Network Management

Abstract:

Packaging has long been the basis of modern Operating Systems, dating back to AT&T System V. Solaris adopted SVR4 packaging, when Sun Microsystems started growing from an Operating System needing a compiler to a production Operating System to be deployed. SVR4 Packaging was originally based upon the concept of a Stream (recorded upon Sequential Block infrastructures likes Tape) or a Tree (recorded Random Block infrastructures like Disk.) Sun Microsystems was astutely aware that "http" protocol was not much different from a "tape", where a stream of data was pulled down, and they upgraded SVR4 to support HTTP repositories with encryption and license keys. Somewhere along the way, Sun lost their way, and created a proprietary packaging system with fewer capabilities, called IPS, based upon the new command "pkg"... but Oracle is making the best of it.

The "pkg" Repository

The concept of a Package Repository with the Image Packaging System was introduced with OpenSolaris. The repository would be served up through a web server and secured with certificates.

Oracle pkg Repositories

Checking Repository

Management through Ops Center

The operating systems managed through Ops Center can be patched remotely or can be patched through the command line, using Ops Center server as the supported package repository.

Conclusions

While the detour that Sun Microsystems took, taking packaging back a couple decades, Oracle started to make the best of it. With the release of Ops Center, to manage the Solaris cloud components to automatically configure the pkg components and provide a continuous feed of packages for their Operating System and Firmware, Oracle has been making some sweet lemonade from their lemons.

Posted by David at 12:15 AM No comments:

Labels: pkg, Solaris, Solaris 11, Solaris 11.2, SVR4, UNIX

Abstract:

Virtualization has been available in the UNIX OS world. The creation of users in a time sharing environment, to isolate executable threads from one another as well as protect files in an underlying file system started the journey. The creation of the Virtual File System, where disks could me mounted anywhere in a file system tree (instead of drive letter) revolutionized computing to allow those systems to grow in the shared environment! The creation of "chroot" so an application could run in it's own file system space, made an application "feel" like it is on a dedicated system. The merging of SVR4 into Solaris created a robust multi-processor infrastructure to host multi-user and multi-tenant systems. The creation of Zones under SVR4 Solaris 10, further extrapolated the original concepts of the UNIX "chroot", isolating CPU, Memory, Users, Storage - effectively making a single instance of the Solaris OS truly multi-tenant. The creation of Branded Zones for Linux and Solaris came later, offering entire operating systems to be encapsulated under Intel and SPARC Solaris systems. Newer proprietary technologies continue to enter the horizon.

[Oracle Linux, courtesy Oracle]

The Linux Problem

People participating in the Linux ecosystem are interested in creating new raw environments, isolated to their operating system under proprietary Intel processors, to supply a reasonable replacement for mature infrastructure. These replacements constitute very long efforts, which often never really get completed. Veterans understand the benefit of good engineering and can often take systems "to the next level." Vendors like Oracle had taken Linux, ran their applications on top of it, and supplied the patches necessary to keep Linux stable.

Joyent: Zones(KVM and Linux)

Former employees of Sun Microsystems continue to do the heavy lifting in the industry. Network Management wrote about Joyent's efforts to port KVM into Solaris Zones under their SmartOS, based upon Illumos. Illumos originated from Sun Microsystem's OpenSolaris project (which became the basis of Oracle's Solaris 11.)

Joyent: Zones(Docker and Linux)

One might expect that Cloud companies who are obsessed with Virtualization like Joyent would continue their quest for a "better cloud". In 2015, Joyent released a presentation on the porting of Docker to encapsulate Linux into a Zone... using the same SmartOS based upon Illumos, which found it's roots in Sun Microsystem's OpenSolaris.

[フレーム]

Conclusion

Posted by David at 3:03 PM No comments:

Labels: Docker, Illumos, Joyent, KVM, OpenSolaris, Solaris, SVR4, UNIX, Zones

Comparing Packages Beteen Plataforms

Abstract:
When working in a clustered environment, it is often a requirement to see if the appropriate packages have been installed on all platforms in the cluster. The number of packages on a platform are many, but a simple script can be helpful.

Packaging Technology:
The industry standard packaging for UNIX systems is UNIX SVR4 packaging. Standard tools for packaging include: pkgadd, pkginfo, pkgtrans, pkgrm, pkgmk, pkgchk, pkgparam, pkgproto, pkgadm.

A long utput from the pkginfo command follows:

sun9/user$ pkginfo -l HPNP 

 PKGINST: HPNP
 NAME: JetAdmin for Unix
 CATEGORY: application
 ARCH: sparc
 VERSION: D.06.15
 BASEDIR: /
 VENDOR: HP
 DESC: HP Network Printer support package
 PSTAMP: odybld3981208144215
 INSTDATE: Aug 12 2005 08:50
 STATUS: completely installed
 FILES: 348 installed pathnames
 6 shared pathnames
 32 directories
 238 executables
 13353 blocks used (approx)

For a cursory view of a system, the pkginfo command provides basic information required for cursory consistency checks.

Simple Check:
If the identical install media is used, a simple post-install check may be desired across multiple platforms in a cluster. An sample script follows where sun1, sun2, sun3, sun4 are located on a network where temporary directories are shared via NFS and automounting is enabled.

sun1/user$ pkginfo>/net/sun4/tmp/sun1.packages
sun2/user$ pkginfo>/net/sun4/tmp/sun2.packages
sun3/user$ pkginfo>/net/sun4/tmp/sun3.packages
sun4/user$ cd /tmp

sun4/user$ nawk ' BEGIN { Pattern="%35s%35s%35s%35s\n" }
FILENAME=="sun1.packages" { sun1[2ドル]=2ドル ; Name[2ドル]=2ドル }
FILENAME=="sun2.packages" { sun2[2ドル]=2ドル ; Name[2ドル]=2ドル }
FILENAME=="sun3.packages" { sun3[2ドル]=2ドル ; Name[2ドル]=2ドル }
 END {
printf Pattern,"Common","sun1","sun2","sun3"
 for ( i in Name ) printf Pattern,i,sun1[i],sun2[i],sun3[i]
}' *.packages sort nawk 'NF<4' 

A simple output of 4 columns is produced, with differences.

 SMCdb SMCdb SMCdb 
 SMCtk SMCtk SMCtk 
 SFWatk SFWatk SFWatk 
 SMCgcc SMCgcc SMCgcc 
 SMCtcl SMCtcl SMCtcl 
 SMCxpm SMCxpm SMCxpm 
 SUNWdc SUNWdc SUNWdc 
 SUNWus SUNWus
 TSIpgx TSIpgx
 SFWdbus SFWdbus SFWdbus 
 SFWgtk2 SFWgtk2 SFWgtk2 
 SMCgdbm SMCgdbm SMCgdbm 
 SMCntop SMCntop SMCntop 
 SMCossl SMCossl SMCossl 
 SMCpcre SMCpcre SMCpcre 
 SMCrrdt SMCrrdt SMCrrdt 
 SMEvplr SMEvplr
 SMEvplu SMEvplu
 SUNWaac SUNWaac
 SUNWafb SUNWafb
 SUNWbdb SUNWbdb
...

Versioning and Integrity Checks:

In order to test for proper versions and package integrity, there are other commands which can be leveraged:

• pkgchk
  Check detailed integrity of files associated with packages, including existence, permissions, etc.
  
• pkginfo -l
  Check versioning, architecture, dates, install integrity, etc.

The package checking script can be enhanced with such scripts for more robust checking.

Posted by David at 2:02 PM No comments:

Labels: pkgadd, pkgadm, pkgchk, pkginfo, pkgmk, pkgparam, pkgproto, pkgrm, pkgtrans, SVR4, UNIX