Version 3.1-en Solaris 10 Container Guide - 3.1 4. Best Practices Effective: 30/11/2009
4.2.5. Solaris Container Cluster
[hs] One of the essential properties of containers is the possibility to delegate administrative tasks to
the administrator or the user of one or more containers. If high availability of a container is ensured by
the use of the HA Solaris container agent, this is not visible to the administration of the container
concerned - which is usually the desired situation. If, however, the container-related administration of
cluster resources is to be delegated to the container administrator as well, a container cluster can be
used.
A container cluster consists of several containers, that are consolidated into one virtual cluster. The
resources required for running the container and the container cluster are provided by the
administrator of the global zone. Use of these resources, among other things setting up resource
groups and their resources, is the responsibility of the administrator of the container cluster.
The administration of resources within a container cluster is the same as administration in the global
zone. Exceptions are Quorum and Cluster Interconnect, which are administered exclusively in the
global zone. Thereby, the administrator of the container clust er can focus on highly available services
and their integration into the cluster.
The principal tasks involved in administering container clusters consist in the identification and
allocation of resources required from the global zone to the local zones that form a container cluster.
They include:
•IP addresses (container clusters can only work with IP-type shared)
•CPUs
•Main memory
•File systems or raw devices
Reproducible, systematic naming for resources is a great convenience for error-free administration of
complex container cluster environments.
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