Only 6 months left for Solaris 10 and 11.3

Oracle does provide patches under Extended Support for 
Solaris 10 and Solaris 11.3 till January 2027. 

The dates are documented in 
https://www.oracle.com/us/support/library/lifetime-support-hardware-301321.pdf

You can continue to run this Solaris versions, but who does
that without new patches and the security risks?

Migrate to Solaris 11.4, which will receive patches and new features
till January 2037 for sure, probably longer. Oracle extended
this date in the past already several times.

For Solaris 11.3 systems it is just SRU updates to Solaris 11.4.
For Solaris 10 you have to move the systems into Solaris branded zones
on Solaris 11.4. Your Solaris 10 apps and binaries will then run on 
a current Solaris 11.4 kernel.

If you need help with such migrations you can use our JomaSoft
VDCF management tool and we offer migration and consulting services.

https://www.jomasoft.ch

New Features in Solaris 11.4 SRU93 (June 2026)

Another quarterly Solaris SRU including new features

Kernel Crypto Framework SMF Policy
NFS Sockets

FOSS: Perl 5.42, PHP 8.5, bash5.3
EOF: mySQL 8.0, IKEv1

Oracle changes Solaris 11.4 SRU delivery

In the past Oracle provided Solaris SRUs (Support Repository Updates)
each month. This does change now. The types of SRUs are reduced
from 3 types to 2 types. Instead of 12 SRUs per year we will see 8 SRUs
per year.

a) Feature SRU (NEW)

This will be available early in the months 
March, June, September, December
Around 6 weeks after the CPUs.

This SRU includes new features, tools, packages, version updates
and removal of old, outdated/insecure software.

I would recommend to install this SRU on test systems to verify
application compatibility and identify required configuration changes.


b) CPU (Critical Patch Updates)

No changes here. 

Available January, April, July, October
The release dates are predefined and are published on
https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/#CriticalPatchUpdates

This SRU includes critical fixes and security updates.
Most of our enterprise customers update to this SRU.


For critical issues Oracle will release individual 
IDRs (Interim Diagnostic or Relief).

Solaris 11.4 Updates/Patching Overview

CBE (Common Build Environment)

For developers Oracle provides a free version for software development
and testing. No patches are available for this version, but around every
year a new version is published. This version is named 
CBE "Common Build Environment" and can be downloaded here

https://www.oracle.com/solaris/solaris11/downloads/solaris-downloads.html

SRU (Support Repository Updates)

For customers with a support contract Oracle provides monthly updates.
The updates are cumulative. If you update to the current SRU you
receive all the updates of the previous SRUs from the past. 
Current SRU as of March 2026 is number 91. This is the 91th update
since the first release of Solaris 11.4 GA in 11/2018.

SRUs can be received by the solaris pkg command from
the Solaris Support Repo
https://pkg.oracle.com/solaris/support

or download the SRU ZIP files from
My Oracle Support / Solaris 11.4 SRU Index Page
https://support.oracle.com/support/?anchorId=&documentId=KB631614

The benefit of monthly updates is the customers are using
the same software levels. A major step forward in
standardization compared to the times of Solaris 10 (or Linux) 
where a lot customers used a different set of individual patches.


There are 3 different types of SRUs. 

a) Feature SRU

Available February, May, August, November
This SRU includes new features, tools, packages, version updates
and removal of old, outdated/insecure software.

I would recommend to install this SRU on test systems to verify
application compatibility and identify required configuration changes.


b) Stabilisation SRU

Available March, June, September, December
This SRU includes small updates, bug fixes and security updates.

c) CPU (Critical Patch Updates)

Available January, April, July, October
The release dates are predefined and are published on
https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/#CriticalPatchUpdates

This SRU includes critical fixes and security updates.
Most of our enterprise customers update to this SRU.

IDR (Interim Diagnostic or Relief)

For critical issues Oracle releases IDRs, which are 
individual patches. They are available on request
from Oracle Support. Some of them can be applied
online using Ksplice without reboot.

Summary

Using the options above Oracle provides 

- quick fixes for critical issues using IDRs
- standardized and well tested monthly SRU updates
- free CBE updates for developers to develop and test
  the applications

and the best: Oracle guarantees this updates till AT LEAST January 2037

This update solutions are one of the reasons I like this stable and long term
Solaris Operating System.

New Features in Solaris 11.4 SRU90 (Feb 2026)

Another quarterly Solaris SRU including new features

devnm -s
beadm preserve policy
ls -sh output change
bootadm GRUB unrestricted property
ikev2cert PIN from SMF
nscfg check
new smf svc:/system/check/name-services:default
ipadm _forward_src_routed IPv6 property removed

FOSS: BIND 9.20
EOF: GCC 12

New Features in Solaris 11.4 SRU87 (Nov 2025)

Another quarterly Solaris SRU including new features

useradd -N / -U 
cableinfo
fmthard -c / -e
ldm add-/list-/remove-devalias


FOSS: GCC 15
EOF: PHP 8.1, Python 3.9

New Features in Solaris 11.4 SRU84 (Aug 2025)

Another quarterly Solaris SRU including new features

format -r / -n / -q
Threshold alerts for /tmp usage
Improved nscd resilience

FOSS: OpenSSH 10, sudo 1.9.17p1
EOF: Ruby 3.1, PHP 8.1

New Features in Solaris 11.4 SRU81 (May 2025)

Another quarterly Solaris SRU including new features

GRUB 2.12
Zone Migration requires NTP
ipadm set-ifprop -p send-unreachables
dladm show-transceiver
s10 brand compressed install archives
ldm set-logctl =func =v (verbosity)

OVM Manager SPARC Agent does not work anymore

FOSS: PHP 8.4
EOF: OpenSSL 1.0.2, Ruby 3.1, GCC 7, stackdb SMF

More details on the Solaris Blog

New Features in Solaris 11.4 SRU75 (Nov 2024)

Another quarterly Solaris SRU including new features

zfs mount/unmount -r
pgrep/pkill -Z
cups SMF disabled by default

FOSS: gcc14
EOF: snort, Node.js 18

 

New Features in Solaris 11.4 SRU72 (Aug 2024)

Another quarterly Solaris SRU including new features

System Account Check Service (svc:/system/check/user)
iostat sstore collection
Per-disk kstats for vds/zvblk
WebUI - LDom sheets
ZFS clonedir

FOSS: +suricata (IDS)

EOF: Python 3.7, Tomcat 8.5, Perl 5.36, Snort


Find details on the Oracle Solaris Blog

 

New Features in Solaris 11.4 SRU63 (Nov 2023)

Another quarterly Solaris SRU including new features

LDAP setup for Active Directory domain
ldap commands: -h / -p have been deprecated
Strict Mode for Live Memory Reconfig for Kernel Zones
ZFS File Retention Autodelete and Hold
prstat -s usr/sys (sort key)
sysadm maintain noreboot


FOSS: GCC 13
EOF: GCC 10
Removed: SMF svc:/system/auto-update:ehc

New Features in Solaris 11.4 SRU60 (Aug 2023)

Another quarterly Solaris SRU including new features

iostat -S (separator)
coreadm -d asr to disable ASR SR
svccfg setnotify problem-diagnosed asr:inactive to disable ASR SR
no /etc/vfstab entry required anymore for swap
fcinfo hba-port -T (tabular format)
pkgadd: -d http & https removed

FOSS: OpenSSH_9.3p1
EOF: pcre
Removed: CVS, perl 5.32

 

New Features in Solaris 11.4 SRU57 (May 2023)

Another quarterly Solaris SRU including new features

Kernel Zone live storage migration support for individual disk operations
Kernel Zone Virtual CPU binding improvements
Kernel Zone MRP reservation for Nested Page Tables
Comments for reboot(8), halt(8), and poweroff(8)
pbind(8) default output change for querying multi-LWP processes
Courteous NFS Server
Force flag for shrinking ZFS volumes
ZFS send with raw crypto


FOSS: PHP 8.2, MySQL 8.0
EOF:  CVS, MySQL 5.7
Removed: Python 2.7, PHP 7.4, Ruby 2.6, OpenSSL 1.1.1

New Features in Solaris 11.4 SRU51 (November 2022)

Another quarterly Solaris SRU including new features

Live Memory Reconfiguration for Kernel Zones on x86
Setting disk IDs for Kernel Zone live storage migration
Propagating hosting environment information in to zones
zpool/zfs -o atime/pathname
/dev/full device
mkfile size argument update
FOSS: GCC 12, perl 5.36, Unbound DNS server
EOF: hal-cups-utils

Stay tuned for more blogs about this new features

New Features in Solaris 11.4 SRU48 (August 2022)

Another quarterly Solaris "feature" SRU including

Kernel Zones: Live storage migration
New defaults for Auditing
quota check removed from /etc/profile
zfs list/get -u (unsorted)
Memory Reservation Pool for OSM
svcs ISO standard date format
Python 2.7 Freeze/Remove admin helper scripts
Node.js 18 for Solaris x86
Configurable ldmd certificate locations for LDoms
Ruby 3.1

and many, many FOSS updates

Stay tuned for more blogs about this new features

Current State and Updates for Oracle Solaris 01/2022

Oracle Solaris 11.4 is supported by Oracle at *least* till 11/2034.
I'm not aware of any other Vendor with such a long term guarantee.

Today, 18th January 2022 the SRU41 (CPU JAN 2022) was released.
All the details on MOS in Doc 2433412.1
Every quarter a CPU (Critical Patch Update) is made available,
which is recommended to be installed on production systems.

Every month after the CPU a SRU with several new features
is released. Stay tunned for February 2022 !

Additionally Patches for Solaris 10 and ESU for Solaris 11.3
was made available. This updates are only available for Customers
with "Extended/Vintage Support"

Solaris 11.3 ESU 36.27   MOS 2759706.1
Solaris 10   a few new patches

This Extended Support for the older Solaris Releases ends on 01/2024.
Time to plan and prepare upgrades to Solaris 11.4.

Do you have the overview of your Solaris server patch levels?

To have updated systems is very important for security and stability reasons.

Oracle releases patch updates each quarter for Solaris 10 and Solaris 11.3 till 01/2024.
This patches only fix the most important issues, but not all.
To receive this patches for the older Solaris releases you need Extended Support.

It is highly recommended to update to the current Solaris 11.4 release.
For Solaris 11.4 there is a SRU (Support Repository Update) each month.

Make sure you know which Solaris server are not yet on the recommended level.

With our JomaSoft VDCF management tool for Solaris you have a good realtime overview of the Levels.

Learn more about VDCF
bitly.com/jomasoft

 

Oracle Solaris 11.4 - Sparse IPS Repository Updates

Oracle releases Solaris 11 Updates (SRU) each month. Such SRUs include all the changed packages (enhancements and fixes) since the GA version. Overtime the size of the SRU increases.

The last SRU 35 for Solaris 11.3 consists of 6 files with 8.2 GB in total.

For user without internet connection from the Solaris systems to Oracle this manual downloads takes some time each month.

With Solaris 11.4 Oracle introduced an additional download option. The Sparse Repository Updates, which only include the changes between the SRUs. This is ideal for user who download each SRU every month. The download size is reduced. The SRU10 Sparse Update (June 2019) consists of 3.5 GB (2 files) compared to the full SRU10 which is 8.6 GB (5 files).

If you don't download each SRU you still use the full SRUs.

On My Oracle Support (MOS) you can find all the Solaris 11.4 SRU on this index page:

Oracle Solaris 11.4 Support Repository Updates (SRU) Index (Doc ID 2433412.1)