MovingToOpenSolaris

Session Title: Moving to OpenSolaris

Problem Statement: How do I get started with OpenSolaris?
Audience(s): All
Author: Gregg Sporar, Brian Leonard, Roman Strobl

Key Messages

Getting started with OpenSolaris is not hard. And there are some similarities (and some differences) to other operating systems that attendees have used.

You can either install OpenSolaris on bare metal or using Virtualization software such as VirtualBox.
We will look at the differences from other OSes in areas of user management and where is software installed.
Services are ready for critical deployment thanks to Service Management Facility (SMF).
You will learn how to get on onto the network and how to configure it.
Getting more software is easy thanks to the new Image Packaging System (IPS).
More, if time allows....

Abstract

You've heard some cool things about OpenSolaris, so how do you get started? This presentation will get you on your way quickly by answering the following questions:

Should you install OpenSolaris on the bare metal or in a virtual environment?
Why can't you log in as the root user?
How are system services managed?
What is Network Automagic?
Where is everything installed?
How do you install additional software?

Using a demo-driven approach we show you how easy it is to get up and running on OpenSolaris. To provide some context there are a few comparisons to other operating systems you might have used.

How do you get started using OpenSolaris? Is it better to run it on the bare metal or in a virtual environment? Where is everything installed? These are all easy questions to answer and this session uses a demo-driven approach to show you how to easily get up and running on OpenSolaris. To provide some context there are a few comparisons to other operating systems you might have used; the session includes details on how to:

Configure network access
Install software
Assign roles and access
Work with system services

Slides

Demo scripts

These are the demo scripts for this presentation. Use the demo prep checklist to make sure they go as smooth as possible.

Outline

#	Topic	Minutes	Demo	Speaker Notes	Comments
1	device detection utility	5	Quick demo	What drivers are available? And where? Talk about BigAdmin's HCL.... Show that the tool can be run from other operating systems via the Webstart version.	Discuss which hardware is the best to run OpenSolaris (Intel drivers, networking cards, video cards).
2	VirtualBox	5	Quick demo	If the support for your hardware is not adequate, not to worry... use VirtualBox. Stress how small the VirtualBox download is and how easily it installs, it's free, etc.	Start up OpenSolaris in VirtualBox - we will need it in future demos. Show basics of working with VirtualBox.
3	users & roles	5	System > Administration > Users and Groups and show the pfexec command in action	In Linux you have sudo, in Windows you have Administrator privileges, in OpenSolaris things are controlled via Role-Based Access Control (RBAC). RBAC has Authorizaions, Rights profiles, Roles, and Users. By default there is no root userid created when OpenSolaris is installed, but you can become root using su. And there is pfexec.	Also explain the user_attr file and the root role. Explain why /export/home is used instead of /home. Mention that sudo is coming with the 2008.11 release.
4	system services	10	Working with SMF	Describe SMF and compare to rc*.d approach.	Demo: listing services, starting & stopping, fault management (kill service and it will get restarted), finding process ID related to service, showing more info about a service, examining logs.
5	networking	10	Quick demo	Setting up a static IP address, wrangling with NWAM, ifconfig, browsing the network, NFS	http://blogs.sun.com/observatory/entry/having_nwam_under_control Also explain Solaris interfaces and working with ifconfig. Discuss future of NWAM. Service Discovery?
6	the directory tree	5	N/A	Where is everything installed? For Linux users, the adjustment is not too difficult....	Explaining this in enough detail for someone who is not at least somewhat familiar with Linux or Unix is out of scope, so audience members who only know Windows might get a bit overwhelmed. But the intent is to at a high-level explain http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/819-2252/filesystem-5?a=view. Include discussion of the automounter and /export/home here as well? Two additional excellent resources are http://www.cuddletech.com/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=562 and http://www.cuddletech.com/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=573. And finally: http://www.freeos.com/articles/3102/
7	install software	10	Search for an application using IPS, show the command to install it and how to query packages	There is a command line tool, and a GUI. Talk some about SVR4 and point out that there are lots of SVR4 packages out there, but the future is all about IPS.... Multiple repositories: pkg.opensolaris.org, contrib, pkg.sun.com, Blastwave, and SunFreeware	We need to find a suitable application to install - it needs to be small and without dependencies. Ideally show SMF once the package is installed. [Brian: I would suggest MySQL - it's popular and managed with SMF (and I don't think too big)]
8	printing	5	N/A	talk about the different options	Print Manager, LP Print Service, CUPS (not an option), Presto