9/6/2020 Document 1533699.

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Copyright (c) 2020, Oracle. All rights reserved. Oracle Confidential.

How To Change The Number Of CPUs In Solaris [TM] Zones Using Dynamic Resource Pools
(Doc ID 1533699.1)

In this Document

Goal
Solution
References

APPLIES TO:

Solaris Operating System - Version 10 3/05 and later

Oracle Solaris on SPARC (64-bit)
Oracle Solaris on x86-64 (64-bit)

GOAL

How to change the number of CPUs in a running Solaris zone

SOLUTION

Section A (8 steps) describes how to prepare a running zone for dynamic resource pool usage.
Section B (15 steps) describes how to change the number of CPUs of a zone from 1 to 2, then back to 1, then to 3.

A) By following steps 1...8 of the example below, you can create a processor set, a resource pool, and bind it to a zone.

1) Start the /system/pools/dynamic service (see also https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E26505_01/html/817-

1592/rmpool.task-57.html#gdopt ):

$ svcadm enable /system/pools/dynamic

2) Create a file /var/tmp/pool.cfg (could be any file name) with the following contents:

create pset pset_1 (uint pset.min = 1; uint pset.max = 1)

create pool pool_1
associate pool pool_1 (pset pset_1)

3) Create a pool from the above configuration:

$ poolcfg -f /var/tmp/pool.cfg

4) Change the zone configuration to bind the pool to the zone (this is to make the pool assignment permanent across
server and zone reboots):

$ zonecfg -z zone_1
zonecfg:zone_1> set pool=pool_1
zonecfg:zone_1> verify
zonecfg:zone_1> commit
zonecfg:zone_1> <ctrl>d

5) Bind pool pool_1 to zone zone_1 (this is to make the pool assignment effective immediately):

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$ poolbind -p pool_1 -i zoneid zone_1

6) Verify (list) the whole pool configuration:

$ pooladm -n
...

7) Write the pool configuration to pool config file /etc/pooladm.conf:

$ pooladm -s

8) Activate the pool configuration:

$ pooladm -c

B) The example below (steps 1...15) shows how to change the number of CPUs of zone zone_1 to 2, then to 1, then to 3.

1) Increase the number of CPUs assigned to pset_1 (= pool_1 = zone_1) from 1 to 2:

$ poolcfg -dc 'modify pset pset_1 (uint pset.min = 2; uint pset.max = 2)'

2) Write this new pool configuration to pool config file /etc/pooladm.conf:

$ pooladm -s

3) Display the new pool configuration:

$ poolcfg -c 'info pool pool_1' /etc/pooladm.conf

...
uint pset.min 2
uint pset.max 2
...

4) Activate the pool configuration:

$ pooladm -c

5) In the zone, verify that only 2 CPUs are assigned to the zone, using mpstat 2 2 :

$ zlogin zone_1 mpstat 2 2

CPU minf mjf xcal intr ithr csw icsw migr smtx srw syscl usr sys wt idl
0 0 0 207 203 1 6 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 100
1 0 0 3 10 0 6 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 99
CPU minf mjf xcal intr ithr csw icsw migr smtx srw syscl usr sys wt idl
0 0 0 203 203 1 1 0 0 0 0 8 0 0 0 100
1 5 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 100

6) Decrease the number of CPUs assigned to pset_1 (= pool_1 = zone_1) from 2 to 1:

$ poolcfg -dc 'modify pset pset_1 (uint pset.min = 1; uint pset.max = 1)'

7) Write this new pool configuration to pool config file /etc/pooladm.conf:

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$ pooladm -s

8) Display the new pool configuration:

$ poolcfg -c 'info pool pool_1' /etc/pooladm.conf

...
uint pset.min 1
uint pset.max 1
...

9) Activate the pool configuration:

$ pooladm -c

10) In the zone, verify that only 1 CPU is assigned to the zone, using mpstat 2 2 :

$ zlogin zone_1 mpstat 2 2

CPU minf mjf xcal intr ithr csw icsw migr smtx srw syscl usr sys wt idl
1 0 0 3 10 0 6 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 99
1 4 0 0 3 0 3 0 0 0 0 13 0 0 0 100

11) Increase the number of CPUs assigned to pset_1 (= pool_1 = zone_1) from 1 to 3:

$ poolcfg -dc 'modify pset pset_1 (uint pset.min = 3; uint pset.max = 3)'

12) Write that new pool configuration to pool config file /etc/pooladm.conf:

$ pooladm -s

13) Display the new pool configuration:

$ poolcfg -c 'info pool pool_1' /etc/pooladm.conf

...
uint pset.min 3
uint pset.max 3
...

14) Activate the pool configuration:

$ pooladm -c

15) In the zone, verify that now 3 CPUs are assigned to the zone, using mpstat 2 2 :

# zlogin zone_1 mpstat 2 2

CPU minf mjf xcal intr ithr csw icsw migr smtx srw syscl usr sys wt idl
0 0 0 207 203 1 6 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 100
1 0 0 3 10 0 6 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 99
2 0 0 3 10 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 100
CPU minf mjf xcal intr ithr csw icsw migr smtx srw syscl usr sys wt idl
0 0 0 202 201 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 100
1 5 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 7 0 0 0 100
2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 100

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If you have further question regarding this topic, you may also contact the Oracle Solaris System Administration
or the Oracle Solaris Performance, Panics, Hangs, and DTrace Communities.

REFERENCES

NOTE:1560343.1 - How to create a basic processor set (pset) and associate it with a pool
NOTE:1006137.1 - Understanding Solaris Resource Manager Software - Resource Pools
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