12 Provisioning Virtualization Systems

Virtualization Management (VM) involves the monitoring, administration, and maintenance of virtual servers and guest virtual machines in your enterprise. Oracle provides the customer increased value by extending Enterprise Manager Grid Control capabilities to monitor virtualized systems alongside the physical infrastructure and perform complete lifecycle management of virtual servers and software running on them.

This chapter explains how you can provision Oracle VM. In particular, this chapter covers the following:

• Getting Started

• Deployment Procedures

• Supported Releases

• Server Consolidation

• Provisioning Guest Virtual Machines

• Virtualization Central Dashboard

• Live Migrating Guest Virtual Machines

• High Availability and Fault Tolerance

• Advanced Operations

• Migrating from Oracle VM Manager to Enterprise Manager

Getting Started

This section helps you get started with this chapter by providing an overview of the steps involved in provisioning virtualized systems. Consider this section to be a documentation map to understand the sequence of actions you must perform to successfully provision virtualized systems. Click the reference links provided against the steps to reach the relevant sections that provide more information.

Table 12-1 Getting Started with Oracle VM Provisioning

Step	Description	Reference Links
Step 1	Understanding the Deployment Procedures Understand the Deployment Procedures offered by Enterprise Manager Grid Control for provisioning Oracle VM.	To learn about the Deployment Procedures, see Deployment Procedures.
Step 2	Knowing About the Supported Releases Know what releases are supported by the Deployment Procedure.	To learn about the releases supported by the Deployment Procedure, see Supported Releases.
Step 3	Selecting the Use Case This chapter covers a few use cases for provisioning Oracle VM. Select the use case that best matches your requirement	To learn about provisioning guest virtual machines, see Provisioning Guest Virtual Machines. To learn about provisioning Oracle VM Servers, see Bare Metal Provisioning of Oracle VM Servers. To learn about cloning guest virtual machines, see Cloning Guest Virtual Machines. To learn about live migrating guest virtual machines, see Live Migrating Guest Virtual Machines.
Step 4	Meeting the Prerequisites Before you perform Oracle VM provisioning, you must meet the prerequisites, such as setting up of the provisioning environment, applying mandatory patches, setting up of Oracle Software Library.	To learn about prerequisites for provisioning guest virtual machines, see Prerequisites. To learn about prerequisites for cloning guest virtual machines, see Prerequisites. To learn about prerequisites for live migrating guest virtual machines, see Prerequisites.
Step 5	Provisioning Provisioning guest virtual machines, cloning guest virtual machines, or live migrating guest virtual machines.	To learn about provisioning guest virtual machines, see Creating Guest Virtual Machines. To learn about cloning guest virtual machines, see Cloning Procedure. To learn about live migrating guest virtual machines, see Live Migrating Selected Guest Virtual Machine and Live Migrating All Guest Virtual Machines.
Step 6	Configuring for High Availability Configure Oracle VM for failover support.	To learn about high availability and fault tolerance, see High Availability and Fault Tolerance.

Deployment Procedures

Enterprise Manager Grid Control provides the following Deployment Procedures for provisioning Oracle VM:

• Virtual Machine Cloning

  This deployment procedure clones a guest virtual machine to one or more guest virtual machines

• Virtual Machine Provisioning Using ISO

  This deployment procedure creates a new guest virtual machines using an ISO image.

• Virtual Machine Provisioning Using PXE

  This deployment procedure creates a new guest virtual machines using Preboot Execution Environment. The new guest virtual machines will be PXE-booted and they will get provisioned via network.

• Virtual Machine Provisioning Using Template

  This deployment procedure creates new guest virtual machines using Oracle VM templates. The new virtual machines will be based on the Oracle VM template.

• Edit Virtual Machine

  This deployment procedure edits guest virtual machine configuration.

• Live Migration

  This deployment procedure performs live migration of a particular guest virtual machine or live migration of all guest virtual machines in a particular virtual server.

• Save Virtual Machine as Template

  This deployment procedure saves a guest virtual machine as template and exports the template to an external location, if provided.

• Import Template

  This deployment procedure imports an Oracle VM template into a server pool.

• Import ISO Image

  This deployment procedure imports an ISO Image into a server pool.

• Create Shared Disk

  This deployment procedure creates a shared disk image and registers it with the server pool.

• Import Guest Virtual Machine (P2V)

  This deployment procedure converts a physical machine to an Oracle virtual machine on a server pool.

• Import Guest Virtual Machine (V2V)

  This deployment procedure converts a virtual machine to an Oracle virtual machine on a server pool.

• Import Template From P2V

  This deployment procedure imports an Oracle VM template into a server pool by converting a Physical Machine(P2V).

• Import Template From V2V

  This deployment procedure imports an Oracle VM template into a server pool by converting a VMWare or VI Machine (V2V).

• Discover Shared Disks

  This deployment procedure discovers shared disks.

Deployment Procedures cannot be run directly. Deployment procedures for Oracle VM provisioning run when provisioning is performed through Virtualization Central.

Supported Releases

Table 12-2 shows the supported operating system versions for virtualization.

Table 12-2 Supported Releases

Operating System	Version
Linux	Oracle Enterprise Linux 4 - 32-bit and 64-bit
	Oracle Enterprise Linux 5 - 32-bit and 64-bit
	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 - 32-bit and 64-bit
	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 - 32-bit and 64-bit
	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 - 32-bit and 64-bit
Microsoft Windows	Microsoft Windows Server 2000
	Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Edition - 32-bit and 64-bit
	Microsoft Windows Vista
	Microsoft Windows XP
UNIX	Solaris 10

Table 12-3 shows the minimum agent version required for different Oracle VM Server versions.

Table 12-3 Minimum Agent Version for Different Oracle VM Server Versions

Oracle VM Server Version	Minimum Agent Version
2.1.2	2.2.70
2.1.5	2.2.86
2.2	2.3.37

Server Consolidation

One of the important goals in an enterprise network/cloud is to ensure faster dynamic resource provisioning for changing demands that invariably leads to frequent migrations of machines. Since migration is a basic operation in virtualization, Enterprise Manager provides the following functionalities:

• Conversion of physical machines to Oracle virtual machines

• Conversion of existing VMware/Virtual Iron virtual machines to Oracle virtual machines

Note:

This feature is available for the following conversion:

• P2V as virtual machine (for Oracle VM version 2.1.2 and above)

• VMWare V2V as virtual machine (for Oracle VM version 2.1.2 and above)

• Virtual Iron V2V as virtual machine (for Oracle VM version 2.2 and above)

This section consists of the following subsections:

• P2V Conversion

• V2V Conversion

P2V Conversion

This section explains the steps to convert a Linux, Unix, or Windows computer to an Oracle VM guest virtual machine. This section contains the following subsections:

• Prerequisites

• Performing P2V Conversion

Prerequisites

• Ensure that you meet the prerequisites described in the following sections:

  • Mandatory Infrastructure Requirements for Provisioning and Patching

  • Optional Infrastructure Requirements

  • Ensure that the physical computer is booted in P2V mode using Oracle VM Server Installation Media, before initiating the P2V conversion process.

Performing P2V Conversion

Follow these steps to convert a Linux, Unix, or Windows computer to an Oracle VM guest virtual machine.

1. In Virtualization Central, select Convert P2V, select Action as Virtual Server Pool, and click Go.

2. In the Convert P2V page, specify the values in Table 12-4.

3. Click OK.

   The physical machine will be converted to an Oracle VM machine in the selected server pool.

Note:

If the physical machine had an agent installed before conversion, then after the conversion to an Oracle VM machine, the agent will lose its network identity, and therefore, will stop communicating with the OMS. To resolve this issue, you must reconfigure the agent. To do so, run the following commands from the Oracle home of the agent:

1. Unsecure the agent:

   <ORACLE_HOME>/bin/emctl unsecure agent

2. Invoke the agentca script:

   <ORACLE_HOME>/bin/agentca -f

3. Secure the agent:

   <ORACLE_HOME>/bin/emctl secure agent

Table 12-4 Convert P2V

Element	Description
Server Pool	Specify the server pool where the guest virtual machine will be created. This field is prepopulated if you selected a server pool in Virtualization Central when invoking the P2V conversion action.
Web Server URL	Specify the Web Server URL in HTTPS format of the host booted in P2V mode, to access the disk images and configuration.
VM Name	Specify the name of the guest virtual machine to be created on the server pool.
OS Type	Specify the type of operating system.
OS Name	Specify the name of operating system.
VNC Console Password	Enterprise Manager Grid Control provides a VNC console to the newly created guest virtual machine. This is the VNC password to access the VNC console.
Enable High Availability Mode	Select this option if you want the guest virtual machine to run automatically on a different virtual server if the earlier virtual server shuts down. This field can be set only if the server pool is enabled for high availability.
Start VM After Creation	Select this checkbox to start the guest virtual machine after conversion.
Preferred Server List	Select the virtual server on which you want the guest virtual machine to run. Choose Automatic to select the virtual server automatically or Manual to add a virtual server.

V2V Conversion

This section explains the procedure to convert a Virtual Iron or VMWare guest virtual machine to an Oracle VM guest virtual machine. This section contains the following subsections:

• Prerequisites

• Performing V2V Conversion

Prerequisites

• Ensure that you meet the prerequisites described in the following sections:

  • Mandatory Infrastructure Requirements for Provisioning and Patching

  • Optional Infrastructure Requirements

  • Ensure that the source machine is shut down and the binaries are available in an HTTP/FTP accessible location to start the conversion.

    For Virtual Iron, the location should be http:///virtualMachineLocation/ or ftp:///virtualMachineLocation/ where virtualMachineLocation contains the vm.cfg and the disk images for the virtual machine.

    For VMware, the location should be http:///virtualMachineLocation/.vmx or ftp:///virtualMachineLocation/.vmx where virtualMachineLocation contains the vmx configuration files and the disk images for the virtual machine.

Performing V2V Conversion

Follow these steps for V2V conversion:

1. In Virtualization Central, select Convert V2V, select Action as Virtual Server Pool, and click Go.

2. In the Convert V2V page, specify the values in Table 12-5.

3. Click OK.

   The source VMWare machine should be completely shut down when the conversion is in progress.

   After the process is completed, the specified virtual machine will be converted to an Oracle VM guest virtual machine.

Table 12-5 V2V Conversion

Element	Description
Server Pool	Specify the server pool where the guest virtual machine will be created. This field is prepopulated if you selected a server pool in Virtualization Central when invoking the P2V conversion action.
Virtual Machine Location	Specify the URL for accessing virtual machine. For VMWare virtual machines, specify the full http/ftp path to the configuration file (.vmx file). For example, ftp://host/vm/vm.vmx. For Virtual Iron virtual machines, specify the http/ftp path to the folder location, which contains the configuration and image files, for example, ftp://host/vm/
VM Name	Specify the name of the guest virtual machine being imported to the server pool.
OS Type	Specify the type of operating system.
OS Name	Specify the name of operating system.
VNC Console Password	Enterprise Manager Grid Control provides a VNC console to the newly created guest virtual machine. This is the VNC password to access the VNC console.
Enable High Availability Mode	Select this option if you want the guest virtual machine to restart automatically on a different virtual server if the earlier virtual server shuts down. This field can be set only if the server pool is enabled for high availability.
Start VM After Creation	Select this checkbox to start the guest virtual machine after conversion.
Preferred Server List	Select the virtual server on which you want the guest virtual machine to run. Choose Automatic to select the virtual server automatically or Manual to add a virtual server.

Provisioning Guest Virtual Machines

Guest Virtual machines can be provisioned using Oracle VM templates, ISO images, or by PXE boot. Oracle VM templates and ISO images can be downloaded from OTN or other sources.

You can create guest virtual machines from the following three sources:

• Using Oracle VM Templates

• Using ISO images of Linux and Windows operating systems

• PXE bootable guest virtual machines that can boot over a network

Oracle VM template or ISO binaries can be available in any of the following locations:

• In the Software Library as a software component

• In the virtual server pool as a resource

• In a HTTP or NFS accessible external location

This section describes the following:

• Creating Software Library Components

• Managing Server Pool Resources

• Creating Guest Virtual Machines

• Configuring the Guest Virtual Machine for Agent and Other Software

Creating Software Library Components

You can create software components of type Oracle VM template and ISO images from the Software Components tab. These components can be later used to create Oracle guest virtual machines.

Enterprise Manager Grid Control allows you to create guest virtual machines from Oracle VM Templates and Linux and Windows ISO images. Oracle VM templates may contain operating system and pre-installed and pre-configured Oracle software. This section explains the following:

• Prerequisites

• Creating a Software Component from an Oracle VM Template

• Creating a Software Component from an ISO Image

Prerequisites

• Ensure that you meet the prerequisites described in the following sections:

  • Mandatory Infrastructure Requirements for Provisioning and Patching

  • Optional Infrastructure Requirements

Creating a Software Component from an Oracle VM Template

To create a software component from an Oracle VM template, do the following:

1. In the Software Components tab, select Components as Template and click Create.

   
   

2. In the Create Component: Describe page, select the Creation Method as Oracle VM Template Binary. Specify the name and description for the component, and operating system details.

   
   

3. In the Create Component: Configure page, select Virtualization Type as Para Virtualized or Hardware Virtualized based on the template you are trying to upload. Ensure that you select the virtualization type correctly.

   Select the Binary Upload Mechanism option to choose the option to store the template binary in the Software Library or specify an external location where the binary is stored.

   If you choose Upload from Agent Machine, select the host and the location of the binary.

   
   

   If the binary is available at an external location, specify the HTTP or NFS location of the binary. For example, http://myvm_server/template or file://myvm_server/template. The binary will not be stored in the Software Library. It will be directly downloaded to the server pool when this resource is imported to a pool.

   
   

4. In the Create Component: Review page, review the information you have provided and submit the component creation job.

   After the job is submitted and has run successfully, the software component you have created will be displayed on the Software Components page.

Creating a Software Component from an ISO Image

To create a software component from an ISO image, do the following:

1. In the Software Components tab, select Components as ISO and click Create.

   
   

2. In the Create ISO page, specify the name and description of the ISO component and the operating system details.

   Select the Binary Upload Mechanism option to choose the option to store the template binary in the Software Library or specify an external location where the template binary is stored.

   If you choose Upload from Agent Machine, select the host and the location of the binary. Specify the host credentials to select the file from the agent machine.

   You can set up Preferred Credentials for hosts and virtual servers and use them or choose to Override Preferred Credentials when creating the ISO image.

   
   

   If the binary is available at an external location, specify the HTTP or NFS location of the binary. For example, http://myvm_server/iso or file://myvm_server/iso.

   The binary will not be stored in the Software Library. It will be directly downloaded to the server pool when this resource is imported to a server pool.

   
   

   Click OK.

   After the job is submitted and has run successfully, the software component you have created will be displayed on the Software Components page.

Managing Server Pool Resources

To create guest virtual machines, you can discover or import Oracle VM Templates and ISO binaries to the server pools and use them for provisioning. This section explains the following:

• Discovering Oracle VM Templates and ISO Images

• Creating Shared Disk

• Discovering Shared Disk

• Importing Oracle VM Templates and ISO Binaries as Server Pool Resources

Discovering Oracle VM Templates and ISO Images

You can store your Oracle VM templates in the following directories and add them as resources to the server pool using the Discover functionality:

• /OVS/seed_pool

• /OVS/<repos_guid>/seed_pool

<repos_guid> is the GUID of storage repository that has been added to the server pool.

You can store ISO images in the /OVS/iso_pool or /OVS/<repos_guid>/iso_pool directories and add them as resources to the server pool using the Discover functionality. Ensure that you create a directory with the same name as the ISO image in the iso_pool directory and then store the image. For example, /OVS/iso_pool/Win2008R2/Win2008R2.iso.

To discover Oracle VM templates, do the following:

1. In Virtualization Central, select the Virtual Server Pool, select Action Virtual Server Pool - Manage Virtual Server Pool and click Go.

   
   

2. In the Oracle VM Server Pool: Resources page, select Resources as Oracle VM Templates and click Discover.

3. In the Discover GVM Template page, discover an existing Oracle VM template or VMWare/Virtual Iron guest virtual machine binaries. This template must be present in the shared location of the server pool. All discovered resources are available as Oracle VM templates in the server pool.

   • If the undiscovered template is of type Oracle VM, select the undiscovered Oracle VM template, and specify the description, operating system name and type, and the virtualization type of the template.

     
     

   • If the undiscovered template is of type VMWare or Virtual Iron, select the undiscovered template, and specify the description, operating system name and type. The virtualization type for VMWare/Virtual Iron format templates will be hardware virtualized. Select Delete source after conversion to delete VMWare or Virtual Iron binaries after the discovery to free up space on the virtual server.

     
     

     Note:

     The VMWare/VI Format import also involves a background conversion from VMware to Oracle VM template. Hence the time taken for VMware image import will be much more than the time taken by an Oracle VM template import.

     The VMWare/Virtual Iron template discovery feature is available for Oracle VM version 2.2 or higher.

   Click OK.

   After clicking OK, the deployment procedure to discover the templates of type VMware or Virtual Iron will be submitted. The template you are discovering will appear in the Resources tab with the status Creating. Once the deployment procedure completes successfully, the status will be Ready. In case the deployment procedure fails, the status will be Error. In case you have specified templates of type Oracle VM for discovery, they will be discovered without initiating any deployment procedure.

To discover ISO images, do the following:

1. In Virtualization Central, select the Virtual Server Pool, select Action Virtual Server Pool - Manage Virtual Server Pool and click Go.

2. In the Oracle VM Server Pool: Resources page, select Resources as ISO Images and click Discover.

3. In the Discover ISO Image page, select the undiscovered ISO image and provide a description. Select the OS Type and Operating System details. Click OK.

   
   

   After clicking OK, the ISO image you are discovering will appear in the Resources tab with the status Ready.

Creating Shared Disk

You can also create shared disks that can be used by guest virtual machines and assign them at the time of guest virtual machine creation.

Oracle VM allows sharing of disks between multiple guest virtual machines. To create a shared disk that the guest virtual machine can access, follow these steps:

1. In Virtualization Central, select the Virtual Server Pool, and select Action Virtual Server Pool - Manage Virtual Server Pool and click Go.

2. In the Oracle VM Server Pool: Resources page, select Resources as Shared Disks and click Create.

3. In the Create Shared Disk page, specify the name, size of the disk, and provide a description. Click OK.

   After clicking OK, the deployment procedure to create shared disk will be submitted. The initial status will be Creating. Once the deployment procedure completes successfully, the status will be Ready. In case the deployment procedure fails, the status will be Error.

Discovering Shared Disk

Discover shared disk in the server pool shared location or using multipath device.

Note:

This feature is available for OVS version 2.2 and above.

Prerequisites

You must manually configure the multipath device on each virtual server in a server pool, then you can add the multipath device to the server pool as a shared virtual disk. The prerequisite steps to use a multipath device as a shared virtual disk are:

• Manually set up the SAN connection to the multipath device on each virtual server in the server pool.

• Manually configure the multipath device on each virtual server in the server pool.

• Make sure the multipath device has the same device identifier and device path on each virtual server in the server pool.

  For example, if you want to use a multipath device with the device identifier mpath-36090a028301ffd14fca5a48246976baa a sharable disk for the virtual machines in the server pool, it must have same device path name on each Virtual Machine Server in the server pool, for example, /dev/mpath/mpath1. Do not use the path /dev/mapper/x for multipath devices, only use the path /dev/mpath/x.

• Make sure the multipath device is not used for any other purpose (for example, mounted as an FTP server) to avoid any possible data corruption.

Procedure

Follow these steps to discover shared disk:

1. In Virtualization Central, select the Virtual Server Pool, and select Action Virtual Server Pool - Manage Virtual Server Pool and click Go.

2. In the Oracle VM Server Pool: Resources page, select Resources as Shared Disks and click Discover.

3. In the Discover Shared Disk page, select the shared disk type:

   • Select File Backed to discover virtual disk image file placed in the shareddisk directory of storage repositories. Select one or more image files and click OK.

   • Select Multipath Backed to discover multipath devices to be used as shared disks. Select one or more devices and click OK.

   After clicking OK, the deployment procedure to discover shared disk will be submitted. The initial status will be Creating. Once the deployment procedure completes successfully, the status will be Ready. In case the deployment procedure fails, the status will be Error.

Importing Oracle VM Templates and ISO Binaries as Server Pool Resources

• Prerequisites

• Importing Software Components from Software Components Tab

• Importing Oracle VM Templates from Server Pool Resources Tab

• Importing ISO Images from Server Pool Resources Tab

Prerequisites

• Ensure that you meet the prerequisites described in the following sections:

  • Mandatory Infrastructure Requirements for Provisioning and Patching

  • Optional Infrastructure Requirements

  • Only a server pool administrator can import Oracle VM templates.

Importing Software Components from Software Components Tab

To import a software component, do the following:

1. In the Software Components tab, select Components as Template or ISO depending on the component you are importing, select the component, and click Import.

2. In the Import Template or Import ISO Image Page, specify the name of the imported resource, add the server pools to which you want to import the component, and specify monitoring server and virtual server credentials.

   
   

3. Click OK.

   After importing the software component, it will appear in the Server Pool Resources page as an imported resource.

Importing Oracle VM Templates from Server Pool Resources Tab

You can import an Oracle VM template to the server pool by using an existing Oracle VM template, or operating system and software on a physical computer, or guest virtual machine image file of VMWare/VI format.

To import an Oracle VM Template, do the following:

1. In Virtualization Central, select the Server Pool, select Action as Virtual Server Pool Manage Virtual Server Pool and click Go.

2. In the Resources tab, select Resources as Oracle VM Templates and click Import.

3. In the Import Template Page, select Mechanism as either Existing Binary, P2V Conversion, or V2V Conversion:

   • Select Existing Binary to import guest virtual machine template from existing binary. Specify a name and description for the Oracle VM template to be imported.

     • If you select the Binary Upload Mechanism as Associate Global Component, select the software component from the Software Library.

       
       

       If you specify Binary Upload Mechanism as External Location, provide the NFS or HTTP location of the Oracle VM template for the import, operating system name and type, and the virtualization type.

     Specify monitoring server and virtual server host credentials.

   • Select P2V Conversion to convert a Linux or Unix or Windows computer to an Oracle VM guest virtual machine. Specify the Oracle VM template name, description, and operating system name and type. Specify the Web Server URL in HTTPS format to access the disk images and configuration.

     Note:

     P2V conversion is supported for Oracle VM version 2.1.2 or higher.
     
     

   • Select V2V Conversion to convert a Virtual Iron or VMWare guest virtual machine to an Oracle VM guest virtual machine. Specify the Oracle VM template name, description, and operating system name and type. Specify the URL for accessing the virtual machine. It can be either an FTP or HTTP location. For example, http://my-http-storage.domain.com/savedVMWareMachine/config.vmx for VMWare guest virtual machine image files or http://my-http-storage.domain.com/savedVIIronMachine/config.cff for Virtual Iron guest virtual machine image files.

     Note:

     V2V conversion is supported for Oracle VM version 2.2 or higher.

     The source VMWare machine should be completely shut down when the conversion is in progress.

     
     

4. Click OK. The deployment procedure to import the Oracle VM template is submitted and the template will appear with the status Importing in the Server Pool Resources page.

   After importing the Oracle VM template, it will appear in the Server Pool Resources page as an imported resource with the status Ready.

Importing ISO Images from Server Pool Resources Tab

To import an ISO image, do the following:

1. In Virtualization Central, select the Server Pool, select Action as Virtual Server Pool Manage Virtual Server Pool and click Go.

2. In the Resources tab, select Resources as ISO Images and click Import.

3. In the Import ISO Image Page, specify the name of the imported resource, select the component to be imported or specify the external location of the component, and specify monitoring server and virtual server credentials.

4. Click OK. The deployment procedure to import the ISO image is submitted and the template will appear with the status Importing in the Server Pool Resources page.

   After importing the ISO image, it will appear in the Server Pool Resources page as an imported resource with the status Ready.

Creating Guest Virtual Machines

You can create guest virtual machines from software components, imported resources on the server pool, or by providing an external location. You can also create PXE bootable guest virtual machines with no operating system on them. This section explains the following:

• Prerequisites

• Provisioning Guest Virtual Machines Using Oracle VM Templates

• Provisioning Guest Virtual Machines Using ISO Images

• Provisioning Guest Virtual Machines Using PXE Boot

Prerequisites

• Ensure that you meet the prerequisites described in the following sections:

  • Mandatory Infrastructure Requirements for Provisioning and Patching

  • Optional Infrastructure Requirements

• The template for guest virtual machine creation must be present as a Software Library component, or at an external HTTP or NFS location, or imported to the server pool shared location.

Provisioning Guest Virtual Machines Using Oracle VM Templates

To provision a guest virtual machine using Oracle VM template, follow these steps:

1. Create a guest virtual machine template in any of the following ways:

   • Download the Oracle VM template to an external location (either HTTP or NFS location).

   • Import the Oracle VM template to the server pool. For steps to import templates to server pool, see Managing Server Pool Resources.

   • Use the Software Components tab in Virtualization Central to create a software component in the Software Library. For steps to create software components, see Creating Software Library Components.

2. In Virtualization Central, select Action as Guest VM, Create Guest VM and click Go.

   
   

3. In the Create Guest Virtual Machines: Server Pool page, specify the number of guest virtual machines to be created and the server pool with which you want to associate the guest virtual machines.

   'Specify the preferred virtual servers where the guest virtual machines will run. Choose Automatic to select the virtual server automatically. Click Next.

4. In the Create Guest Virtual Machines: Source page, select Oracle VM Template.

   • If the Oracle VM template is of type imported resources, select the template from the table.

     
     

   • If the Oracle VM template binary is stored in an external location, specify the NFS or HTTP location where the Oracle VM template is stored. For example, http://myvm_server/template or file://myvm_server/template. The template will be directly imported to the server pool without creating a software library component. Specify the template name for the binary to be imported. Specify the operating system details and virtualization type.

     
     

   • If the Oracle VM template is a software component stored in the Software Library, specify the resource name for the software component to be imported into the selected server pool and description. If the software component is not imported, it will be imported and the guest virtual machine will be created.

     
     

   Click Next.

5. In the Create Guest Virtual Machines: Configure page, specify the configuration details shown in Table 12-6. Click Configure Network to provide network details. By default, the network configuration will be DHCP.

   
   

6. In the Create Guest Virtual Machines: Schedule/Credentials page, specify the schedule for creating the guest virtual machine and the monitoring server and virtual server host credentials.

7. In the Create Guest Virtual Machines: Review page, review the information you have provided and submit the job for guest virtual machine creation.

   After clicking Finish, the deployment procedure to create the guest virtual machine will be submitted. The initial status of the guest virtual machine(s) being created will be Creating. Once the guest virtual machine gets created, the status will be Halted. If the guest virtual machine is started successfully, then the status will be Running and it will appear under the virtual server on which it started in the Virtualization Central.

Table 12-6 Guest Virtual Machine Configuration Details for Oracle VM Templates

Element	Description
Virtual Machine Name Prefix	This string will be used as a prefix in the guest virtual machine name. When a guest virtual machine is created using the Enterprise Manager Grid Control Console, guest virtual machine names will be prefixed by the virtual machine name prefix you provide here and a number.
Number of Cores	When creating guest virtual machine from imported template resource, specify the number of CPU cores to assign to this guest virtual machine. This will show up as virtual CPU (vCPU) configuration parameter for the guest virtual machine.
Memory Size (MB)	When creating guest virtual machine from imported template resource, specify the amount of memory to be allocated to the guest virtual machine. The virtual server should have sufficient memory to run the guest virtual machine. Otherwise, the guest virtual machine will be created, but will not be started.
Root Password/Confirm Root Password	When creating guest virtual machine from a Linux-based Oracle VM template, specify the operating system "root" password to log in to the guest virtual machine once it is up and running.
VNC Console Password	Enterprise Manager Grid Control provides a VNC console to the newly created guest virtual machine. This is the VNC password to access the VNC console.
Number of Network Interfaces	Number of virtual network interfaces this guest virtual machine should have. The minimum value is 1 and the maximum value is 8. Specify the network details by clicking Configure Network. To configure the network, specify the following values: Virtual Machine - Select the guest virtual machine you are configuring. Configuration Type - Specify the type of configuration whether dynamic or static. MAC Address - Specify the MAC address of the network interface. This is not a mandatory field. If not specified, MAC address will be automatically generated. The format of MAC address is XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX, where the first three octets should be 00:16:3E. Bridge - Select a network bridge from the available bridges. IP Address - Specify the IP address to be assigned to the network interface. Specify the value in /ddd.ddd.ddd.ddd/ format. Host Name - Specify the Hostname associated with the specified IP address. For example, myhost1.The hostname specified for "VIF0" will be set as host name of the machine. For remaining interfaces, the hostname entries are made to /etc/hosts file. Domain Name - Specify the domain name associated with the specified IP address. Subnet Mask - Specify the mask used to determine what subnet the specified IP address belongs to. For example, 255.255.252.0 Default Gateway - Specify the IP address of the node (or router) on the network that serves as an access point to another network. The default gateway specified for "VIF0" is set as the default gateway of the machine. DNS Server - Specify the DNS server configured for the network.
CPU Scheduling Priority	Specify the priority of a guest virtual machine to access the physical CPUs, while competing with other guest virtual machines on the same virtual server. Higher the priority, higher is the stake of the guest virtual machine in claiming CPU cycles.
CPU Cap (%)	Restricts the amount of physical CPU that a guest virtual machine can use. Use this to constrain guest virtual machine resource allocation.
Enable High Availability Mode	When creating the guest virtual machine, if the "Enable High Availability Mode" flag is selected, this guest virtual machine will participate in the High Availability functionality. If its parent virtual server fails, this guest virtual machine will be auto-restarted on another Oracle VM server. Select this option if you want the guest virtual machine to restart automatically on a different virtual server if the earlier virtual server shuts down.
Local Devices from Source Template	Displays the local devices from source template. You can enable disk priority by setting an appropriate QoS Priority Class. The priority class ranges from 0 to 7. The priority class 0 has the highest priority, and 7 the lowest.
Configure Agent	Select this option if you want to configure the agent to monitor the guest virtual machine.
Load Balancer Host	In case of multiple OMS setup, specify the load balancer host name to be used for agent configuration. By default, the agent will be configured with one of OMS hosts in a multiple OMS setup. If load balancer host is provided, then agent will be configured with the load balancer host.
Load Balancer Port	In case of multiple OMS setup, specify the load balancer port.
Management Server Registration Password	Password to register the agent.
Email	Specify the Email address for contact.
My Oracle Support Password	Password credentials for My Oracle Support.
Proxy Server	HTTP Proxy server used to connect to My Oracle Support.
Proxy Port	Proxy server port number
Proxy User name/Proxy Password	User name and password for the proxy server.
Start VM after creation	When creating guest virtual machine from template, specify whether the guest virtual machine should be started automatically after it is created.
Additional Disks	Every guest virtual machine is created with at least one disk. Specify additional disks and their sizes. These disks will be added to the guest virtual machine. After the guest virtual machine is created, log in to the guest virtual machine and reformat and mount the additional disks. Specify the name of the hard disk, its size, and QoS Priority Class. You can enable the disk I/O priority by setting an appropriate QoS Priority Class. The priority class ranges from 0 to 7. The priority class 0 has the highest priority, and 7 the lowest.
Shared Disks	Oracle VM allows sharing of disks between multiple guest virtual machines. You can specify multiple shared disks that the guest virtual machines can access. If the server pool has no shared disk available, the Add button will be disabled. Only virtual machines within the same server pool can share a shared disk. Specify the shared device name, the shared disk on it, and the QoS Priority Class. You can enable the disk I/O priority by setting an appropriate QoS Priority Class. The priority class ranges from 0 to 7. The priority class 0 has the highest priority, and 7 the lowest.

Provisioning Guest Virtual Machines Using ISO Images

To provision a guest virtual machine using ISO image, follow these steps:

1. Create an ISO image in any of the following ways:

   • Import the ISO image to the server pool. For steps to import ISO images to server pool, see Managing Server Pool Resources.

   • Use the Software Components tab in Virtualization Central to create a software component in the Software Library pointing to the ISO image in the shared storage.

   • Download the ISO image to an external HTTP or NFS location.

2. In Virtualization Central, select Action as Guest VM, Create Guest VM and click Go.

3. In the Create Guest Virtual Machines: Server Pool page, specify the number of guest virtual machines to be created and the server pool with which you want to associate the guest virtual machines.

   You can select the virtual servers for the guest virtual machines manually or allow the server pool to automatically allocate the virtual servers.

   Click Next.

   
   

4. In the Create Guest Virtual Machines: Source page, specify the ISO image source from which you want to create the guest virtual machine. Also specify the NFS Mount Point, that is, the NFS location where the ISO image will be mounted.

   • If the ISO image is of type imported resource, select Type as Imported Resource and then select the ISO image from the table.

     
     

   • If the ISO image is stored in an external location, specify the HTTP/NFS location where the ISO image is stored. For example, http://myvm_server/iso or file://myvm_server/iso. Specify the resource name using which the binary will be imported, OS name, and OS type. Also, choose the virtualization mode, either hardware or para, in which you want the virtual machine to run.

     
     

   • If the ISO image is a software component stored in the Software Library, specify Name and Description. For para-virtualized type, specify the NFS Mount Point also.

     
     

5. In the Create Guest Virtual Machines: Configure page, specify the configuration details shown in Table 12-7.

6. In the Create Guest Virtual Machines: Schedule/Credentials page, specify the schedule for creating the guest virtual machine and the monitoring server and virtual server host credentials.

7. In the Create Guest Virtual Machines: Review page, review the information you have provided and submit the job for guest virtual machine creation.

   Clicking Finish will submit the deployment procedure to create guest virtual machine(s). The initial status of the guest virtual machine will be 'Creating'. If the creation is successful, the status will be 'Running'.

   Note:

   For guest virtual machines created with Windows ISO images, the guest virtual machine will be shut down after creation. You must explicitly restart the guest virtual machine from Virtualization Central.

Table 12-7 Guest Virtual Machine Configuration Details for ISO Images and PXE Boot

Element	Description
Virtual Machine Name Prefix	This string will be used as a prefix in the guest virtual machine name. When a guest virtual machine is created using the Enterprise Manager Grid Control Console, guest virtual machine names will be prefixed by the virtual machine name prefix you provide here and a number.
Number of Cores	The number of CPU cores to assign to this guest virtual machine. This will show up as virtual CPU (vCPU) configuration parameter for the guest virtual machine.
Memory Size (MB)	The amount of memory to be allocated to the guest virtual machine. The virtual server should have sufficient memory to run the guest virtual machine. Otherwise, the guest virtual machine will be created, but will not be started.
Primary Disk Name	For guest virtual machine provisioning using ISO image or PXE boot, specify the name of the primary disk that will be used to create the guest virtual machine.
Primary Disk Size (MB)	For ISO and PXE boot, specify the size of the hard disk in megabytes. The disk size should be atleast 1024MB.
Primary Disk QoS	You can enable the disk I/O priority by setting an appropriate QoS Priority Class. The priority class ranges from 0 to 7. The priority class 0 has the highest priority, and 7 the lowest.
VNC Console Password	Enterprise Manager Grid Control provides a VNC console to the newly created guest virtual machine. This is the VNC password to access the VNC console.
Number of Network Interfaces	Number of virtual network interfaces this guest virtual machine should have. The minimum value is 1 and the maximum value is 8. Specify the network details by clicking Configure Network. To configure the network, specify the following values: Virtual Machine - Select the guest virtual machine you are configuring. Configuration Type - Specify the type of configuration whether dynamic or static. MAC Address - Specify the MAC address of the network interface. This is not a mandatory field. If not specified, MAC address will be automatically generated. The format of MAC address is XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX, where the first three octets should be 00:16:3E. Bridge - Select a network bridge from the available bridges. IP Address - Specify the IP address to be assigned to the network interface. Specify the value in /ddd.ddd.ddd.ddd/ format. Host Name - Specify the Hostname associated with the specified IP address. For example, myhost1.The hostname specified for "VIF0" will be set as host name of the machine. For remaining interfaces, the hostname entries are made to /etc/hosts file. Domain Name - Specify the domain name associated with the specified IP address. Subnet Mask - Specify the mask used to determine what subnet the specified IP address belongs to. For example, 255.255.252.0 Default Gateway - Specify the IP address of the node (or router) on the network that serves as an access point to another network. The default gateway specified for "VIF0" is set as the default gateway of the machine. DNS Server - Specify the DNS server configured for this network.
CPU Scheduling Priority	Specify the priority of a guest virtual machine to access the physical CPUs, while competing with other guest virtual machines on the same virtual server. Higher the priority, higher is the stake of the guest virtual machine in claiming CPU cycles.
CPU Cap (%)	Restricts the amount of physical CPU that a guest virtual machine can use. Use this to constrain guest virtual machine resource allocation.
Enable High Availability Mode	When creating the guest virtual machine, if the "Enable High Availability Mode" flag is selected, this guest virtual machine will participate in the High Availability functionality. If its parent virtual server fails, this guest virtual machine will be auto-restarted on another Oracle VM server. Select this option if you want the guest virtual machine to restart automatically on a different virtual server if the earlier virtual server shuts down.
Additional Disks	Every guest virtual machine is created with at least one disk. Specify additional disks and their sizes. These disks will be added to the guest virtual machine. After the guest virtual machine is created, log in to the guest virtual machine and reformat and mount the additional disks. Specify the name of the hard disk, its size, and QoS Priority Class. You can enable the disk I/O priority by setting an appropriate QoS Priority Class. The priority class ranges from 0 to 7. The priority class 0 has the highest priority, and 7 the lowest.
Shared Disks	Oracle VM allows sharing of disks between multiple guest virtual machines. You can specify multiple shared disks that the guest virtual machines can access. If the server pool has no shared disk available, the Add button will be disabled. Only virtual machines within the same server pool can share a shared disk. Specify the shared device name, the shared disk on it, and the QoS Priority Class. You can enable the disk I/O priority by setting an appropriate QoS Priority Class. The priority class ranges from 0 to 7. The priority class 0 has the highest priority, and 7 the lowest.

Provisioning Guest Virtual Machines Using PXE Boot

To provision a guest virtual machine using PXE boot, follow these steps:

1. In Virtualization Central, select Action as Guest VM, Create Guest VM and click Go.

2. In the Create Guest Virtual Machines: Server Pool page, specify the number of guest virtual machines to be created and the server pool with which you want to associate the guest virtual machines.

   You can select the virtual server for the guest virtual machine manually or allow the server pool to automatically allocate the virtual server.

   Click Next.

3. In the Create Guest Virtual Machines: Source page, specify the PXE Boot source from which you want to create the guest virtual machine. Specify if you want hardware virtualized or para-virtualized type.

   Specify the MAC addresses for the guest virtual machines:

   • If you want Enterprise Manager Grid Control to assign a MAC addresses for the new guest virtual machines, select Automatic.

   • If you want to specify MAC addresses manually, select Manual and provide the MAC addresses in the text fields. The format of MAC address is XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX where the first three octets are 00:13:6E.

   
   

4. In the Create Guest Virtual Machines: Configure page, specify the configuration details shown in Table 12-7.

5. In the Create Guest Virtual Machines: Schedule/Credentials page, specify the schedule for creating the guest virtual machine and the monitoring server and virtual server host credentials.

6. In the Create Guest Virtual Machines: Review page, review the information you have provided and submit the job for guest virtual machine creation.

   Clicking Finish will submit the deployment procedure to create guest virtual machine(s). The initial status of guest virtual machine will be 'Creating'. If the creation is successful, the status will be 'Running'.

Configuring the Guest Virtual Machine for Agent and Other Software

To enable Enterprise Manager Grid Control to monitor your guest virtual machine, you will need to configure the agent.

Table 12-8 lists all the options available for configuring the agent when creating a guest virtual machine from Oracle VM template and the action you can take.

Table 12-8 Agent Configuration Options

Option	Result
Oracle VM template used for guest virtual machine creation has a Oracle Management Agent (Management Agent) - Configure Agent option is selected when creating the guest virtual machine	The fields to specify agent configuration details are displayed in the Create Guest Virtual Machine: Configure page. The agent is configured when the guest virtual machine is started for the first time. For details about configuring the agent, see Creating Guest Virtual Machines.
- Oracle VM template used for guest virtual machine creation has a Management Agent - Configure Agent option is not selected when creating the guest virtual machine	The fields to specify agent configuration details are not displayed in the Create Guest Virtual Machine: Configure page. The agent is not configured during guest virtual machine creation. You will need to manually log in to the guest virtual machine using the VNC Console and configure the agent. To configure the agent, see Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control Installation Guide.
- Oracle VM template used for guest virtual machine creation does not have a Management Agent - Configure Agent option is selected when creating the guest virtual machine	Even though the Configure Agent option is selected, when creating the guest virtual machine, the agent will not be configured. You will need to manually log in to the guest virtual machine using the VNC Console and install and configure the agent. To install and configure the agent, see Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control Installation Guide.
- Oracle VM template used for guest virtual machine creation does not have a Management Agent - Configure Agent option is not selected when creating the guest virtual machine	When creating the guest virtual machine, the agent will not be configured. You will need to manually log in to the guest virtual machine using the VNC Console and configure the agent. To install and configure the agent, see Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control Installation Guide.

Virtualization Central Dashboard

The Enterprise Manager Virtualization Central page allows you to monitor Oracle VM, guest virtual machines, and manage resources. This section covers the following:

• Overview

• Editing Guest Virtual Machines

• Updating Preferred Virtual Server List

• Opening a VNC Console to the Guest Virtual Machine

• Deleting Server Pools, Oracle VM Servers, and Guest Virtual Machines

Overview

The Enterprise Manager Virtualization Central page allows you to monitor Oracle VM servers and guest virtual machines, and manage resources. Resource management includes packaging and management of various resources like ISO images, Oracle VM templates, and shared disk.

Managed resources can be imported or associated with a server pool. Resources associated with server pools can be chosen for virtualization life cycle management operations such as creating, cloning, and live migrating guest virtual machines.

Enterprise Manager Grid Control provides support for packaging and associating Oracle VM template and ISO component with server pools.

In addition, the Virtualization Central page also provides the following information:

• A quick view of the status of the virtual server and guest virtual machines and basic information about them

• CPU and Memory utilization of virtual servers

• Information about the server pool to which the virtual servers are registered

• Drilldowns to server pools, virtual servers, and guest virtual machines home pages from where you can view more information about these targets

• Administrative tasks such as starting and stopping guest virtual machines

• Provisioning activities such as creating virtual server pools, registering virtual servers, and creating guest virtual machines

• VNC Support to access guest virtual machines

Starting from the Virtualization Central page, you can access additional details and management functions by drilling down through the user interface. In addition, the Virtualization Central page provides a list of Related Links. From these links you can perform activities such as bare metal provisioning of Oracle VM server software, customization of table columns, and deployment of Management Agent on a guest virtual machine. The following figure shows the Virtualization Central Page.

For more information about administration and monitoring of Oracle VM, see Enterprise Manager Concepts Guide available at:

http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/oem.html

Note:

To support the monitoring and management of Oracle VM 2.2 Server in Grid Control 11g Release 1, when using a monitoring server of version 10.2.0.5, perform following manual configuration:

1. As a root user, create the following symlink:

   ln -s /opt/ovs-agent-2.2 /opt/ovs-agent-2.3
   

2. If the /opt/ovs-agent-2.2 directory already exists, back up the directory to another location first.

This step is required before registering Oracle VM Server version 2.2 with Enterprise Manager during new virtual server pool creation or when registering a virtual server with virtual server pool, and also when upgrading a registered virtual server to version 2.2.

For information about the privileges required for administrative operations, see Privileges Required for Administrative and Provisioning Operations.

Editing Guest Virtual Machines

Enterprise Manager Grid Control allows you to modify the virtual CPU count, allocated memory, and other configuration of the guest virtual machine.

The Edit Guest Virtual Machine page has four tabs - General, Disk Storage, Network Interface, and Advanced:

• The General tab displays details such as guest virtual machine name, virtual server name, memory details, CPU scheduling and priority and other details.

• The Disk Storage tab displays disk storage details for the guest virtual machine.

• The Network Interface tab displays network configuration details for the guest virtual machine.

• The Advanced Configuration tab displays the boot order details.

Table 12-9 shows the editable fields for the guest virtual machine and the time when the changes will take effect.

Table 12-9 Guest Virtual Machines: Editable Fields

Editable Field	Action for Changes to Take Effect
Virtual Machine Name	This field can be edited only for guest virtual machines in the Halted status. Changes will take effect when the guest virtual machine is started.
Memory	This field can be edited only for guest virtual machines in the Halted status. Changes will take effect immediately when the guest virtual machine is started.
Dynamic Memory	Dynamic memory specified should be lesser than or equal to the Memory specified. For para-virtualized guest virtual machines, changes to the memory take effect without stopping and starting the guest virtual machine. For hardware-virtualized guest virtual machines, changes to memory take effect only after stopping and starting the guest virtual machine.
Virtual CPUs	For para-virtualized guest virtual machines, number of virtual CPUs can be edited and changes take effect without stopping and starting the guest virtual machine. For hardware-virtualized guest virtual machines, changes to virtual CPUs take affect only after stopping and starting the guest virtual machine. For Oracle VM of version 2.2 onwards, the number of virtual CPUs cannot be increased beyond the value when the virtual machine was last started.
VNC Console Password	New password takes effect after the guest virtual machine is stopped and restarted.
CPU Scheduling Priority	Specify the priority of a guest virtual machine to access the physical CPUs, while competing with other guest virtual machines on the same virtual server. Higher the priority, higher is the stake of the guest virtual machine in claiming CPU cycles.
CPU Cap (%)	Restricts the amount of physical CPU that a guest virtual machine can use. Use this to constrain guest virtual machine resource allocation.
Enable High Availability Mode	If High Availability was enabled during guest virtual machine creation, you can edit the guest virtual machine to enable or disable High Availability.
Add/Remove Disk Storage	Changes take place immediately. CDs cannot be attached with para-virtualized guest machines.
QoS Priority Class	You can enable the disk I/O priority by setting an appropriate QoS Priority Class. The priority class ranges from 0 to 7. The priority class 0 has the highest priority, and 7 the lowest.
Add/Remove/Edit Network Interface	If a guest VM is running, all the interfaces that are present on it since the last restart can be removed, but not edited. But the newly added interfaces can be edited or removed. Changes take place immediately. The primary network interface VIF0 cannot be removed.
Network Rate	Allows you to control the bandwidth granted to each virtual network interface in the running guest virtual machine.
Boot Order	Requires the guest virtual machine to be stopped and restarted. Boot Order cannot be set to CD for para-virtualized guest virtual machines.

Editing a Guest Virtual Machine

1. In Virtualization Central, select the Guest Virtual Machine you want to edit, and select Action Guest VM, Edit Guest VM and click Go.

2. In the Edit Guest Virtual Machine page, edit the values. Click Continue.

   
   

   The Edit deployment procedure will be submitted. The guest virtual machine being edited will appear with the status 'Editing' in Virtualization Central. Once the deployment procedure completes successfully, the guest virtual machine status will be changed to the current state.

Updating Preferred Virtual Server List

If you want to restrict certain guest virtual machines to run on only certain Oracle VM servers, use the Preferred server list feature. Preferred server list contains all the Oracle VM servers on which this guest virtual machine is allowed to run. If the "Automatic" option is selected when creating a guest virtual machine, Enterprise Manager Grid Control picks the Oracle VM server with maximum resources to run the guest virtual machine. When auto-restarting guest virtual machines during fail-over scenario, Enterprise Manager Grid Control picks a preferred Oracle VM server to auto-restart the guest virtual machine.

To update preferred virtual server list, follow these steps:

1. In Virtualization Central, select the Guest Virtual Machine for which you want to update the preferred server list, and select Action Guest VM, Update Preferred Server List and click Go.

2. In the Update Preferred Server List page, choose the preferred server list as manual or automatic. If you choose Manual, add the preferred virtual servers for the guest virtual machine. Click Apply.

   
   

   Enterprise Manager picks the preferred Oracle VM server to start the guest virtual machine.

Opening a VNC Console to the Guest Virtual Machine

You can log in to guest virtual machines using VNC Console.

1. In Virtualization Central, select the guest virtual machine you want to access and select Action Guest VM VNC Console.

   The VNC Console to the guest virtual machine opens in a separate window.

   
   

2. In the VNC Console, specify the VNC password.

Deleting Server Pools, Oracle VM Servers, and Guest Virtual Machines

On removing a server pool, the virtual servers associated with the server pool will be removed. This section explains the following:

• Prerequisites for Deleting a Server Pool

• Deleting a Server Pool

• Prerequisites for Deleting an Oracle VM Server

• Deleting an Oracle VM Server

• Deleting a Guest Virtual Machine

Prerequisites for Deleting a Server Pool

Following are the prerequisites for deleting a server pool:

• The virtual server pool must not have any running guest virtual machines.

• No Import Resource operation must be running in the virtual server pool.

• Agents running on all the virtual servers in the virtual server pool should be accessible.

Deleting a Server Pool

Follow these steps to delete a server pool:

1. In Virtualization Central, select the Server Pool, select Action Virtual Server Pool, Remove Server Pool, and click Go.

2. Confirm that you want to remove the server pool. You can choose Remove all working directories and/or Force Remove. Select Remove all working directories from the server pool if you want to delete all the related directories (under /OVS). If you leave this option unselected, only the server pool data is removed from the database, while the relevant directories and files of the server pool remain on the server.

   If you select the Force Remove option, the virtual servers in the server pool will not be updated with the changes.

   Note:

   If you select the Force Remove option, the validations mentioned earlier will not be performed.

3. Click Finish.

On clicking Finish, the deployment procedure to delete the server pool is submitted and the status of the Server Pool changes to Unregistering. Once the job is completed, the deleted Server Pool and the associated virtual servers will not appear in Virtualization Central.

Prerequisites for Deleting an Oracle VM Server

Following are the prerequisites for deleting an Oracle VM server:

• The master agent of the virtual server should be connected and accessible.

• There should not be any running guest virtual machines on the virtual server.

• The virtual server should not be a preferred server of any guest virtual machine.

• The virtual server should not be the master server. The master virtual server cannot be directly removed. To remove the master virtual server, the virtual server pool has to be deleted.

Deleting an Oracle VM Server

Follow these steps to delete an Oracle VM server:

1. In Virtualization Central, select the Oracle VM Server, select Action Virtual Server, Deregister Virtual Server, and click Go.

2. Confirm that you want to deregister the virtual server. You cannot deregister the master server from a server pool.

   Note:

   If you select the Force Deregister option, the validations mentioned above will not be performed.

3. Click Finish.

On clicking Finish, the deployment procedure to delete the virtual server is submitted and the status of the Virtual Server changes to Unregistering. Once the job is completed, the deleted Virtual Server and the associated guest virtual machines will not appear in Virtualization Central.

Prerequisite for Deleting a Guest Virtual Machine

Following is the prerequisite for deleting a guest virtual machine:

• The guest virtual machine to be deleted should be in the Halted status.

Deleting a Guest Virtual Machine

Follow these steps to delete a guest virtual machine:

1. In Virtualization Central, select the guest virtual machine, select Action Guest VM, Delete Guest VM, and click Go.

2. Confirm that you want to delete the guest virtual machine.

3. Click Finish.

On clicking Finish, the deployment procedure to delete the guest virtual machine is submitted and the status of the guest virtual machine changes to Deleting. Once the job is completed, the deleted guest virtual machine will not appear in Virtualization Central.

When you delete a guest virtual machine, all the files and data associated with this guest virtual machine are removed from the virtual server and server pool.

Live Migrating Guest Virtual Machines

Administrators may want to move guest virtual machines on an Oracle VM server to another Oracle VM server for balancing the application workload, or during planned downtime of the Oracle VM server. Enterprise Manager Grid Control allows users to live migrate one or all guest virtual machines. Applications running in the guest virtual machines continue to be accessible during live migration. Live migration ensures high availability of guest virtual machines.

Enterprise Manager Grid Control supports the following live migration cases:

• Live migrate one guest virtual machine to another virtual server

• Live migrate all guest virtual machines from one virtual server to another

This section explains the following:

• Prerequisites

• Live Migrating Selected Guest Virtual Machine

• Live Migrating All Guest Virtual Machines

Prerequisites

Live migration requires the following preconditions to be met:

• The virtual servers participating in the live migration must belong to the same server pool and reside in the same subnet.

• The computer make and model number of both the source computer and the destination computer must be identical.

• The destination computer must have enough memory and free space.

Live Migrating Selected Guest Virtual Machine

To live migrate a guest virtual machine, do the following:

1. In Virtualization Central, select the guest virtual machine you want to live migrate and select Action Guest VM Live Migrate Guest VM. Ensure that the guest virtual machine is in the Running state. Click Go.

2. In the Live Migrate: Guest Virtual Machine page, specify the virtual server to which you want to live migrate the running guest virtual machine and also schedule the guest virtual machine live migration job to run either immediately or later. Select the virtual server allocation type as either Automatic or Manual.

   • If you choose Automatic, the system will pick up a suitable virtual server from the server pool for the guest virtual machine live migration. This virtual server will be selected from the virtual servers configured in the preferred server list for the guest virtual machine.

     
     

   • If you choose Manual, click Add and select the virtual server from the list of virtual servers available in the server pool.

     
     

3. Click OK.

After performing the live migration activity, navigate to Virtualization Central. The status of the migrated guest virtual machines will change from Running to Migrating to Running. The guest virtual machines will be displayed under the new virtual server after a few minutes.

Live Migrating All Guest Virtual Machines

To live migrate all guest virtual machines, do the following:

1. In Virtualization Central, select the virtual server from which you want to live migrate all guest virtual machines, and select Action Virtual Server Live Migrate All Guest VM. Ensure that it is in the Up state.

2. In the Live Migrate: Guest Virtual Machine page, schedule the guest virtual machine live migration job to run either immediately or later. The virtual server allocation type is Automatic.

   
   

3. Click OK. If there are no running guest virtual machines, a warning message is displayed. You can ignore the warning and continue with the live migration operation.

After performing the live migration activity, navigate to Virtualization Central. The migrated guest virtual machines must now be displayed under the new virtual server.

High Availability and Fault Tolerance

Oracle VM server uses Oracle Clusterware to maintain network and storage heartbeat in a cluster of Oracle VM servers. When an Oracle VM server failure is detected, Enterprise Manager Grid Control automatically restarts the guest virtual machines that were running on the failed server on a new Oracle VM server.

This section explains how you can create a cluster and enable high availability (HA). You can create either an NFS-based cluster, or an OCFS2 cluster. In particular, this section covers the following:

• Creating an NFS Cluster for High Availability

• Creating an OCFS2 Cluster for High Availability

• Preparing a Storage Repository (For Oracle VM 2.2)

• Configuring Oracle VM Servers and Guest Virtual Machines for High Availability

• Master Server Failover

Creating an NFS Cluster for High Availability

The following sections list the procedure to create an NFS cluster for high availability for Oracle VM version 2.2, 2.1.2., and 2.1.5.

Creating an NFS-based cluster for High Availability for Oracle VM 2.2

To configure HA, you must first create external storage, and then create a storage repository to be used in the server pool.

To prepare external storage to be used in a storage repository using NFS:

1. To prepare external storage to be used in a storage repository using NFS, find an NFS mount point to use. For example:

   mynfsserver:/vol/vol1/data/ovs
   

When you have identified an NFS mount point to use for the external storage, prepare the storage repository.

Creating an NFS-based cluster for High Availability for Oracle VM 2.1.2 and 2.1.5

To create an NFS-based cluster for HA for Oracle VM 2.1.2 and 2.1.5:

1. On the master virtual server, start the cluster service:

   # /usr/lib/ovs/ovs-cluster-configure
   

   This script generates the /etc/ocfs2/cluster.conf file if it does not already exist, and configures and starts the o2cb service.

2. On the master virtual server, configure the shared storage with /usr/lib/ovs/ovs-makerepo source C description, for example.

   # /usr/lib/ovs/ovs-makerepo example.com:/OVS C "cluster root"
   

3. On the master virtual server, check the cluster has been configured correctly and is running:

   # /usr/lib/ovs/ovs-cluster-check --master --alter-fstab
   

   The --master parameter should only be used on the master virtual server. The --alter-fstab parameter modifies the /etc/fstab file. A backup of the original /etc/fstab file is created in /tmp.

4. Log in to Oracle Enterprise Manager and create an HA-enabled server pool. See Configuring Oracle VM Servers and Guest Virtual Machines for High Availability for steps to enable high availability on server pools.

Creating an OCFS2 Cluster for High Availability

The following sections list the procedure to create an OCFS2 cluster for high availability for Oracle VM version 2.2, 2.1.2., and 2.1.5.

Creating an OCFS2-based cluster for High Availability for Oracle VM 2.2

To configure HA, you must first create external storage, and then create a storage repository to be used in the server pool.

To prepare external storage to be used in a storage repository using OCFS2 on SAN:

1. Review the partitions by checking /proc/partitions:

   # cat /proc/partitions
   major minor  #blocks  name
      8     0   71687372 sda
      8     1     104391 sda1
      8     2   71577607 sda2
    253     0   70516736 dm-0
    253     1    1048576 dm-1
      8    16    1048576 sdb
   

2. Determine the share disk volume you want to use. You may need to use the fdisk utility to create at least one partition on the shared disk volume:

   # fdisk /dev/sdb
   

   Alternatively, if the external storage is more than 2 TB, use the gparted utility to create a GPT partition:

   # gparted /dev/sdb
   

3. Format the partition from any of the Oracle VM Servers in the (intended) server pool with a command similar to the following:

   # mkfs.ocfs2 -Tdatafiles -N8 /dev/sdb1
   

   The -Tdatafiles parameter makes mkfs.ocfs2 use a large cluster size. The size chosen depends on the device size.

   Add an additional parameter, --fs-features=local, if you are not mounting the volume in the server pool.

   The -N8 parameter allocates 8 slots to allow that many nodes to mount the file system concurrently. Increase the number if the server pool has (or will have) greater than 8 nodes. It is recommended that you have at least 8 slots, even for a local file system. Creating slots for a local file system allows users to easily cluster-enable the shared volume later.

For information about preparing external storage using OCFS2 on iSCSI, see "Chapter 8, Preparing External Storage and Storage Repositories" in the Oracle VM Server User's Guide available at:

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E15458_01/doc.22/e15444/storage.htm#sthref68

When you have prepared the external storage, prepare the storage repository.

Creating an OCFS2-based cluster for High Availability for Oracle VM 2.1.2 and 2.1.5

To create an OCFS2-based cluster for HA for Oracle VM 2.1.2 and 2.1.5:

1. On the master virtual server, start the cluster service:

   # /usr/lib/ovs/ovs-cluster-configure
   

   This script generates the /etc/ocfs2/cluster.conf file if it does not already exist, and configures and starts the o2cb service.

2. On the master virtual server, configure the shared storage with /usr/lib/ovs/ovs-makerepo source C description, for example.

   # /usr/lib/ovs/ovs-makerepo example.com:/OVS C "cluster root"
   

3. On the master virtual server, check the cluster has been configured correctly and is running:

   # /usr/lib/ovs/ovs-cluster-check --master --alter-fstab
   

   The --master parameter should only be used on the master virtual server. The --alter-fstab parameter modifies the /etc/fstab file. A backup of the original /etc/fstab file is created in /tmp.

4. Log in to Oracle Enterprise Manager and create an HA-enabled server pool. See Configuring Oracle VM Servers and Guest Virtual Machines for High Availability for steps to enable high availability on server pools.

Creating an OCFS2-based cluster for High Availability for Oracle VM 2.1.2 and 2.1.5

To create an OCFS2-based cluster for HA:

1. On the master virtual server, format a volume to be an OCFS2 partition with the mkfs.ocfs2 utility. For example, to create an OCFS2 partition with a 4k block size, 4k cluster size, and 16 node slots:

   # mkfs.ocfs2 -L mylabel -b 4K -C 4K -J size=64M -N 16 /dev/sda1
   

2. On the master virtual server, start the cluster service:

   # /usr/lib/ovs/ovs-cluster-configure
   

   This script generates the /etc/ocfs2/cluster.conf file if it does not already exist, and configures and starts the o2cb service.

3. On the master virtual server, configure the OCFS2 partition as shared storage with /usr/lib/ovs/ovs-makerepo source C description, for example.

   # /usr/lib/ovs/ovs-makerepo /dev/sdb1 C "cluster root"
   

4. Check the cluster has been configured correctly and is running:

   # /usr/lib/ovs/ovs-cluster-check --master --alter-fstab
   

   The --master parameter should only be used on the master virtual server. The --alter-fstab parameter modifies the /etc/fstab file. A backup of the original /etc/fstab file is created in /tmp.

5. Log in to Oracle Enterprise Manager and create an HA-enabled server pool. See Configuring Oracle VM Servers and Guest Virtual Machines for High Availability for steps to enable high availability on server pools.

Preparing a Storage Repository (For Oracle VM 2.2)

For Oracle VM version 2.2 or higher, in addition to preparing external storage for a server pool, you must also prepare a storage repository. The storage repository is used to host the resources used in the server pool, such as guest virtual machines and shared virtual disks.

To prepare a storage repository, do the following:

1. On the Server Pool Master, create a storage repository with the script:

   /opt/ovs-agent-2.3/utils/repos.py -n storage_location
   

2. The repos.py -n command from the previous step displays the UUID of the storage repository you created. You need this UUID to set the cluster root. Copy the UUID for the storage repository you want to use as the cluster root.

   For example, for an NFS set up, you might use something similar to:

   # /opt/ovs-agent-2.3/utils/repos.py -n mynfsserver:/vol/vol1/data/ovs
   

   Or for an OCFS2 using iSCSI or SAN set up, you might use something similar to:

   # /opt/ovs-agent-2.3/utils/repos.py -n /dev/sdb1
   

3. Paste the UUID for the storage repository and use it to set the cluster root with the command:

   # /opt/ovs-agent-2.3/utils/repos.py -r UUID
   

   The external storage and storage repository are configured and ready to use.

Configuring Oracle VM Servers and Guest Virtual Machines for High Availability

You can set up High Availability for Oracle VM to guarantee the availability of guest virtual machines if the Oracle VM server they are running on fails or restarts. When a virtual server is restarted or shut down, the guest virtual machines running on it are either restarted on, or migrated to, another virtual server.

Enabling High Availability mode for the virtual server pool allows all the Oracle VM servers in the pool to be clustered.

From Oracle VM version 2.2 onwards, Enterprise Manager provides the master server failover feature. If the master virtual server fails, another virtual server is selected from the server pool to act as the master virtual server. You can configure a virtual IP for the entire server pool. For more information about master server failover, see Master Server Failover.

To enable High Availability, you will need the following configuration:

• High Availability mode should be enabled for the virtual server pool.

• Clustering configuration should be done for master server and other virtual servers in the server pool.

• High Availability flag must be set for the guest virtual machines.

Steps to enable High Availability

1. When creating a server pool, in the Create Server Pool page, select Enable for the High Availability Mode field.

   
   

2. When creating a guest virtual machine, in the Create Guest Virtual Machine: Configure page, select Enable High Availability Mode check box.

   
   

3. When editing a guest virtual machine, in the Edit Guest Virtual Machine page, select Enable High Availability Mode check box.

   
   

If High Availability is configured for both server pool and the guest virtual machine, if the virtual server is shutdown, the guest virtual machine will be stopped and restarted on another virtual server.

Master Server Failover

To support the automatic failover and assignment of master virtual server in a pool, you can configure a virtual IP for the entire server pool. This will be a floating IP, and upon failover, the IP will be assigned to the new master virtual server.

Note:

This feature is available only for Oracle VM 2.2 or higher.

To enable master server failover, follow these steps:

• During virtual server pool creation, in the Create Virtual Server Pool page, enable the High Availability Mode setting and specify the Master Server Virtual IP as follows:

  
  

• You can also modify the master server virtual IP address from the Server Pool Home page as follows:

  
  

Advanced Operations

This section explains the advanced operations that can be performed in your virtualization environment. In particular, this section explains the following:

• Cloning Guest Virtual Machines

• Saving Guest Virtual Machine as Template

• Bare Metal Provisioning of Oracle VM Servers

• Server Maintenance Mode

Cloning Guest Virtual Machines

Cloning creates a copy of a guest virtual machine on the same server pool. When a guest virtual machine is cloned, the software on the source guest virtual machine is also copied onto the cloned guest virtual machine.

Prerequisites

• Ensure that you meet the prerequisites described in the following sections:

  • Mandatory Infrastructure Requirements for Provisioning and Patching

  • Optional Infrastructure Requirements

• Guest virtual machine to be cloned must be in the Halted status.

Cloning Procedure

During cloning, new guest virtual machines are created from a source guest virtual machine.

To clone a guest virtual machine, do the following:

1. In Virtualization Central, select the guest virtual machine you want to clone and select Action Guest VM Clone Guest VM. Ensure that it is in the Halted state. Click Go.

2. In the Clone Guest Virtual Machines: Server Pool page, specify the number of guest virtual machines to be created. The new guest virtual machines will be associated with the same server pool as the guest virtual machine you are cloning. You can also select the virtual server for the guest virtual machine manually or allow the server pool to automatically allocate the virtual server. Click Next.

   
   

3. In the Clone Guest Virtual Machines: Configure page, configure the guest virtual machines by specifying the values in Table 12-10.

   
   

4. In the Clone Guest Virtual Machines: Schedule/Credentials page, provide a schedule for the provisioning and user credentials for the monitoring server and Virtual Server host. The credentials you specify for the Virtual Server host must have sudo privileges.

5. In the Clone Guest Virtual Machines: Review page, review the information you have provided and submit the job.

   The cloned guest virtual machine will appear with the status Creating.. in Virtualization Central under the same server pool as the source guest virtual machine. The source guest virtual machine will appear with the status Cloning.. in Virtualization Central. If you have selected the Start VM after creation option during cloning, the guest virtual machines will be started after the clone process.

Table 12-10 Clone Guest Virtual Machines

Element	Description
Virtual Machine Name Prefix	This string will be used as a prefix in the guest virtual machine name. When a guest virtual machine is created using the Enterprise Manager Grid Control Console, guest virtual machine names will be prefixed by the virtual machine name prefix you provide here and a number.
VNC Console Password	Enterprise Manager Grid Control provides a VNC console to the newly created guest virtual machine. This is the VNC password to access the VNC console.
Number of Network Interfaces	Number of virtual network interfaces this guest virtual machine should have. The minimum value is 1 and the maximum value is 8. Specify the network details by clicking Configure Network.
CPU Scheduling Priority	Specify the priority of a guest virtual machine to access the physical CPUs, while competing with other guest virtual machines on the same virtual server. Higher the priority, higher is the stake of the guest virtual machine in claiming CPU cycles.
CPU Cap (%)	Restricts the amount of physical CPU that a guest virtual machine can use. Use this to constrain guest virtual machine resource allocation.
Start VM after creation	Specify whether the guest virtual machine should be started automatically after it is created.
Enable High Availability Mode	Oracle VM allows sharing of disks between multiple guest virtual machines. You can specify multiple shared disks that the guest virtual machines can access. If the server pool has no shared disk available, the Add button will be disabled. Only virtual machines within the same server pool can share a shared disk. Specify the shared device name, the shared disk on it, and the QoS Priority Class. You can enable the disk I/O priority by setting an appropriate QoS Priority Class. The priority class ranges from 0 to 7. The priority class 0 has the highest priority, and 7 the lowest.
Additional Disks	Every guest virtual machine is created with at least one disk. Specify additional disks and their sizes. These disks will be added to the guest virtual machine. After the guest virtual machine is created, log in to the guest virtual machine and reformat and mount the additional disks.Specify the name of the hard disk, its size, and QoS Priority Class. You can enable the disk I/O priority by setting an appropriate QoS Priority Class. The priority class ranges from 0 to 7. The priority class 0 has the highest priority, and 7 the lowest.
Shared Disks	Oracle VM allows sharing of disks between multiple guest virtual machines. You can specify multiple shared disks that the guest virtual machines can access.If the server pool has no shared disk available, the Add button will be disabled. Only virtual machines within the same server pool can share a shared disk.Specify the shared device name, the shared disk on it, and the QoS Priority Class. You can enable the disk I/O priority by setting an appropriate QoS Priority Class. The priority class ranges from 0 to 7. The priority class 0 has the highest priority, and 7 the lowest.

Saving Guest Virtual Machine as Template

A guest virtual machine can be saved as an Oracle VM template in the same server pool where the guest virtual machine exists. Additionally, if an external NFS location is provided, a Software Library component is created for this template that can later be used for creating guest virtual machines on other server pools.

Saving a Guest Virtual Machine as a Template

1. In Virtualization Central, choose the guest virtual machine you want to save, select Action Guest VM, Save Guest VM as Template and click Go. Ensure that the guest virtual machine is in the Halted status.

2. In the Create Component: Describe page, specify the creation method as:

   • From Existing Guest VM to store an existing guest VM configuration details.

     
     

   Specify the template name and OS details. Click Next.

3. In the Create Component: Configure page, optionally specify the external location where the template is stored and used for creating software library component. The software library component can then be imported to server pools to create guest virtual machine templates. Specify the monitoring server and virtual server credentials.

   Click Next.

   
   

4. In the Create Component: Review page, review the information you have provided and click Submit.

The template will be saved in the location you specified. The template saved will be imported to the server pool to which the Halted guest virtual machine belongs, you can view the imported template in the Server Pool Resources page.

Bare Metal Provisioning of Oracle VM Servers

Enterprise Manager Grid Control allows you to provision Oracle VM server software on bare metal machines. For information about bare metal provisioning, see Provisioning Linux.

During bare metal provisioning of Oracle VM server, the Management Agent will not be installed. After completing bare metal provisioning, register the Oracle VM server with the server pool using the steps explained in Registering Virtual Servers.

Server Maintenance Mode

The server maintenance mode will enable administrators to perform maintenance activity on virtual servers.

Virtual servers which are put in maintenance mode will lose their utility server role when the maintenance mode is enabled. Once the maintenance mode is removed, their roles will be restored. However, if there is only one utility server in the pool, it will not be allowed to be put into maintenance mode until another server is assigned with that role. A master virtual server cannot be put in maintenance mode.

When the virtual server is in maintenance mode, Enterprise Manager allows you to enable blackout on that virtual server to avoid any unnecessary alerts coming in to the system.

The following actions cannot be performed when a virtual server is in the maintenance mode:

• Live migrate to the virtual server

• Start and Resume operations on guest virtual machines

Enabling Server Maintenance Mode

To enable server maintenance mode, follow these steps:

1. In Virtualization Central, select Action as Enable Server Maintenance Mode, and click Go.

2. In the Enable Server Maintenance Mode page, select the server pool and add the virtual servers on the server pool for which you want to enable server maintenance. Select the blackout options:

   • Blackout Oracle VM Server and all Host targets running on it will blackout virtual servers and all hosts running on it. You can also choose to run jobs on hosts during the blackout and blackout targets associated with the selected hosts and monitored by the same agent.

   • Blackout Only Oracle VM Server will blackout only the virtual servers put in maintenance mode.

   • No Blackout will not blackout Oracle VM servers or any associated hosts.

3. Click OK.

   The selected virtual servers will be put in maintenance mode.

Removing Server Maintenance Mode

To remove server maintenance mode, follow these steps:

1. In Virtualization Central, choose the virtual server pool, select Action as Remove Server Maintenance Mode, and click Go.

2. In the Confirmation Page, click Yes to remove server maintenance mode.

   The virtual server will be removed from maintenance mode.

Migrating from Oracle VM Manager to Enterprise Manager

If you are using Oracle VM Manager to manage Oracle VM servers, guest virtual machines, and resources, and want to move to Enterprise Manager to manage your Oracle VM systems, follow these steps:

1. Delete the virtual server from Oracle VM Manager. For information about deleting a virtual server from Oracle VM Manager, see Oracle VM Manager User's Guide available at http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E11081_01/doc/doc.21/e10901/toc.htm

2. Shutdown the virtual server.

3. Create virtual server pool in Enterprise Manage. For information about creating virtual server pools, see Creating Server Pools.

4. Register virtual servers with the server pool. For information about registering virtual servers, see Registering Virtual Servers.

5. Create guest virtual machines. For information about creating guest virtual machines, see Creating Guest Virtual Machines.