Overview of the Oracle VM Server for SPARC Software

This chapter provides an overview of the Oracle VM Server for SPARC software.

The Oracle VM Server for SPARC software depends on particular Oracle Solaris OS versions, required software patches, and particular versions of system firmware. For more information, see Required and Recommended Oracle Solaris OS Versions in Oracle VM Server for SPARC 3.0 Release Notes.

Oracle VM Server for SPARC provides highly efficient, enterprise-class virtualization capabilities for SPARC T-Series and Fujitsu M10 systems. Using the Oracle VM Server for SPARC software, you can create up to 128 virtual servers, called logical domains, on a single system. This kind of configuration enables you to take advantage of the massive thread scale offered by SPARC T-Series and Fujitsu M10 systems and the Oracle Solaris OS.

The version of the Oracle Solaris OS that runs on a guest domain is independent of the Oracle Solaris OS version that runs on the primary domain. So, if you run the Oracle Solaris 10 OS in the primary domain, you can still run the Oracle Solaris 11 OS in a guest domain. Likewise, if you run the Oracle Solaris 11 OS in the primary domain, you can still run the Oracle Solaris 10 OS in a guest domain.

The only difference between running the Oracle Solaris 10 OS or the Oracle Solaris 11 OS on the primary domain is the feature differences in each OS.

This chapter covers the following topics:

• Hypervisor and Logical Domains

• Logical Domains Manager

• Oracle VM Server for SPARC Physical-to-Virtual Conversion Tool

• Oracle VM Server for SPARC Configuration Assistant

• Oracle VM Server for SPARC Management Information Base