1. Creating and Using Oracle Solaris Zones
  2. About Non-Global Zone Installation and Packages
  3. Packages and Zones on an Oracle Solaris 11.4 System

Packages and Zones on an Oracle Solaris 11.4 System

This section supplements Chapter 3, Installing and Updating Software Packages in Updating Systems and Adding Software in Oracle Solaris 11.4.

Package management in solaris non-global zones is similar to management in global zones, with the following differences:

  • Only a subset of the Oracle Solaris packages from the global zone are completely replicated when a non-global zone is installed. For example, many Oracle Solaris kernel packages are not needed in a non-global zone. All non-global zones share the same kernel from the global zone.

  • If a package is installed in the global zone, then the non-global zone can install the package from the global zone's system-repository service and does not have to use the network to install that package. If that package has not been installed in the global zone, then the zone will need to use the zones-proxy service to access the publishers to install the package over the network, using the global zone. See Configuring Proxies to the Package Repository for Non-Global Zones.

  • The root (/) file system for a non-global zone can be administered from the global zone by using the Oracle Solaris packaging tools. The packaging tools in the non-global zone can administer co-packaged (bundled), standalone (unbundled), or third-party products.

  • When a zone package variant is specified, the various components within a package are specifically tagged to only be installed in either a global zone or a non-global zone. A given package can contain a file that is tagged so that it will not be installed into a non-global zone.

For more information, see Working with Non-Global Zones in Updating Systems and Adding Software in Oracle Solaris 11.4 and Automatically Installing Oracle Solaris 11.4 Systems.

Note:

While certain package operations are performed, a zone is temporarily locked to other operations of this type. The system might also confirm a requested operation with the administrator before proceeding. When updating the global zone on a system with non-global zones, the system might appear to display package download information twice for the zones. However, the packages are downloaded only once.