Solaris Admin Series, part 1: this is the first post in a long-running series on Oracle Solaris 10 and Solaris 11.4 system administration. Next up: SPARC vs x86 platforms and the sun4u/sun4v architectures.
Before you touch a disk, a zone or a logical domain, you need to know exactly which Solaris you are looking at, how it gets fixes, and how long Oracle will keep supporting it. This guide covers where Solaris came from, every Solaris 10 update and Solaris 11 release, how the support lifecycle works, how to identify the release and patch level on a running box, and how to decide between Solaris 10 and Solaris 11.4 today.
Applies to: both Solaris 10 (SPARC and x86) and Solaris 11 (11.4 on SPARC and x86-64). The commands and differences are called out per release throughout.
Prerequisites
- Shell access to a Solaris 10 or Solaris 11 system (a VirtualBox VM running the free Solaris 11.4 CBE release is fine for following along)
- A normal user account; none of the identification commands below need root
- For checking available updates on Solaris 11.4, a configured
solarispublisher (the support repository needs a My Oracle Support key and certificate)
A short history: SunOS to Oracle Solaris
Sun Microsystems shipped SunOS 1.0 in 1982, based on BSD UNIX. In 1992 Sun moved to a System V Release 4 (SVR4) base and branded the result Solaris 2.0, with the kernel itself called SunOS 5.0. That split naming survives today: Solaris 10 is SunOS 5.10 and Solaris 11 is SunOS 5.11, which is why uname -r never says 10 or 11 on its own.
| Release | SunOS version | Year | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solaris 2.0 to 2.6 | 5.0 to 5.6 | 1992 to 1997 | SVR4 base, the start of the modern /etc layout and packaging |
| Solaris 7 | 5.7 | 1998 | First 64-bit kernel on UltraSPARC |
| Solaris 8 | 5.8 | 2000 | IPv6 and IPMP; still found running in Solaris 8 branded zones |
| Solaris 9 | 5.9 | 2002 | Resource manager, Solaris Volume Manager bundled |
| Solaris 10 | 5.10 | 2005 | Zones, DTrace, SMF, Predictive Self-Healing (FMA), later ZFS and ZFS root |
| Solaris 11 11/11 | 5.11 | 2011 | IPS packaging, ZFS-only root, boot environments, Automated Installer |
| Solaris 11.1 to 11.3 | 5.11 | 2012 to 2015 | Kernel zones (11.2), Unified Archives (11.2), OpenStack, many ZFS and network improvements |
| Solaris 11.4 | 5.11 | 2018 | Continuous delivery: no 11.5 planned, all new work ships as SRUs |
Oracle bought Sun in January 2010 and stopped publishing OpenSolaris source later that year. The community carried the last open code forward as illumos, which underpins OpenIndiana, OmniOS and SmartOS. Those are useful to know about and share a lot of commands with Solaris, but they are separate operating systems: this series covers Oracle Solaris only.
Solaris 10 updates, from 3/05 to 1/13
Solaris 10 was never replaced by a 10.1. Instead Sun and then Oracle shipped numbered updates, each a new install image named by month and year. The last one, Solaris 10 1/13 (Update 11), is the final Solaris 10 release; after it, systems only receive patches.
| Update | Name | Notable additions |
|---|---|---|
| GA | 3/05 | Zones, DTrace, SMF, FMA |
| U1 | 1/06 | GRUB on x86 |
| U2 | 6/06 | ZFS (data pools only) |
| U3 to U5 | 11/06, 8/07, 5/08 | Branded zones, IP instances, CPU caps, many ZFS updates |
| U6 | 10/08 | ZFS root pools and Live Upgrade to ZFS |
| U7 to U10 | 5/09, 10/09, 9/10, 8/11 | ZFS features, zone migration, flash archives improvements |
| U11 | 1/13 | Final release; the base for all current Solaris 10 patching |
Two practical consequences: any Solaris 10 install you build today should be 1/13, and a box that says it is on an older update can still be patched up to the same level, but it will keep reporting its original update name in /etc/release.
Solaris 11 releases and the SRU model
Solaris 11 shipped as 11/11, then point releases 11.1, 11.2, 11.3 and 11.4. Since 11.4 (August 2018) Oracle follows a continuous delivery model: there is no 11.5, and features and fixes arrive as Support Repository Updates (SRUs) delivered through IPS with pkg update.
- SRUs are numbered after the release, so 11.4 SRU 96 shows up as version
11.4.96.227.1(release.SRU.build.respin). - From SRU 92 (April 2026) Oracle ships two updates per quarter: a Critical Patch Update (CPU) with security and bug fixes, then a feature SRU about six weeks later. SRU 96, released on 20 October 2026, is the October 2026 CPU.
- SRUs come from the
supportrepository atpkg.oracle.com/solaris/support, which needs a support contract. The publicreleaserepository carries the GA bits and the free Common Build Environment (CBE) builds for development and non-production use. - Solaris 11.3 customers on Extended Support get Extended Support Updates (ESUs) instead of SRUs; the October 2026 bulletin lists 11.3 ESU 36.37.
Support lifecycle: the dates that matter in 2026
Oracle’s operating system support runs in three stages. Premier Support gives full maintenance and new fixes, normally for ten years from GA. Extended Support is an extra-cost period of continued fixes. Sustaining Support is indefinite, but you only get fixes that already exist, so no new security patches.
| Release | GA | Premier Support ends | Extended Support ends | Sustaining Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solaris 8 | Feb 2000 | Mar 2009 | Mar 2012 | Indefinite |
| Solaris 9 | Mar 2002 | Oct 2011 | Oct 2014 | Indefinite |
| Solaris 10 | Jan 2005 | Jan 2018 (ended) | Jan 2027 | Indefinite |
| Solaris 11.3 | Oct 2015 | Jan 2021 (ended) | Jan 2027 | Indefinite |
| Solaris 11.4 | Aug 2018 | Nov 2031 (at least) | Nov 2037 (at least) | Indefinite |
| Solaris 10 Containers on 11.4 | Mar 2020 | Jan 2027 | Not offered | Indefinite |
Source: Oracle’s Lifetime Support Policy and the Oracle Solaris blog announcement New end date of Extended Support for Oracle Solaris 10 and 11.3. Oracle gives these dates to the month only and reviews the 11.4 dates every year, so always re-check the current Oracle Lifetime Support Policy before you commit to a plan.
The headline for anyone still running Solaris 10 or 11.3: Extended Support ends in January 2027, a few months from the date of this post. After that you can keep the systems on Sustaining Support, but no new fixes will be written for them.
Step 1: Identify the release on a running system
Start with /etc/release. It exists on both releases and is the quickest answer to “what is this box?”.
Solaris 10
$ cat /etc/release
Oracle Solaris 10 1/13 s10s_u11wos_24a SPARC
Copyright (c) 1983, 2013, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Assembled 17 January 2013The update name (1/13) and build string (s10s_u11wos_24a, update 11) tell you the install media. Older systems show Sun Microsystems in the copyright line and an older update name such as 10/09 s10s_u8wos_08a.
Solaris 11.4
$ cat /etc/release
Oracle Solaris 11.4 SPARC
Copyright (c) 1983, 2026, Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Assembled 29 September 2026Sample output; your assembly date and copyright year follow the SRU you are on. On Solaris 11, /etc/release is updated by pkg update, so it is a reasonable first check, but the authoritative SRU level comes from the entire package (Step 3).
Step 2: Check the kernel version and architecture
$ uname -a
SunOS sol10 5.10 Generic_150400-67 sun4v sparc sun4v
$ uname -a
SunOS sol114 5.11 11.4.96.227.1 sun4v sparc sun4vThe fields are host name, SunOS release, kernel version, machine class, processor type and platform. On Solaris 10 the kernel version field is the kernel patch ID: Generic_150400-xx on SPARC and Generic_150401-xx on x86 for 1/13-based patch levels. On Solaris 11.4 the same field (uname -v) reports the SRU version directly. The numbers above are examples; yours depend on patch level.
Confirm the kernel is 64-bit and see the instruction set (both releases):
$ isainfo -kv
64-bit sparcv9 kernel modules
$ isainfo -kv
64-bit amd64 kernel modulesSolaris 11 only runs 64-bit kernels. Solaris 10 on very old x86 hardware could boot a 32-bit kernel, which matters if you ever find one.
Step 3: Find the patch or SRU level
Solaris 10: patches with showrev and patchadd
Solaris 10 uses SVR4 packages and numbered patches. List installed patches and check for the kernel patch:
$ showrev -p | grep 150400
Patch: 150400-67 Obsoletes: ... Requires: ... Incompatibles: Packages: SUNWckr, ...
$ patchadd -p | wc -lFixes for Solaris 10 arrive as the Recommended Patchset or the quarterly CPU patchset from My Oracle Support. Each is unpacked and applied with its own installpatchset script, ideally into an alternate boot environment with Live Upgrade. Later posts in the series walk through that procedure.
Solaris 11: the entire incorporation
On Solaris 11 the entire package pins every system package to one consistent build, so its version is your SRU level:
$ pkg info entire
Name: entire
Summary: entire incorporation including Support Repository Update (Oracle Solaris 11.4.96.227.1).
Category: Meta Packages/Incorporations
State: Installed
Publisher: solaris
Version: 11.4 (Oracle Solaris 11.4.96.227.1)
...Compare it with what your configured repository offers. The -n flag makes pkg update a dry run, so nothing changes:
$ pkg publisher
PUBLISHER TYPE STATUS P LOCATION
solaris origin online F https://pkg.oracle.com/solaris/support/
$ pkg list -af entire | head -3
NAME (PUBLISHER) VERSION IFO
entire 11.4-11.4.96.0.1.227.1 i--
...
$ pfexec pkg update -nvThe version strings above are sample output. Never remove entire to get around a dependency conflict; Oracle treats a system without it as unsupported, and upgrades stop working predictably.
Step 4: Decide which release to run
For anything new, the answer is almost always Solaris 11.4 at the latest SRU. Use this checklist when you inherit a mixed estate:
- New deployments: Solaris 11.4. It has the longest support runway (Premier Support to at least November 2031), ZFS-only root with boot environments for safe updates, IPS packaging, kernel zones, and current open source components.
- Hardware check: Solaris 11.4 needs SPARC T4 or newer (including M7, M8, S7 and T8), Fujitsu SPARC64 X, X+ or XII, or a supported x86-64 system. sun4u boxes such as M-series M4000/M5000 or older UltraSPARC cannot run 11.4; they top out at Solaris 10 or 11.3.
- Applications certified only on Solaris 10: Oracle’s Binary Compatibility Guarantee means well-behaved Solaris 10 binaries generally run on 11.4. Test them there first. If they truly need a Solaris 10 userland, move them into a
solaris10branded zone on an 11.4 host, which keeps the hardware and kernel supported. - Solaris 11.3 systems: upgrade in place to 11.4 with
pkg updateinto a new boot environment once the hardware qualifies. This is the easiest migration in the whole Solaris world. - Solaris 10 systems you cannot move by January 2027: document them, keep them on the last patchset, isolate them on the network, and budget for Sustaining Support or third-party support.
Verification
You should now be able to answer four questions for any Solaris host, which is a good habit to put at the top of every runbook and change ticket:
# 1. Release and install media
cat /etc/release
# 2. Kernel version (patch ID on 10, SRU on 11.4) and platform
uname -a
# 3. Kernel bitness and ISA
isainfo -kv
# 4. Patch or SRU level
showrev -p | grep -c Patch # Solaris 10
pkg info entire | grep Version # Solaris 11Troubleshooting and gotchas
uname -rsays 5.11, not 11.4. That is expected: it is the SunOS kernel release. Useuname -vorpkg info entirefor the 11.x point release and SRU.- /etc/release says 10/09 but the box is fully patched. Solaris 10 never rewrites
/etc/releasewhen you patch. Trust the kernel patch inuname -vandshowrev -p. pkg list -af entireonly shows old versions. You are pointed at the publicreleaserepository. SRUs need thesupportrepository plus a key and certificate from Oracle’s certificate request page.- “Solaris 11 Express” on an old lab box. That was a 2010 preview release with no upgrade path you should rely on; reinstall with 11.4.
- Confusing illumos distributions with Solaris. OpenIndiana and OmniOS also report
SunOS 5.11. Check/etc/release; Oracle builds say Oracle Solaris and shipentirefrom thesolarispublisher. - Planning against the wrong end-of-support date. Old blog posts quote 2034 for 11.4 Extended Support; Oracle moved it to November 2037 in January 2024. Check the current policy document, not memory.
What’s next in the Solaris Admin Series
The next post compares SPARC and x86 Solaris: sun4u vs sun4v, what OpenBoot and ILOM give you on SPARC, and which features (such as LDoms) exist on only one platform. After that the series tours the Solaris filesystem layout before moving on to installation, boot, disks, ZFS, SMF, packaging, networking, zones and logical domains.
Official references: Oracle Solaris 11.4 documentation library and Oracle Solaris 10 1/13 documentation library.