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NAS OpenSolaris ZFS

Decisions, decisions…

So in my idle moments, I wonder whether it is time to upgrade my stable but not quite satisfying OpenSolaris NAS box from its current Nevada Build 76.

For some reason, I just downloaded SXCE Build 91 even though I had only ever contemplated moving over to OpenSolaris 2008.05.  The only real benefit of SXCE 91 would be that I know I can continue to install and run it in headless mode (i.e. serial console), since I’ve already been through that with 76.  Plus maybe a few bug fixes since 2008.05 was rolled out.  Otherwise it seems a dead-end, and the upgrade will be painful since I’m not familiar setup for Live Upgrade (Live Update?).

The Linux-isms in OpenSolaris, as well as a ZFS root file system (since I’m still no where near booting from flash yet) would be a real boon.  I’m just not sure whether I’ll have to install a graphics card in the box just to do the install, then disable X and GDM and/or tweak the grub menu as I did earlier:

$ diff menu.lst menu.lst.orig
8c8
< timeout 5

> timeout 10
14,15c14,15
< serial –unit=0 –speed=9600
< terminal serial

> # serial –unit=0 –speed=9600
> # terminal serial
18c18
< # splashimage /boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

> splashimage /boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
49,50c49,50
< title Serial Solaris Express Community Edition snv_76 X86
< kernel$ /platform/i86pc/kernel/$ISADIR/unix -B console=ttya

> title Solaris Express Community Edition snv_76 X86
> kernel$ /platform/i86pc/kernel/$ISADIR/unix

 

Either way, I’m looking forward to the integrated CIFS server, since my Samba config has never been satisfactory and I’m down to pure SSH / SCP / SFTP access at the moment, which is a pain at times, although WinSCP and CyberDuck make access from Windows and Mac fairly nice.

 

 

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