2.7.2 What are the Oracle VM Guest Additions?

While not necessary to have a fully functional Oracle VM deployment, Oracle VM Guest Additions can be installed into you virtual machines to allow you to communicate directly with a virtual machine from Oracle VM Manager. The Oracle VM Guest Additions package installs a daemon that runs within the virtual machine and which listens for messages from Oracle VM Manager. By installing this package, Oracle VM Manager is able to provide information about the actual virtual machine's configuration, such as its configured IP address. Furthermore, it is possible to configure virtual machines as they are started by sending configuration information from Oracle VM Manager directly to the virtual machine, triggering configuration scripts that are able to use the data. This facility enables you to control behavior within a virtual machine as different events outside of the virtual machine trigger these scripts.

The Oracle VM Guest Additions, and the way in which configuration scripts can be used in conjunction with Oracle VM's messaging subsystem, are discussed in detail in the Oracle VM Administrator's Guide.