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This is a topic that I would love to see brought up more, and I think there is a lot Linux can learn from Solaris. As someone who was only exposed to Solaris i

by sharms 13y ago

This is a topic that I would love to see brought up more, and I think there is a lot Linux can learn from Solaris. As someone who was only exposed to Solaris in the last 4 years (using Linux since '96), I have become increasingly interested in the seemingly unimportant features which have been incredibly useful. Zones have a distinct maturity and robustness over LxC (to be expected), ZFS is the filesystem I wish we could have, dtrace isn't a bolt-on etc. It would be nice to see it fully open-sourced again as I think the one thing it has working against it is a smaller community and it lacks the same size army of driver authors.

rasur 13y ago
You'll be wanting to have a look at IllumOS then, methinks
freiheit 13y ago
There are a couple different ZFS ports for linux available. Native and FUSE. There are some linux distributions which include ZFS and can even do a ZFS root fs.
- bashinator 13y ago
  I've run into severe problems with using the NFS provided by native ZFS on linux - it tends to completely die under load.
bcantrill 13y ago
As rasur mentions, illumos has inherited the Solaris heritage -- and added quite a bit to it besides.[1][2] There are now several vibrant variants of illumos, including SmartOS[3][4], OmniOS[5][6] and DelphixOS[7] -- all of which are open source, and all of which feature advancements in the core differentiators of the system including ZFS, DTrace and zones. Because we collectively have been entirely separate from our Solaris legacy for over three years now (and because we are entirely open source where Solaris is entirely closed source), the differences are actually substantial -- and I don't really think of our system as "Solaris" any more than I think of it as "System V" or "7th Edition" or anything else in our long and complicated ancestry... [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zRN7XLCRhc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zRN7XLCRhc [2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YN6_eRIWWc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YN6_eRIWWc [3] http://smartos.org/ http://smartos.org/ [4] https://github.com/joyent/illumos-joyent https://github.com/joyent/illumos-joyent [5] http://omnios.omniti.com/ http://omnios.omniti.com/ [6] http://omnios.omniti.com/browse.php http://omnios.omniti.com/browse.php [7] https://github.com/delphix/delphix-os https://github.com/delphix/delphix-os
- angersock 13y ago
  So, to a newcomer, what are the things that these flavors offer over, say, stock Debian?
  - nosequel 13y ago
    Try reading the linked slide deck for a start. ZFS, Zones, DTrace, Crossbow, etc., etc.
  - thelambentonion 13y ago
    While I haven't had a chance to use illumos in any of my projects, the Service Management Facility (SMF)[0] and Fault Manager Daemon (FMD)[1] are two big reasons why I'm looking at switching from FreeBSD to an illumos variant for my home server. It's been a little while since I've used Debian, but I don't believe any systems comparable to SMF or FMD have been implemented[2]. [0] https://www.illumos.org/man/5/smf https://www.illumos.org/man/5/smf [1] https://www.illumos.org/man/1M/fmd https://www.illumos.org/man/1M/fmd [2] I'm not sure how well systemd compares to SMF, and I'm mostly interested in FMD/SMF due to how well it can handle ZFS fault management.
- lmm 13y ago
  Have any of the open-source variants implemented ZFS encryption yet?
  - ketralnis 13y ago
    Not directly (Sun open sourced v28, but encryption shows up in v30), but there are other solutions to that problem. e.g. FreeBSD has geom_eli which can happily underly ZFS or any other filesystem (http://www5.us.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/disks-encrypting.html http://www5.us.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/disks-encrypting.htm...)
pjmlp 13y ago
Yeah, many GNU/Linux users tend to think UNIX == GNU/Linux, which couldn't be further from the truth. Beyond the basic POSIX compatibility, there are lots of differences across UNIX systems, each has their plus and minus points.

by sharms 13y ago

rasur 13y ago

You'll be wanting to have a look at IllumOS then, methinks

freiheit 13y ago

There are a couple different ZFS ports for linux available. Native and FUSE. There are some linux distributions which include ZFS and can even do a ZFS root fs.

bashinator 13y ago
I've run into severe problems with using the NFS provided by native ZFS on linux - it tends to completely die under load.

bcantrill 13y ago

As rasur mentions, illumos has inherited the Solaris heritage -- and added quite a bit to it besides.[1][2] There are now several vibrant variants of illumos, including SmartOS[3][4], OmniOS[5][6] and DelphixOS[7] -- all of which are open source, and all of which feature advancements in the core differentiators of the system including ZFS, DTrace and zones. Because we collectively have been entirely separate from our Solaris legacy for over three years now (and because we are entirely open source where Solaris is entirely closed source), the differences are actually substantial -- and I don't really think of our system as "Solaris" any more than I think of it as "System V" or "7th Edition" or anything else in our long and complicated ancestry... [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zRN7XLCRhc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zRN7XLCRhc [2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YN6_eRIWWc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YN6_eRIWWc [3] http://smartos.org/ http://smartos.org/ [4] https://github.com/joyent/illumos-joyent https://github.com/joyent/illumos-joyent [5] http://omnios.omniti.com/ http://omnios.omniti.com/ [6] http://omnios.omniti.com/browse.php http://omnios.omniti.com/browse.php [7] https://github.com/delphix/delphix-os https://github.com/delphix/delphix-os

angersock 13y ago
So, to a newcomer, what are the things that these flavors offer over, say, stock Debian?
- nosequel 13y ago
  Try reading the linked slide deck for a start. ZFS, Zones, DTrace, Crossbow, etc., etc.
- thelambentonion 13y ago
  While I haven't had a chance to use illumos in any of my projects, the Service Management Facility (SMF)[0] and Fault Manager Daemon (FMD)[1] are two big reasons why I'm looking at switching from FreeBSD to an illumos variant for my home server. It's been a little while since I've used Debian, but I don't believe any systems comparable to SMF or FMD have been implemented[2]. [0] https://www.illumos.org/man/5/smf https://www.illumos.org/man/5/smf [1] https://www.illumos.org/man/1M/fmd https://www.illumos.org/man/1M/fmd [2] I'm not sure how well systemd compares to SMF, and I'm mostly interested in FMD/SMF due to how well it can handle ZFS fault management.
lmm 13y ago
Have any of the open-source variants implemented ZFS encryption yet?
- ketralnis 13y ago
  Not directly (Sun open sourced v28, but encryption shows up in v30), but there are other solutions to that problem. e.g. FreeBSD has geom_eli which can happily underly ZFS or any other filesystem (http://www5.us.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/disks-encrypting.html http://www5.us.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/disks-encrypting.htm...)

pjmlp 13y ago

Yeah, many GNU/Linux users tend to think UNIX == GNU/Linux, which couldn't be further from the truth. Beyond the basic POSIX compatibility, there are lots of differences across UNIX systems, each has their plus and minus points.