Software >> OS >> Unix >> Solaris >> What are the characteristics of LDOM and zones and what are their differences

Solaris Containers (zones)
No special hardware required
Single OS image
Sub-CPU resource granularity
Shared kernel, memory, file systems (configuration, resources and 
management)
Solaris only (excluding Linux branded zone on x86)
CPUs can be shared
Works on all systems
Virtually unlimited partitioning (max is 8191 non-global zones)
Single system patch level
Most admin operations can be applied to all containers in a single operation
Very little performance overhead for zone infrastructure


LDOMs
Sun4v systems only
Multiple OS images
Multiples of CPU granularity
Dedicated kernel, memory, file systems
Can support other OSes
CPUs can not be shared (CPUs here refers to a strand/thread)
Currently available on Tx000, T5xy0 only
Partitioning limited to number of CPUs
Multiple and different patch and release levels possible
Each LDom must be fully managed separately