How to build a Solaris Branded Zone

Updated 20 Aug 2014 Read time 5 min(s) 18 sec(s) (2579 views). Solaris

Legacy requirements are often the bigest reason for building different branded zones with legacy kernels from older operating system versions. Although Sun has preached binary compatability for years, some developers bypassed the published API's and applications won't work in a Solaris 10 or 11 environment.

In this article we will create a Solaris 9 branded zone (sol9labz) with 2 CPUs and 4GB RAM to mimic an old physical server (sol9lab).

The Branded Zone OS will be installed using a flar from an existing system as part of a virtualisation project. The zone itself will be stored on a ZFS file system that is required to have a legacy mount point.

Solaris Branded Zone Requirements

To build a branded zone for Solaris 8 and 9, the right-to-use patch which is available from Oracle's e-cloud delivery server must be downloaded and installed.

You need to look for "Oracle Solaris Legacy Containers Media Pack for Oracle Solaris on SPARC".
You need to install the correct packages for the branded zone you are using. In our example we are using Solaris 9 branded zones so we have to install SUNWs9brandk product.

Create two ZFS File Systems

In our example, this server will be hosting several branded zones. Each branded zone with get their own LUN to host the system disk and a separate ZFS scratch disk.

Each branded zone will be stored under the directory structure /brandz/<hostname>.

Note: For branded zones the ZFS file system must mount in legacy mode.

Below are the commands needed to create the ZFS file system for a host called sol9lab. The scratch disk is used as an example to show how to add file systems to branded zones.

# mkdir /brandz
# zpool create sol9lab c0t600A0B800029065C00007CF54E234013d0
# zfs set mountpoint=/brandz/sol9lab sol9lab
# zfs set mountpoint=legacy sol9lab

create scratch disk pool

# zpool create scratch c0t600A0B800026D63A0000A4994E2342D4d0
# zfs create scratch/sol9lab
# zfs set quota=20G scratch/sol9lab

Install Branded Zone Package

Install the correct packages for the branded zone you are going to use. In our example we are using Solaris 9 branded zones so we have to install SUNWs9brandk product.

Note: Install the correct version of the package for the host OS you are using.

In our case we need version 1.0.1. Check the README for more details.

Below is the output of the software installation.

# pkgadd -d . SUNWs9brandk
Processing package instance <SUNWs9brandk> from </root/solarislegacycontainers/Product>
Solaris 9 Containers: solaris9 brand support RTU(sparc) 11.10.0,REV=2008.09.20.18.50
Copyright 2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.
Use is subject to license terms.
Using </> as the package base directory.
## Processing package information.
## Processing system information.
8 package pathnames are already properly installed.
## Verifying package dependencies.
## Verifying disk space requirements.
## Checking for conflicts with packages already installed.
## Checking for setuid/setgid programs.
Installing Solaris 9 Containers: solaris9 brand support RTU as <SUNWs9brandk>
## Installing part 1 of 1.
/usr/lib/brand/solaris9/files/patches/112963-32.zip
/usr/lib/brand/solaris9/files/patches/115986-03.zip
/usr/lib/brand/solaris9/files/patches/order
/usr/share/man/man5/solaris9.5
[ verifying class <none> ]
Installation of <SUNWs9brandk> was successful.

Building the Solaris 9 Branded Zone

In this example, will create a branded zone to match the physical server that we are virtualising with 2 CPUs and 4GB of RAM.

To maintain compatibility with installed software the hostid and machine type will also be maintained. We are also going to add a ZFS file system for data.

We use the zonecfg command to create and configure branded zone. For example:

# zonecfg -z sol9labz
sol9labz: No such zone configured
Use 'create' to begin configuring a new zone.
zonecfg:sol9labz> create -t SUNWsolaris9
zonecfg:sol9labz> set zonepath=/brandz/sol9lab
zonecfg:sol9labz> set autoboot=true
zonecfg:sol9labz> add net
zonecfg:sol9labz:net> set physical=ce0
zonecfg:sol9labz:net> set address=192.168.1.80
zonecfg:sol9labz:net> end
zonecfg:sol9labz> add fs
zonecfg:sol9labz:fs> set type=zfs
zonecfg:sol9labz:fs> set special=scratch/sol9lab
zonecfg:sol9labz:fs> set dir=/test
zonecfg:sol9labz:fs> end
zonecfg:sol9labz> add attr
zonecfg:sol9labz:attr> set name=hostid
zonecfg:sol9labz:attr> set type=string
zonecfg:sol9labz:attr> set value=84abe39d
zonecfg:sol9labz:attr> end
zonecfg:sol9labz> add attr
zonecfg:sol9labz:attr> set name=machine
zonecfg:sol9labz:attr> set type=string
zonecfg:sol9labz:attr> set value=sun4u
zonecfg:sol9labz:attr> end
zonecfg:sol9labz> add capped-cpu
zonecfg:sol9labz:capped-cpu> set ncpus=2
zonecfg:sol9labz:capped-cpu> end
zonecfg:sol9labz> add capped-memory
zonecfg:sol9labz:capped-memory> set physical=4096m
zonecfg:sol9labz:capped-memory> set swap=1024m
zonecfg:sol9labz:capped-memory> set locked=512m
zonecfg:sol9labz:capped-memory> end
zonecfg:sol9labz> verify
zonecfg:sol9labz> commit
zonecfg:sol9labz> exit

Install OS from flash archive (flar)

To use a flar to install a branded zone, the permissions on the ZFS file system needs to be 700. For example:

# chmod 700 /brandz/sol9lab
# zoneadm -z sol9labz install -p -a /flar/sol9lab.flar
Log File: /var/tmp/sol9labz.install.1668.log
Source: /flar/sol9lab.flar
Installing: This may take several minutes...
Postprocessing: This may take several minutes...
Result: Installation completed successfully.
Log File: /brandz/sol9lab/root/var/log/sol9labz.install.1668.log

Verify new Branded Zone

You will need to boot the zone and log into it to verify everything is OK.

# zoneadm list
global
# zoneadm -z sol9labz boot
# zoneadm list -v
ID  NAME     STATUS       PATH                         BRAND     IP
 0  global   running      /                            native    shared
 2  sol9labz running      /brandz/sol9lab            solaris9    shared
# zlogin -C sol9labz
root@sol9lab # ifconfig -a
lo0:1: flags=2001000849<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 8232 index 1
        inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
ce0:1: flags=1000843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 2
        inet 192.168.1.80 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
root@sol9lab # df -h
Filesystem              size  used  avail capacity  Mounted on
/                       93G    46G    47G    50%    /
/.SUNWnative/lib        93G    46G    47G    50%    /.SUNWnative/lib
/.SUNWnative/platform   93G    46G    47G    50%    /.SUNWnative/platform
/.SUNWnative/usr        93G    46G    47G    50%    /.SUNWnative/usr
/dev                    93G    46G    47G    50%    /dev
proc                     0K     0K     0K     0%    /proc
mnttab                   0K     0K     0K     0%    /etc/mnttab
swap                   3.5G    16K   3.5G     1%    /etc/svc/volatile
/dev/ksyms              93G    46G    47G    50%    /dev/ksyms
fd                       0K     0K     0K     0%    /dev/fd
swap                   3.5G    64K   3.5G     1%    /tmp