Skip Headers
Oracle® VM Manager User's Guide
Release 2.1

Part Number E10901-04
Go to Documentation Home
Home
Go to Book List
Book List
Go to Table of Contents
Contents
Go to Index
Index
Go to Feedback page
Contact Us

Go to previous page
Previous
Go to next page
Next
View PDF

3 Managing Server Pools

A server pool is logically an autonomous region that contains one or more physical servers. It presents a unified view of the storage in which the virtual machines reside.

Before creating a server pool, ensure you have:

This chapter describes how to manage server pools. It includes the following sections:

Note:

Functions described in this chapter are only available to users who are granted the Manager or Administrator role.

Designing a Server Pool

This section guides you through the ways of designing a server pool to meet your requirements.

Before creating a server pool, you need to consider how many physical servers will be contained in the server pool, and what functions each physical server will perform. The more virtual machines you will run in the server pool, the more resources these virtual machines will consume, therefore the more physical servers are needed to provide sufficient resources for the server pool.

A server pool is scalable. If you find a server pool does not have sufficient resources, such as CPU and memory, to run the virtual machines and the applications inside, you can expand the server pool by adding more Virtual Machine Servers.

There are three typical server pool configurations: separate configuration, all-in-one configuration, and two-in-one configuration.

Creating a Server Pool

To create a server pool, perform the following:

  1. On the Server Pools page, click Create Pool. The Create Server Pool page is displayed.

    Figure 3-4 Adding Servers to a Server Pool

    Description of Figure 3-4 follows
    Description of "Figure 3-4 Adding Servers to a Server Pool"

  2. Enter the Oracle VM Server information and add the Oracle VM Server to the server pool. You can add multiple Oracle VM Servers to a server pool.

    A server pool consists of at least one Server Pool Master, one Utility Server, and one Virtual Machine Server. See Designing a Server Pool.

    Note:

    If you have registered a physical server to Oracle VM Manager, you cannot register it again, as this may result in duplicate host names or IP addresses.

    Enter the name of the server pool in the Server Pool Name field.

    A server pool name must consist of alphanumeric characters, and must not contain spaces or special characters, except the underscore (_) character. The maximum length of a server pool name is 200 characters.

    Select whether to enable HA with the High Availability Mode check box. To use HA, you must enable HA in the server pool, and on each virtual machine. For information about HA, see Enabling High Availability (HA). For more information on how to set up HA prerequisites, see the Oracle VM Server User's Guide.

    Enter the following information on the Oracle VM Server in the Server Details box:

    • Server Host/IP

      Enter the host name, or IP address of the Oracle VM Server, for example:

      192.168.2.20

      or

      hostname.example.com

    • Server Name

      Enter a name for the Oracle VM Server. This must be unique.

      An Oracle VM Server name must consist of alphanumeric characters, and must not contain spaces or special characters, except the underscore (_) character. The maximum name length is 200 characters.

    • Server Agent Password

      Enter the password to access Oracle VM Agent installed on the Oracle VM Server.

    • Server Type

      Select the checkbox for each role the Oracle VM Server should perform in the server pool:

      • Server Pool Master

      • Utility Server

      • Virtual Machine Server

      If you select Utility Server, you must enter the Oracle VM Server login credentials in the Utility Server Username and Utility Server Password fields. The user must have read/write privileges for the /OVS folder.

    • Location

      The location of the Oracle VM Server. For example, Server Room 1.

    • Description

      A description of the Oracle VM Server.

    To test the connection to the Oracle VM Server click Test Connection. If the information is incorrect, or the Oracle VM Server is not available, you cannot add it to the server pool.

    When you have entered the information about the Oracle VM Server, click Add. The Oracle VM Server is added to the server pool and listed in the table at the bottom of the screen. You can select it, and then edit it or delete it with the Edit and Delete buttons.

    To add more Oracle VM Servers to the server pool, enter the parameters for each Oracle VM Server, and click Add.

    After adding the Oracle VM Server, click Next to proceed to the next page.

  3. On the User Information page, select the users from the Non-Administration User Information table for which you want to grant access to the server pool. Users with the Administrator role are automatically granted access to the server pool.

    Figure 3-5 Adding Users to a Server Pool

    Description of Figure 3-5 follows
    Description of "Figure 3-5 Adding Users to a Server Pool"

    To add new users, see Creating a User. To change a user role, see Changing a Role.

    After adding users, click Next to proceed to the next page.

  4. On the Confirmation page, confirm the information you have entered for the server pool. Click Confirm to create the server pool.

    The Server Pools page is displayed and the new server pool is listed in the Server Pools table.

Editing a Server Pool

You can change the server pool name, check HA infrastructure and enable or disable HA. You can also edit the servers in a server pool, and add or remove users.

Figure 3-6 Editing Server Pool Page Links

Description of Figure 3-6 follows
Description of "Figure 3-6 Editing Server Pool Page Links"

Editing Server Pool

To edit a server pool:

  1. Select the server pool in the Server Pools table and click Edit. The Edit Server Pool page is displayed.

    Figure 3-7 Editing a Server Pool

    Description of Figure 3-7 follows
    Description of "Figure 3-7 Editing a Server Pool"

  2. Change the server pool name in the Server Pool Name field.

    An Oracle VM Server name must consist of alphanumeric characters, and must not contain spaces or special characters, except the underscore (_) character. The maximum name length is 200 characters.

  3. To check the HA infrastructure click Check in the High Availability Infrastructure field.

  4. Enable or disable HA with the Enable High Availability check box.

  5. Click OK or Apply to save your changes.

Editing Server Pool Servers

To edit the servers in a server pool, click the Servers link in the Server Pools table. For more information, refer to Chapter 4, "Managing Servers".

Editing Server Pool Users

To add or remove users from the server pool:

  1. Click the Users link in the Server Pools table. The Edit User Information for the Server Pool screen is displayed.

  2. Select the users from the Non-Administration User Information table for which you want to grant access to the server pool. Users with the Administrator role are automatically granted access to the server pool. Click Apply.

To add new users, see Creating a User. To change a user role, see Changing a Role.

Searching Server Pools

To search server pools, perform the following:

  1. Enter the server pool name in the Server Pool Name field. Use % as a wildcard. All available server pools are displayed if you leave the Server Pool Name field empty.

  2. Select the server pool status in the Status drop down. The server pool status reflects the status of the Server Pool Master.

    • Active

      The server pool is available.

    • Inactive

      The server pool is not available.

  3. Click Search. The search results are displayed in the Server Pools table.

Restoring a Server Pool

If the server pool data on the server pool master is damaged, you can restore this data by synchronizing it with the data from the Oracle VM Manager database.

Note:

When you restore a server pool, all the data stored in the server pool master will be deleted, and will be synchronized with the latest information from the Oracle VM Manager database.

To restore a server pool, select it, and click Restore.

Enabling High Availability (HA)

You can set up HA in Oracle VM to guarantee the availability of virtual machines if the Virtual Machine Server they are running on fails or restarts. When a Virtual Machine Server is restarted or shut down, the virtual machines running on it are either restarted on, or migrated to, another Virtual Machine Server.

You manage HA with Oracle VM Manager. To implement HA, you must create a cluster of Virtual Machine Servers in a server pool and have them managed by Oracle VM Manager. HA cannot be implemented with Oracle VM Server alone.

To use HA, you must first enable HA on the server pool, then on all virtual machines, as shown in Figure 3-8, "Enabling HA". If you enable HA in the server pool and then for virtual machines, when a Virtual Machine Server is shut down or fails, the virtual machines are migrated or restarted on another available Virtual Machine Server. HA must be enabled for both the server pool and for virtual machines. If HA is not enabled for both, HA is disabled.

If HA is enabled, when you restart, shut down, or delete the Virtual Machine Server in Oracle VM Manager, you are prompted to migrate the running virtual machines to another available Virtual Machine Server. If you do not migrate the running virtual machines, Oracle VM Agent attempts to find an available Virtual Machine Server on which to restart the virtual machines. The Virtual Machine Server is selected using the preferred server setting for the server pool when you create a virtual machine in Oracle VM Manager:

If you do not select a preferred server when creating a virtual machine in Oracle VM Manager, Auto is set as the default.

If there is no preferred Virtual Machine Server or Virtual Machine Server available, the virtual machines shut down (Power Off) and are restarted when a Virtual Machine Server becomes available.

If the Server Pool Master fails, HA also fails for the Virtual Machine Servers running in that server pool.

The possible HA scenarios are:

In all the above scenarios, if any virtual machines running on the Virtual Machine Server are not HA-enabled, they are shut down (Powered Off).

Figure 3-9 shows a Virtual Machine Server failing and the virtual machines restarting on other Virtual Machine Servers in the server pool.

Figure 3-9 HA in Effect for a Virtual Machine Server Failure

Description of Figure 3-9 follows
Description of "Figure 3-9 HA in Effect for a Virtual Machine Server Failure"

Figure 3-10 shows a Virtual Machine Server restarting or shutting down and the virtual machines migrating to other Virtual Machine Servers in the server pool.

Figure 3-10 HA in Effect for a Virtual Machine Server Restart or Shut Down

Description of Figure 3-10 follows
Description of "Figure 3-10 HA in Effect for a Virtual Machine Server Restart or Shut Down"

Deleting a Server Pool

To delete a server pool, perform the following:

  1. On the Server Pools page, select the server pool you want to delete, and click Delete.

  2. On the Delete Confirmation page, select Remove all the working directories from the server pool if you want to delete all the related directories. If you do not select this option, only the server pool data is removed from the database, while the relevant directories and files of the server pool remain on the server. Select Force Remove to force the removal of the servers if one or more servers are unavailable.

    Caution:

    After you delete all the directories, all the servers and virtual machines on the server pool are then deleted as well. Ensure that the server pool is no longer in use before deleting it.