Creating Guest Domain Environments by Using File Systems

Prior to installing guest domains (domain Us), you must decide how to create the guest domain environment.

• Use the Solaris ZFS file system and volume datasets to enable the rapid provisioning of guest domains.

• Use normal files to store guest domain disk images. Live migrations are done using Network File System (NFS).

How to Configure ZFS for Use With Solaris xVM

First, create a new storage pool using the zpool command described in zpool(1M). The name of the disk can be specified as a full device path, such as /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 , or as a disk name, such as c1t0d0. Multiple disks can be specified by using disk names separated by a space, to use disk striping.

Then, create a Solaris ZFS volume to store the guest domain master image. Note that the Solaris ZFS volume is a dataset, however, it represents a block device and can be used like traditional UNIX block devices.

1. Become superuser, or assume the appropriate role.

2. Create a new storage pool named xpool that includes the disk c1t0d0.

   # zpool create xpool c1t0d0

   The -f option can be used to force the action.

3. Verify that the storage pool is created:

   # zpool list NAME SIZE USED AVAIL CAP HEALTH ALTROOT xpool 34G 156K 34.0G 0% ONLINE -L

   You can use the zpool iostat command to view information about the I/O throughput of the newly created storage pool.

4. Create an 8–Gbyte Solaris ZFS volume to store the guest domain master image.

   # zfs create -V 8gb xpool/domU-master

5. List the Solaris ZFS volume block device nodes, which are identified as devices in the /dev/zvol/dsk and /dev/zvol/rdsk directories.

   # ls -l /dev/zvol/dsk/xpool total 2 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root 35 Apr 19 10:24 domu.master ->../../ll/ll/devices/pseudo/zfs@0:1c

How to Enable Migration to This Machine

This procedure is used to allow migration to this machine from all other control domains.

1. Become superuser, or assume the appropriate role.

2. Edit the xend-relocation-address, xend-relocation-hosts-allow, and xend-relocation-server properties of xvm/xend.

See Also

See dom0 configuration for admins