Solaris Internals, Second Edition

Figure 1: Solaris Internals

This book describes the algorithms and data structures of all the major subsystems in the Solaris 10 Operating System and OpenSolaris kernels. The text has been extensively revised since the first edition, with more than 600 pages of new material. Integrated Solaris tools and utilities, including DTrace, MDB, kstat, and the process tools, are used throughout to illustrate how the reader can observe the Solaris kernel in action. The companion volume, Solaris Performance and Tools, extends the examples contained here, and expands the scope to performance and behavior analysis. Coverage includes: Virtual and physical memory Processes, threads, and scheduling File system framework and UFS implementation Networking: TCP/IP implementation Resource management facilities and zones The Solaris Internals volumes are an indispensable reference for anyone using the Solaris 10 OS and OpenSolaris. See below for reader recommendations and a list of the book's contents.

• Part One: Introduction to Solaris Internals
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Part Two: The Process Model
• Chapter 2: The Solaris Process Model
• Chapter 3: Scheduling Classes and the Dispatcher
• Chapter 4: Interprocess Communication
• Chapter 5: Process Rights Management
• Part Three: Resource Management
• Chapter 6: Zones
• Chapter 7: Projects, Tasks, and Resource Controls
• Part Four: Memory
• Chapter 8: Introduction to Solaris Memory
• Chapter 9: Virtual Memory
• Chapter 10: Physical Memory
• Chapter 11: Kernel Memory
• Chapter 12: Hardware Address Translation
• Chapter 13: Working with Multiple Page Sizes in Solaris
• Part Five: File Systems
• Chapter 14: File System Framework
• Chapter 15: The UFS File System
• Part Six: Platform Specifics
• Chapter 16: Support for NUMA and CMT Hardware
• Chapter 17: Locking and Synchronization
• Part Seven: Networking
• Chapter 18: The Solaris Network Stack
• Part Eight: Kernel Services
• Chapter 19: Clocks and Timers
• Chapter 20: Task Queues
• Chapter 21: kmdb Implementation
• Appendices
• Appendix A: Kernel Virtual Address Maps
• Appendix B: Adding a System Call to Solaris
• Appendix C: A Sample Procfs Utility

"The Solaris Internals volumes are simply the best and most comprehensive treatment of the Solaris (and OpenSolaris) Operating Environment. Any person using Solaris -- in any capacity -- would be remiss not to include these two new volumes in their personal library. With advanced observability tools in Solaris (like DTrace), you will more often find yourself in what was previously unchartable territory. Solaris Internals, Second Edition, provides us a fantastic means to be able to quickly understand these systems and further explore the Solaris architecture -- especially when coupled with OpenSolaris source availability."

-- Jarod Jenson, chief systems architect, Aeysis

"The Solaris Internals volumes by Jim Mauro and Richard McDougall must be on your bookshelf if you are interested in in-depth knowledge of Solaris Operating System internals and architecture. As a senior UNIX engineer for many years, I found the first edition of Solaris Internals the only fully comprehensive source for kernel developers, systems programmers, and systems administrators. The new second edition, with the companion performance and debugging book, is an indispensable reference set, containing many useful and practical explanations of Solaris and its underlying subsystems, including tools and methods for observing and analyzing any system running Solaris 10 or OpenSolaris."

-- Marc Strahl, senior UNIX engineer