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Oracle VM Server for SPARC 2.0 Administration Guide
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Document Information

Preface

1.  Overview of the Oracle VM Server for SPARC Software

2.  Installing and Enabling Software

3.  Security

4.  Setting Up Services and the Control Domain

5.  Setting Up Guest Domains

6.  Setting Up I/O Domains

7.  Using Virtual Disks

Introduction to Virtual Disks

Managing Virtual Disks

Add a Virtual Disk

Export a Virtual Disk Back End Multiple Times

Change Virtual Disk Options

Change the Timeout Option

Remove a Virtual Disk

Virtual Disk Identifier and Device Name

Virtual Disk Appearance

Full Disk

Single-Slice Disk

Virtual Disk Back End Options

Read-only (ro) Option

Exclusive (excl) Option

Slice (slice) Option

Virtual Disk Back End

Physical Disk or Disk LUN

Export a Physical Disk as a Virtual Disk

Physical Disk Slice

Export a Physical Disk Slice as a Virtual Disk

Export Slice 2

File and Volume

File or Volume Exported as a Full Disk

Export a File as a Full Disk

File or Volume Exported as a Single-Slice Disk

Export a ZFS Volume as a Single-Slice Disk

Exporting Volumes and Backward Compatibility

Summary of How Different Types of Back Ends Are Exported

Guidelines for Exporting Files and Disk Slices as Virtual Disks

Using the Loopback File (lofi) Driver

Directly or Indirectly Exporting a Disk Slice

Configuring Virtual Disk Multipathing

Configure Virtual Disk Multipathing

CD, DVD and ISO Images

Export a CD or DVD From the Service Domain to the Guest Domain

Export an ISO Image From the primary Domain to Install a Guest Domain

Virtual Disk Timeout

Virtual Disk and SCSI

Virtual Disk and the format(1M) Command

Using ZFS With Virtual Disks

Configuring a ZFS Pool in a Service Domain

Storing Disk Images With ZFS

Examples of Storing Disk Images With ZFS

Create a Disk Image Using a ZFS Volume

Create a Disk Image Using a ZFS File

Export the ZFS Volume

Export the ZFS File

Assign the ZFS Volume or File to a Guest Domain

Creating a Snapshot of a Disk Image

Create a Snapshot of a Disk Image

Using Clone to Provision a New Domain

Cloning a Boot Disk Image

Using Volume Managers in a Logical Domains Environment

Using Virtual Disks on Top of Volume Managers

Using Virtual Disks on Top of Solaris Volume Manager

Using Virtual Disks When VxVM Is Installed

Using Volume Managers on Top of Virtual Disks

Using ZFS on Top of Virtual Disks

Using Solaris Volume Manager on Top of Virtual Disks

Using VxVM on Top of Virtual Disks

8.  Using Virtual Networks

9.  Migrating Domains

10.  Managing Resources

11.  Managing Configurations

12.  Performing Other Administration Tasks

A.  Oracle VM Server for SPARC Physical-to-Virtual Conversion Tool

B.  Oracle VM Server for SPARC Configuration Assistant

C.  Logical Domains Manager Discovery

D.  Using the XML Interface With the Logical Domains Manager

E.  Logical Domains Manager XML Schemas

Glossary

Index

Using Volume Managers in a Logical Domains Environment

This section describes using volume managers in a Logical Domains environment.

Using Virtual Disks on Top of Volume Managers

Any Zettabyte File System (ZFS), Solaris Volume Manager, or Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) volume can be exported from a service domain to a guest domain as a virtual disk. A volume can be exported either as a single-slice disk (if the slice option is specified with the ldm add-vdsdev command) or as a full disk.


Note - The remainder of this section uses an Solaris Volume Manager volume as an example. However, the discussion also applies to ZFS and VxVM volumes.


The following examples show how to export a volume as a single-slice disk.

The virtual disk in the guest domain (for example, /dev/dsk/c0d2s0) is directly mapped to the associated volume (for example, /dev/md/dsk/d0), and data stored onto the virtual disk from the guest domain are directly stored onto the associated volume with no extra metadata. So data stored on the virtual disk from the guest domain can also be directly accessed from the service domain through the associated volume.

Examples

Using Virtual Disks on Top of Solaris Volume Manager

When a RAID or mirror Solaris Volume Manager volume is used as a virtual disk by another domain, then it has to be exported without setting the exclusive (excl) option. Otherwise, if there is a failure on one of the components of the Solaris Volume Manager volume, then the recovery of the Solaris Volume Manager volume using the metareplace command or using a hot spare does not start. The metastat command sees the volume as resynchronizing, but the resynchronization does not progress.

For example, /dev/md/dsk/d0 is a RAID Solaris Volume Manager volume exported as a virtual disk with the excl option to another domain, and d0 is configured with some hot-spare devices. If a component of d0 fails, Solaris Volume Manager replaces the failing component with a hot spare and resynchronizes the Solaris Volume Manager volume. However, the resynchronization does not start. The volume is reported as resynchronizing, but the resynchronization does not progress.

# metastat d0
d0: RAID
    State: Resyncing
    Hot spare pool: hsp000
    Interlace: 32 blocks
    Size: 20097600 blocks (9.6 GB)
Original device:
    Size: 20100992 blocks (9.6 GB)
Device                                     Start Block  Dbase   State Reloc
c2t2d0s1                                           330  No       Okay  Yes
c4t12d0s1                                          330  No       Okay  Yes
/dev/dsk/c10t600C0FF0000000000015153295A4B100d0s1  330  No  Resyncing  Yes

In such a situation, the domain using the Solaris Volume Manager volume as a virtual disk has to be stopped and unbound to complete the resynchronization. Then the Solaris Volume Manager volume can be resynchronized using the metasync command.

# metasync d0
Using Virtual Disks When VxVM Is Installed

When the Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) is installed on your system, and if Veritas Dynamic Multipathing (DMP) is enabled on a physical disk or partition you want to export as virtual disk, then you have to export that disk or partition without setting the (non-default) excl option. Otherwise, you receive an error in /var/adm/messages while binding a domain that uses such a disk.

vd_setup_vd():  ldi_open_by_name(/dev/dsk/c4t12d0s2) = errno 16
vds_add_vd():  Failed to add vdisk ID 0

You can check if Veritas DMP is enabled by checking multipathing information in the output of the command vxdisk list; for example:

# vxdisk list Disk_3
Device:    Disk_3
devicetag: Disk_3
type:      auto
info:      format=none
flags:     online ready private autoconfig invalid
pubpaths:  block=/dev/vx/dmp/Disk_3s2 char=/dev/vx/rdmp/Disk_3s2
guid:      -
udid:      SEAGATE%5FST336753LSUN36G%5FDISKS%5F3032333948303144304E0000
site:      -
Multipathing information:
numpaths:  1
c4t12d0s2  state=enabled

Alternatively, if Veritas DMP is enabled on a disk or a slice that you want to export as a virtual disk with the excl option set, then you can disable DMP using the vxdmpadm command. For example:

# vxdmpadm -f disable path=/dev/dsk/c4t12d0s2

Using Volume Managers on Top of Virtual Disks

This section describes using volume managers on top of virtual disks.

Using ZFS on Top of Virtual Disks

Any virtual disk can be used with ZFS. A ZFS storage pool (zpool) can be imported in any domain that sees all the storage devices that are part of this zpool, regardless of whether the domain sees all these devices as virtual devices or real devices.

Using Solaris Volume Manager on Top of Virtual Disks

Any virtual disk can be used in the Solaris Volume Manager local disk set. For example, a virtual disk can be used for storing the Solaris Volume Manager metadevice state database, metadb(1M), of the local disk set or for creating Solaris Volume Manager volumes in the local disk set.

Any virtual disk whose back end is a SCSI disk can be used in a Solaris Volume Manager shared disk set, metaset(1M). Virtual disks whose back ends are not SCSI disks cannot be added into a Solaris Volume Manager share disk set. Trying to add a virtual disk whose back end is not a SCSI disk into a Solaris Volume Manager shared disk set fails with an error similar to the following.

# metaset -s test -a c2d2
metaset: domain1: test: failed to reserve any drives
Using VxVM on Top of Virtual Disks

For VxVM support in guest domains, refer to the VxVM documentation from Symantec.