OVM for SPARC Primer part 1

This is a short five part series on quickly understanding the basics of logical domains.

What is the purpose of logical domains?

Oracle VM for SPARC (formerly called logical domains) provides the ability to create multiple virtual systems through the use of additional software in the firmware layer, interposed between the operating system and the hardware platform called the hypervisor. It abstracts the hardware layer from the operating system allowing for the creation of resource partitions that can operate as discrete systems, complete with virtual CPU, memory, disk and other I/O devices.

Logical Domain Roles:

There are several different roles for logical domains defined by the purpose for which the logical domain is being used. A single domain may serve multiple roles depending on requirement.

These roles are:

•Control domain - Creates and manages other logical domains and services by communicating with the hypervisor.

•Service domain - Provides services, such as a virtual network switch or a virtual disk service, to other logical domains.

•I/O domain - Has direct ownership of and direct access to physical input/output devices, such as a PCI Express card or a network device.

•Guest domain - Presents a virtual machine that subscribes to services provided by service domains, and is managed by the control domain.

To install OVM:

1)      Download the zip file (OVM_Server_SPARC-2_0.zip).

2)      Unzip the zip file.

$ unzip OVM_Server_SPARC-2_0.zip

3)      Run the install-ldm script.

The OVM hypervisor essentially consists of the following two packages:

·         SUNWldm.v

·         SUNWldmp2v

Once the software is installed you can check the version with ldm –version command:

root@primary#>ldm --version

Logical Domains Manager (v 2.1)

        Hypervisor control protocol v 1.7

        Using Hypervisor MD v 1.3

System PROM:

        Hostconfig      v. 1.1.0.       @(#)Hostconfig 1.1.0.b 2011/08/04 06:34

        Hypervisor      v. 1.10.0.      @(#)Hypervisor 1.10.0.a 2011/07/15 11:49

        OpenBoot        v. 4.33.0.      @(#)OpenBoot 4.33.0.b 2011/05/16 16:26

root@primary#>

Create Default Services:

We now need to create the default virtual services that the control domain uses to provide disk services, console access through the virtual network terminal server (NTS), and networking.

Use these commands to create the default virtual services:

# /opt/SUNWldm/bin/ldm add-vds primary-vds0 primary ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Notice: the LDom Manager is running in configuration mode. Any configuration changes made will only take effect after the machine configuration is downloaded to the system controller and the host is reset. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # /opt/SUNWldm/bin/ldm add-vcc port-range=5000-5100 primary-vcc0 primary ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Notice: the LDom Manager is running in configuration mode. Any configuration changes made will only take effect after the machine configuration is downloaded to the system controller and the host is reset. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # /opt/SUNWldm/bin/ldm add-vsw net-dev=e1000g0 primary-vsw0 primary ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Notice: the LDom Manager is running in configuration mode. Any configuration changes made will only take effect after the machine configuration is downloaded to the system controller and the host is reset. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Initial Setup of the Control/Primary Domain:

The following commands will modify the control domain and release unallocated resources for use by guest logical domains to be created later:

# /opt/SUNWldm/bin/ldm set-mau 1 primary ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Notice: the LDom Manager is running in configuration mode. Any configuration changes made will only take effect after the machine configuration is downloaded to the system controller and the host is reset. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # /opt/SUNWldm/bin/ldm set-vcpu 8 primary ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Notice: the LDom Manager is running in configuration mode. Any configuration changes made will only take effect after the machine configuration is downloaded to the system controller and the host is reset. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # /opt/SUNWldm/bin/ldm set-memory 4096m primary ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Notice: the LDom Manager is running in configuration mode. Any configuration changes made will only take effect after the machine configuration is downloaded to the system controller and the host is reset. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Create and Use the New Configuration:

Now that the control domain is configured the way we want it, we need to store it. The hypervisor will then use this configuration after the next power cycle. We will create a new one configuration called new:

# /opt/SUNWldm/bin/ldm list-spconfig factory-default [current] # /opt/SUNWldm/bin/ldm add-spconfig new # /opt/SUNWldm/bin/ldm list-spconfig factory-default [current] new [next]

After this reboot the control domain.

Before creating guest domains ensure that the following services are online:

1)      Ldmd (logical domain manager service)

2)      Vntsd (virtual console provider service)