Glossary

AMD-V

AMD's extensions that make the x86 architecture HVM-capable.

backend driver

Half of a virtual driver, providing an interface between the virtual device and an underlying real device. See frontend driver.

bare metal environment

A virtual environment where the virtualization product is directly installed on physical hardware, acting like a host operating system. The opposite of a hosted environment.

blessed

In Perl, the term used to denote class membership of an object.

brand

An instance of the BrandZ functionality, which provides non-global zones that contain non-native operating environments used for running applications.

branded zone

An isolated environment in which to run non-native applications in non-global zones.

cap

A limit that is placed on system resource usage.

capping

The process of placing a limit on system resource usage.

control domain

Fully privileged control domain 0, can create and destroy other domains, access real hardware, and so forth. See also guest domain.

default pool

The pool created by the system when pools are enabled.

See also resource pool.

default processor set

The processor set created by the system when pools are enabled.

See also processor set.

disjoint

A type of set in which the members of the set do not overlap and are not duplicated.

domain

Virtual machine instance.

dynamic configuration

Information about the disposition of resources within the resource pools framework for a given system at a point in time.

dynamic reconfiguration

On SPARC based systems, the ability to reconfigure hardware while the system is running. Also known as DR.

extended accounting

A flexible way to record resource consumption on a task basis or process basis in the Solaris Operating System.

fair share scheduler

A scheduling class, also known as FSS, that allows you to allocate CPU time that is based on shares. Shares define the portion of the system's CPU resources allocated to a project.

frontend driver

A virtual device and its associated driver in a guest domain that communicates with a backend hosted in another guest domain. See backend driver.

FSS

See fair share scheduler.

global administrator

An administrator with superuser privileges or the Primary Administrator role. When logged in to the global zone, the global administrator can monitor and control the system as a whole.

See also zone administrator.

global scope

Actions that apply to resource control values for every resource control on the system.

global zone

The zone contained on every Solaris system. When non-global zones are in use, the global zone is both the default zone for the system and the zone used for system-wide administrative control.

See also non-global zone.

guest domain

Completely unprivileged virtual machine. Only virtual devices are accessible. Also see control domain.

heap

Process-allocated scratch memory.

HVM

Hardware-assisted virtual machine. These are virtual machines that can take advantage of Intel-VT and AMD-V extensions.

hypervisor

A layer between software environments and physical hardware that virtualizes the system's hardware.

Linux branded zone

Non-global zone that provides a Linux environment for applications.

local scope

Local actions taken on a process that attempts to exceed the control value.

locked memory

Memory that cannot be paged.

memory cap enforcement threshold

The percentage of physical memory utilization on the system that will trigger cap enforcement by the resource capping daemon.

naming service database

In the Projects and Tasks (Overview) chapter of this document, a reference to both LDAP containers and NIS maps.

non-global zone

A virtualized operating system environment created within a single instance of the Solaris Operating System. The Solaris Zones software partitioning technology is used to virtualize operating system services.

non-global zone administrator

See zone administrator.

page in

To read data from a file into physical memory one page at a time.

page out

To relocate pages to an area outside of physical memory.

paravirtualization

The paravirtualized domU operating system is ported to run on top of the hypervisor, and uses virtual network, disk, and console devices.

pool

See resource pool.

pool daemon

The poold system daemon that is active when dynamic resource allocation is required.

processor set

A disjoint grouping of CPUs. Each processor set can contain zero or more processors. A processor set is represented in the resource pools configuration as a resource element. Also referred to as a pset.

See also disjoint.

project

A network-wide administrative identifier for related work.

resident set size

The size of the resident set. The resident set is the set of pages that are resident in physical memory.

resource

An aspect of the computing system that can be manipulated with the intent to change application behavior.

resource capping daemon

A daemon that regulates the consumption of physical memory by processes running in projects that have resource caps defined.

resource consumer

Fundamentally, a Solaris process. Process model entities such as the project and the task provide ways of discussing resource consumption in terms of aggregated resource consumption.

resource control

A per-process, per-task, or per-project limit on the consumption of a resource.

resource management

A functionality that enables you to control how applications use available system resources.

resource partition

An exclusive subset of a resource. All of the partitions of a resource sum to represent the total amount of the resource available in a single executing Solaris instance.

resource pool

A configuration mechanism that is used to partition machine resources. A resource pool represents an association between groups of resources that can be partitioned.

resource set

A process-bindable resource. Most often used to refer to the objects constructed by a kernel subsystem offering some form of partitioning. Examples of resource sets include scheduling classes and processor sets.

RSS

See resident set size.

scanner

A kernel thread that identifies infrequently used pages. During low memory conditions, the scanner reclaims pages that have not been recently used.

Solaris Container

A complete runtime environment for applications. Resource management and Solaris Zones software partitioning technology are both parts of the container.

Solaris Containers for Linux Applications

A technology that enables the creation of a runtime environment for Linux applications in a non-global zone on x86 or x64 machines running the Solaris Operating System.

Solaris Zones

See Solaris Container. A software partitioning technology used to virtualize operating system services and provide an isolated, secure environment in which to run applications.

sparse root zone

A type of non-global zone that has inherit-pkg-dir resources and optimizes the sharing of objects.

static pools configuration

A representation of the way in which an administrator would like a system to be configured with respect to resource pools functionality.

task

In resource management, a process collective that represents a set of work over time. Each task is associated with one project.

VT-x

Intel's extensions that make the x86 architecture HVM-capable.

whole root zone

A type of non-global zone that does not have inherit-pkg-dir resources.

working set size

The size of the working set. The working set is the set of pages that the project workload actively uses during its processing cycle.

workload

An aggregation of all processes of an application or group of applications.

WSS

See also working set size.

zone administrator

An administrator having the Zone Management profile. The privileges of a zone administrator are confined to a non-global zone.

See also global administrator.

zone state

The status of a non-global zone. The zone state is one of configured, incomplete, installed, ready, running, or shutting down.