Sun Microsystems 10 manual Global Zone System, Small web servers

Version 3.1-enSolaris 10 Container Guide - 3.1 3. Use Cases Effective: 30/11/2009

3.2. Small web servers

Requirement

[ug] One of the following situations exists:

∙An Internet Service Provider (ISP) would like to have the option to set up web servers automatically, without additional costs. Based on this technology, the ISP wants to create an attractive offer for web servers with root access.

∙The data center of a major company has many requests from departments for internal web

servers for the purpose of information exchange between the departments. It is in the customers' interest to deposit web content as simply as possible, without many rules and arrangements (little effort). Therefore, the requesting department aims at a web server that nobody else works with. The data center is interested in keeping administrative costs low. It should therefore not be a separate computer. The data traffic will most likely be small and does not justify a full computer of their own.

Solution

[ug] The web servers are implemented by automatically installed zones. The following details are used in particular:

∙Sparse-root zones, that is, zones inherit everything, if possible, from the global zone (4.1.1 Sparse-root zones).

∙The software directory of the web server, e.g. /opt/webserver, is not inherited (inherit-pkg-dir) in order to facilitate different versions of the web server.

∙Automatic creation of a zone per script

∙Automatic system configuration in the zone with sysidcfg.

∙Automatic IP address administration.

∙Option: Automatic quick installation of a zone.

∙Option: Application administrator with root access.

∙Option: Software installation per mount.

Assessment

[ug] This use case has the following characteristics:

∙The operating division's expenses for creating the zones are low.

∙Since the expected load is very small, the consolidation effect is very large since only active processes in the zone require resources.

∙The users of the automatically generated web servers in the zones are free to use a variety of different versions without having to re-educate themselves. That is to say, their costs are low and there is hardly any need for training.

∙The web servers can work with the standard ports and the preset container IP addresses – no special configurations are required as when several web servers are to be operated on one system.

Figure 8: [dd] Use case: Small web server

Webserver Webserver Webserver

1 2 3

Global Zone

System 1

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