Deploying Rational ClearCase on Solaris zones
If you intend to run Rational®
ClearCase®
on Solaris zones, there are some special considerations that affect how you deploy ClearCase.
About Solaris zones
On the Solaris operating
system, zones are a virtualization technology that provides an isolated,
secure environment for applications. Solaris supports several types
of zones:
- global zone
- The global zone is the initial zone of the Solaris operating system. This zone has full privileges; it is the zone that is running when the system is booted.
- non-global zone
- A non-global zone is a virtual machine that resides on
top of the operating system, with its own host name, IP address, set
of file systems, and so on. It is dependent for some of its resources
on the global zone (non-global zones are sometimes referred to simply
as zones).
A non-global zone provides namespace and process space isolation, as well as separation from the physical devices and network interface names. This isolation prevents processes in a non-global zone from monitoring or affecting either the global zone or another non-global zone. The file system of a non-global zone can be whole root or sparse root:
- whole root
- A whole root zone has a separate copy of the operating system's file systems. Whole root is supported by Solaris 10 and 11.
- sparse root
- A sparse root zone provides read-only access to some file systems that are shared with the global zone such as /usr and some zone-specific file systems such as /etc and /var. Solaris 10 supports sparse root zones; Solaris 11 does not.
- branded zone
- A branded zone is a non-global zone that runs a version of the OS that is different from the version running on the host.
Refer to Oracle product documentation for instructions on configuring and using Solaris zones.
Deployment requirements
When deploying ClearCase on Solaris zones,
keep the following requirements in mind:
- All zones on a host must run the same version of ClearCase at the same fixpack level.
- If you run branded zones, remember that ClearCase support for the branded zone's operating system can be different from ClearCase support for the global zone's operating system. Therefore, when installing or upgrading ClearCase, you must specify a version and fixpack of ClearCase that supports the operating systems on the global zone and the specific branded zone.
- If non-global zones are intended to support dynamic views, you must install the MVFS on the global zone.
- When you install ClearCase for the first time on a host, you must install it on the global zone before you install it on any non-global zones.
- Before upgrading ClearCase, you must stop instances of ClearCase that are running on the non-global zones. While these instances of ClearCase are stopped, you upgrade the global zone, and then you upgrade the non-global zones.
- When uninstalling ClearCase, you must uninstall it from the non-global zones before you uninstall it from the global zone.