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:
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:
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.
