Nexenta OS Alpha 5 running GNOME 2.14 |
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| Company / developer | Nexenta Systems / HackZone members |
| OS family | Unix-like |
| Working state | Current |
| Source model | Open source |
| Latest stable release | 3.0.1 (September 17, 2010) [+/−] |
| Latest unstable release | 3.0 Release Candidate 3 (July 28, 2010) [+/−] |
| Kernel type | Monolithic (OpenSolaris) |
| Default user interface | Command line/GNOME |
| License | Various |
| Official website | www.nexenta.org |
Nexenta OS, officially known as the Nexenta Core Platform, is a computer operating system based on OpenSolaris and Ubuntu that runs on IA-32- and x86-64-based systems. It emerged in fall 2005, after Sun Microsystems started the OpenSolaris project in June of that year.[1] Version 1.0 was released in February 2008. Nexenta Core Platform is the first operating system to combine the OpenSolaris kernel with GNU userland tools. It aims to bring technologies such as ZFS and Zones to the GNU/Debian community. An additional purpose of the OS is to provide a kernel allowing proprietary closed source hardware drivers to be produced for inclusion in an open source operating system.[2] Nexenta Systems, Inc. initiated the project and sponsors its continued development.
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There were initially two official APT repositories: "testing" and "unstable", totalling over 9000 packages. A third "stable" was added for the first official release. Nexenta OS is available as InstallCD and VMware images. A Live CD is also available, but only for releases up to alpha 5.
Nexenta repositories follow the general Debian structure (main contrib non-free). Stable releases use a subset of this structure. Packages originate from Debian GNU/Linux.
Since Nexenta OS does not use the Linux kernel, and Sun only recently began releasing the code of their Solaris operating system as free and open source software, it supports less diverse hardware than other Debian variants.
The Nexenta OS team has decided to focus on a minimal GNU/OpenSolaris effort called the Nexenta Core Platform (NCP)[3] which forms the basis of the NexentaStor NAS storage solution. Version 1.0 of Nexenta Core Platform was released on February 10, 2008.
NexentaStor is a proprietary operating system built by Nexenta Systems on top of the Nexenta Core Platform. It is optimized for use in virtualized server environments including NAS, iSCSI, and Fibre Channel applications, and is built around the ZFS file system. It features iSCSI support, unlimited incremental backups or 'snapshots', snapshot mirroring (replication), block level mirroring (CDP), integrated search within ZFS snapshots and a custom API. Through its focus on ZFS, it carries with it potential benefits for virtualized server farms in terms of performance and thin provisioning. The operating system is currently distributed as ISO and VMware disk images with pricing determined on a per-terabyte and per-server licensing basis.[7]
A "community edition" is available free of charge for users with less than 18 terabyte of used disk space.[8] It is the same as the enterprise version, except for the lack of paid plugins and commercial support. It can install many of the free and open source plugins that are developed and hosted on the community edition website.
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