Solaris guest best practices
Introduction
This is a set of best practices when using Solaris in a VM.
Solaris 10 up to 11.3
These versions don't come with support for VirtIO out of the box.
Use the following VM settings:
- Guest OS: Solaris
- Disk: SATA or IDE
- Network: e1000
- Machine-Type: i440
Known Issues
CPUs and cores are not detected properly. If you run psrinfo -pv or mpstat, it will detect sockets, but not all cores.
Solaris 11.4
With Solaris 11.4, it will pick up the CPU cores correctly. Starting with SRU33 it comes with VirtIO drivers included. Therefore, if you install a new VM or upgrade from an older version, once you run 11.4 SRU33 or newer, you can use/switch to VirtIO devices.
The following VM settings worked in our tests:
- Guest OS: Solaris
- Disk: VirtIO Block
- Network: VirtIO
- Machine-Type: Q35
To change the disk type of an already existing VM, Detach it. It will then show up as unused0. Select and edit it. Then select VirtIO Block as disk type, enable options like discard if wanted.
Don't forget to adjust the Boot Order in the Options panel of the VM. Enable the virtio disk and move it to the top.