System Administration Guide: Virtualization Using the Solaris Operating System

Guests That Are Known to Work

Supported virtual machine configurations in the OpenSolaris 2009.06 release include the OpenSolaris control domain (domain 0), and guest, or domU, operating systems.

Because the control domain must work closely with the hypervisor layer, the control domain is always paravirtualized. A system can have both paravirtualized and fully virtualized domains running simultaneously.

Types of guests include the following:

Fully virtualized guests, referred to as hardware-assisted virtual machines (HVMs). These are virtual machines that utilize Intel-VT and AMD-V extensions. An HVM guest domain runs an unmodified operating system.
HVM + PVIO: These guests provide better performance through the use of PVIO drivers.
Paravirtualized (PV): A PV guest OS is a modified OS that is aware that is operating under a hypervisor, which results in higher performance.

Guest OS	Type of Guest	32 or 64–Bit	Uniprocessor or Multiprocessor	Notes
Windows 2003 SP2	HVM + PVIO	32-bit	MP	Obtain the Sun xVM Guest Additions (Early Access 3) drivers and Sun xVM Guest Additions (Early Access 3) Installation guide here, and install in the guest. Reboot the guest from inside the guest.
Windows XP	HVM + PVIO	32-bit	MP	Obtain the OpenSolaris^TM xVM Guest Additions (Early Access 3) drivers and Sun xVM Guest Additions (Early Access 3) Installation guide here, and install in the guest. Reboot the guest from inside the guest.
Windows Server 2008	HVM + PVIO	32-bit	MP	Obtain the Sun xVM Guest Additions (Early Access 3) drivers and Sun xVM Guest Additions (Early Access 3) Installation guide here, and install in the guest. Reboot the guest from inside the guest.
Solaris 10 5/09 (S10U7) + PVIO	HVM + PVIO	64-bit	UP	The Solaris 10 5/09 (Solaris 10 Update 7) release is shipped with the Solaris PV drivers. A Solaris guest domain works like a normal Solaris Operating System. All of the expected tools are available.
Solaris 10 10/08 (S10U6) + PVIO	HVM + PVIO	64-bit	UP	The Solaris 10 10/08 (Solaris 10 Update 6) release is shipped with the Solaris PV drivers.
Solaris 10 5/08 (S10U5) + PVIO	HVM + PVIO	64-bit	UP	To run the Solaris 10 5/08 release as a guest, download Solaris 10 patch 137112-06 (or later) from SunSolve to obtain the Solaris PV drivers. The SunSolve^SM site provides download instructions. After the patch is applied to the domain, perform the following steps: Run `sys-unconfig`(1M). Verify that the file `/etc/driver_aliases` contains the line `xpv "pci5853,1.1"`. Verify that the file `/etc/name_to_major` contains the following lines: `xpv 249` `xpvd 250` `xnf 251` `xdf 252` Reboot the guest. Upon reboot, select the PV network interface (`xnf`).
Solaris Express Community Edition (SXCE) Build 111 or later	HVM + PVIO	64-bit	UP	SXCE 110b and later builds are shipped with the Solaris PV drivers. A Solaris guest domain works like a normal Solaris Operating System. All of the expected tools are available.
OpenSolaris 2008.11 and 2009.06	HVM + PVIO PV	64-bit	UP	OpenSolaris is shipped with the Solaris PV drivers. Continue to update your system for the latest bug fixes and features. A Solaris guest domain works like a normal Solaris Operating System. All of the expected tools are available. For PV installation instructions, see “How to Install Open Solaris 2008.11 or later in Paravirtualized Mode,” below.
RHEL 5.3	HVM	64-bit	UP

Caution –

Note that Windows HVM domains can be susceptible to viruses, so make sure you comply with your site's network security policies.

The following information applies to the control domain:

ISA floppy is not supported.
For 32–bit, the processor must support physical address extensions (PAE) mode.
Beginning with build snv_83, the OpenSolaris OS supports all Ethernet-type interfaces, and their data-links can be administered with the dladm command. Prior to OpenSolaris build snv_83, the network interface card (NIC) must support GLDv3. These devices include bge, e1000g, xge, nge, and rge.