Nexenta Gnu/OpenSolaris review

[arctic]

Nexenta Gnu/OpenSolaris review

 

Nexenta is something that is very different to Linux, yet somehow familiar. But what is Nexenta? Nexentas answer is:

 

NexentaOS is a complete open source operating system built on top of the OpenSolaris kernel and runtime. It is a result of inspiration and desire to build a great system based on the best existing software: SunOS kernel and userland Open Source Software. We use Debian - one of the best existing software distribution/packaging mechanisms - to glue the numerous pieces together.

 

This release of NexentaOS brings to you fully integrated Ubuntu/Dapper Drake userland. Today NexentaOS APT repository contains more than 7,800 Ubuntu/Dapper packages. This number is constantly growing, driven mostly by our industry-strength AutoBuilder.

 

In addition, Alpha 5 contains:

 

a.Sun's Java SE 5.0 Java Development Kit (JDK) distributed under the new Distributor's License for Java.

b.OpenOffice.org 2.0, natively compiled on NexentaOS.

c.OpenSolaris build #40, non-DEBUG kernel.

 

NexentaOS Alpha 5 is distributed as InstallCD, LiveCD, and pre-installed ready to be used VMware image.

 

jlc asked me to review the current alpha release, so here we go.

 

Preparation:

Before installing Nexenta, I checked their website and read a bit about the project there. Nexenta is a Solaris based operating system. That means that it uses a different kernel and as such uses different commands and naming conventions here and there. Taking that into account and that it is still in Alpha phase, I decided to use the live-CD first for testing hardware compatibility. The live-CD worked okay but was incredibly slow on the Sempron 2400+ with 1 GB Ram. I now downloaded the install-CD and took an advice from jlc: don't try to dual-boot. I decided that it is best to unplug my default harddisks and use a spare Samsung 20 GB drive.

 

Installation:

 

The install procedure was simple, yet not very fast. I used auto-partitioning this time (usually I do manual partitioning, but I was lazy this time). After some basic questions in an “old-school” set-up screen (reminded me of the old DOS days) that was still very functional and easy to use, the system began its installation. One thing told me instantly that it did not borrow only the look from Ubuntu. The installer doesn't ask for any packages but installs happily what it thinks is right for you. I won't complain here.

 

While the system installs, you can play tetris. First I thought: What do I need that one for? But then, I began to play it and breaking records. After 60 minutes, the installer told me that it has finished. 60 minutes... not fast. Really. But it allowed me to really enjoy tetris again after years without playing it. ;)

 

Nexenta asks you for setting root and user passwords, sets up grub (and warns you that it might break you machine. Remember: Alpha release), about your network and that's it. One good feature: Nexenta asks you if you want to use ipv4 or ipv6. Nice move, boys.

 

First start:

 

The system automatically detects if you use a 32 or 64 bit processor. Whoah! Never seen that feature before. Are there good things to come? Let's see.

 

I get a black monitor, some text and I wait ... and wait ... and wait. It took the system a full three and a half minutes to boot to the display manager. Not really a rocket. I log in and have to wait a further minute and 42 seconds until the desktop is fully loaded. Oh my god...

 

Maybe it loads a lot more stuff into memory so apps open faster later? Who knows. I click my home folder. 5 seconds. I close it again and reopen it. 3 seconds now. I start Firefox. 18 seconds. Open Office: 28 seconds. The second time, both open way faster but no, this is no speed-monster. Perhaps more important is the fact that it is pretty stable so far for an alpha release.

 

One positive remark I have to make is that the systems font rendering is very good on my machine. Almost OSX like. :) But then: Mouse scrolling is buggy. If I scroll up in a webbrowser, it stops randomly, then goes back in the browser history and loads the previous page. Very ...errm ... interesting.

 

I look around further, move a window and see that it g e t s .. s l o w ... a n d ... p i x e l a t e d. Is it a hickup? No, redrawing of windows and desktop is extremely slow and thus buggy. Not a god sign. Time for checking system ressources. Using the gui tools is not a good idea as it is a g a i n ... b u g g y.

 

RAM usage or the basic desktop system: 242 MB without anything opened. This is the result of the current usage while typing this:

fabian@konrad:~$ df
Filesystem		   1K-blocks	  Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/dsk/c1d0s0	   19033036   1619712  17222994   9% /
swap				   1119224	   464   1118760   1% /etc/svc/volatile
/usr/lib/libc/libc_hwcap1.so.1
				  19033036   1619712  17222994   9% /lib/libc.so.1
swap				   1118768		 8   1118760   1% /tmp
swap				   1118840		80   1118760   1% /var/run
fabian@konrad:~$ top
  PID USERNAME  SIZE   RSS STATE  PRI NICE	  TIME  CPU PROCESS/NLWP
  832 fabian	127M   80M sleep   59	0   0:00:25 1.5% soffice.bin/5
  395 root	   19M   21M sleep   59	0   0:00:52 1.1% Xorg/1
  641 fabian	 16M   10M sleep   59	0   0:00:04 0.2% metacity/1
  646 fabian	 33M   18M sleep   59	0   0:00:05 0.2% gnome-panel/2
  930 fabian   2836K 2572K cpu0	59	0   0:00:00 0.1% prstat/1
  673 fabian	 31M   12M sleep   59	0   0:00:02 0.1% mixer_applet2/1
  680 fabian	 14M 3984K sleep   59	0   0:00:01 0.1% gnome-screensav/1
  903 fabian	 22M   13M run	 59	0   0:00:00 0.1% gnome-terminal/2
  626 fabian	 34M   19M sleep   59	0   0:00:02 0.0% gnome-settings-/2
  664 fabian	 17M 7076K sleep   59	0   0:00:00 0.0% gnome-power-man/1
  671 fabian	 22M   11M sleep   59	0   0:00:00 0.0% clock-applet/1
  648 fabian	 59M   42M sleep   59	0   0:00:09 0.0% nautilus/2
  512 cupsys   5588K 2520K sleep   59	0   0:00:00 0.0% cupsd/1
  661 fabian	 20M 9728K sleep   59	0   0:00:00 0.0% gnome-cups-icon/1
  907 fabian   4340K 2564K sleep   49	0   0:00:00 0.0% bash/1
  655 fabian	 18M   11M sleep   59	0   0:00:00 0.0% update-notifier/1
  393 root	   11M 2536K sleep   59	0   0:00:00 0.0% gdm/1
  127 root	 2192K 1368K sleep   59	0   0:00:00 0.0% syseventd/14
  324 daemon   2048K 1348K sleep   60  -20   0:00:00 0.0% lockd/2
  322 daemon   2316K 1532K sleep   59	0   0:00:00 0.0% statd/1
  394 root	   13M 4072K sleep   59	0   0:00:00 0.0% gdm/1
Total: 63 processes, 188 lwps, load averages: 0.05, 0.06, 0.08

As you see, it eats RAM happily, thus it is not an OS that should ever be used on systems with less than 512 MB RAM and less than 1 GHz horsepower. One question: Why are three different swaps listed? Can someone explain this to me? Well, it doesn't bite me but it is irritating.

 

Enough on the desktop side. Let's take a look at the system itself:

 

Installing applications is easy. If you know Ubuntu or any other Debian based system, you will find your way around as Nexenta uses apt-get, the add/remove dialogue from the left hand menu, the Nexenta update manager and synaptic for keeping the system up to date. A bit too many tools for one task if you ask me.

 

The man pages are readily available, the system-documentation in the gnome-panel is not :huh:. Fix that please. I have no clue about Nexenta. I want and need easily accessible documentation as a newbie.

 

Most tools that you know from Ubuntu are here, too. But from what I see, some tools are missing, meaning that you have to work with the command line. My beloved nano is available, thus editing files is as easy as ever – if you know nano.

 

I decide to take a look at the system layout. Is it really that different from a Linux system? I check with Nautlius and see the home folder and an export folder. Export stores your home folder, while the basic /home directory is empty. Can somebody please explain??? This is unlogical and looks like nonsense to me. The attached screenie will show you the basic system structure. It has vol, srv, system, platform, net and devices, things that are unknown to me. And it is confusing as many of those folders are empty. I need a good book on that one, I guess.

 

 

 

Now the question is: For whom and what is this system good for?

 

Honestly: I don't know! If you are thinking that this system might be an option for a home user, then I'd say no. It needs too many resources, it is too slow (you can really drink a lot of coffee while working with it) in its current state, but it is very stable – even for an alpha release (I have seen linux distros that were less stable in their final release). Nexenta is perhaps only useful if you have a really powerful system that you keep running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks per year. Thus it could be a good platform for small and medium sized business desktops, but I don't see (yet) any benefit for the home user here.

 

Is this distro useless then? No, definitely not. It is at an early development stage and who knows what they can achieve with the Solaris kernel? Maybe they can make it slim, fast, better than the Linux kernel. I guess we have to wait some years before a final answer can be given.

[ffi]

Nice review, about scrolling up and the browser going back, it happens to me in Ubuntu too, strange....

 

Oh, yeah I heard Solaris is very much optimised for sparc.....

Edited August 2, 2006 by ffi

[dexter11]

The system automatically detects if you use a 32 or 64 bit processor. Whoah! Never seen that feature before.

You should look at the 2007 Beta 1 DVD which is dual arch.

 

I don't know why it has 3 swap partitions but it would certanly explain some of the slowness.

[arctic]

You should look at the 2007 Beta 1 DVD which is dual arch.

If it has, I haven't noticed it yet on my cooker partition.

[dexter11]

Because you installed from the GNOME live cd don't you. The live CDs have two versions for both x86 and 64_x86. Only the DVD is dual arch.

[arctic]

Correct. I only downloaded the smaller gnome iso.

[jlc]

I'll answer some of this, maybe not in order though.... :)

 

/export/home: This is how most *nix's has done this since the very early days, main reason I can think of is for shareing(NFS).

 

Swap mountpoints: Solaris put's /tmp & /var/run in swap for peformance reasons and data in these directory's are useless upon next reboot :)

 

/etc/svc/volatile is needed early in the boot process before /var is mounted and will be logs and reference files relating to the current state of the system services. Again something not needed upon next reboot :)

 

 

bootup, login and responsiveness: That really puzzles me because mine comes up in less than 30 seconds and everything is much snappier than the other OS's... :)

 

Do this for me, run

sudo intrstat

 

Let it run for a bit and then ^C out of it and paste the output

 

They systems I use it on are faster, than your sempron, but I don't think they are that much faster. One of mine has a bug on the motherboard and I helped one of the engineers troubleshoot to get a patch, I don't think it is put in yet. (I was the lab rat, he was the brains...) ;)

 

memor/top/prstat: usage

prstat -a -s size

 

I don't see anything that is unusual, if you paid for the RAM, might as well use it... OOo is your biggest offender, pretty sure that is normal know matter what OS you use

 

http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/performance

 

One of the *cool* community's in Open_Solaris B)

 

OpenSolaris Performance Principles

 

We feel that it is important to state major principles that guide the development and discussion. For the OpenSolaris performance work we suggest the following set of guiding principles:

 

* If another major system is faster than OpenSolaris, it is a bug.

* Performance is a goal, correctness is a constraint.

* You can not improve performance if you can not measure it.

 

 

Now thats cool, and the developers/enginners are pretty cool about working with you.

 

 

 

Good review though, someone switching to Solaris is even harder than Nexenta.

[arctic]

bootup, login and responsiveness: That really puzzles me because mine comes up in less than 30 seconds and everything is much snappier than the other OS's...

I also hoped that it would be quite fast (as you said that it is fast on your box) but it didn't turn out so. *shrugs*