OpenSolaris for System z is a distribution of the OpenSolaris

OpenSolaris

OpenSolaris was an open source computer operating system based on Solaris created by Sun Microsystems. It was also the name of the project initiated by Sun to build a developer and user community around the software...

 computer operating system

Operating system

An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...

 designed to run on the IBM System z line of mainframe computers. OpenSolaris is an open source

Open source

The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

 project created by Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...

 to build a developer community around Solaris technology.

History

OpenSolaris is based on Solaris, which was originally released by Sun in 1991. Sun Microsystems released the bulk of the Solaris system source code in OpenSolaris on June 14, 2005, which made it possible for developers to create other OpenSolaris distributions. Sine Nomine Associates began a project to bring OpenSolaris to the IBM mainframe in July, 2006. The project was named Sirius (in analogy to the Polaris project to port OpenSolaris to PowerPC). In April, 2007, Sine Nomine presented an initial progress report at IBM's System z Technical Expo conference.

At the Gartner

Gartner

Gartner, Inc. is an information technology research and advisory firm headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, United States. It was known as GartnerGroup until 2001....

 Data Center Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

 in late 2007, Sine Nomine demonstrated OpenSolaris running on IBM System z under z/VM

Z/VM

z/VM is the current version in IBM's VM family of virtual machine operating systems. z/VM was first released in October 2000 and remains in active use and development . It is directly based on technology and concepts dating back to the 1960s, with IBM's CP/CMS on the IBM System/360-67...

. It was there that David Boyes of Sine Nomine stated that OpenSolaris for System z would be available "soon."

At the SHARE

SHARE (computing)

SHARE Inc. is a volunteer-run user group for IBM mainframe computers that was founded in 1955 by Los Angeles-area IBM 701 users. It evolved into a forum for exchanging technical information about programming languages, operating systems, database systems, and user experiences for enterprise users...

 conference on August 13, 2008, Neale Ferguson of Sine Nomine Associates presented an update on the progress of OpenSolaris for System z. This presentation included a working demonstration of OpenSolaris for System z. During this presentation he stated that while OpenSolaris is "not ready for prime-time" they hoped to have a version available to the public for testing "in a matter of weeks rather than months."

In October, 2008, Sine Nomine Associates released the first "prototype" (it lacks a number of features such as DTrace

DTrace

DTrace is a comprehensive dynamic tracing framework created by Sun Microsystems for troubleshooting kernel and application problems on production systems in real time...

, Solaris Containers

Solaris Containers

Solaris Containers is an implementation of operating system-level virtualization technology for x86 and SPARC systems, first released publicly in February 2004 in build 51 beta of Solaris 10, and subsequently in the first full release of Solaris 10, 2005.It is present in newer OpenSolaris based...

 and the ability to act as an NFS server) of OpenSolaris for System z to the public. OpenSolaris for System z has a project page at OpenSolaris.org. OpenSolaris for System z is available for download at no charge, and is governed by the same open source

Open source

The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

 license terms as OpenSolaris for other platforms. All source code is available; there are no OCO (object code only) modules.

The port uses z/Architecture

Z/Architecture

z/Architecture, initially and briefly called ESA Modal Extensions , refers to IBM's 64-bit computing architecture for IBM mainframe computers. IBM introduced its first z/Architecture-based system, the zSeries Model 900, in late 2000. Later z/Architecture systems include the IBM z800, z990, z890,...

 64-bit addressing and therefore requires an IBM System z mainframe. Because the port depends on recently defined z/Architecture processor instructions, it requires a System z9

System z9

IBM System z9 is a line of IBM mainframe. It was announced on July 25, 2005 and the first models were available on September 16, 2005. The System z9 also marks the end of the previously used eServer zSeries naming convention, and it is the last z/Architecture 1 machine.- Background :System z9 is a...

 or later mainframe model and will not run on older machines. It also will not run on the release version of Hercules

Hercules emulator

Hercules is a computer emulator which allows software designed for IBM mainframe computers and for plug-compatible mainframes to run on other types of computer hardware: notably on low-cost personal computers...

 mainframe emulator, the needed changes are included in the SVN version 5470 of Hercules. It also requires the paravirtualization

Paravirtualization

In computing, paravirtualization is a virtualization technique that presents a software interface to virtual machines that is similar but not identical to that of the underlying hardware....

 features provided by z/VM

Z/VM

z/VM is the current version in IBM's VM family of virtual machine operating systems. z/VM was first released in October 2000 and remains in active use and development . It is directly based on technology and concepts dating back to the 1960s, with IBM's CP/CMS on the IBM System/360-67...

; it will not run on "bare metal" or in a logical partition (LPAR

LPAR

A logical partition, commonly called an LPAR, is a subset of computer's hardware resources, virtualized as a separate computer. In effect, a physical machine can be partitioned into multiple logical partitions, each hosting a separate operating system....

) without the z/VM hypervisor at Version 5.3 level or later. Also, because OpenSolaris uses a new network DIAGNOSE instruction, PTF VM64466 or VM64471 must be applied to z/VM to provide support for that instruction. On November 18, 2008, IBM

IBM

International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

 authorized the use of IFL

Integrated Facility for Linux

The Integrated Facility for Linux is an IBM mainframe processor dedicated to running the Linux operating system, with or without z/VM. IFLs are one of three types of IBM mainframe processors expressly designed to reduce software costs...

processors to run OpenSolaris for System z workloads.

External links

• OpenSolaris Project: System z (source code and project home)
• Sine Nomine Associates
• OpenSolaris for System z Distribution (binary code download site)