knowledge
Overview
Solaris is a UNIX-based operating system originally developed by Sun Microsystems in the 1990s, later acquired by Oracle Corporation. Known for robustness, scalability, and support for high-end hardware, it is widely used in enterprise environments for mission-critical applications including database management, cloud computing, and virtualization. Solaris differs from Linux distributions in its proprietary nature, package management, service management, and file system tools.
Terminology
| Term | Definition |
|---|
| SMF | Service Management Facility — Solaris init/service management system replacing SysV |
| IPS | Image Packaging System — Solaris package manager |
| ZFS | Zettabyte File System — default on Solaris; supports snapshots, data compression, integrity checks |
| SPARC | Sun’s proprietary processor architecture targeted by Solaris |
| truss | Solaris system call tracer (equivalent to strace on Linux) |
| pfiles | Solaris tool to list open files for a process (equivalent to lsof -c on Linux) |
| showrev | Solaris system info command (similar to uname -a but more detailed) |
Core Concepts
Solaris vs Linux Distributions
| Aspect | Linux | Solaris |
|---|
| License | Open-source | Proprietary (Oracle) |
| Source Code | Publicly available and modifiable | Closed source |
| Package Manager | apt, dnf, rpm, etc. | IPS (pkgadd) |
| Service Management | systemd | SMF (svcadm) |
| File System | ext4, Btrfs, XFS, etc. | ZFS |
| Hardware | x86, ARM, RISC-V | SPARC and x86 |
| RBAC | Available on some distros | Built-in |
| Hypervisor | KVM, VirtualBox | Oracle VM Server for SPARC (built-in) |
Key differences:
- ZFS — Solaris default; provides data compression, snapshots, and high scalability
- SMF — more advanced service management than systemd; better reliability and availability for services
- IPS — Solaris package management; includes built-in RBAC and mandatory access controls not standard across all Linux distributions
Command Equivalents
| Task | Linux | Solaris |
|---|
| System info | uname -a | showrev -a (includes patch level and hardware provider) |
Package Management
| Task | Linux | Solaris |
|---|
| Install package | sudo apt-get install apache2 | pkgadd -d SUNWapchr |
Permission Management
| Task | Linux | Solaris |
|---|
| Change permissions | chmod 700 filename | chmod 700 filename (same) |
| Find SUID files | find / -perm 4000 | find / -perm -4000 (note the - prefix) |
NFS
Solaris has its own NFS implementation using the share command. Configuration stored in /etc/dfs/dfstab.
| Task | Linux | Solaris |
|---|
| Share NFS directory | Edit /etc/exports | share -F nfs -o rw /export/home |
| Mount NFS share | mount -t nfs <server>:/share /mnt | mount -F nfs 10.10.10.10:/nfs_share /mnt/local |
Process and File Inspection
| Task | Linux | Solaris |
|---|
| List open files by process | sudo lsof -c apache2 | pfiles $(pgrep httpd) |
| Trace system calls | sudo strace -p $(pgrep apache2) | truss -p $(pgrep httpd) |
truss vs strace:
truss can trace signals sent to a process — strace cannottruss traces system calls made by child processes — strace only traces the specified processtruss is useful for diagnosing errors, performance issues, and revealing sensitive data in application calls
References / Images
- Oracle Solaris documentation
man showrev, man truss, man pfiles
