 Target
Consolidation
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
The SolarisTM Containers technology, coming with the
SolarisTM 10 Operating System, sends resource utilization
through the roof and revolutionizes the economics of data center
management.
30.Mar.04 -- Let the consolidation begin. Using new software partitioning
technology coming with the Solaris 10 Operating System (Solaris
OS), Sun customers will be able to combine applications on servers
safely, reliably, and with excellent manageability.
The technology is called Solaris Containers, and it is designed
to increase utilization of your hardware resources and boost your
server-to-administrator ratio. With the Solaris Containers technology,
you can create up to 4000 secure, fault-isolated software partitions
(or containers), each with its own IP address, memory space, file
area, host name, and root password.
The Solaris Containers technology provides a management model
for virtualizing resources in a single server. The technology includes
several powerful capabilities:
- Resource management to enable flexible allocation of compute
power according to your business objectives
- Separation between containers, such as fault and data isolation,
for safe deployment and high service levels
- Security, including access controls for each container
The Solaris Containers technology will be available for all Sun server
platforms, including UltraSPARC processor-based and x86-based systems
with 32-bit Xeon and 64-bit Opteron architectures. The Solaris Containers
technology is part of Sun's ongoing N1 Grid initiative, our vision,
architecture, products, and services for optimizing network computing.
N1 Grid comprises solutions designed and built with a common set of
underlying architectural principles, with the ultimate goal of "managing
n computers as 1."
Consolidate and Save
The goal of consolidation is to reduce costs. With sub-CPU granularity,
the Solaris Containers technology supports consolidation by enabling
one server to deliver the security and reliability benefits of a
fleet of systems, without the management overhead. Because system
resources are virtualized, administrators can raise hardware utilization
while still meeting peak demand levels. In short, the Solaris Containers
technology helps you raise efficiency and deliver high security
and fault resilience without compromising performance.
"With the Solaris 10 Operating System, we're bringing to market
a dramatically different software partitioning solution," said Ann
Wettersten, Sun vice president, Marketing Operating Systems and
Availability. "Solaris Containers creates partitions that are highly
efficient to manage because they run on a single instance of the
Solaris OS. System administrators can single-handedly raise utilization
rates on a whole range of Sun systems, from our 72-CPU Sun Fire
E25K server to the entry-level Sun Fire V20z and Sun Fire V60x servers,
as well as a whole range of SPARC architecture-based and x86-based
blades."
The Solaris Containers technology differs from other partitioning
technologies in two important ways. First, it virtualizes the operating
system, enabling multiple execution environments without replicating
the operating system kernel. The result is extremely low overhead,
both from a management perspective and from a resource utilization
standpoint.
"You can say goodbye to multiple patch and update procedures," says
Wettersten, "and you can put 99 percent of your system resources
to work where they'll give you the most bang for your buck -- running
applications."
Second, the Solaris Containers technology works alongside Sun's Dynamic
System Domains, which are available on Sun's midrange and high-end
Sun Fire servers. Want to subdivide a single domain into thousands
of containers and create fully isolated test and execution environments?
You can. Using the advanced isolation and restart capabilities in
the Solaris Containers software, you can even test a new database
application on the same system you're using as your production environment.
The Solaris Containers software has a feature that lets you start,
provision, or restart a container at the flick of a switch, without
disrupting any other applications running on the system. That's the
beauty of a virtualized environment.
The N1 Grid Vision
As part of the N1 Grid initiative, the N1 Grid System provides
all the core services for establishing, partitioning, provisioning,
and managing grids. It enables virtualization of resources on every
system in the data center, including storage and software systems,
yielding extremely low cost of ownership.
The Solaris Containers technology is a key element in the implementation
of an N1 Grid System architecture because it provides flexible,
software-defined boundaries for isolating applications and services
within a server. Because containers can have unique identities that
are separated from the system's physical identity (its host name
and IP address), you have ultimate flexibility to move or deploy
containers onto other systems without the complexity normally associated
with such changes.
The Solaris Containers technology is designed to take full advantage
of the tools and advanced features of the forthcoming Solaris 10
Operating System, including the following:
- Dynamic Tracing for fast troubleshooting of sporadic or elusive
problems and for improving overall system performance (This exciting
new technology will be highlighted in an upcoming Sun.com feature
story.)
- Predictive self healing and fault management, for a highly
reliable software environment
- Advanced security features, such as process rights management,
that significantly reduce the risks of system exploits from hackers
- Instant Restart capability, so you can destroy and restart
a containerized test environment quickly and easily, without disrupting
operations in neighboring containers
- Accounting and reporting capabilities that capture usage data
based on workloads, not system use, for more accurate billing
- Network bandwidth management, so you can allocate needed bandwidth
to individual application services
Experience the Future Today
The Solaris 10 Operating System is expected to ship this fall,
but you don't have to wait to get your hands on the software. Join
the Sun Software Express Program, which lets customers and developers
preview new software, and you can try it today in your environment.
Also register to receive monthly code updates.
System administrators can visit Sun's BigAdmin portal for up-to-date
information about Sun's newest technologies, including the Solaris
Containers software. You'll find manuals, scripts, and technical
explanations of how the Solaris Containers technology can be useful
in your environment. Independent software vendors can get their
hands on documentation and developer tools and preview applications
in the Solaris 10 OS through our iForce Partner Program for the
Solaris OS.
So download a copy of the Solaris 10 Operating System today. Poke
around in Sun's new container technology, and see what you think.
The Solaris Containers technology is a fresh approach to software
partitioning, one that's sure to spark a new idea or two about ways
to consolidate your data center.
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