Sun Microsystems has outlined improvements for version
10 of its Solaris operating system, part of its quarterly update of
new hardware and software products.
Among the new features is N1 Grid Containers, which allows users
to partition a server into multiple, independent computing
environments that share the same instance of Solaris, said Graham
Lovell, head of Solaris marketing. Sun has discussed the technology
before under other names.
Customers using Sun's high-end and midrange servers can already
partition servers physically, allowing them to run several
instances of Solaris on a single system. This lets them run
applications in discrete areas of a server for better performance
and security, but also requires them to maintain multiple versions
of Solaris on each system.
N1 Grid Containers will let customers partition a single
instance of Solaris into as many as 4,000 containers within a
server. Among other benefits, this should help them make more
efficient use of their processors because they will be able to run
several partitioned applications against one chip.
"Each of these containers behaves as an individual machine, with
its own IP address, its own discrete personality. You can subdivide
your server into 20, 30, 40 machines and have a web server running
in each," Lovell said.
Applications will also be more reliable because faults will be
isolated in each container. N1 Grid Containers also makes it easier
to allocate bandwidth and memory to individual applications when
there is a spike in demand.
Sun has not said whether it intended to increase the price of
Solaris with version 10.
However, Lowell said that Sun would not charge extra for
customers who run Solaris 10 on its new UltraSparc IV processor,
which will be released at about the same time as the OS upgrade and
effectively puts two processor cores on a single chip. As the
number of cores increases past eight or 16, "that's the time you
start to think about charging extra" for software, he said.
Solaris 10 should also be better at diagnosing and fixing
faults. A technology called DTrace aims to cut the time it takes to
pinpoint the cause of a performance problem, using some 30,000
probes scattered throughout the server.
Another technology, Predictive Self Healing, tracks memory
errors and other problems and tries to predict component failures
before they happen.
Meanwhile, Solaris Privileges allows an administrator restrict
an application to only the memory areas, input/output devices and
other server resources that it needs to operate. Preventing the
application from accessing other resources will help limit the
damage in the event of a problem such as corrupt data.
While Solaris 10 is not shipping yet, customers can download the
new technologies and begin using them through Sun's Software
Express subscription service. The program aims to encourage
customers to upgrade to the new OS by giving them a taste of what
is to come.
James Niccolai writes for IDG News
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