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Solaris Zones Creation Examples

The following steps that are involved in setting up zones on your system for the first time.

1. Perform the preconfiguration tasks. Determine zone name z1 and zone path (for example /export/z1), obtain IP address (zone needs to have a unique IP address), determine shared directories and devices for the zone. check resources req:
    
   • At least 512M of memory on the server
   • At least 100 MB of free disk space per zone to be installed
   • CPU-power available. Running more than one zone with taxing CPU applications require enough CPU power.  If you plan to install application to run in zone for security and global zone ("mothership") will be mostly idle then the same server can be used.
      
2. Use the zonecfg Command to Configure, Verify, and Commit a Zone and zonecfg(1M).
    
3. As root, verify and install configured zones.  Zones must be verified and installed prior to login.
    
4. As root, log in to the zone to perform the initial internal configuration, including assigning the zone root password.
    
5. As root, boot the non-global zone.

Zones can be created using zone manager gui or command line tools:

• Zone manager GUI. This is the easiest way. docs.sun.com Installing and Administering Solaris Container Manager 1.1
   
• Creation via zoneadm is a little bit more involved, but it can be scripted.

Old News ;-)

[Mar, 2005] System Administration Guide- Solaris Containers [PDF] -- Jan 2005 update. This is a large old guide (334 pp). Contains an example of zone creation.

Example 1: simple zone using zoneadm

# mkdir -m 700 /export/z1 # -- create zone directory

# zoneadm list -cv
ID NAME             STATUS         PATH
0 global           running        /

# zonecfg -z z1
z1: No such zone configured
Use 'create' to begin configuring a new zone.
zonecfg:z1> create
zonecfg:z1> set zonepath=/export/z1
zonecfg:z1> set autoboot=true
zonecfg:z1> add inherit-pkg-dir
zonecfg:z1:inherit-pkg-dir> set dir=/opt
zonecfg:z1:inherit-pkg-dir> end
zonecfg:z1> add net
zonecfg:z1:net> set address=192.168.1.10
zonecfg:z1:net> set physical=hme0
zonecfg:z1:net> end
zonecfg:z1> add attr
zonecfg:z1:net> set name=comment
zonecfg:z1:net> set type=string
zonecfg:z1:net> set value="First zone"
zonecfg:z1:net> end
zonecfg:z1> verify
zonecfg:z1> commit
zonecfg:z1>exit

At this point file /etc/zones/z1.xml should be created and it is recommended to view it

# zoneadm list -cv
ID NAME             STATUS         PATH
0 global           running        /
- z1           configured     /z1

Example 2:  usage of the info command

It looks like you can add arbitrary number of directories in add inherit-pkg-dir (info command can be invoked either as dialog subcommand or as zonecfg -z z1 info):

zonecfg:zone1> info
zonepath: /zone/z1
autoboot: true
pool:
inherit-pkg-dir:
        dir: /lib
inherit-pkg-dir:
        dir: /platform
inherit-pkg-dir:
        dir: /sbin
inherit-pkg-dir:
        dir: /usr
inherit-pkg-dir:
        dir: /opt
net:
        address: 192.168.1.10
        physical: hme1