Sun Microsystems SOLARIS 10 - Manual (Page 40)

Version 3.1-en Solaris 10 Container Guide - 3.1 3. Use Cases Effective: 30/11/2009
3.18. Solaris Container Cluster (aka "zone cluster")
Requirement
[hs]
• In a virtualized environment based on Solaris containers, the administrator of a zone should
also be able to administer the cluster part of the application in the zone.
• The use of "capped" containers to minimize (Oracle) licensing fees should also be expanded to
include Oracle RAC (Real Application Cluster) environments (certification by Oracle is not yet
completed as of today (June 2009)).
Solution
[hs] Virtual clusters where containers form the virtual nodes of the cluster are implemented through
the implementation of Solaris Container Clusters. The administrator of the global Sun Cluster
environment creates the virtual cluster and allocates the required resources to it, just like the global
administrator allocates resources to individual containers. These include:
• Main memory
• CPUs
• File systems
• Network addresses
Now, the administrator of the local zones that constitute the virtual nodes of the container cluster has
all administrative rights available that allow him to manage highly available services with the
assistance of Sun Cluster. These include:
• Setting up resource groups
• Setting up resources
• Starting and stopping resource groups and resources
Assessment
[hs] This use case has the following characteristics:
• Virtualization down to the cluster level
• Delegation of administration even of the (virtual) cluster to the container administrator
• Reduction of licensing costs by using "capped" containers even in the Oracle RAC environment
(status of certification by Oracle still "pending").
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