Workload Organization

The basic unit of workload is the process. Process IDs (PIDs) are numbered sequentially throughout the system. By default, each user is assigned by the system administrator to a project, which is a network–wide administrative identifier. Each successful login to a project creates a new task, which is a grouping mechanism for processes. A task contains the login process as well as subsequent child processes.

For more information on projects and tasks, see Chapter 2, Projects and Tasks (Overview), in System Administration Guide: Solaris Containers-Resource Management and Solaris Zones for the system administrator's perspective or Chapter 2, Projects and Tasks for the developer's point of view.

Projects can optionally be grouped into zones, which are set up by system administrators for security purposes to isolate groups of users. A zone can be thought of as a box in which one or more applications run isolated from all other applications on the system. Solaris zones are discussed thoroughly in Part II, Zones, in System Administration Guide: Solaris Containers-Resource Management and Solaris Zones. To learn more about special precautions for writing resource management applications that run in zones, see Chapter 7, Design Considerations for Resource Management Applications in Solaris Zones