Trusted Extensions software also provides tools for the following actions:

Defining policies
Setting up sensitivity labels
Performing trusted system management

The Solaris Trusted Extensions feature enables you to define your data access policies to control information in a flexible but highly secure manner. Solaris Trusted Extensions can be used as a configuration option for the Solaris OS.

For more information about Solaris Trusted Extensions, see the README and html files in the ExtraValue/Cobundled/tx directory.

Network Services Startup

This security enhancement is new in the Solaris Express 7/06 release.

Starting with this release, the generic installation has been changed. This change ensures that all network services, except ssh, are either disabled or restricted to respond to local requests only. The change to the generic installation also minimizes potential vulnerabilities that might be targeted by remote attackers.

Additionally, the network services startup feature enables customers to use only those services that they require. All of the affected services are controlled by the Service Management Framework (SMF). Any individual service can be enabled using the sycadm and syccfg commands. The netservices command can be used to switch the service startup behavior.

Gnome 2.14

This desktop tools enhancement is new in the Solaris Express 7/06 release.

Starting with this release, the Java DS includes the new Gnome 2.14 desktop. The Gnome 2.14 desktop introduces new features and enhances the performance of many of the commonly used applications.

Evince PDF and PostScript Viewer

This desktop tools enhancement is new in the Solaris Express 7/06 release.

Starting with this release, the Evince PDF and PostScript Viewer has been added to the Java DS.

Firefox 1.5

This browser enhancement is new in the Solaris Express 7/06 release.

Starting with this release, Firefox 1.5 has been added to the Java DS and will now be the default browser.

Thunderbird 1.5

This email enhancement is new in the Solaris Express 7/06 Release.

Starting with this release, Thunderbird 1.5 has been added to the Java DS and will now be the default email client.

Note - The email client Evolution is still included in the Java DS.

Upgrading the Solaris OS When Non-Global Zones Are Installed

This installation enhancement is new in the Solaris Express 7/06 release.

The Solaris Zones feature provides the ability to configure non-global zones in a single instance of Solaris, the global zone. A non-global zone is an application execution environment in which processes are isolated from all other zones. If you are running a system with non-global zones installed, you can upgrade to the Solaris 7/06 release using, either the Solaris interactive installation program or custom JumpStart to upgrade. For details about using the Solaris interactive installation program, see the Solaris Express Installation Guide: Solaris Live Upgrade and Upgrade Planning. The process of upgrading with non-global zones installed has some limitations.

A limited number of custom JumpStart keywords is supported.
For a list of supported custom JumpStart keywords, see the Solaris Express Installation Guide: Custom JumpStart and Advanced Installations.
You must use the Solaris Operating System DVD or a DVD-created network installation image. You cannot use the Solaris Software CD media or a CD network installation image to upgrade a system.
For more information , see Installing With the Solaris Installation Program (Tasks), in Solaris Express Installation Guide: Basic Installations.
On a system with non-global zones installed, do not use Solaris Live Upgrade to upgrade your system. While you can create a boot environment with the lucreate command, the luupgrade command cannot upgrade a boot environment that has non-global zones installed. In that case, the upgrade fails and an error message is displayed.

The ZFS File System

The following file system enhancements are new in the Solaris Express 7/06 release.

ZFS Double Parity RAID - ZFS pools can be created using double parity RAID known as “raidz2”. Each raidz2 stripe within the pool can sustain up to two simultaneous failures without losing data.
For more information, see the zpool(1M) man page.
ZFS Clone Promotion - ZFS clones can be “promoted” to the active head of the original file system from which the snapshot was taken. The ZFS clone promotion feature enables the original file system and the snapshot to be deleted while preserving the clone as an active file system. In releases prior to Solaris Express 7/06, a snapshot could not be deleted while the clone still existed.
For more information, see the zfs(1M) man page.
ZFS Hot-Spare Support - ZFS supports the use of hot-spares within a pool. A device within a pool fails when it is removed from the system. The failed device will be automatically replaced by an available hot-spare. When the original failed device is usable again, the spare device is returned to the pool of available hot-spares.
For more information, see the zpool(1M) man page.

For more information about the ZFS file system, see ZFS Command Improvements and Changes.