The Operate Zones workflow is another of the workflow documents that we introduced recently. It follows naturally after the Deploy Oracle Solaris 11 Zones workflow that I talked about last week, so I thought I'd talk about it next.

This workflow is less linear than the zone deployment workflow. It's built around this image:

The left side shows you the prerequisites for zone operation: you have to deploy libraries and deploy either Oracle Solaris 10 or 11 zones - whichever type you want to manage using this workflow.

Once you have the zones deployed, you can begin to operate them. If you want to associate resources with the global zone, the workflow directs you to the Exploring Your Server Pools how-to, which talks about adding global zones to server pools and associating libraries and network resources with them.

Otherwise, it directs you to a set of how-tos about zone management: Managing the Configuration of a Zone, which explains how to add storage, edit zone attributes, and connect zones to networks; Lifecycle Management of Zones, which explains how to halt, shut down, boot, reboot, or delete a zone; and Migrating Zones, which explains how to move a zone to a new global zone in the same server pool.

Finally, it directs you to the Update Oracle Solaris workflow when you want to update your zones, and to the Monitor and Manage Incidents workflow to learn more about monitoring your assets.