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Giving up on Linux and adopting Solaris for 'serious' server applications
Hi Guys and Gals,
I've just about had it with all Linux distros with inconsistencies and
competing technologies that nothing gets implemented completely.
Henceforth, I'm adopting Solaris as the operating system for my
Oracle installation. It's only a small installation for learning and
coding on a Dell 3060.
I have several questions about the installation of the operating
system:
1) Does / How-does - Solaris manage SSD drives. I'm guessing
it's advanced enough to handle this technology but I've not been
able to find any documentation regarding this?
2) Trim / Discard - Assuming Solaris runs on SSD's, does Solaris
handle the equivalant of the discard/trim function automatically or
is it a case of manually launching the command as in Linux via a
cron job?
3) I've read about UFS and ZFS and I don't think I have the resources
or hardware setup to implement ZFS. Does Solaris still support UFS?
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thank in advance.
Best Answers
-
1) It does. A lot of people use SSDs for storage when IOPS are important. Often, SSDs are used as Caches (e.g. ZIL or L2ARC) for ZFS storages.
2) Regarding TRIM/UNSET, see: https://support.oracle.com/knowledge/Sun%20Microsystems/2053431_1.html
3) ZFS is absolutely great and it has been the default FS in Solaris 11.x for a few years. The system boots from ZFS. Though, it does still support UFS: https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E37838_01/pdf/E61016.pdf
-
While attempting to adopt Solaris 11.4 is admirable, you are a little too late at this stage of the Solaris lifecycle. Having no support contract will be your primary obstacle in that you won't be able to keep your installation updated. Another inhibitor is that the community has vanished and it will be difficult to find like-minded Solaris users that you can share experiences with. Finally, it may not matter to you, but experience with the Penguin will be much more valuable on your resume/CV than Solaris these days. Even Oracle recently promoted Linux as their #1 OS internally and that Oracle RDBMS runs best on it. It's still fun to kick the tires on Solaris, perhaps on Virtual Box, but anything longer-term than that would not be pragmatic in 2020. I wish you could have been around for the couple of golden years of OpenSolaris ~2008, to experience the worldwide enthusiasm that was. Good luck.
Answers
-
1) It does. A lot of people use SSDs for storage when IOPS are important. Often, SSDs are used as Caches (e.g. ZIL or L2ARC) for ZFS storages.
2) Regarding TRIM/UNSET, see: https://support.oracle.com/knowledge/Sun%20Microsystems/2053431_1.html
3) ZFS is absolutely great and it has been the default FS in Solaris 11.x for a few years. The system boots from ZFS. Though, it does still support UFS: https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E37838_01/pdf/E61016.pdf
-
Sounds like the desired server application is a storage device . DAS or NAS , in mixed a environment of clients ,Solaris 11 fits excellent . But a major drawback - the license price barely justify just a file server role in S&M business area .
Solaris 11.4 Essentials is needed :-) !
-
Thanks Guys!
I think I'm heading at least in the right direction with Solaris instead of Linux!
I seem to be having an install issue with the 11.4 ISO and USB images. I've tried
'burning' the image to USB flash drive and DVD disc but seem to get the same error
message relating to GRUB, the error message is as follows:
error: couldn't terminate EFI services
failed to boot default and fall back entries
I've done some searching but nothing specific to Oracle or Solaris materialises.
The poster did suggest that a GRUB config file needed to be altered!?
The system I'm trying to install Solaris on is a Dell 3060 Micro with 32GB of non
ECC RAM and 2 SSD's of 256GB each. I reset the BIOS to factory default and
upgraded the firmware to the latest about a month ago via Orace Linux.
Although the system is not supported by Oracle Solaris it was supported by
Oracle Database / Oracle Linux 7.4 and I believe it does meet minimum
requirements.
Any nudge in the right direction to solve the Grub issue would be much
appreciated or I may have to go back to Linux (head-smack-emoji).
Thanks.
-
Assuming there is nothing wrong with your write to USB or DVD method. I'd suggest BIOS settings. Not sure which ones, but something around UEFI/Legacy ?
IIRC I had to tweak a setting on my SuperMicro motherboard.
-
-
I'd also suggest looking for UEFI and legacy boot settings in the mainboard's BIOS setup.
-
-
Phew!
That worked guys. Apparently 'Legacy' mode is for booting from external devices on a Dell.
Changed the following in the BIOS setup:
General -> Boot Sequence -> Legacy External Devices = enable via radio button
General -> Advanced Boot Options -> Enable Legacy Option ROM = enable via check box
General -> Advanced Boot Options -> Enable Attempt Legacy Boot = enable via check box
and make sure that:
Secure Boot -> Secure Boot Enable -> Secure Boot Enable = disable via check box
Now I seem to be proceeding through the boot process but now I have new problems.
The boot process hangs on the initial:
SunOS...
Copyright...
screen
I've search the net and found this page in the Oracle Documentation:
https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E26502_01/html/E28983/glyas.html
that describes all the additional parameters for the Kernal Arguments...
So... I edited the GRUB commands before booting line, specifically this line:
$multiboot $kern $kern
and changed it to:
$multiboot $kern $kern -k -v
and a whole list of process scrolled down the screen and stopped at the
following line before freezing:
...
ramdisk0 at root
ramdisk0 is /ramdisk
root on /ramdisk:a fstype ufs
and it freezes at this point!
Any guidance would be appreciated.
Thanks.
-
Have you found the following hint, yet?
https://manatails.net/blog/2018/10/fix-freezing-solaris-kernel-on-boot/
-
Just as a quick side node, since Steffen's link seems as it will/could solve your issue.
This is the latest Solaris 11.4 version of the doc you used for the kernel arguments:
https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E37838_01/html/E60978/glyas.html#scrolltocCheers