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Running Linux on Solaris

Virtualization is a big trend in computing right now and Solaris offers some very nice options of its own. One of these features is zones and branded zones which allow non-native operating systems to be installed into a container, this is similar to other technologies like OpenVZ and linux-vserver but zones add the power of ZFS as well.

I started reading the excellent article on Blastwave about setting up zones in Solaris 10 and within an hour I had everything finished with a Linux branded zone running CentOS 3.9. Here's a quick run down on how to accomplish this.

First create a file system to contain your zones:

zfs create -o mountpoint=/zone rpool/zone

After this is done you need to create the zone and install it, these are two separate processes.

zonecfg -z lx-zone

lx-zone: No such zone configured
Use 'create' to begin configuring a new zone.
zonecfg:zone1> create
zonecfg:zone1> set zonepath=/zone/1
zonecfg:zone1> set autoboot=true
zonecfg:zone1> set brand=lx
zonecfg:zone1> add net
zonecfg:zone1:net> set address=192.168.35.210/24
zonecfg:zone1:net> set physical=hme1
zonecfg:zone1:net> end
zonecfg:zone1> verify
zonecfg:zone1> commit
zonecfg:zone1> ^D

For the install you will need the iso images or a tar ball of a file system, you also need to create a new distro file as Solaris only goes up to CentOS 3.8 right now.

wget http://mirrors.example.com/CentOS/3.9/isos/i386/CentOS-3.9-i386-bin1of3.iso
wget http://mirrors.example.com/CentOS/3.9/isos/i386/CentOS-3.9-i386-bin2of3.iso
wget http://mirrors.example.com/CentOS/3.9/isos/i386/CentOS-3.9-i386-bin3of3.iso

cd /usr/lib/brand/lx/distros/
cp centos38.distro centos39.distro

Edit this file and change the serial to "1183469235.99" and the version to "3.9"

Now install the OS

zoneadm -z lx-zone install -d /export/centos_3.9/ core

Check the results:

bash-2.05b# zoneadm list -vc
  ID NAME             STATUS         PATH
   0 global           running        /
   - lx-zone          installed      /zone/1

The STATUS is now "installed".

Boot the environment:

bash-2.05b# zoneadm -z lx-zone boot
bash-2.05b# zoneadm list -vc
  ID NAME             STATUS         PATH
   0 global           running        /
   2 lx-zone          running        /zone/1


bash-2.05b# ping 192.168.35.210
192.168.35.210 is alive

Now you can access the zone using zlogin:

# zlogin -C -e\@ lx-zone

[Connected to zone 'lx-zone' console]

CentOS release 3.9 (Final)
Kernel 2.4.21 on an i686

lx-zone login:

-bash-2.05b# uname -a
Linux lx-zone 2.4.21 BrandZ fake linux i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

As you can see zones are very powerful and allow a system to be divided up as you see fit. Each zone is completely isolated from the others and has its own cpu limits, process lists, network stack, etc. Even if a zone is completely wiped out it will not affect your global zone.