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Chapter 30
Planning the lx Branded Zone Configuration (Overview)
This chapter describes what you need to do before you can configure an lx branded zone on your x64 or x86 based system. This chapter also describes how to use the zonecfg command.
System and Space Requirements
The following primary machine considerations are associated with the use of lx branded zones.
The machine must be either x64 or x86 based.
Sufficient disk space to hold the files that are unique within each lx zone must be available. The disk space requirements for an lx zone are determined by the size and number of RPMs, or Linux packages, that are installed.
The lx brand supports only the whole root model, so each installed zone will have its own copy of every file.
There are no limits on how much disk space can be consumed by a zone. The global administrator is responsible for space restriction. The global administrator must ensure that local storage is sufficient to hold a non-global zone's root file system. Given sufficient storage, even a small uniprocessor system can support a number of zones running simultaneously.
Restricting the Size of the Branded Zone
The following options can be used to restrict zone size:
You can place the zone on a lofi-mounted partition. This action will limit the amount of space consumed by the zone to that of the file used by lofi. For more information, see the lofiadm(1M) and lofi(7D) man pages.
You can use soft partitions to divide disk slices or logical volumes into partitions. You can use these partitions as zone roots, and thus limit per-zone disk consumption. The soft partition limit is 8192 partitions. For more information, see Chapter 12, "Soft Partitions (Overview)," in Solaris Volume Manager Administration Guide.
You can use the standard partitions of a disk for zone roots, and thus limit per-zone disk consumption.
Branded Zone Network Address
Each zone that requires network connectivity has one or more unique IP addresses. IPv4 addresses are supported. You must assign an IPv4 address for the zone. For more information, see Zone Network Address.
lx Branded Zone Configuration Process
The zonecfg command is used to:
Set the brand for the zone
Create the configuration for the lx zone
Verify the configuration to determine whether the specified resources and properties are legal and internally consistent on a hypothetical x86 or x64 based system
Perform a brand-specific verification. The verification ensures the following:
The zone cannot have any inherited package directories, ZFS datasets, or added devices.
If the zone is configured to use audio, the specified devices (if any) must be none, default, or a single digit.
The check performed by the zonecfg verify command for a given configuration verifies the following:
Ensures that a zone path is specified
Ensures that all of the required properties for each resource are specified
Ensures that brand requirements are met
For more information about the zonecfg command, see the zonecfg(1M) man page.
lx Branded Zone Configuration Components
This section covers the following components:
Zone resources and properties that can be configured using the zonecfg command
Resources included in the configuration by default
Zone Name and Zone Path in an lx Branded Zone
You must choose a name and a path for your zone.
Zone Autoboot in an lx Branded Zone
The autoboot property setting determines whether the zone is automatically booted when the global zone is booted.
Resource Pool Association in an lx Branded Zone
If you plan to associate the zone with a resource pool other than the system default, configure resource pools as described in Chapter 13, Creating and Administering Resource Pools (Tasks). Also see Resource Pools Used in Zones.
If you do not have resource pools configured, you can still specify that a subset of the system's processors be dedicated to a non-global zone while it is running by using the dedicated-cpu resource. The system will dynamically create a temporary pool for use while the zone is running.
Note - The dedicated-cpu resource is incompatible with the pool property.
Specifying the dedicated-cpu Resource
The dedicated-cpu resource specifies that a subset of the system's processors should be dedicated to a non-global zone while it is running. When the zone boots, the system will dynamically create a temporary pool for use while the zone is running.
The dedicated-cpu resource sets limits for ncpus, and optionally, importance.
ncpus | Specify the number of CPUs or specify a range, such as 2-4 CPUs. If you specify a range, also do the following:
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importance | If you are using a CPU range, also set the importance property, The importance property, which is optional, defines the relative importance of the pool. This property is only needed when you specify a range for ncpus and are using dynamic resource pools managed by poold. If poold is not running, then importance is ignored. If poold is running and importance is not set, importance defaults to 1. For more information, see pool.importance Property Constraint. |
Note - The cpu-shares rctl and the dedicated-cpu resource are incompatible.