x86: Support for Booting the Solaris OS as a Virtualized Control Domain

Solaris Express Community Edition, build 75: In this release, the GRUB boot loader is capable of booting a Solaris release that runs with hypervisor technology. The hypervisor can securely execute multiple virtual machines simultaneously, each running its own operating system, on a single physical system. You can decide at boot time whether to run the Solaris OS as a virtualized domain0, also called a dom0, or as a stand-alone operating system.

You can run the Solaris OS as a virtualized dom0. Whether to run the Solaris OS as a virtualized dom0 or as a stand-alone operating system is a decision you can make at boot time. To run the Solaris OS as a virtualized dom0, there must first be an entry in the menu.lst file that specifies the hypervisor. The entry can be the default boot entry, or it can be an option that you select manually at boot time. Note that when you upgrade your system to a Solaris release that includes this capability, the bootadm command automatically adds a menu entry for the hypervisor to the menu.lst file.

The bootadm command installs a default boot entry in the menu.lst file that is similar to the following:

kernel$ /boot/$ISADIR/xen.gz
module$ /platform/i86xpv/kernel/$ISADIR/unix /platform/i86xpv/kernel/$ISADIR/unix -B $ZFS-BOOTFS 
module$ /platform/i86pc/$ISADIR/boot_archive

The format for entries that are used in the menu.lst file for booting the Solaris OS as a control domain differs slightly from the format that is used for other menu.lst entries. The kernel$ line must identify the hypervisor binary to use and includes any options that are accepted by the hypervisor. The first module$ line in the file identifies the Solaris kernel to use, for example unix, and include any options the unix kernel accepts. Due to an implementation detail that exists in this version of GRUB, the specified unix kernel must be named twice on the first module$ line. The second module$ line identifies the boot archive to use.

For more information, see Description of a menu.lst File That Supports Hypervisor Technology.

For more information about administering Solaris systems that support the hypervisor, see http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/xen/docs/ and System Administration Guide: Virtualization Using the Solaris Operating System