controlling cpu usage part 1: Introduction

CPU usage can be controlled in a number of different ways. The possible choices as of Solaris 05/08 are:

• We can set a CPU usage limit in the shell
• We can manipulate the dispatch parameter kernel tables
• We can use different schedulers, such as the FSS (Fair Share Scheduler)
• We can bind a process to a CPU
• We can use processor sets
• We can create pools, which combine scheduler changes and processor sets
• We can set a capped-cpu resource control for solaris container or zones

In the coming weeks I will discuss these options in a little detail in hope you can improve performance or tune aspects of your environment better.