- Dynamically Reconfiguring UNIX Systems
- Using Dynamic Reconfiguration on Sun Fire Servers
- Dynamic Intimate Shared Memory
- Dynamically Resizing the SGA in Oracle 9i
- Configuration Example
- About the Authors
- Acknowledgements
- Ordering Sun Documents
- Accessing Sun Documentation Online
Using Dynamic Reconfiguration on Sun Fire Servers
Sun Fire servers are built with two types of boards: CPU/memory boards and I/O boards (with a number of PCI slots). Both of these boards connect to a central data and address switch. You can create a server partition, called a domain, by grouping at least one CPU/memory board and at least one I/O board. You can then reconfigure the interconnect to allow communication between the boards only in the same domain. Once this configuration is done, the boards are isolated from boards in any other domain.
A domain behaves in every respect as a standalone system. Once the domain is created, there is no software or hardware overhead on its operation because it is embedded in a larger chassis (unlike hypervisor-based systems).
On Sun Fire servers, every possible domain is referred to by a one-letter name (for example, "A, B, C, and D" on a Sun Fire 6800 server, which has four possible domains). A domain does not need to be created or removed. The only operations are adding a board to a domain and removing a board from a domain. Using dynamic reconfiguration, both of these tasks can be done while the Solaris software is running on the domain.