Fwiw, you *can* get support from Sun for OpenSolaris in production environments now. Also I think the new 7000-series appliances are based on OpenSolaris.
Look at the feature sets of both releases and pick the one that's the best match. I know one admin who moved to OpenSolaris for his iSCSI filers due to a bug not yet fixed in 'regular' Solaris. On Apr 11, 2009, at 9:55 AM, Drew Tomlinson <drew at mykitchentable.net> wrote: > Bryan Allen wrote: >> +-- >> --- >> --- >> --- >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> | On 2009-04-10 21:02:32, Drew Tomlinson wrote: >> | >> | I'm a FreeBSD guy but somewhat recently began work at a Solaris >> shop. >> | We're running mostly Solaris 8 and 9 but even still have Solaris >> 6 & 7 >> | on some servers. Machines are not patched as they should be. >> Thus I'd >> | like to begin upgrading. >> | >> | I've fiddled with Solaris 10 a bit but find difficulty with the >> whole >> | package system for software and patches. Coming from FreeBSD, >> I'm used >> | to what its call a "ports" system which is basically a collection >> of >> | shell scripts that downloads source and then compiles. Compile >> time >> | options can be set so software is compiled with desired options. >> It >> | also pulls in and builds any dependencies. From an admin >> perspective, >> | all one has to do is type "portupgrade" with appropriate options >> and the >> | system takes care of the rest. >> >> Use NetBSD's pkgsrc. For the vast majority of non-GUI apps, you >> won't have a >> problem. >> >> I've been running a Solaris 10 shop for two years (migrating from >> Linux), and >> haven't run into a package I couldn't get built with pkgsrc on it. >> >> Update 6 has zfsroot, which makes Live Upgrade (and thus patching) >> much less of >> a doom. >> >> You also probably want to use Martin Paul's pca for patching >> purposes. >> > > Thanks for your reply. I'll Google these to learn more. Do you have > any suggestions for a good forum or mailing list where I can get > Solaris > 10 help? > >> | Thus I am interested in OpenSolaris and its IPS package system. It >> | appears that it provides similar function to package managers >> from the >> | Linux world such as rpm, yum, and apt-get. I am also encouraged >> by this >> | OpenSolaris help list to guide me along the way. I have not >> found any >> | such reliable list or forum for Solaris. >> | >> | So, is OpenSolaris a viable OS for a production shop? It would >> | basically host common unix services such as Apache, PHP, MySQL, >> Samba, >> | DNS, DHCP, LDAP, etc. Are SPARC and x86 processor support equally >> | stable? Thoughts, opinions, nudges to appropriate links, etc. all >> | appreciated. >> >> I would argue no. At the very least, not until the Automated >> Installer project >> gets more mature. Ditto sparse zones. Some other stuff. It depends >> on your >> expectations and requirements, but I'll be sticking with Solaris 10 >> for my >> production systems. >> > > I was afraid of this... :) > >> That said: The opensolaris.org infrastructure all runs on >> OpenSolaris (from >> what I understand); one of their people is giving a talk at OSCON >> this year >> about it. Could be interesting. >> > Thanks for your help. I really appreciate it! > > Drew > > -- > Be a Great Magician! > Visit The Alchemist's Warehouse > > http://www.alchemistswarehouse.com > > _______________________________________________ > opensolaris-help mailing list > opensolaris-help at opensolaris.org
