Update to Oracle Solaris 10 Focuses on ZFS File System

Oracle has released Solaris 10 8/11, an update to the Solaris 10 operating system, designed to improve Oracle Solaris ZFS and Live Upgrade technologies, support the latest SPARC and x86 systems, and improve the performance of Oracle Database 11g.

Many of the new features included in this update focus on support for the Oracle Solaris file system, ZFS, with the goal of easing the transition from UFS-based system disks to Oracle Solaris ZFS, which Oracle touts as providing better management, data integrity, and built-in data services. Oracle Solaris Live Upgrade has also been improved to support system maintenance on ZFS-based file systems.

Features new to this version of Solaris include:

  • Support for installation from a ZFS flash archive (flars);
  • Support for system upgrades from a ZFS root flash archive using Oracle Solaris Live Upgrade;
  • Support for migration from a UFS or ZFS boot environment to a ZFS boot environment with a separate /var file system, also through Oracle Solaris Live Upgrade;
  • ZFS "diff" command to list the differences between two ZFS snapshots;
  • Ability to import a pool with a missing log or import a pool in read-only mode, which enables greater flexibility in recovering from errors;
  • Option to bypass the power-on self test (POST) to speed up reboot on SPARC systems;
  • Support for diskset import through the metaimport command when running an Oracle Solaris Cluster configuration;
  • Faster startup and shutdown of Oracle Database when using Oracle Solaris Intimate Shared Memory (ISM); and
  • ZFS performance improvements, including improved sequential read/write I/O improvements.

Oracle Solaris 10 8/11 is available now. Further information can be found at oracle.com.

About the Author

Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • student reading a book with a brain, a protective hand, a computer monitor showing education icons, gears, and leaves

    4 Steps to Responsible AI Implementation

    Researchers at the University of Kansas Center for Innovation, Design & Digital Learning (CIDDL) have published a new framework for the responsible implementation of artificial intelligence at all levels of education.

  • glowing digital brain interacts with an open book, with stacks of books beside it

    Federal Court Rules AI Training with Copyrighted Books Fair Use

    A federal judge ruled this week that artificial intelligence company Anthropic did not violate copyright law when it used copyrighted books to train its Claude chatbot without author consent, but ordered the company to face trial on allegations it used pirated versions of the books.

  • server racks, a human head with a microchip, data pipes, cloud storage, and analytical symbols

    OpenAI, Oracle Expand AI Infrastructure Partnership

    OpenAI and Oracle have announced they will develop an additional 4.5 gigawatts of data center capacity, expanding their artificial intelligence infrastructure partnership as part of the Stargate Project, a joint venture among OpenAI, Oracle, and Japan's SoftBank Group that aims to deploy 10 gigawatts of computing capacity over four years.

  • laptop displaying a phishing email icon inside a browser window on the screen

    Phishing Campaign Targets ED Grant Portal

    Threat researchers at cybersecurity company BforeAI have identified a phishing campaign spoofing the U.S. Department of Education's G5 grant management portal.