OpenSolaris for System z: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 06:52, 6 March 2009

Revision as of 10:12, 30 March 2009

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At the [[Gartner]] Data Center Conference in [[Las Vegas, Nevada]] in late 2007, Sine Nomine demonstrated OpenSolaris running on IBM System z under [[z/VM]]. It was there that David Boyes of Sine Nomine stated that OpenSolaris for System z would be available "soon."<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma0XPN2z6Qc&feature=related Open Solaris on System Z demo part III], YouTube Video</ref>

At the [[SHARE]] conference on [[August 13]], [[2008]], Neale Ferguson of Sine Nomine Associates presented an update on the progress of OpenSolaris for System z. This presentation included a working demonstration of OpenSolaris for System z. During this presentation he stated that while OpenSolaris is "not ready for prime-time" they hoped to have a version available to the public for testing "in a matter of weeks rather than months."<ref name="Share2008">{{Citation |first = Neale |last = Ferguson |title = OpenSolaris on System z |year = 2008 |place = SHARE Summer 2008, San Jose, CA }}</ref>

In October, 2008, Sine Nomine Associates released the first "prototype" (it lacks a number of features such as [[DTrace]], [[Solaris Containers]] and the ability to act as an [[Network File System (protocol)|NFS]] server) of OpenSolaris for System z to the public.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mainframe.typepad.com/blog/2008/10/opensolaris-for.html |first=Timothy |last=Sipples |title=OpenSolaris for System z Now Available |date=2008-10-16 |accessdate=2008-10-16}}</ref> OpenSolaris for System z has a project page at OpenSolaris.org.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/systemz/ |title=OpenSolaris Project: Systemz |accessdate=2008-10-17}}</ref> OpenSolaris for System z is available for download at no charge, and is governed by the same [[open source]] license terms as OpenSolaris for other platforms. All source code is available; there are no OCO (object code only) modules.

The port uses [[z/Architecture]] 64-bit addressing and therefore requires an [[IBM System z]] [[mainframe computers|mainframe]]. Because the port depends on recently defined z/Architecture processor instructions, it requires a [[System z9]] or later mainframe model and will not run on older machines. It also will not run on the [[Hercules emulator|Hercules]] mainframe emulator, although work is ongoing inside Hercules as of March 2009 to provide this capability. It also requires the [[paravirtualization]] features provided by [[z/VM]]; it will not run on "bare metal" or in a logical partition ([[LPAR]]) without the z/VM hypervisor at Version 5.3 level or later. Also, because OpenSolaris uses a new network DIAGNOSE instruction, PTF VM64466 or VM64471 must be applied to z/VM to provide support for that instruction.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://distribution.sinenomine.net/opensolaris/ |title=OpenSolaris for System z |accessdate=2008-10-16}}</ref> On [[November 18]], [[2008]], [[IBM]] authorized the use of [[Integrated Facility for Linux|IFL]] processors to run OpenSolaris for System z workloads.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca/5/897/ENUS108-875/ENUS108-875.PDF |title=Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL) authorization is expanded to include the OpenSolaris operating system |date=2008-11-18 |accessdate=2008-11-19 }}</ref>

== See also ==