suggestions in replacing OpenSolaris

[jdrodrig]

Hi Guys,

Just curious if you would have any suggestions for replacing OpenSolaris in my home-server. I have been using it for six months now, with almost uninterrupted online-ready (thanks to an UPS too) and have loved the lack of problems but mostly, the flexibility of ZFS filesystem and zfs disk pools.

Do you know of suitable distribution or OS that would have similar ZFS type of characteristics?

[inobe]

any linux with zfs-fuse

https://build.opensuse.org/package/show?package=zfs-fuse&project=filesystems

the perfect server http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect-server-opensuse-11.1

list of others at bottom page

[Naiki Muliaina]

Nexenta are making a follow up to Open Solaris too.

http://www.illumos.org/

[Majorix]

Nexenta are making a follow up to Open Solaris too.

http://www.illumos.org/

They don't have any updates in weeks and not even a development release to test out. How exciting. No offense but I don't buy that.

@OP: You might want to have a look at FreeBSD which in my opinion makes a good server OS. I don't think it supports ZFS, but still it is worth considering.

[Naiki Muliaina]

Websites been built up since last week. Wether or not they announce it on the news page, they have definitely been setting up.

[Majorix]

Don't get me wrong, I certainly hope that they come up with a usable OS from the remainder of OpenSolaris. It is only that I feel a letdown having been checking their page from time to time and seeing no updates.

[toupeiro]

It's sad to see this project go away. I don't see BSD as a real "replacement" to OpenSolaris. It was really an alternative UNIX in the philosophies behind it. I don't really know of a true-form replacement of OpenSolaris, because I don't know what this means to the forks out there like Nexenta and others. I really don't know many other variants of SYSV UNIX out there that are free.

That being said, there is supposed to be an Indian company who has successfully ported ZFS to linux without the use of fuse. No idea on when this may actually see mainstream daylight.

[jdrodrig]

Thanks guys; this has been useful.

Honestly I still have a tough time accepting the fact that Oracle dropped OpenSolaris's opensourceness... what does that mean? that any advances made by the community built on the trust of opensourceness down the road, became Oracle property now?

I came to OpenSolaris also because, Sun's Fortran Compilers' tools (eg Dtrace, race condition detection) worked only under sun's OS (at leat that was my understanding).

I wonder if other distros with the same kernel would also be suitable for Sun's compilers debugging tools.

ZFS was an extra, but once I got used to it, I have become a fan of its ability to pool different hardware and the power of zfs snapshots. I wonder if ports of zfs would be ready to be put in a "production" environment; do you think that is the case?

[Bachstelze]

I don't think it supports ZFS,

It does.

[slackthumbz]

Debian.

[Naiki Muliaina]

Debian.

explain please :)

[DemonBob]

FreeBSD. They have ZFS support, and I have used it on servers for years, since 6.0-release. I love it.

[t0p]

FreeBSD certainly appears to be a popular choice: google bsd server and see how many hits talk about FreeBSD.

But as an Ubuntu user on a Ubuntu enthusiast's site: why not try the Ubuntu Server Edition. I've never used it myself, but the brand brreds confidence... in me, anyway.

[Sporkman]

Ubuntu Server is fast & rock solid.

[kaldor]

I use Ubuntu Server on an ancient PC I use for storage/backups. It's flawless for what I need.

If you want something more like OpenSolaris, try BeleniX or Nexenta? They're notable projects.

[Glenn Jones]

Dragonfly bsd looks good. I've heard that the Hammer file system is very impressive and better than zfs

[neu5eeCh]

Hi Guys,

Just curious if you would have any suggestions for replacing OpenSolaris in my home-server.

I don't get it? Why switch? If it's been working great for six months, then it will work great for another six. By that time, maybe IllumOS will be a contender. If not, then keep using OpenSolaris. Indefinitely. It's not like you're running a mission critical server for God Inc..

[Dustin2128]

I hear the BSDs make for solid server OSes. As for linux, I'd recommend debian or slackware.

[MasterNetra]

Storm OS uses ZFS. Haven't tried it personally though.
http://www.stormos.org/

[timvalen]

Wish I could have replied to your post sooner. I think the best answer for you is BeleniX. BeleniX is an OpenSolaris Distribution. Only problem is if you are use to GNOME, BeleniX comes with KDE or Xfce. However I do believe GNOME will be available before to long.

http://www.belenix.org/

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=BeleniX

Hope this helps, Tim...

[98cwitr]

I has Ubuntu running as my media server on an old PC for a while...it was great. What are your requirements?

[samalex]

Ubuntu Server is fast & rock solid.

I was about to post the same thing. I've ran Ubuntu Server on my home server for about 5 years now and works quite well. I haven't used Solaris since college 12 years ago, but what does it offer that Ubuntu Server couldn't?

[MattBD]

I'd go for one of the BSD's - most likely FreeBSD, since that offers ZFS support, along with the excellent Ports system. I've been itching to try it for ages, since it doesn't work too well in Virtualbox.

That said, the other BSD's are good too. OpenBSD has a great reputation for being secure, while NetBSD is renowned for its clean code base.

You might want to consider FreeNAS, which is a FreeBSD-based OS for network-attached storage devices, and comes with all sorts of goodies such as a BitTorrent client and UPnP server, making it ideal for home use.