1. The document discusses the motivation and goals in building an Illumos-based OS called OmniOS. The key goals were to have ABI stability, ZFS, zones, DTrace, and be open source while also being installable via network and having consistent multi-architecture support. 2. The document outlines the release cycles established with regular minor weekly updates and major releases every 6 months, as well as goals around commercial support. 3. OmniOS is designed to be minimal, acting as a base for others to build more comprehensive distributions on top of, and is available via various methods like Vagrant boxes, ISOs, and AMIs.

1. /
Motivation & Design
Building an Illumos-based OS
Friday, December 14, 12

2. Hi, I’m @postwait
• Theo Schlossnagle
• Founder of OmniTI
• Avid open source developer
• Illumos contributor
Friday, December 14, 12

3. Motivation
Galaxy Quest (1999)
Sir Alexander Dane You're just going to have to figure out what it wants.
What is its motivation?
Jason Nesmith It's a rock monster.
It doesn't have motivation.
Sir Alexander Dane See, that's your problem, Jason.
You were never serious about the craft.
Friday, December 14, 12

4. Where the world is going...
Friday, December 14, 12

5. Where the world is today...
Friday, December 14, 12

6. Where the world is today...
Friday, December 14, 12

7. Where the world is today...
Friday, December 14, 12

8. Where the world is today...
Friday, December 14, 12

9. Some brief history
• We ran a lot of Solaris (10 GA⇾u9 + SXCE)
Friday, December 14, 12

10. Some brief history
• We ran a lot of Solaris (10 GA⇾u9 + SXCE)
• I learned that I like: DTrace, crossbow
Friday, December 14, 12

11. Some brief history
• We ran a lot of Solaris (10 GA⇾u9 + SXCE)
• I learned that I like: DTrace, crossbow
• I learned that I love: ABI stability, zones
Friday, December 14, 12

12. Some brief history
• We ran a lot of Solaris (10 GA⇾u9 + SXCE)
• I learned that I like: DTrace, crossbow
• I learned that I love: ABI stability, zones
• I learned that I need: ZFS, open source
Friday, December 14, 12

13. Some brief history
• We ran a lot of Solaris (10 GA⇾u9 + SXCE)
• I learned that I like: DTrace, crossbow
• I learned that I love: ABI stability, zones
• I learned that I need: ZFS, open source
• The future was bright
Friday, December 14, 12

14. The Oracle Solar(is) Ecplise: 2013/08/13
http://mail.opensolaris.org/pipermail/opensolaris-discuss/2010-August/059310.html
Friday, December 14, 12

15. Pouring a 40 for Sun... and moving on.
Friday, December 14, 12

16. UNIX lives on in many of us
Friday, December 14, 12

17. The motivation
• We have a lot of customers with
“traditional deployments”
(servers, not instances)
• We would likely have bought Solaris 11,
if I could build it from source.
• We needed a path of least resistance for
our Solaris 10 users... that delivered on
the promises Sun made.
Friday, December 14, 12

18. Actual Motivation
It so happens
there is a
business
model.
Friday, December 14, 12

19. Goals: set ‘em
Friday, December 14, 12

20. Goals
ABI Stability, ZFS,
Zones, Crossbow,
DTrace, Open Source
#1
Friday, December 14, 12

21. Goals
ABI Stability, ZFS,
Zones, Crossbow,
DTrace, Open Source
#1
(+ KVM courtesy of Joyent)
Friday, December 14, 12

22. Goals
Traditionally installable (on disk)
via network
#2
Friday, December 14, 12

23. Goals
Traditionally installable (on disk)
via network
#2
kayak
ZFS-based
disk imaging
Friday, December 14, 12

24. Goals
Bring userland
recent to prolong life
#3
Friday, December 14, 12

25. Goals
Bring userland
recent to prolong life
#3
Sadly, Illumos needs
OpenSSL, libxml2 and zlib
Friday, December 14, 12

26. Goals
Bring userland
recent to prolong life
#3
gcc 4.6.3
(4.4 for kernel)
Sadly, Illumos needs
OpenSSL, libxml2 and zlib
(1.0.1)
(2.9.0)
(1.2.7)
Friday, December 14, 12

27. Goals
Build all of OmniOS
with core OmniOS
A subjective, “thick” take on JEOS
#4
Friday, December 14, 12

28. Goals
Build all of OmniOS
with core OmniOS
A subjective, “thick” take on JEOS
#4
Only 111
pieces of software
Friday, December 14, 12

29. Goals
Build all of OmniOS
with core OmniOS
A subjective, “thick” take on JEOS
#4
Only 111
pieces of software
“Put that shit in a box and ship it.”
Friday, December 14, 12

30. Goals
Consistent multi
instruction-set-architecture
(ISA) support
#5
Friday, December 14, 12

31. Goals
Consistent multi
instruction-set-architecture
(ISA) support
#5
Ship both
32-bit & 64-bit libs
consistently
Friday, December 14, 12

32. Goals
Establish a
rigorous
major release cycle
(every 6 months)
#6
Friday, December 14, 12

33. Goals
Establish a
rigorous
major release cycle
(every 6 months)
#62012-04 r151002
.
.
.
.
2012-10 r151004
Friday, December 14, 12

34. Goals
Establish a
non-disruptive
minor update cycle
(every week)
#7
Friday, December 14, 12

35. Goals
Establish a
non-disruptive
minor update cycle
(every week)
#72012-04.2 r151002a
2012-04.4 r151002b
.
.
.
.
2012-10.2 r151002z
Friday, December 14, 12

36. Goals
Commercial support for
mission-criticality
and/or
compliance requirements
#8
Friday, December 14, 12

37. Goals
Commercial support for
mission-criticality
and/or
compliance requirements
#8
Friday, December 14, 12

38. Kayak Installs Simple Stupid
• Kayak (http://omnios.omniti.com/browse.php/core/kayak)
• builds an altroot install
• zfs sends it (to a file, then over HTTP)
• makes a miniroot (served over TFTP)
• written in shell (sysadmins rejoice)
• tiny python web server (not required)
Friday, December 14, 12

39. Release Cycles
r151002a
Friday, December 14, 12

40. Release Cycles
r151002a r151003
Friday, December 14, 12

41. Release Cycles
r151002a r151003
irregular
spasmodic
change
Friday, December 14, 12

42. Release Cycles
r151002a r151003
irregular
spasmodic
change
r151002c
Friday, December 14, 12

43. Release Cycles
r151002a r151003
irregular
spasmodic
change
r151002c
r151002d
Friday, December 14, 12

44. Release Cycles
r151002a r151003
irregular
spasmodic
change
r151002c
r151002d
1week
Friday, December 14, 12

45. Release Cycles
r151002a r151003
irregular
spasmodic
change
r151002z
r151002c
r151002d
1week
Friday, December 14, 12

46. Release Cycles
r151002a r151003
irregular
spasmodic
change
freeze
r151002z
r151002c
r151002d
1week
Friday, December 14, 12

47. Release Cycles
r151002a r151003
irregular
spasmodic
change
freeze
r151002z
r151002c
r151002d
r151004a
1week
Friday, December 14, 12

48. Release Cycles
r151002a r151003
irregular
spasmodic
change
freeze
r151002z
r151002c
r151002d
r151004a
26 weeks
1week
Friday, December 14, 12

49. Release Cycles
r151002a r151003 r151005
irregular
spasmodic
change
freeze
r151002z
r151002c
r151002d
r151004a
26 weeks
1week
Friday, December 14, 12

50. Release Cycles
r151002a r151003 r151005
irregular
spasmodic
change
freeze
r151002z
r151002c
r151002d
r151004a
26 weeks
1week
irregular
spasmodic
change
Friday, December 14, 12

51. Release Cycles
r151002a r151003 r151005
irregular
spasmodic
change
freeze
r151004b
r151002z
r151002c
r151002d
r151004a
26 weeks
1week
irregular
spasmodic
change
Friday, December 14, 12

52. Release Cycles
r151002a r151003 r151005
irregular
spasmodic
change
freeze
r151004b
r151004c
r151002z
r151002c
r151002d
r151004a
26 weeks
1week
irregular
spasmodic
change
Friday, December 14, 12

53. Release Cycles
r151002a r151003 r151005
irregular
spasmodic
change
freeze
r151004b
r151004c
r151004e
r151002z
r151002c
r151002d
r151004a
26 weeks
1week
irregular
spasmodic
change
Friday, December 14, 12

54. Release Cycles
r151002a r151003 r151005
irregular
spasmodic
change
freeze
r151004b
r151004c
r151004e
r151004zr151002z
r151002c
r151002d
r151004a
26 weeks
1week
irregular
spasmodic
change
Friday, December 14, 12

55. Release Cycles
r151002a r151003 r151005
irregular
spasmodic
change
freeze
r151004b
r151004c
r151004e
r151004zr151002z
r151002c
r151002d
r151004a
26 weeks
1week
irregular
spasmodic
change
freeze
Friday, December 14, 12

56. Release Cycles
r151002a r151003 r151005
irregular
spasmodic
change
freeze
r151004b
r151004c
r151004e
r151004zr151002z
r151002c
r151002d
r151004a
26 weeks
1week
irregular
spasmodic
change
freeze
Friday, December 14, 12

57. Available on EC2
Friday, December 14, 12

58. Operating System Holy War Outcomes
Friday, December 14, 12

59. Operating System Holy War Outcomes
Editor: vi (naturally)
Friday, December 14, 12

60. Operating System Holy War Outcomes
Editor: vi (naturally)
Filesystem: ZFS (obviously)
Friday, December 14, 12

61. Operating System Holy War Outcomes
Editor: vi (naturally)
Filesystem: ZFS (obviously)
Packaging: IPS (WTF?!)
Friday, December 14, 12

62. IPS Controversy
✓IPS sucks (yes, like the rest)
✓IPS made new problems to solve
✓IPS is uncommon
Friday, December 14, 12

63. IPS Justification
• IPS builds are part of Illumos
• ipkg zone is something we use
• I’m disaffected:
"It's packaging other people's software
that makes system administrators violent people"
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieCTIPG43no
• Avoid “solutions:”
I’m looking at you facets
• Minimal use of incorporations
Friday, December 14, 12

64. IPS niceties
• IPS is a network resource
• pkgsend is tool, not a framework
• All HTTP micro assets (cacheable)
• Handles all the BE magic
• Without the “features” it just works
Friday, December 14, 12

65. What we learned.
• We built packages for Solaris 10
...and for Linux ...and for FreeBSD
• Because we’re a snowflake
...just like very one else.
• Rule: “keep your shit to yourself.”
Friday, December 14, 12

66. Minimal: not useful
• OmniOS only ships “core”
• no web server. no database.
no proxy cache. no PHP. no Ruby.
no bind.
• we ship perl, use your own.
• we ship python, use your own.
Friday, December 14, 12

67. Minimal: awesome-sauce
We use OmniOS...
like a layered cake
Publisher URL
ms.omniti.com http://pkg.omniti.com/omniti-ms/
perl.omniti.com http://pkg.omniti.com/omniti-perl/
Friday, December 14, 12

68. Distro Construction Kit
OmniOS as a base for building
more comprehensive
Illumos distributions
Friday, December 14, 12

69. Adieu
• Thanks
• Go get it as Vagrant box, ISO, USB, or AMI
http://omnios.omniti.com/wiki.php/Installation
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theaucitron/5810163712
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jefflippold/7237388878/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/angietorres/4564135455/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adavey/2102499200/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68751915@N05/6551534889/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/61423903@N06/8085629858/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marc-flores/6629287755/
Friday, December 14, 12