[OpenIndiana-discuss] LX Branded zones

[James Carlson]

On 01/23/15 17:06, Dave Koelmeyer wrote:
> 
> On 24/01/15 07:30, jason matthews wrote:
>>
>> SmartOS has restored LX zones. GD championed rejecting them in
>> https://www.illumos.org/issues/104
>>
>> Will LX Branded zones be making a come back in future OI releases? I
>> may end up having to support something like Vertica where we are
>> performance mindful. I do not want the risk a diverging OS (Solaris v.
>> IllumOS) by using the Solaris distribution or the performance penalty
>> of using linux in KVM.
>>
>> thoughts?
> 
> It would be *incredibly* useful. Just looking at:
> 
> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YeL_ZLTmrGJDYtI5LNif6Y9SITBFP7DNirYfsPfjBDM/edit?pli=1#gid=385135179
> 
> 

Having lived through the effort at Sun, I don't think it's a great idea.
 The problem with the LX branded zones is that you need a huge team of
people to chase every little feature in Linux.  The bizarro world /proc
that they have ("hey! let's use /proc/kitchen/sink!") is by itself a
giant resource suck, and that's just one "small" component.

And if you manage to miss one or another little bit, then, because most
Linux-tied applications tend to use "everything" (I'm lookin' at you,
systemd), it means that a lot of the applications you really want won't
actually work right.  Or that you'll be debugging them forever.

And even if you cross those hurdles -- somehow -- you end up on a
treadmill where you're chasing (at least) every even-numbered Linux
kernel version number until bovine homecoming.  It's a huge resource
expenditure that must be completed in a relatively short time frame.

That's why Sun's LX was tied to a thoroughly obsolete Linux kernel
version by the time it shipped and why it was never much more than a
neat parlor trick.  It let you run Microsoft's Skype so you could tee
your conversations into the Camp Williams data center, should you be so
inclined.

Once you get past that, though, it wasn't really useful for actual
production.  You likely would not want to run an SAP or Oracle server on
it.  So where's the paying customer?

I (obviously) can't speak for Garrett, but I'd expect that reasoning
something along those lines might well have been behind those relatively
short statements.

But, hey, if you think you can do it and make it useful, then there's no
real reason to solicit any opinions.  Start coding it and prove me
wrong.  ;-}

-- 
James Carlson         42.703N 71.076W         <carlsonj at workingcode.com>