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1.4 Basics of Hypervisor


1.4 Basics of Hypervisor
This section provides an overview of the Hypervisor firmware built into the SPARC M12/M10 systems.

Hypervisor is firmware used to implement virtualization. It is built into the CPU memory unit.

Different firmware and software such as the XSCF firmware and Oracle Solaris, which is installed on logical domains, are running on each SPARC M12/M10 system. That firmware and software monitor and manage the whole system. The Hypervisor firmware is positioned between the XSCF firmware and Oracle Solaris to serve as an interface for transmitting setting information from the XSCF to logical domains and notifying the XSCF of the status of logical domains.

The Hypervisor firmware has the following main functions.
  1. Transmission of information between the physical partition managed by the XSCF and the logical domains managed by Oracle VM Server for SPARC
    Oracle VM Server for SPARC configures logical domains according to the PPAR configuration information (PCL) transmitted from the XSCF to the control domain. Also, logical domain configuration information and reconfigured hardware resource information are transmitted via Hypervisor to the XSCF firmware.
    For details on the PPAR configuration information, see "11.2.2 Checking the Physical Partition Configuration."
  2. Transmission of information related to a logical domain hang-up or failure
    If a logical domain hangs up or fails, Hypervisor notifies the XSCF of the status of the logical domain.
  3. Transmission of information related to the XSCF and logical domain dates and times
    Hypervisor notifies the XSCF of the set times of logical domains. The XSCF saves the time of each logical domain as its difference from the set time of the whole system.