Solaris in use in the DoD?

as400 · 10-15-2007, 02:01 PM

Hi,

U just read this article below that reads that the DoD uses Solaris as their systems? Is this true? Can someone actually confirm this please? Thanks.

http://iase.disa.mil/index2.html

http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflas...20061031.2.xml

bsdunix · 10-15-2007, 02:29 PM

Senator, I can not confirm or deny what the DOD uses.

Ok, Ok, I'll spill it. Yes, DOD uses Solaris. DOD has been using Solaris, as well as it's predecessor, SunOS. If you want to go back further, read up on DARPA and BSD.

as400 · 10-16-2007, 02:56 AM

I went to the DARPA webpage but I could not find anything Solaris related.

bsdunix · 10-16-2007, 08:18 AM

Quote:

I went to the DARPA webpage but I could not find anything Solaris related.

I mentioned DARPA as a DOD referenced timeline to present day Solaris and modern day Unix flavors. Solaris first publicly appeared in the early 1990's, but as I said it's predecessor SunOS was used by the DOD prior to that. SunOS is based on BSD. I know this because I've been using computers before there was even a Sun Microsystems. Please excuse the history lesson if your not interested.

AN INTRODUCTION TO SOLARIS
http://www.informit.com/content/imag...0130224960.pdf

Sun’s UNIX operating environment began life as a port of BSD UNIX to the Sun-1 workstation. The early versions of Sun’s UNIX were known as SunOS, which is the name used for the core operating system component of Solaris.

SunOS 1.0 was based on a port of BSD 4.1 from Berkeley labs in 1982. At that time, SunOS was implemented on Sun’s Motorola 68000-based uniprocessor workstations. SunOS was small and compact, and the workstations had only a few MIPS of processor speed and around one megabyte of memory.

Berkeley Software Distribution
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSD

The success of 3BSD was a major factor in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) decision to fund Berkeley's Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG), which would develop a standard Unix platform for future DARPA research in the VLSI Project. CSRG released 4BSD, containing numerous improvements to the 3BSD system, in October 1980.

as400 · 10-16-2007, 09:51 AM

But just to clarify that the DoD still used Trusted versions of Solaris up to this day?

bsdunix · 10-16-2007, 12:00 PM

FAQ: Securing Solaris for use in the US DoD
http://blogs.sun.com/jimlaurent/entr...ris_for_use_in

I don't know what else to tell you. A trusted server/workstation in the DOD is probably on a classified network and you'd need a clearance to access and/or manage it. Is the DOD using Solaris - Yes. Is the DOD using trusted Solaris - Probably. If your looking for an official answer I suggest you ask the Secretary of Defense.
http://www.defenselink.mil/osd/topleaders.aspx

choogendyk · 10-16-2007, 07:51 PM

I don't see any mention of the fact that Sun transitioned from a BSD based system with SunOS to a System V based system with Solaris. Although Solaris 7 can be referred to as SunOS 5.7, it's notably different from the preceding SunOS. It still (even in Solaris 9, I'm not sure about 10) includes some BSD compatibility components, but it's foundation is different.

O'Reilly's "Unix in a Nutshell" goes over some of the family history of Unix and covers this.