Solaris 10 is the latest and greatest Solaris operating system and ECN is actively upgrading all Solaris 8 and Solaris 9 hosts to Solaris 10 during the 2006 summer break. Along with the many enhancements available in Solaris 10, ECN is making a few changes that may affect Solaris 8 and Solaris 9 users' computing environment. Among the changes are:

Passwords up to 128 characters

Solaris 10 uses an updated password encryption type capable of handling passwords of up to 128 characters in length. This is an improvement over the original eight (8) character limit on Solaris 8, Solaris 9 and RedHat Linux, plus matches the 128 character limit on Windows XP computers.

Be aware, though, that if you choose a new password and the new password is longer than eight characters, you'll need to make sure that the first eight characters of the new password is different than your previous password and the first eight characters of the password is difficult to guess. For more information, check out the Secure Purdue web page on password guidelines.

Java Desktop

Solaris 10 includes version 3 of the Sun Java Desktop system, based on the open-source "Gnome" software suite. The Java Desktop includes e-mail, calendar and web browser applications along with office applcation suite "StarOffice" - all in one desktop environment. The Java Desktop is much better than the original CDE desktop, and it is recommended to switch to the Java Desktop whenever possible.

Solaris 8 did not have a Java Desktop system, and Solaris 9 included version 2 that was mostly hidden from use by the log-on screen, so not many users selected it as their main desktop.

Legacy web server

Solaris 10 is providing limited support for home web page services, those that create web pages in their home directories under the directory name "public-web".

ECN is phasing out the use of the legacy web servers, previously run on Solaris 8 and Solaris 9 hosts, and favoring the use of the Engineering web cluster.

In order to provide support for web pages already in service, Solaris 10 includes a redirector process that points web browsers away from the Solaris 10 host, onto a special web server called "Cobweb".

Sometime soon, ECN will publish a newsletter article on how to move a web directory from the legacy web server to the Engineering web cluster.

File entombing

Solaris 10 no longer supports the file entombing services that were available on Solaris 8 and Solaris 9.

File entombing service was the ability to "un-remove" a deleted file using the "unrm" command. The software that preformed the file entombing had become too old to implement on Solaris 10, nor was it available for the RedHat Linux operating systems. Users loosing a file will require getting a restore from backup tapes.

rsh/rlogin/rcp mapping

Solaris 10 no longer maps the original remote shell commands ("rsh" for "remote shell", "rlogin" for "remote login" and "rcp" for "remote file copy") to their secure counterparts ("ssh", "slogin" and "scp").

Secure shell has long since replaced the original remote shell at ECN for all remote command processing. On Solaris 8 and Solaris 9, ECN mapped the commands rsh/rlogin/rcp to the secure versions for convenience to those new to the secure shell service.

For Solaris 10, using "rsh" will really give you the "rsh" command. Be sure to adjust by using the "ssh" command. (Plus the same for the "slogin" and "scp" commands).

telnet/ftp mapping

Solaris 10 no longer maps the original "telnet" and "ftp" commands.

On Solaris 8 and Solaris 9, the "telnet" and "ftp" commands would remind users to avoid using these insecure commands because both telnet and ftp send their communications over the network without encryption.

On Solaris 10, the "telnet" and "ftp" commands really are the "telnet" and "ftp" commands, without the warning message. Avoiding using the "telnet" and "ftp" commands whenever possible by using "slogin" and "sftp" commands instead.