What's New in Oracle VM Manager

This preface introduces the new features and enhancements of Oracle VM Manager in the 2.1.x releases since the initial release version of 2.1. This information is useful to users who have used a previous release of Oracle VM Manager.

New Features in Release 2.1.5

The new features and enhancements in Oracle VM Manager Release 2.1.5 include:

Web Services API

A Web services Application Programming Interface (API) to enable integration of third party products with Oracle VM Manager. See Appendix C, "Web Services API".

Server Pool Management UI Enhancements

The server pool management pages in the user interface have been improved. See Chapter 3, "Managing Server Pools".

New Features in Release 2.1.2

The new features and enhancements in Oracle VM Manager Release 2.1.2 include:

Server Pool Wizard

If it is the first time you log in to Oracle VM Manager after installation, you are prompted to follow the Wizard to create a server pool containing only one physical server which will act as the Server Pool Master, the Virtual Machine Server, and the Utility Server. See Using the Wizard to Create a Server Pool.

High Availability (HA) for Server Pools and Virtual Machine Servers

In Release 2.1.2, various levels of high availability is implemented.

You can enable high availability for server pools and virtual machines when creating them. See Enabling High Availability (HA) and Creating a Virtual Machine.

You can also enable high availability when importing virtual machine templates and images. See Importing Virtual Machine Templates and Importing Virtual Machine Images.

You can choose to migrate the running virtual machines when restarting, shutting down, or deleting an Oracle VM Server. See Restarting a Server, Shutting Down a Server, and Deleting a Server.

Virtual Machine Conversions, V2V and P2V

Oracle VM allows you to convert a VMware virtual machine to an Oracle VM virtual machine (known as V2V), or to convert a Linux host to an Oracle VM virtual machine or template (known as P2V).

To convert a VMware virtual machine to an Oracle VM virtual machine (V2V), see Importing a Virtual Machine Image.

To convert a Linux host to an Oracle VM virtual machine or template (P2V), see Converting a Linux or Windows Host to a Virtual Machine Template (P2V) and Converting a Linux or Windows Host to a Virtual Machine (P2V).

Keyboard Layout Selection

Oracle VM Manager provides a keyboard selection when you create a virtual machine from installation media, or when you change configurations of a virtual machine. See Creating a New Virtual Machine from Installation Media and Profiles.

Rate Limit of Virtual Network Interface (VIF)

You can set up the rate limit of a virtual network interface (VIF) to customize the network traffic threshold. See Network.

Priority Class of Virtual Disk

The enhanced virtual disk feature enables you to set up the priority class of a virtual disk. See Storage.

New Features in Release 2.1.1

The new features and enhancements in Oracle VM Manager Release 2.1.1 include:

Network Bootable (PXE boot) Virtual Machines

Oracle VM Manager provides a new way of creating virtual machines in Release 2.1.1. Besides creating virtual machines from templates and installation media, you can create network bootable (PXE boot) virtual machines. See Creating a Network Bootable (PXE boot) Virtual Machine.

Hot Plugging Memory, Virtual Network Interface (VIF), and Virtual Disk

Some changes in the configuration of a virtual machine take effect immediately without restarting the virtual machine. See Editing Virtual Machine Configuration.

Virtual Network Interface (VIF) Type

You can select the virtual network interface (VIF) type for a virtual machine. See Network.

Preferred Server

When creating a virtual machine, you can select a preferred server for a virtual machine. See Step 2 in Creating a New Virtual Machine Based on Virtual Machine Template.

Boot Source

After creating a virtual machine, you can choose to start the virtual machine from hard disk (HDD), CD-ROM, or through Preboot Execution Environment (PXE). See Storage.

Refresh Automatically

On the Virtual Machines page, you can choose to either refresh Web pages manually, or refresh every 30 seconds automatically. See Starting a Virtual Machine.

Deleting Related Directories

You can choose to either delete or retain the related directories when deleting a server pool. See Deleting a Server Pool.