Oracle VM server for SPARC 2.2 on S11
- by Liam Merwick
Oracle VM Server for SPARC 2.2 has been released for a little while now. The https://blogs.oracle.com/virtualization blog has an overview of all the 2.2 features. Initially, what was released was the SVR4 package for Solaris 10 (which is unbundled and wasn't constrained by any external schedule). On Solaris 11, the 'ldomsmanager' package is built into Solaris (and therefore doesn't need to be downloaded separately) so it is delivered as part of an S11 Support Repository Update (SRU). Some of the features in 2.2 are specific to S11 (SR-IOV and the ability to live migrate between machines with different CPU types) and so there have been many requests to know when are the S11 bits coming.
Solaris 11 SRU8.5 was released on Friday and this includes Oracle VM server for SPARC 2.2 so if you're already running an S11 SRU all you need do is a 'pkg update' to get the 2.2 bits.
If you're still running the original S11 and your 'pkg publisher' output shows the /release repository then you'll need to sign up for the /support repo by getting the appropriate keys and certificates to access the repository (requires a support contract). The 2.2 Admin Guide documents how to do this upgrade on S11
Two S11 articles which have some useful details on upgrading (not just 'ldomsmanager') via the support repositories are:
How to Update Oracle Solaris 11 Systems From Oracle Support Repositories by Glynn Foster
Tips for Updating Your Oracle Solaris 11 System from the Oracle Support Repository by Peter Dennis
In particular, if you'd like to stick with the v2.1 release when upgrading to SRU8.5 or greater, see the 'pkg freeze' section of Peter's article.
