Solaris Zone features and configurations

Solaris Zones Features and Configurations

Features:
1. Virtualization – i.e. VMWare
2. Solaris Zones can host only instances of Solaris. Not other OSs.
3. Limit of 8192 zones per Solaris host
4. Primary zone(global) has access to ALL zones
5. Non-global zones, do NOT have access to other non-global zones
6. Default non-global zones derive packages from global zone
7. Program isolation – zone1(Apache), zone2(MySQL)
8. Provides ‘z’ commands to manage zones: zlogin, zonename, zoneadm, zonecfg

Features of GLOBAL zone
1. Solaris ALWAYS boots(cold/warm) to the global zone
2. Knows about ALL hardware devices attached to the system
3. Knows about ALL non-global zones

Features of NON-GLOBAL zones
1. Installed at a location on the filesystem of the GLOBAL zone ‘zone root path’ /export/home/zones/{zone1,

zone2,zone3,…}
2. Share packages with GLOBAL zone
3. Manage distinct hostname and tables files
4. Cannot communicate with other non-global zones by default. NIC must be used, which means, use standard network API(TCP)
5. GLOBAL zone admin. can delegate non-global zone administration

Zone Configuration

Use: zonecfg – to configure zones
Note: zonecfg can be run: interactively, non-interactively, command-file modes

Requirements for non-global zones:
1. hostname
2. zone root path. i.e. /export/home/zones/testzone1
3. IP address – bound to logical or physical interface

Zone Types:
1. Sparse Root Zones – share key files with global zone
2. Whole Root Zones – require more storage

Steps for configuring non-global zone:
1. mkdir /export/home/zones/testzone1 && chmod 700 /export/home/zones/testzone1
2. zonecfg -z testzone1
3. create
4. set zonepath=/export/home/zones/testzone1 – sets root of zone
5. add net ; set address=192.168.1.60
6. set physical=e1000g0
7. (optional) set autoboot=true – testzone1 will be started when system boots
8. (optional) add attr ; set name=comment; set type=string; set value=”TestZone1″
9. verify zone – verifies zone for errors
10. commit changes – commit
11. Zone Installation – zoneadm -z testzone1 install – places zone, ‘testzone1’ into ‘installed’ state. NOT ready for production
12. zoneadm -z testzone1 boot – boots the zone, changing its state

Zlogin – is used to login to zones
Note: each non-global zone maintains a console. Use ‘zlogin -C zonename’ after installing zone to complete zone configuration

Note: Zlogin permits login to non-global zone via the following:
1. Interactive – i.e. zlogin -l username zonename
2. Non-interactive – zlogin options command
3. Console mode – zlogin -C zonename
4. Safe mode – zlogin -S

zoneadm -z testzone1 reboot – reboots the zone
zlogin testzone1 shutdown