Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Solaris Start-Up Scripts. Reeeeemiiiiiiix.
Have you played with Solaris 10 yet? Is that a weird question? It's a strange time, my friend. The world seems so Linux crazy that I second-guess how much time I should be investing in learning other OS stuff, especially when even other operating systems, as different as they may be, seem to be adopting lots of Linux-isms, and striving for Linux compatibility.
Being a sysadmin, there's a constant fight inside my head about what to learn, what to put aside, what to investigate further, where to be shallow, where to be deep. I guess everybody struggles with that stuff, in every job, in every personal interest, responsibility, and creative pursuit... but when you're a system administrator, there's like this serve-and-protect vibe, and pride and sense of preparedness that comes in to play. I feel so bad when I get approached about a tool I know little about. I wanna choose tools that will serve me in as many situations as possible, and that will prepare me to learn new stuff, too. Sometimes, it seems like investing time and energy in Linux stuff is such a no-brainer, when it's so likely that it'll be applicable to non-Linux things, too.
I thought in Solaris 9, I saw signs of a Linux mind-meld, that Solaris was veering towards a similar administrative experience for both Linux and Solaris boxes. But with Solaris 10, there is no doubt that Solaris is feeling bold enough to be really different from previous versions of Solaris, and Linux.
A big example of this, is the SMF, a.k.a., the Service Management Facility. The SMF does a lot of work, and can manage a lot of stuff, but the most urgent thing about it is that it replaces "rc scripts," and the traditional way of checking on the status of any services run at boot. Phew!
When I get exposed to a new tool, I never feel immediate pressure to take advantage of its new features, but there's definitely pressure to learn the the new way of maintaing services that already exist. With SMF, Solaris 10 has given me both new toys that I look forward to playing with, and some kinda urgent homework. In some coming posts, I will look in more technical detail at how SMF has changed the boot process and service management, and how it can possibly improve things. For now, check out Sun's BigAdmin page on the SMF.
tags: solaris, unix, sysadmin, sun, linux,system administrator
Have you played with Solaris 10 yet? Is that a weird question? It's a strange time, my friend. The world seems so Linux crazy that I second-guess how much time I should be investing in learning other OS stuff, especially when even other operating systems, as different as they may be, seem to be adopting lots of Linux-isms, and striving for Linux compatibility.Being a sysadmin, there's a constant fight inside my head about what to learn, what to put aside, what to investigate further, where to be shallow, where to be deep. I guess everybody struggles with that stuff, in every job, in every personal interest, responsibility, and creative pursuit... but when you're a system administrator, there's like this serve-and-protect vibe, and pride and sense of preparedness that comes in to play. I feel so bad when I get approached about a tool I know little about. I wanna choose tools that will serve me in as many situations as possible, and that will prepare me to learn new stuff, too. Sometimes, it seems like investing time and energy in Linux stuff is such a no-brainer, when it's so likely that it'll be applicable to non-Linux things, too.
I thought in Solaris 9, I saw signs of a Linux mind-meld, that Solaris was veering towards a similar administrative experience for both Linux and Solaris boxes. But with Solaris 10, there is no doubt that Solaris is feeling bold enough to be really different from previous versions of Solaris, and Linux.
A big example of this, is the SMF, a.k.a., the Service Management Facility. The SMF does a lot of work, and can manage a lot of stuff, but the most urgent thing about it is that it replaces "rc scripts," and the traditional way of checking on the status of any services run at boot. Phew!
When I get exposed to a new tool, I never feel immediate pressure to take advantage of its new features, but there's definitely pressure to learn the the new way of maintaing services that already exist. With SMF, Solaris 10 has given me both new toys that I look forward to playing with, and some kinda urgent homework. In some coming posts, I will look in more technical detail at how SMF has changed the boot process and service management, and how it can possibly improve things. For now, check out Sun's BigAdmin page on the SMF.
tags: solaris, unix, sysadmin, sun, linux,system administrator
