Cloning Solaris 10 on Virtualbox?

If you use virtual machines a lot you will definitely want to clone them and make installs much, much easier.

To do this, use the VBoxManage.exe clonehd source destination command. If you're using Windows, this has to be done using the command line.


Once you clone the image and boot it up you will have to change the hostname and IP address so it doesn't conflict with other VM. To change the hostname, edit the /etc/hosts and /etc/nodename files.

To change the IP address, change /etc/hostname.network_interface and restart the network services using svcadm restart /network/service.

NFS on Solaris 10

NFS is to share files across different Unix and Linux computers and is a nice way to get your feet wet with Solaris. To set this up, I am running two different Solaris 10 boxes using Virtualbox.

1. The server has the hostname of "server" and the IP address of 192.168.0.200.
2. The client has the hostname of "client" and the IP address of 192.168.0.201.

We're going to share "nfs_share" on the server and then mount it to "nfs_share" on the client.

To set up NFS, on your server make sure the NFS services are running, specifically the NFS service:

svcs –a | grep nfs

online Mar_30 svc:/network/nfs/status:default
online Mar_30 svc:/network/nfs/mapid:default
online Mar_30 svc:/network/nfs/cbd:default
online Mar_30 svc:/network/nfs/nlockmgr:default
online Mar_30 svc:/network/nfs/client:default
online Mar_30 svc:/network/nfs/rquota:default
online Mar_30 svc:/network/nfs/server:default

If the NFS server is not online, use svcsadm enable /network/nfs/server to turn it online.

Next is to create a directory to share:

mkdir nfs_share
chmod 700 nfs_share

For a temporary share of the nfs_share folder, use:

share –F nfs –o rw nfs_share

For a permanent share (it will persist across reboots), edit /etc/dfs/dfstab with vi and add a line to the bottom of the file:

share –F nfs –o rw –d “This is a comment” /nfs_share

• -o is the options that are used, rw is for read and write, ro is for read only
• -d is a comment of the share

Use the command “shareall” to share the nfs_share folder.

Your NFS server is setup and is ready to share files, just need to setup the NFS client.

On the NFS client, double check to make sure the NFS services are running, most importantly the client service.

svcs –a | grep nfs
online Mar_30 svc:/network/nfs/status:default
online Mar_30 svc:/network/nfs/mapid:default
online Mar_30 svc:/network/nfs/cbd:default
online Mar_30 svc:/network/nfs/nlockmgr:default
online Mar_30 svc:/network/nfs/client:default
online Mar_30 svc:/network/nfs/rquota:default
online Mar_30 svc:/network/nfs/server:default

If the NFS client is not online, use svcsadm enable /network/nfs/server to turn it online.

Create a directory to mount the shared folder on the server

mkdir nfs_share
chmod 700 nfs_share

For a temporary mount of the shared folder use:

mount –F nfs –o rw 192.168.0.200:/nfs_share nfs_share

• -F is for the filesystem
• -o is options
• You can use the hostname or IP address of the NFS server, depending on if you have DNS setup or not, the IP address will always work though. So you’re specifying the share on the server and then where you want to mount that share on your own system.

For a permanent fix, open /etc/vfstab with vi and add this as a new line at the end of the file.

192.168.0.200:/nfs_share - /nfs_share nfs – yes rw

You should then be able to write files to the directory from both the NFS server and the client.

Old People

Since my days of working at McDonalds, I've had quite a distaste for old people. It must be something to do with seeing old people before they get their morning coffee each morning. Today, as I walked into car dealership (I already bought the car from there) I met a pretty cool senior gentleman. He walked the whole way across the office to greet me before the receptionist did (she was doing paperwork).

We then chatted about unions as there is a strike of city workers that has been going on for roughly two months now. As the grass in the parks approach average waist height and no end in sight, this gentleman thought we should buy some goats to help solve the problem. He also gave the idea of bailing the grass like hay and using it that way.

His opinion was that unions will soon by the way of the VCR and black and white TVs as everything will be privatized and young, energetic guys like me will take advantage.

Maybe I shouldn't be so quick to judge the old people and listen to their opinions and I may start liking them.

Thoughts from day two and adding a new author

I've gotten some help from a good buddy of mine to help write for the blog. He knows his video games like no other. Glad to have you here keepcase!

Ever since the first trailer for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, I can't wait until it releases on November 10. I really should pre-order that. I also saw a trailer for MAG for the PS3 the other day. That game has potential. Being able to play a first person shooter with 255 other people would be pretty intense. Too bad it only comes out for the PS3 or I would definitely add that to my 360 collection. Here's a trailer for MAG: http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/59177

I might have to give Modern Warfare a go for old time's sake. Don't get me wrong, World at War is a pretty good game, but Infinity Ward is tops when it comes to making CoD games.

Popping my blog cherry

Well here goes nothing as I dive into the world of online blogging. Seeing as how I'm a techie and a sports fan, I'll stick to what I know and blog about those. I'll try and update this once a day and we'll take it from there.

I just recently graduated college so I still find myself in the middle of leaving behind the good times of being a teenager and wonderful times of maturity and getting to work five days a week for the next 30 some odd years. I did however by myself a car last month in hopes of getting closer to my goal of moving out of the parent's house.

Hockey season is unfortunately over and withdrawals are already starting to set in. I love my sports, but baseball just doesn't do it for me on TV. I see the Blue Jays lost their ace pitcher and the Tigers are fighting off Dontrelle Willis and hanging on to the top spot in the Central.

The NHL draft and July 1st couldn't come soon enough for some good action.