How to create Solaris 8 & 9 Branded Zones in Solaris 10

Branded zones are solaris 8 or solaris 9 containers created in a solaris 10 Global zone. By default any non-global zone shares the global zone kernel and has same characteristics as the global zone kernel. But in case of branded zone, BrandZ framework extends the Solaris Zones infrastructure to include the creation of brands, which in turn can be used to create different operating environments to accommodate solaris 8 or solaris 9 Operating systems as non-global zones. The post describes the creation of a Branded zone on Solaris 10 Global zone.

Software Requirements

1. Make sure the release of Solaris 10 Global zone is equal to or higher than Solaris 10_U6.

2. Solaris 8 and 9 container software
The required Solaris 8 and 9 container softwares to be downloaded and installed on Solaris 10 with their patch names are :

3. Required packages
The required packages that needs to be installed on Solaris 10 are :

Now, most of the above mentioned software requirements may be already fulfilled. Make sure you have all the necessary packages and softwares.

I would be creating a Solaris 8 branded zone. The procedure for Solaris 9 branded is exactly similar to Solaris 8 branded zone.

Creating Flar image

The first thing is to create the flar image from the physical Solaris 8 machine.

sol8_machine # uname -a
SunOS [s8-hostname] 5.8 Generic_117000-05 sun4u sparc SUNW,Ultra-5_10

sol8_machine # flarcreate -S -n s8-s8zone /net/[nfsserver]/share/s8-s8zone.flar
current filter settings
Creating the archive...
1581129 blocks
Archive creation complete.

Configuring the branded zone

Now we can start configuring the solaris 8 branded zone on the Solaris 10 Global zone.

global_zone # zonecfg -z s8-s8zone
s8-s8zone: No such zone configured
Use 'create' to begin configuring a new zone.
zonecfg:s8-s8zone> create -t SUNWsolaris8            <--- -t=template
zonecfg:s8-s8zone> set zonepath=[zone-path]          <--- ensure to perform mkdir and chmod 700
zonecfg:s8-s8zone> set autoboot=true
zonecfg:s8-zone> add net
zonecfg:s8-zone:net> set address=X.X.X.X              <--- enter IP address here 
zonecfg:s8-zone:net> set physical=[interface-name]    <--- enter interface name here 
zonecfg:s8-zone:net> end
zonecfg:s8-s8zone> verify
zonecfg:s8-s8zone> commit
zonecfg:s8-s8zone> exit

Installing the Branded Zone

Once we are done with configuring the branded zone, we can start installing the zone. During the installation of the branded zone a physical-to-virtual conversion is automatically performed.

global_zone # uname -a
SunOS global_zone  5.10 Generic_147440-19 sun4v sparc sun4v

global_zone # zoneadm -z s8-s8zone install -u -a /var/tmp/s8-s8zone.flar <--- -u=sysunconfig & -a=archive location
      Log File: /var/tmp/s8-s8zone.install.4247.log
        Source: /var/tmp/s8-s8zone.flar
    Installing: This may take several minutes...
Postprocessing: This may take several minutes...

        Result: Installation completed successfully.
      Log File: /zones/s8-s8zone/root/var/log/s8-s8zone.install.4247.log

Booting the Branded zone

Now we can boot the installed branded zone.

global_zone # zoneadm -z s8-s8zone boot

global_zone #  zoneadm list -cv
  ID NAME             STATUS     PATH                           BRAND    IP
   0 global           running    /                              native   shared
   4 s8-s8zone        running    /zones/s8-s8zone               solaris8 shared

Complete the setup

Finally, login into the console of the branded zone to do the final configuration settings as we do when we first time login into a newly created Solaris 10 zone.

global_zone # zlogin -C s8-s8zone