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It's really easy to use ZFS dataset encryption to protect your data in a way so you have to know something and to own something to get access to encrypted data.

The notification framework in Solaris is not only able to notify you of problems with services. As you may know, the fault management architecture monitors the hardware of a Solaris system. With the fmdump command you can retrieve the information. For example you get this informatoin when you unplug an USB stick with an active ZFS filesystem:

root@solaris:/home/jmoekamp# fmdump -v
TIME UUID SUNW-MSG-ID EVENT

Nov 22 12:59:48.7489 22dffa96-bf27-4f41-ab1f-dfedcdfb11e7 ZFS-8000-HC Diagnosed
100% fault.fs.zfs.io_failure_wait

Problem in: zfs://pool=usbstick1
Affects: zfs://pool=usbstick1
FRU: -
Location: -

Wouldn't it be nice to receive this and similar information about the failure of components. It's really simple to configure. However i assume , that you've already installed smtp-notify package with

root@solaris:/# pkg install service/fault-management/smtp-notify

To configure the notification, you just have to configure the target mail adress for the mails.

root@solaris:/# svccfg setnotify problem-diagnosed mailto:root@localhost

To check the configuration you can use the listnotify command:

root@solaris:/# svccfg listnotify problem-diagnosed
    Event: problem-diagnosed (source: svc:/system/fm/notify-params:default)
        Notification Type: smtp
            Active: true
            reply-to: root@localhost
            to: root@localhost

        Notification Type: snmp
            Active: true

        Notification Type: syslog
            Active: true

When you unplug the USB-stick with while the ZFS pool is imported, you will find a mail like this one in your mailbox:

root@solaris:/# mail
From noaccess@solaris.local Mon Nov 22 12:59:48 2010
Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2010 12:59:48 +0100 (CET)
From: No Access User 
Message-Id: <201011221159.oAMBxm5o002968@solaris.local>
Subject: Fault Management Event: solaris:ZFS-8000-HC
To: root@solaris.local
Content-Length: 560

SUNW-MSG-ID: ZFS-8000-HC, TYPE: Error, VER: 1, SEVERITY: Major
EVENT-TIME: Mon Nov 22 12:59:44 CET 2010
PLATFORM: VirtualBox, CSN: 0, HOSTNAME: solaris
SOURCE: zfs-diagnosis, REV: 1.0
EVENT-ID: 22dffa96-bf27-4f41-ab1f-dfedcdfb11e7
DESC: The ZFS pool has experienced currently unrecoverable I/O
	    failures.  Refer to http://sun.com/msg/ZFS-8000-HC for more information.
AUTO-RESPONSE: No automated response will be taken.
IMPACT: Read and write I/Os cannot be serviced.
REC-ACTION: Make sure the affected devices are connected, then run
	    'zpool clear'.


? q

Neat, isn't it?

Darren Moffat wrote a great blog article about the internals of the ZFS encryption - "ZFS encryption what is on disk ?":

This article is about what is and isn't stored encrypted on disk for ZFS datasets that are encrypted and how we do the actual encryption. It does require some understanding of Solaris and ZFS debugging tools.

It's a small feature compared to other additions to Solaris, however already i got the first questions how to configure it: the capability of the Service Management Facility to send mails when a state transitions occur.

Darren wrote three really interesting articles about ZFS encryption: The first one is Introducing ZFS Crypto in Oracle Solaris 11 Express. This blog entry gives you a first overview how to use encryption for ZFS datasets. The second one titled "Assured delete with ZFS dataset encryption" explains how you can use the encryption feature to implement assured deletion with the "throwing the keys away" technique. Last but not least the article "Having my secured cake and Cloning it too (aka Encryption + Dedup with ZFS)" explains how deduplication and encryption work together in Solaris 11 Express.

There is an interesting joint statement about the future of Java on MacOS X:

Oracle and Apple today announced the OpenJDK project for Mac OS X. Apple will contribute most of the key components, tools and technology required for a Java SE 7 implementation on Mac OS X, including a 32-bit and 64-bit HotSpot-based Java virtual machine, class libraries, a networking stack and the foundation for a new graphical client. OpenJDK will make Apple’s Java technology available to open source developers so they can access and contribute to the effort.

According to the Flightblogger, one of the 787 aircraft had to land due to a fire in the electronics bay. It was able to land safely, however a fire and smoke onboard of an aircraft is a very serious incident.

A strange thing is the deployment of the RAT. This is the Ram Air Turbine. An aircraft need a lot of electrical power. This power is generated by the engines, however when all engines have failed, a small propeller is deployed outside the aircraft that is driven by the head wind to provide electical power to the absolute minimally necessary equipment). This generator is called RAT. It's deployed as a last-resort-measure ... so it will be interesting to read in the official incident report about the situation.

I was able to leave a shop this afternoon before i had to hear it. Otherwise it would be the shortest competition between me and this awful piece of music. Only a second later and this %$§!%§$ song "Last Christmas" would have reached my ears. Starting in November with this horrible perspiration of a really sick mind? Damned ... let's play fair! Where is censorship when you need it?

An exploded Trent 900 with 0 fatalities gets massive press attention with massive speculation. A crashed ATR-72 in Cuba with 68 fatalities and a crashed Beech 1900 in Karachi with 22 fatalities are just footnotes. Mad world.

Wo ich vorhin meine Karte für die DOAG2010 aus meinem Postfach in der Firma rausgefingert habe: Ich halte am 18.10 um 10:00 bis 10:45 einen Vortag zum Thema "Performance Analyse - oder: Was macht eigentlich mein Solaris?". Ich werd wahrscheinlich auch am 18.10 nachmittags auf dem Oracle-Stand Dienst schieben.

Das Programm bietet auch noch andere interessante Vortraege zum Thema Solaris, Sun und das Drumherum. So beispielsweise am 18.11: Detlef Drewanz wird beispielsweise zum Thema "Neue Technologien zur Netzwerk-Virtualisierung in Solaris 11" sprechen. Zum Thema Hardware werden Elke Freymann und Stefan Hinker in "Sun Server News: SPARC T3, x86, Virtualisierung und Management". Die Vorträge von Thorsten Lange lohnen sich immer und ich gehe davon aus, das "Content Management und Archivierung mit Oracle Software und Sun Hardware" da keine Ausnahme darstellen wird. Ansonsten empfehle ich noch Hartmut Streppels "Hochverfügbarkeit von Anwendungen mit Oracle Solaris Cluster ". Hartmut hat wahrscheinlich mehr über den Sun Cluster vergessen, als ich je wusste.

Interestingly such uncontained engine failures are as seldom as i thought before searching avherald.com.

Ouch .... this is something you call "uncontained engine failure". This happened to an Qantas A380. TheAustralian has a series of pictures from this incident.

Jet turbines are designed to to keep the debris of the engine in the engine casing. From there the debris stays in the engine or leaves it at the rear end. The engine casing is not the sheet of metal or composites you see from the aircraft window .... this is just the engine fairing for optical and aerodynamic purposes. Anyway: Engine parts punching holes in the wing is a really serious thing.

This looks like an engine problem ... not a problem of the A380 itself. However i expect the media to write, this is a A380 problem. That said it gets interestings here. One of the recent reasons for the delays of the 787 was a uncontained engine failure of the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000. And the Trent 1000 is a derivate of the Trent 900. The Qantas A380 used this kind of engine (you can get two types of engines for the A380: The Trent and the GP7200, an engine made by the Engine Alliance)

It's much to early to speculate about the reasons. This will take a while to find out.