Sun Releases OpenSolaris 2009.06 for ANV, Resource Management

Sun Microsystems has announced the release of its latest operating system, the OpenSolaris 2009.06, that delivers Advanced Network Virtualization (ANV), Resource Management, storage, performance enhancements and developer productivity updates.

The company says that an important part of the release is the inclusion of Project Crossbow, which features pseudo-network interface technology or Virtual Network Interface Cards (VNIC’s), exclusive IP zones and bandwidth management and flow control on a per interface and per VNIC basis.

"Building on a strong tradition of enterprise computing, OpenSolaris 2009.06 delivers advanced networking capabilities, world-record performance and best-in-class virtualization features built directly into the operating system," said John Fowler, executive vice president of Systems at Sun.

Project Crossbow provides Quality of Service for simultaneous packet traffic on different virtual machines and allows spectrum allocation and control for any physical or virtual device that has been configured to guarantee optimized, agile and scalable virtualized functioning. One of its prime functions is to re-architect network stack.

The company says Project Crossbow is in most ways a continuation of Sun’s ZFS technology. ZFS originally stood for Zettabyte File System, where a Zettabyte indicates 1021 bytes, and it is an open source code application and licensed under the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL).

ZFS was designed specifically for older versions of the Solaris Operating System, and supported and managed: high storage capacities, the integration of file systems, creates copies of files and filing structures at different times, creates copies when shared data is modified, continuous integrity checking and automatic system repair.

OpenSolaris 2009.06 provides improvements to ZFS technology and nests it within a comprehensive architecture of connectivity and protocol support. New features such as integrated flash storage support in ZFS helps organize numerous high performance storage pools by designating flash devices as write and read accelerators to securely and efficiently deliver high performance levels.

With the inclusion of Microsoft (News - Alert) Common Internet File Services (CIFS) as an equal status peer with Linux and Solaris Network File Systems (NFS), file scan be seamlessly renamed, accessed, used and shared across all three platforms. The OpenSolaris kernel also features newly sculpted performance support for internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) and Gigabit Ethernet protocols, thereby allowing systems running OpenSolaris to participate as a client and a target for virtually any storage topology, say officials.

"This preview of the next generation of Solaris demonstrates Sun has the leading platform designed for the latest hardware technologies that power scalable and secure multi-threaded applications in a virtualized and networked world," said Fowler.

OpenSolaris 2009.06, say company officials, delivers 35 percent better memory management, 22 percent better integer arithmetic and 18 percent better multi-thread scheduler management when compared to the latest Linux releases.