OpenSolaris™ Bible

Chapter 18. Resource Management

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Introduction to resource management

• Projects and tasks

• Resource controls

• Resource caps

• Resource pools

• Processor sets

• Scheduling

• Accounting

Resource Management is the collection of facilities in OpenSolaris that are used to configure, monitor, and control the system's resource allocation to running processes. In the context of this chapter, resources are predominantly CPU or memory. Using resource management to constrain multiple workloads running on the same system is the most basic form of virtualization available on OpenSolaris.

Introduction to Resource Management

When multiple users or software application stacks are sharing the same machine, it is possible for one of them to monopolize the system's resources. The resource management capabilities in OpenSolaris provide a variety of ways to specify how these resources should be allocated so that the system's overall objectives are met. For example, if the system runs a specific, business-critical application, along with other, less critical, applications, then the resource management capabilities can be used to ensure that the business-critical application always has the resources it needs when it is ready to run. The resource management features can be used to provide minimum or maximum guarantees for resource utilization as well as to partition those resources between consumers.

OpenSolaris resource management is not one single feature. Instead, it is a collection of different capabilities ...