The execution environment includes the following components:
Hypervisor – Platform-specific firmware that virtualizes hardware and relies heavily on the hardware support that is built into the CPU.
Control domain – A specialized domain that configures the hypervisor and runs the Logical Domains Manager, which manages the logical domains.
I/O domain or root domain – A domain that owns some or all of the platform's available I/O devices and shares them with other domains.
Service domain – A domain that offers services to other domains. A service domain might provide console access to other domains or provide virtual disks. A service domain that provides virtual disk access to other domains is also an I/O domain.
For more information about these components, see Figure 1–1 and the more detailed component descriptions.
You can improve serviceability for redundant I/O configurations by configuring a second I/O domain. You can also use a second I/O domain to isolate the hardware from security breaches. For information about configuration options, see Oracle VM Server for SPARC 3.2 Administration Guide .