Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The grouping of hardware components is called a
hard partition
, or
domain
, and
is an independent system resource that runs its own copy of the Oracle Solaris
operating system. Domains divide a system's total resources into separate units
that are not affected by the operations of the other units. Instantiating a num-
ber of Dynamic Domains on a Sun SPARC Enterprise M-Series server divides
the system into multiple electrically isolated partitions. Because the SPARC64
processors do not implement the Hyper Privileged Mode instruction, it is not pos-
sible to divide up the resources using a hypervisor. Instead, each Dynamic Domain
executes a unique instance of Oracle Solaris. Because each domain has its own
Solaris instance, each domain can run a different Solaris 10 update level. Also,
because isolation is implemented in the hardware, configurations can be created
in which software changes, reboots, and potential faults in one domain do not
affect applications running in other domains.
The Sun SPARC Enterprise M-Series uses an embedded computer called the
eXtended System Control Facility (XSCF—a service processor) to configure the
system and set up the domains. The very nature of hard partitions means ele-
ments such as security and data isolation are even more tightly integrated than
with other virtualization technologies. All domains are created and altered from
the XSCF. A command-line interface (CLI) and a browser user interface (BUI) are
available. For CLI, access occurs either over a serial interface or over the network
using SSH or Telnet.
A feature of Sun SPARC Enterprise M-Series servers known as Dynamic
Reconfiguration (DR) supports the movement of CPU, memory, and I/O resources
from one Dynamic Domain to another without the need for downtime. This ca-
pability can lead to more flexible and cost-effective management of IT resources.
A domain is an independent system resource that runs its own copy of Oracle
Solaris (Solaris 10 10/08 or later). Domains divide a system's total resources into
separate units that are not affected by operations of the other units. Each domain
uses a separate boot disk with its own instance of Solaris as well as I/O inter-
faces to network and disk resources. CPU/memory boards and I/O boards can be
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