Hi Jordan, Personally, I'm fine with this, but wanted to make sure all bases were covered. I too would prefer the hostid to be a zone configuration parameter rather then a /etc file within the zone itself, leaving it to those who configure the zone to set it, rather than the super-user within the zone.
> My solution for NGZ hostid emulation is to add a 32-bit integral field to the > zone structure zone_t that will contain the zone's hostid or HW_INVALID_HOSTID > (-1) if the zone does not emulate a hostid. The GZ's hostid will be the host > machine's hostid, which will be stored in hw_serial. NGZs will not emulate > hostids by default. Just to clarify: What value is returned by sysinfo(SI_HW_SERIAL) within an NGZ if /bin/hostid is run in the case where emulation is disabled? Thanks, Brian Jordan Vaughan wrote: > Brian Ruthven wrote: > > Just to make sure this has been covered: > > > > PSARC/2007/078 (hostids for x86) mentions the legal implications of > software licensing against hostids. This case proposes that the > hostids are user-supplied, thus may need a Sun Legal check too. > > > > Brian > > > > > If I remember correctly (please correct me if I am misunderstanding > your reference), the concern in the PSARC/2007/078 mail was that > placing the system's hostid in an /etc/hostid ASCII file would not > only invite more license circumvention, but also make it appear as > though we (Sun) are encouraging license circumvention and thus > betraying our ISVs that use hostids for licensing. Are you concerned > that non-global zone hostid emulation might have similar > consequences? If so, then I would argue that the concern is > unwarranted in this case. > > We must remember that zones are configurable virtualized execution > environments, like virtual operating systems. (I say this not because > I think you do not already know it, but to focus our attention on the > purpose of zones in order to make a more salient point.) They are > *meant* to look and feel like machines distinct from their physical > host. Emulating hostids is simply another way to customize the > virtualized environments that zones provide so that system > consolidation can be more easily facilitated with zones and zone > migration across physical nodes can be more flexible when legacy > licensed software is in jeopardy (as my case states). We are > providing non-global zone hostid emulation for these reasons alone and > should clearly state this in our documentation (as I made an effort to > do in my proposed man page changes). > > It is possible that license circumvention might increase slightly with > the introduction of non-global zone hostid emulation, but I doubt that > it would be a significant increase. For one thing, faking hostids is > already possible and easily accomplished (for example, see > http://www.software.com/downloads/purchase/Solaris-Hostid-Controller-buy833075.html). > > If a user wants to circumvent hostid-based licensing, then he can do > so today in a variety of ways at little or no cost (except perhaps two > minutes of his time) with Sun-developed technologies. Adding > non-global zone hostid emulation will not open any new doors to > unscrupulous users. Additionally, using non-global zones for the sole > purpose of circumventing licensing for a handful of programs is a > relatively expensive solution to an easily-solved problem. Zones take > disk space, cpu time, and memory, whereas a five- or six-line DTrace > script that intercepts sysinfo(2) system calls is much cheaper. > Non-global zone hostid emulation will not enlarge the hostid-based > licensing circumvention problem that our ISVs already face. > > Furthermore, I claim that if users were to abuse hostid emulation to > circumvent software licensing, a use which would not fall within our > stated (documented) intentions for the technology, then we would not > be responsible for their actions. If arguing that the potential for > such abuse justifies rejecting non-global zone hostid emulation, then > destructive DTrace scripting should be eliminated because of the > ability it grants users to (easily) circumvent hostid-based software > licensing. However, I imagine that we would not eliminate destructive > DTrace scripting or consider providing it a betrayal of our ISVs > because such abuses fall outside of the stated purposes for the > technology. If that is the case, then non-global zone hostid > emulation should be permitted as well. > > My two cents, > Jordan -- Brian Ruthven Sun Microsystems UK Solaris Revenue Product Engineering Tel: +44 (0)1252 422 312 Sparc House, Guillemont Park, Camberley, GU17 9QG
