Changing and setting OS or process parameters for an SAP system on Solaris has never been easier and more flexible than with Solaris 10: Instead of having to reboot your server after changing OS parameters in file /etc/system, just set up projects, assign users to those projects, and (re)start the processes for these users. Or even change the settings for running processes!

Here's how it all works: According to SAP note 724713 and Sun Info Doc 88934, four resource controls have to be set for SAP systems running on Solaris 10 (instead of more than 10 for previous Solaris releases). Only one parameter has to remain in /etc/system:

set rlim_fd_cur=8192

Next step is to decide what you want to use your projects for: Do you want to set limits for your database and your application instance(s) separately? Do you want to configure processor sets for each of your projects? Or do you want to limit usage of physical memory per project?

You can find explanations and examples for all of the above in the System Administration Guide: Solaris Containers-Resource Management and Solaris Zones.

Let's assume you would like to do a quick start and just use the simplest possible configuration (one project for database and SAP application instance), and let's assume your SAP system has the id "DEV". Then, the following commands would set your resource controls appropriately:

$ projadd -p 101 -c "SAP System DEV" -U devadm,oradev \
          -K "project.max-sem-ids=(priv,1024,deny)" \
          -K "process.max-sem-nsems=(priv,2048,deny)" \
          -K "project.max-shm-ids=(priv,256,deny)" \
          -K "project.max-shm-memory=(priv,18446744073709551615,deny)" \
          DEV

$ ksh

$ cp -pi /etc/user_attr /etc/user_attr.$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)

$ cat >> /etc/user_attr
devadm::::project=DEV
oradev::::project=DEV
<ctrl>d

Done. Now check if the settings are OK:

$ projects -d devadm
DEV
$ projects -l $(projects -d devadm)
DEV
        projid : 101
        comment: "SAP System DEV"
        users  : devadm
                 oradev
        groups : (none)
        attribs: process.max-sem-nsems=(priv,2048,deny)
                 project.max-sem-ids=(priv,1024,deny)
                 project.max-shm-ids=(priv,256,deny)
                 project.max-shm-memory=(priv,18446744073709551615,deny)

Everything's fine, so now you can start your SAP installation! (Before you ask: I always add the required groups and users by using groupadd and useradd before starting the SAP installer.)