The ZFS file system is known to use nearly all available RAM as cache if the default system settings are not changed. This may lead to a heavy fragmentation of the host memory preventing VirtualBox VMs from being started. We recommend to limit the ZFS cache by adding a line
set zfs:zfs_arc_max = xxxx
to /etc/system where xxxx bytes is the
amount of memory usable for the ZFS cache.
32-bit Solaris 10 hosts (bug 1225025) require swap space equal to, or greater than the host's physical memory size. For example, 8 GB physical memory would require at least 8 GB swap. This can be configured during a Solaris 10 install by choosing a 'custom install' and changing the default partitions.
Note
This restriction applies only to 32-bit Solaris hosts, 64-bit hosts are not affected!
For existing Solaris 10 installs, an additional swap image needs to be mounted and used as swap. Hence if you have 1 GB swap and 8 GB of physical memory, you require to add 7 GB more swap. This can be done as follows:
For ZFS (as root user):
zfs create -V 8gb /_<ZFS volume>_/swap swap -a /dev/zvol/dsk/_<ZFS volume>_/swap
To mount if after reboot, add the following line to /etc/vfstab:
/dev/zvol/dsk/_<ZFS volume>_/swap - - swap - no -
Alternatively, you could grow the existing swap using:
zfs set volsize=8G rpool/swap
And reboot the system for the changes to take effect.
For UFS (as root user):
mkfile 7g /path/to/swapfile.img swap -a /path/to/swapfile.img
To mount it after reboot, add the following line to /etc/vfstab:
/path/to/swap.img - - swap - no -