Technical Articles and White Papers

August 2011 
HP-UX to Oracle Solaris Porting Guide 
This guide serves as a porting roadmap, providing insight into the issues and best practices to consider when porting applications from HP-UX 11i v3 to the Oracle Solaris 10 operating system. Included is an overview of the differences between the HP-UX 11i v3 and Oracle Solaris 10 environments, development tools, clustering technologies, and more. Additional sections describe some of the advanced features of Oracle Solaris 10 that are unique in the industry and may be unfamiliar to developers new to the platform.

July 2011 
Oracle Solaris Operating System: Optimized for Sun x86 Systems in the Enterprise 
This document is intended as a technical guide for developers and system administrators that want to understand the precise details of how Oracle Solaris and the Intel Xeon processor 5600 and 7500 series can improve your application solution environment.

February 2011
Oracle Solaris: The Carrier-Grade Operating System:  This white paper is intended for IT architects, system administrators, and developers who want to understand how Oracle Solaris and Sun servers can improve your application, operation, and infrastructure environment. This paper will provide technical guidance on how Oracle Solaris provides the capabilities for carrier-grade applications.

September 2010
Oracle Solaris and Oracle Solaris Cluster: Extending Oracle Solaris for Business Continuity  This white paper describes how Oracle Solaris and Oracle Solaris Cluster form the foundation of highly available solutions, helping to preserve customers’ applications and consequently businesses by offering many innovative and cutting edge capabilities.

September 2010
Oracle's Optimized Solution for E-Business Suite:  This white paper describes an optimized architecture for deploying Oracle E-Business Suite using Oracle's Sun servers and disk storage, and utilizing leading database, virtualization, and clustering technology for Oracle.

September 2010
Your Enterprise Deployments to the Oracle Product Stack: The integrated platform that's been developed, tested and certified to get the job done:  This white paper shows customers why should they should choose Solaris over other OS platforms and how Oracle-Sun integration helps them in their business.

September 2010
Oracle Integrated Stack - Complete, Trusted Enterprise Solutions: This white paper goes into detail about Oracle Integrated Stack Testing, and shows how OIST further strengthens Oracle's position as a best-in-class technology provider, driving improvements in every dimension – stability, performance, management and administration, and scalability.

September 2010
Oracle Solaris and Oracle SPARC Systems—Integrated and Optimized for Mission Critical Computing
This paper provides a technical overview on how Oracle Solaris and the SPARC processor have been highly optimized in a system-wide approach, delivering more scalable performance, advanced reliability, enhanced security, cost-effective virtualization, and tighter integration with Oracle solutions.
September 2010

September 2010
Oracle Solaris: In a class by itself - This paper offers a high-level discussion of the features that separate Oracle Solaris from other enterprise UNIX operating systems, with specific details on optimizations and advantages for increased reliability, scalability, security, and virtualization.

September 2010
Why Oracle Solaris is the Platform of Choice for Enterprise Databases: This white paper describes how key Oracle Solaris 10 features optimize database environments. It includes BC Ferries case study.

September 2010
Create a More Efficient Storage Infrastructure with the Oracle Solaris 10 Operating System: This white paper explains how upgrading to Oracle Solaris 10 can help IT organizations simplify administration and make better use of storage and data management infrastructure.

September 2010
Virtualizing Your Enterprise Infrastructure: Zones Physical to Virtual (P2V)
Oracle offers the most complete portfolio of end-to-end virtualization solutions available today. In the latest version, Oracle Solaris 10 9/10, Oracle has added in new Physical to Virtual (P2V) feature for it's Oracle Solaris Containers virtualization technology. With full stack management from applications to disk, Oracle solutions can help companies consolidate systems, gain greater efficiency, rapidly deploy solutions, and more.

September 2010
ZFS Technical Video
George Wilson of the ZFS Team speaking about the following new ZFS features in Oracle Solaris 10 9/10:
Oracle Solaris ZFS Pool Recovery
Oracle Solaris ZFS Pool Split
Oracle Solaris Triple Parity RAID-Z
Oracle Solaris ZFS Log Devices
Oracle Solaris ZFS System Duty Cycle Scheduling Class

August 2010
Oracle Solaris: The Platform of Choice for Java Application Development and Deployment
This white paper describes the benefits of running Java on Oracle Solaris. It highlights the key attributes of
Oracle Solaris that enhance the overall experience of creating and running Java applications.

August 2010
Hardening Oracle Database with Oracle Solaris Security Technologies White Paper
This white paper describes and demonstrates how commodity Oracle Solaris operating system security features can be used to lock down network-facing services in order to protect them against internal and external threats. Technology concepts and their realizations are presented in a hands-on fashion using a running example: Oracle Database Server 11g Release 2 executing on Oracle Solaris 10 10/09.

August 2010
Using Oracle Solaris 10 to Overcome Security Challenges
The security enhancements in Oracle Solaris 10 make it attractive to organizations that require comprehensive system security features. IT departments seeking an effective and efficient solution to computer security can take advantage of these unique and powerful features to protect the enterprise from potential threats, comply with corporate and regulatory requirements, and stay ahead of daunting security challenges.

June 2010
Virtualization with Oracle Solaris 10
Oracle offers the most complete portfolio of end-to-end virtualization solutions available today. With full stack management from applications to disk, Oracle solutions can help companies consolidate systems, gain greater efficiency, rapidly deploy solutions, and more.

June 2010
How to Install and Configure a Two-Node Cluster
Intended to help a new or experienced Oracle Solaris user quickly and easily install and configure Oracle Solaris Cluster software for two nodes, including the configuration of a quorum device.

June 2010
How to Configure Oracle VM Server for SPARC Guest Domains as Oracle Solaris Cluster Nodes
Helps a new or experienced Oracle Solaris user quickly and easily install and configure Oracle Solaris Cluster software for two nodes that are Oracle VM Server for SPARC guest domains.

June 2010
Total Information Protection: Using Oracle Solaris to Address Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard Compliance
This white paper presents security features of Oracle Solaris 10 and related technologies and describes how organizations can use them in complying with the payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

June 2010
Oracle Solaris Studio: Using the Tuned Libraries for Peak Application Performance
The Sun Performance Library delivers highly-tuned and parallelized scientific libraries for the newest Oracle Sun systems (SPARC and x86), enabling you to maximize application performance. This paper describes advanced features of the library for uniprocessor, multicore and distributed systems and includes code examples illustrating best practices.

June 2010
Optimizing Applications with Oracle Solaris Studio Compilers and Tools
Oracle Solaris Studio delivers a fully integrated development platform for generating robust high-performance applications for the latest Oracle Sun systems (SPARC and x86). In order to take full advantage of the latest multicore systems, applications must be compiled for optimal performance and tuned to exploit the capabilities of the hardware. Learn how Oracle Solaris Studio helps you generate the highest performance applications for your target platform, from selecting the right compiler flags and optimization techniques to simplifying development with advanced multicore tools.

June 2010
Parallel Programming with Oracle Developer Tools Whitepaper
This paper targets developers interested to learn more about parallel programming and covers everything needed to get started. A very practical and pragmatic approach has been chosen, including many code examples. After having introduced and discussed the major concepts, it zooms in on various parallel programming models, with an emphasis on OpenMP and MPI.

June 2010
Increasing Application Availability Using Oracle VM Server for SPARC
This white paper by Orgad Kimchi and Roman Ivanov of Oracle's ISV Engineering Team describes how to use the warm migration feature of Oracle VM Server for SPARC to move a running Oracle database application from one server to another without disruption. It includes explanations of the process and instructions for setting up the source and target servers.

May 2010
Configuring Oracle Solaris ZFS for an Oracle Database
This document provides guidance on how to economically deploy an Oracle database on Oracle Solaris ZFS to maximize data integrity and performance. We start with a brief planning section and follow with step-by-step instructions for configuring and maintaining Oracle Solaris ZFS file systems for an Oracle database.

May 2010
How to Move an Oracle Solaris Container
Instructs users, system administrators, and developers who have experience with Oracle Solaris 10 on proper use of new features which allow an Oracle Solaris 10 container to be moved from one computer to another.The paper discusses the need and three examples of the use of this functionality.

May 2010
Oracle Solaris Live Upgrade: How to Upgrade and Patch with Oracle Solaris Live Upgrade
This white paper demonstrates the use of Oracle Solaris Live Upgrade, a powerful tool for managing change, risk, and system availability on Oracle Solaris systems.

May 2010
Management of Systems and Services Made Simple with the Oracle Solaris Service Management Facility
Instructs system administrators unfamiliar with the Oracle Solaris 10 OS on how to use the Service Management Facility (SMF) to monitor and manage a Oracle Solaris 10 system.

May 2010
SMF Manifest: How to Create an Oracle Solaris Service Management Facility Manifest
Explains how SMF service manifests are used to create automatic recovery services for any application, and how to develop a service manifest for an application.

May 2010
How to Eliminate Web Page Hijacking Using Oracle Solaris Security
Instructs Oracle Solaris system administrators and security professionals in the process of securing common Web servers. By the end of the paper, an example configuration is created that allows Web content to be maintained securely by content owners, while the Web server itself runs with a minimized set of privileges in its own secured container.

May 2010
How to Consolidate Servers and Applications with Oracle Solaris
Instructs users, system administrators, and developers unfamiliar with Oracle Solaris 10 on how to consolidate applications onto a single server using Oracle Solaris Containers technology.

April 2010
Moving to Oracle Solaris 10: an Overview
Provides an introduction to the technologies and approaches available when upgrading from earlier Solaris releases: upgrade options available, issues to consider, planning the upgrade, and strategies for implementation.

April 2010
Moving to Oracle Solaris 10: Best Practices for the Datacenter
A technical look at the key steps to completing an Oracle Solaris upgrade project. Explains how to simplify the process, reduce risk, minimize disruption during the upgrade, and ensure success. Written primarily for system administrators who are planning to upgrade one or more systems from an older version of Solaris to Oracle Solaris 10.

April 2010
How to Install the Oracle Solaris 10 Operating System on x86 Systems
This white paper instructs users on how to install Oracle Solaris 10 on an Oracle supported x86 system (including the family of 32-bit x86 systems as well as 64-bit AMD64 and Intel 64 systems). It is assumed that user is installing Oracle Solaris 10 5/09.

April 2010
How to use Oracle Solaris DTrace from Oracle Solaris and OpenSolaris System
Helps a new user learn how to use Oracle Solaris DTrace for gathering and using system and application information. Construct scripts to gather useful information about running applications that can be used to improve the performance on Oracle Solaris and OpenSolaris.

April 2010
How to Manage Systems with Oracle Solaris ZFS in Oracle Solaris Containers
Highlights the capabilities of Oracle Solaris ZFS when coupled with Oracle Solaris Containers. After reading this guide, a user will have an understanding of how to delegate an Oracle Solaris ZFS file system to a container and to manage it from within the Oracle Solaris Container.

April 2010
Working with Oracle Solaris ZFS Snapshots
This guide is intended to show a new user the capabilities of the Oracle Solaris ZFS snapshots feature. It describes the steps necessary to set up an Oracle Solaris ZFS filesystem and the use of snapshots including how to create them, use them for backup and restore purposes, and how to migrate them between systems. After reading this guide, the user will have a basic understanding of how snapshots can be integrated into system administration procedures.

April 2010
Deploying Web 2.0 Applications on Oracle Servers and the OpenSolaris Operating System
This white paper describes a reasonably sized, scalable Web 2.0 deployment and how Olio (Web 2.0 toolkit for evaluating the suitability, functionality, and performance of Web technologies) helps validate and tune the solution, resulting in several best practices for deployment.

April 2010
Best Practices for Running Oracle Databases in Oracle Solaris Containers
This paper provides an overview of Oracle Solaris Containers, including Oracle Solaris Zones and the Solaris Resource Manager. This also describes the licensing model supported by Oracle and provides directions for creating and configuring a non-global zone in an Oracle Solaris Container that is appropriate for deploying an Oracle database.

April 2010
Managing Diskless Clients by Using the ossadm Command-Line Interface
Are you responsible for managing diskless clients? Then check out this sneak preview of the ossadm command that will be in the upcoming Oracle Solaris 10 9/10 OS for managing diskless clients on both SPARC and x86 platforms.

January 2010
Best Practices for Moving to the Solaris 10 Operating System
This Sun BluePrints article describes the available technologies and approaches, from a simple system upgrade to a consolidation strategy using built-in virtualization technology. (Login required.)

January 2010
Updated DTrace Resource Center
BigAdmin has gathered a useful collection of documentation, blogs, articles, and more.

November 2009
Joomla! Deployment Guide for Sun Storage 7000 Unified Storage Systems
Install and configure the open-source Joomla! Content Management System with Sun's Unified Storage systems. The Sun servers in this setup run the OpenSolaris 2009.06 release and PHP, MySQL, and Apache web server from pkg.opensolaris.org.

November 2009
Upgrading to Solaris 10?
Find out why it's a good idea, what's involved, what you'll need to know, and what to do with your legacy applications. See also:
ZFS Resources
Patching Improvements
Why Move to Solaris?

October 2009
Case Study: Web Application Tuning on Chip Multithreading Platforms
Use jstack and tune your Web applications to prevent performance bottlenecks on chip multithreading (CMT) platforms.

October 2009
Getting Started With the OpenSolaris OS
OpenSolaris expert Brian Leonard explains how to get started with the OpenSolaris operating system.

September 2009
Tutorial: DTrace by Example
This tutorial uses DTrace, a powerful diagnostic tool introduced in the Solaris 10 OS, to analyze several applications and shows how its use can improve performance.

September 2009
Interrupt Resource Management (IRM) Feature in the OpenSolaris OS
The Interrupt Resource Management (IRM) feature, which optimizes the use of interrupt vectors to improve IO performance, is available in OpenSolaris build 107 and is scheduled for the Solaris 10 10/09 OS for SPARC platforms.

September 2009
Installing Solaris 10 5/09 OS on IBM HS22 Type 7870 Blade Server
This Sun tech tip provides a workaround for using the GUI during boot or during installation of the Solaris 10 5/09 OS on the IBM HS22 Type 7870 Blade Server.

August 2009
Monitoring Performance Counters for UltraSPARC T2 Plus External Coherency Hub Architecture
You can use the busstat command in the Solaris 10 OS to monitor performance counters for the UltraSPARC T2 Plus External Coherency Hub on the Sun SPARC Enterprise T5440 Server.

August 2009
Deploying Web 2.0 Applications on Sun Servers and the OpenSolaris Operating System
This Sun BluePrints article shows how to scale a medium-sized Web 2.0 site with a million registered users with open-source technologies, and includes detailed configuration and tuning information for the deployment. (Login or registration required.)

August 2009
Configuring the DHCP Server for the Solaris OS or OpenSolaris OS
Learn how to configure the bundled DHCP server provided in the Solaris OS or the SUNWdhcs package for the OpenSolaris OS.

July 2009
Solaris Application Memory Management
Learn the basics of application memory management on Solaris, and avoid and resolve common memory usage problems.

July 2009
Using Amanda Enterprise 3.0 With OpenSolaris 2008.11 OS
This paper describes how to deploy the Amanda Enterprise product from Zmanda on a Sun Fire X4500 server using ZFS. This scenario uses ZFS snapshots to improve backup performance.

July 2009
Using Zmanda Recovery Manager for MySQL on OpenSolaris 2008.11 OS
This article shows how ZRM performs on a Sun Fire X4500 system using ZFS snapshots and the OpenSolaris OS.

May 2009
A Planning Guide for Moving to LDAP as Naming Service in the Solaris OS
Moving from Network Information Service (NIS) or NIS+ to Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)? Read this first. Topics include DIT design and implementation of a hybrid DIT.

March 2009
Writing Your First Ruby-on-Rails Web Application
Use NetBeans IDE 6.5 and GlassFish v3 Prelude to create a Ruby-on-Rails Web application in OpenSolaris 2008.11 without typing a single line of code.

March 2009
LOFS Mounted Platform-Specific Routine Libraries With CMT UltraSPARC Processor-Based Systems
Multiple versions of platform-specific routine (PSR) libraries (per platform, per processor) can be used with chip multithreading (CMT) UltraSPARC processor-based systems running the Solaris 10 OS, so that each processor is optimally utilized.

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