Gotchas when migrating from Samba to Oracle Solaris 11 SMB Server

I am in the middle of migrating "Oracle Solaris 11 non-global zone running Samba" to an "Oracle Solaris 11 kernel zone running SMB server".
This blog isn't going to explain why you want to move and/or advantages/disadvantages, but I may get to do that at a later date. It is he to warn you about some things which you may not be aware of.

How to copy a file from Solaris Global Zone to a Kernel Zone without a network

I posted this Tweet on twitter a while ago

Damn wish there was a way to copy a file from #Solaris global zone to a kernel zone with out going over network.

and Darren Moffat pointed out a /system/shared which is read only from the zone but is writeable from the global zone. Here is a quick example:

Hoy to copy a file from Solaris Global Zone to a Kernel Zone without a network

I posted this Tweet on twitter a while ago

Damn wish there was a way to copy a file from #Solaris global zone to a kernel zone with out going over network.

and Darren Moffat pointed out a /system/shared which is read only from the zone but is writeable from the global zone.

solaris-kz# ls /system/shared/
solaris-kz# touch /system/shared/ReadOnly
touch: cannot create /system/shared/ReadOnly: Read-only file system
solaris-kz# df /system/shared/
/system/shared     (/dev/kz/sdir/shared@0):296322344 blocks 28136253 files

global-zone# zoneadm list -vc
  ID NAME        STATUS   PATH  BRAND      IP   
   0 global      running  /     solaris    shared
   1 solaris-kz  running  -     solaris-kz excl 

global-zone# ls /system/volatile/zones/solaris-kz/zonepath/root/shared/
global-zone# touch /system/volatile/zones/mysqlsrv/zonepath/root/shared/myfile   

solaris-kz# ls /system/shared/
myfile

Compile GEOS geometry library on Solaris 11 using Oracle Developer Studio 12.5

This is a follow on from my posts about installing PostGIS in those posts I used GNU compilers, but I have managed to get parts to compile with Developer Studio 12.5.

If you are looking for the GNU version then it is here: Compile PostgreGIS (GEOS geometry library) on Solaris 11 (11.3) using gcc

Compile Proj4 reprojection library on Solaris 11 using Oracle Developer Studio 12.5

This is a follow on from my posts about installing PostGIS in those posts I used GNU compilers, but I have managed to get parts to compile with Developer Studio 12.5.

If you are looking for the GNU version then it is here: Compile PostgreGIS (Proj4 reprojection library) on Solaris 11 (11.3) using gcc

Install PostGIS on Solaris 11 (11.3)

I said I would install PostGIS for a student project but I wish I never said yes, since it has taken over a week to compile it.

As you may guess there are not many working instruction out in the wild!

I will break down this step-by-step guide into different blogs entries otherwise it will get very long.

• Compile PostgreSQL on Solaris 11 (11.3)
• Proj4 reprojection library (GNU compilers)  or (Developer Studio 12.5) 
• GEOS geometry library (GNU compilers) or (Developer Studio 12.5)
• GDAL

I had to compile all software using GCC since Solaris Studio gave to many problems:

Compile PostgreGIS (GDAL) on Solaris 11 (11.3)

Before you install PostGIS you will need to install some of the requirements.

GDAL. is a translator library for raster and vector geospatial data format.

Compile PostgreGIS (GEOS geometry library) on Solaris 11 (11.3)

Before you install PostGIS you will need to install some of the requirements.

GEOS geometry library, version 3.3 or greater, but GEOS 3.5+ is recommended to take full advantage of all the new functions and features.

Compile PostgreGIS (Proj4 reprojection library) on Solaris 11 (11.3)

Before you install PostGIS you will need to install some of the requirements.

Proj4 reprojection library is used to provide coordinate reprojection support within PostGIS.

Compile PostgreSQL on Solaris 11 (11.3)

I know PostgreSQL is available as a binary from http://www.postgresql.org and to be honest I have always used it but just in case you need to go down the PostGIS route then you may need to recompile it.

References: PostgreSQL 9.5.3 Documentation

# pkg install developer/gcc-45 build/gnu-make
# export PATH=/usr/gcc/4.5/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/sfw/bin:/usr/lib:/usr/gnu/bin:
# bzip2 -dc postgresql-9.5.3.tar.bz2 | tar xf -
# cd postgresql-9.5.3

Install PostgreSQL on Solaris 11 (11.3)

Here are some quick instruction on how to install PostgreSQL on Solaris 11.3.

• PostgreSQL 9.5: http://www.postgresql.org/

Add a user

At this time  postgres user exists on Solaris, so I am going to use that, but just in case then:

# groupadd -g 90 postgres
# useradd -u 90 -S files -s /usr/bin/pfksh -d / -g postgres postgres

# grep postgres /etc/passwd  /etc/group
/etc/passwd:postgres:x:90:90:PostgreSQL Reserved UID:/:/usr/bin/pfksh
/etc/group:postgres::90:

Setup

Convert Oracle Solaris 11.3 Native (Non-Global) Zone to a Kernel Zone

I think more and more people will start using Kernel Zone and I have a feeling that will soon be the only zone that Solaris will offer soon. So, I thought I would show how to convert a none-global zone into a kernel zone.

References:

• How to Get Started Creating Oracle Solaris Kernel Zones in Oracle Solaris 11 by Duncan Hardie
• Creating and Using Oracle Solaris Kernel Zones
• Creating and Using Oracle Solaris Zones