LDoms 1.0.1

Recently, LDoms 1.0.1 was released. This adds support for the UltraSPARC-T2, firmware updates, bug fixes, and new features. Here are some of the new features:

• Ability to reboot service domains without affecting guest domains. Basically, the I/O can now be queued while a service domain reboots. This has been a major issue up to this point and it's nice to see a solution.
• UltraSPARC-T2 platform support.
• LDoms MIB for SNMP
• LDoms Web Console

There are also many bug fixes that are included or are part of Solaris 10 Update 4 (08/07). Here is a post by Liam Merwick on what's been fixed. Some of the notable fixes in Update 4 are the vdisk label issue and performance fixes for ZFS. You can either upgrade to Update 4 to get these features, or you can install patch 120011-14, just be mindful that it may required many pre-requisite patches before you can install it.

Upgrading to the LDoms 1.0.1 software does require some prep work and you should follow the new Admin guide for the upgrade procedure. I'll have to test this out and see how things go. I wish I had a T1000 at home to play with.

Anyways, here are some links you should take a look at:

• LDoms Site
• Allan Packers blog directory of UltraSPARC-T2 and LDom related posts.
• LDoms 1.0.1 Admin Guide
• LDoms 1.0.1 Release Notes
• LDoms 1.0.1 MIB Admin Guide
• LDoms 1.0.1 MAN Page

I'll have some more posts soon on LDoms 1.0.1 :)

T5120, T5220, and T6320 Announced!

Finally the first Niagara 2 (UltraSPARC-T2) servers have been announced this week! I'm very excited about the product launch. Some of the key features of the T5120 and the T5220 that I like are:

• UltraSPARC-T2 CPU (Of Course!)
• 10Gb Ethernet
  
• Same system board.
• ILOM
  
• Dual Power Supplies on both systems
• 6 x PCI-E Slots (No More PCI-X)
• 4-8 SAS Drives
• Nice disk layout diagram on the front.
• USB ports on the front and back.
  
• The insides are nice and clean:)

However, as with any product, there are things I don't like:

• Power button is soo TINY! (What is up with that?)
• Looks like we still only have one SAS controller, even though we have 4-8 disks available. Not very helpful if you want a Split PCI-E configuration for LDoms.
  

The T6320 blade module also looks impressive. It's nice to see that they didn't skimp on the memory slots this time:)

Of course, to support these new servers, you need atleast Solaris 10 Update 4. That release finally delivers the platform support. Hopefully, I'll be able to get my hands on one of these servers soon for a review!

An Introduction to Logical Domains, Part 2

My second article on LDoms is out in the October issue of ;login: . In this article I go over the installation and configuration of LDoms. It's a bit longer than the first article and continues the discussion. There will be a third article that covers advanced features, discusses the limitations, and compares it against other virtualization technologies. I hope everyone enjoys!