Volume 113, Issue 2: ZFS & NFS; T1 beats New IBM POWER; Sun/Microsoft Forum; Solaris Security; AT&T IP Video TV - System News
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July 9th, 2007 — July 15th, 2007
System News System News for Sun Users  
Volume 113, Issue 2
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Did you know that the "Security Target" part of the Common Criteria EAL4+ CC evaluation that IBM and Red Hat are getting tested will not test key features and will reduce the functions available to the user? That assertion comes from Jim Laurent; see article [18346] for a list of features and a comparison to Solaris Trusted Extensions.

The Security section this week also offers some podcast links [18333], SunSolve links regarding vulnerabilities in Solaris OS [18334] and more on Solaris Trusted Extensions [18347].

What elements in Solaris 10 OS make a secure server? See article [18352]. For more on servers we present some benchmarks: article [18308] compares the Sun Blade T6300 with the UltraSPARC T1 to IBM's p570. Another benchmark shows what the GlassFish v1 server can do - see [18354].

Newly available is the JDK 6 update 2 with JRE and more [18336]. Also in the Java section find a tutorial on JavaFX [18353].

Promotions
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Sun Certification Retake Promotion Extended to July 31
Re-take an Exam for Free if Needed
The Sun Certification Retake Promotion has been extended to July 31. Purchase a voucher for most Sun certification exams, including those that cover Java technology, Solaris Operating System (Solaris OS), Sun Cluster and Sun Java Composite Application Platform Suite (Java CAPS, or JCAPS) - and if you need to, you can take the exam one additional time for free.
Sun StorageTek Availability Suite 4.0 Added to Sun Try & Buy Program
Remote Mirroring and Point-in-Time Copy Capabilities

Sun StorageTek Availability Suite 4.0 software has been added to the Sun Try and Buy program, according to a recent Sun blog posting. The software features a point-in-time copy capability as well as a remote mirroring capability. Test it for yourself for free.

News
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Sun Expert Exchange Forum July 17 on Sun/Microsoft Interoperability
Ask About Java and .Net, Running Windows on Sun Servers and More
Ask the experts on a panel this Tuesday questions on topics such as running Windows on Sun servers, compatibility between Java technology and .NET, Project Tango and more. The event is live, starting at 10 am PDT and 1 pm EST (5 pm GMT).
Benchmark Result on Open Source GlassFish with Solaris OS
SPECjAppServer 2004 Web Application Results First for PostgreSQL
A new benchmark result shows GlassFish v1 application server stack comprised of PostgreSQL on Solaris 10 Operating System (Solaris OS) on Sun Fire T2000 servers gave 89 percent the performance at 34 percent the cost of a comparable benchmark with an all proprietary system.
Good News from Sun: Intel Chips in Sun Blade 6000 Servers
Customer Case Study Shows Savings from Network.com
Good news from Sun for July 2007 includes the launch of the Sun Blade 6000 line based on microprocessors from AMD, Sun, and, for the first time, Intel. A success story shows how a company is saving a lot of money with the services of Network.com. And there is also good news from an IDC report.
Delivering IPTV: Sun Servers and Sun StorageTek Arrays Selected by AT&T
Expanded Infrastructure for More Video and Multimedia
AT&T will use Sun servers and Sun StorageTek arrays for its new Internet Protocol (IP)-based video service, AT&T U-verse TV. AT&T is expanding its infrastructure as it offers more video and multimedia to its customers.
OpenSolaris
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Project Indiana: A New Distribution of OpenSolaris for GNU/Linux Users
Moving Toward a Single CD Install
The goal of Project Indiana is to create a new distribution of OpenSolaris that is more familiar to users of GNU/Linux. The distribution will focus on providing a single CD install with the basic core operating system and desktop environment, with the opportunity of installing additional software off network repositories.
MP3 Audio and Presentations from OpenSolaris User Groups
Featuring Talks from the Eleventh Irish OpenSolaris User Group Meeting

The OpenSolaris website features many links to presentations made at recent meetings. The Eleventh Irish OpenSolaris User Group Meeting has posted an MP3 audio of the "Lightning" talks. See the site for links.

Servers
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Benchmark Result: 1.4 GHz UltraSPARC T1 Chip Ten Percent Faster than IBM POWER6 Chip
BM Seer Blog Reports
The BM Seer blog asserts the "1.4 GHz UltraSPARC T1 chip is 10 percent faster than the IBM POWER6 chip." The table on the blog compares the Sun Blade T6300 with IBM's p570, Dell's PowerEdge 840 and 860, and Fujitsu's TX150 and RX100. See the processors and the performance side by side.
Download Available -- Sun Blade X6250 Server Module 1.0
Support for BIOS version 17 and ELOM version 4.0.30

Download the distribution that offers firmware and software supporting the Sun Blade X6250 server module. This release includes support for Solaris 10 11/06 Operating System (Solaris OS), Red Hat 4 U4, Red Hat 5, SUSE 10 and 9 SP3, VMWare ESX Server 3.0.1, and Windows Server 2003 operating systems.

Sun Advanced Lights Out Manager 1.6.5
For Entry-level Servers

Sun Advanced Lights Out Manager (ALOM) is the standard System Controller (SC) for remote out-of-band management for entry-level servers. Version 1.6.5 can be installed on the Sun Fire V125, V210, V215, V240, V245, V250, V440, V445 and Netra 210, 240 and 440 servers. It contains two bug fixes.

Top10
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Top Ten Articles for this Issue
Volume 113 Issues 2

Top Ten Articles for Vol 113 Issue 2

  • Benchmark Result: 1.4 GHz UltraSPARC T1 Chip Ten Percent Faster than IBM POWER6 Chip [18308]
  • Managing NFS Performance with Solaris ZFS [18342]
  • Key Security Features Excluded from RHEL 5 and IBM Common Criteria Evaluation [18346]
  • Elements that Make a Secure Server with Solaris 10 OS [18352]
  • Project Indiana: A New Distribution of OpenSolaris for GNU/Linux Users [18366]
  • Solaris: Often Imitated, Seldom Bettered [18344]
  • Beautiful Code - New O'Reilly Book Features Case Studies [18338]
  • Sun Advanced Lights Out Manager 1.6.5 [18350]
  • Benchmark Result on Open Source GlassFish with Solaris OS [18354]
  • Four Solaris OS Vulnerabilities [18334]
Developer
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Tutorial on Building a Java Desktop Database Application
With the NetBeans IDE 6.0 Preview (Milestone 9) Build
To learn how to create a desktop Java application through which you can access and update a database, see the tutorial on the NetBeans IDE site titled "Building a Java Desktop Database Application."
A New Flash Demo: Extending OpenOffice.org With NetBeans IDE
Four-Minute Demo from Roumen's Blog
A new Flash demo is posted on Roumen's Blog, "Extending OpenOffice.org With NetBeans IDE" (July 3, 2007 entry), that explains how to create a new function for the Calc spreadsheet software using NetBeans IDE.
Beautiful Code - New O'Reilly Book Features Case Studies
Computer Scientists Show How They Work to Solve Real-World Problems
In the book, "Beautiful Code: Leading Programmers Explain How They Think," each chapter is written by a different computer scientist who explains how they worked on certain designs and solved problems, sometimes by breaking the rules.
Sysadmin
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Managing NFS Performance with Solaris ZFS
Fixing the Loading of Shares
Two NFS developers from Sun, Tom Haynes and Doug McCallum, present a solution they and the NFS team came up with to deal with the impact that scaling has on Network File System (NFS) performance and how to manage it.
Multithreading Defined and Which Sun Products and Technologies Have it
Learn How to Get Increased Performance, Throughput and Efficiency
What are the advantages of multithreading? Which products from Sun make use of these advantages? Answers to these questions and more about Sun's multithreaded strategies and products can be found gathered together in one place: on the Sun Developer Network (SDN) site in a technical article by Nagendra Nagarajayya.
Solaris: Often Imitated, Seldom Bettered
Presentation Slides: A Brief History of Solaris OS
Phil Harman posted his slides from his talk about the history of the Solaris Operating System (Solaris OS) at the Sun HPC Consortium in Dresden despite the fact that his slides are "pretty minimalist" by his own admission. Another Sun blogger, Josh Simons, described the talk Harman gave.
Elements that Make a Secure Server with Solaris 10 OS
RBAC, BART and ipfilter
There are many options within the Solaris 10 Operating System (Solaris OS) that can be used to build a secure server. Author Kristy Westphal explains some of the elements such as containers, RBAC, BART and ipfilter.
Java Technology
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Java SE 6 Update 2 Includes JRE
Develop Applets and Applications
Java Development Kit (JDK) 6, update 2 (also called Java SE 6 Update 2 and also referred to as JDK 6u2) is now available. It includes Java Runtime Environment (JRE), command-line development tools that are useful for developing applets and applications, the new look and feel for the JDK installer, as well as number of fixes designed to ensure the reliability, availability, and scalability of the platform.
Audio Transcript: Sun Java Real-Time System Meets Wall Street
How Java Technology Protect Threads from System Interruptions and Processes Trades

There is a new audio transcript from the 2007 JavaOne Conference technical session TS-1205, "The Sun Java Real-Time System Meets Wall Street." Presenters Jim Clark and Jim Conners of Sun discuss how Sun's implementation of the Real-Time Specification for Java enables real-time processing through techniques that protect important threads from garbage collection and other system interrupts.

Learning JavaFX: A How-to Article on Starting an IDE Project
Using NetBeans IDE and the JavaFX Plug-in

A how-to online walks you through a project to learn JavaFX. JavaFX is a new scripting language that Sun introduced an alpha version of in May 2007. The how-to article is "Learning JavaFX : Starting an IDE Project, Compiling and Building a Small Example".

Security
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Key Security Features Excluded from RHEL 5 and IBM Common Criteria Evaluation
Comparison with Solaris OS with Trusted Extensions Shows Not All Results Are Equal
Did you know that the "Security Target" part of the Common Criteria EAL4+ CC evaluation that IBM and Red Hat are getting tested will not test key features and will reduce the functions available to the user? That assertion comes from Jim Laurent on his blog (June 25, 2007), who lists the features and compares them to what the Solaris 10 Operating System (Solaris OS) with Trusted Extensions will be tested for.
Four Solaris OS Vulnerabilities
TCP Loopback/Fusion Code; Solaris libsldap Library Vulnerability

Four vulnerabilities in the Solaris Operating System (Solaris OS) were posted by the SANS Institute July 2, 2007: TCP Loopback/Fusion Code Vulnerability; Vulnerability in dtsession(1X) CDE Session Manager; KSSL Kernel Module; and Solaris libsldap Library.

Solaris Trusted Extensions FAQ
Get the Latest Information on the Most Common Questions
See the list of FAQs about Solaris Trusted Extensions, multilevel systems (MLS) from Sun for the most common questions. Solaris Trusted Extensions implements labels to protect your data and applications based on their sensitivity level.
Podcasts on Various Security Topics
Systemic Security, ECC, Solaris OS
Tune in for some podcasts on security topics such as systemic security, Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) and Solaris Trusted Extensions.
Trademarks
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Copyrights and Trademarks
For Volume 113, Issue 2

(c) 2007 System News, Inc. All rights reserved.

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