Key Features in Solaris 10 Software

In the Solaris 10 OS, Sun Microsystems has developed a new architecture for building and deploying systems and services that are capable of Predictive Self-Healing. Self-healing technology enables Sun systems and services to maximize availability. See Predictive Self-Healing. The Predictive Self-Healing feature includes significant changes to the booting and service administration processes. See Solaris Service Manager. Also in the Solaris 10 OS, changes in the installation of the operating system provide a simplified and unified installation process. See Solaris Installation Changes Including Installation Unification.

The Solaris 10 OS introduces Solaris Zones software partitioning technology. Solaris Zones is a component of the Solaris Containers environment. Zones are used to virtualize operating system services and provide an isolated and secure environment for running applications. See Solaris Zones Software Partitioning Technology.

Other key features in the Solaris 10 software include the DTrace dynamic tracing facility, process rights management, and a new architecture for network stacks. DTrace is a comprehensive dynamic tracing facility that gives Solaris users, administrators, and developers a new level of observability into the kernel and user processes. For further information, see DTrace Dynamic Tracing Facility. In the Solaris software, processes that previously required superuser capabilities now require process rights. Process rights management uses privileges to restrict processes to only those rights that are required to perform the task. See Process Rights Management for further information. Also of particular importance, the networking stack for TCP connections has been rearchitected to deliver extremely high performance while improving the scalability. For further information, see New Architecture for Network Stacks.

Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition 5 is another key technology. See Enhancements to the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition 5 for descriptions of the enhancements that are available in this platform. Also of particular significance, the Solaris 10 software introduces support for the 64–bit computing capabilities of the AMD Opteron processor. For details, see 64-bit Support on x86 Systems. Finally, the Solaris 10 software introduces the Java Desktop System, Release 3. This desktop system combines open source software with Sun innovation. For further information, see Java Desktop System, Release 3.

These key features and many other new features in the Solaris 10 software are summarized in this book. Most features in the Solaris 10 3/05 release were introduced through the Software Express program. To view a list of all Solaris 10 features by their original Solaris Express release date, see Features by Software Express Release Date.