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Oracle VM Server for SPARC 2.2 Administration Guide Oracle VM Server for SPARC |
Part I Oracle VM Server for SPARC 2.2 Software
1. Overview of the Oracle VM Server for SPARC Software
2. Installing and Enabling Software
3. Oracle VM Server for SPARC Security
4. Setting Up Services and the Control Domain
Introduction to a Virtual Network
Oracle Solaris 10 Networking Overview
Oracle Solaris 11 Networking Overview
Virtual Device Identifier and Network Interface Name
How to Find Oracle Solaris OS Network Interface Name
Assigning MAC Addresses Automatically or Manually
Range of MAC Addresses Assigned to Logical Domains
Automatic Assignment Algorithm
Duplicate MAC Address Detection
Using Network Adapters With Logical Domains
How to Determine If a Network Adapter Is GLDv3-Compliant (Oracle Solaris 10)
Configuring a Virtual Switch and the Service Domain for NAT and Routing
Configuring NAT on an Oracle Solaris 10 System
How to Set Up a Virtual Switch to Provide External Connectivity to Domains (Oracle Solaris 10)
Configuring NAT on an Oracle Solaris 11 System
How to Set Up a Virtual Switch to Provide External Connectivity to Domains (Oracle Solaris 11)
Configuring IPMP in a Logical Domains Environment
Configuring Virtual Network Devices Into an IPMP Group in a Domain
Configuring and Using IPMP in the Service Domain
Using Link-Based IPMP in Logical Domains Virtual Networking
How to Configure Physical Link Status Updates
Configuring and Using IPMP in Releases Prior to Logical Domains 1.3
Configuring IPMP in the Guest Domain
Configuring IPMP in the Service Domain
How to Assign VLANs to a Virtual Switch and Virtual Network Device
How to Install a Guest Domain When the Install Server Is in a VLAN
Using Link Aggregation With a Virtual Switch
How to Configure Virtual Network and Virtual Switch Devices to Use Jumbo Frames
Compatibility With Older (Jumbo-Unaware) Versions of the vnet and vsw Drivers (Oracle Solaris 10)
Oracle Solaris 11 Networking-Specific Feature Differences
11. Managing Domain Configurations
12. Performing Other Administration Tasks
Part II Optional Oracle VM Server for SPARC Software
13. Oracle VM Server for SPARC Physical-to-Virtual Conversion Tool
14. Oracle VM Server for SPARC Configuration Assistant (Oracle Solaris 10)
15. Using the Oracle VM Server for SPARC Management Information Base Software
16. Logical Domains Manager Discovery
17. Using the XML Interface With the Logical Domains Manager
The virtual I/O framework implements a hybrid I/O model for improved functionality and performance. The hybrid I/O model combines direct and virtualized I/O to allow flexible deployment of I/O resources to virtual machines. It is particularly useful when direct I/O does not provide full capability for the virtual machine, or direct I/O is not persistently or consistently available to the virtual machine. This could be because of resource availability or virtual machine migration. The hybrid I/O architecture is well-suited for the Network Interface Unit (NIU) on Sun UltraSPARC T2, SPARC T3, and SPARC T4 platforms. An NIU is a network I/O interface that is integrated on chip. This architecture enables the dynamic assignment of Direct Memory Access (DMA) resources to virtual networking devices and, thereby, provides consistent performance to applications in the domain.
NIU hybrid I/O is available for Sun UltraSPARC T2, SPARC T3, and SPARC T4 platforms. This feature is enabled by an optional hybrid mode that provides for a virtual network (vnet) device where the DMA hardware resources are loaned to a vnet device in a guest domain for improved performance. In the hybrid mode, a vnet device in a guest domain can send and receive unicast traffic from an external network directly into the guest domain using the DMA hardware resources. The broadcast or multicast traffic and unicast traffic to the other guest domains in the same system continue to be sent using the virtual I/O communication mechanism.
Note - NIU hybrid I/O is not available on UltraSPARC T2 Plus platforms.
Figure 8-11 Hybrid Virtual Networking
Note - Figure 8-11 shows the configuration on an Oracle Solaris 10 system. For an Oracle Solaris 11 system, only the interface names change to use the generic names, such as net0 for nxge0.
The hybrid mode applies only for the vnet devices that are associated with a virtual switch (vsw) configured to use an NIU network device. As the shareable DMA hardware resources are limited, up to only three vnet devices per vsw can have DMA hardware resources assigned at a given time. If more than three vnet devices have the hybrid mode enabled, the assignment is done on a first-come, first-served basis. As there are two NIU network devices in a system, there can be a total of six vnet devices on two different virtual switches with DMA hardware resources assigned.
Following are points you need to be aware of when using this feature:
Hybrid mode option for a vnet device is treated as a suggestion only. That means the DMA resources are assigned only when they are available and the device is capable of using them.
Logical Domains Manager CLI commands do not validate the hybrid mode option; that is, it is possible to set the hybrid mode on any vnet or any number of vnet devices.
Guest domains and the service domain need to run Oracle Solaris 10 10/08 OS at a minimum.
Up to a maximum of only three vnet devices per vsw can have DMA hardware resources loaned at a given time. As there are two NIU network devices, there can be a total of six vnet devices with DMA hardware resources loaned.
Note - Set the hybrid mode only for three vnet devices per vsw so that they are guaranteed to have DMA hardware resources assigned.
Hybrid mode is disabled by default for a vnet device. It must be explicitly enabled by using the ldm command. See How to Enable Hybrid Mode and the ldm(1M) man page.
The hybrid mode option cannot be changed dynamically while the guest domain is active.
The DMA hardware resources are assigned only when a vnet device is active that is created in the guest domain.
The NIU 10-gigabit Ethernet driver (nxge) is used for the NIU card. The same driver is also used for other 10-gigabit network cards. However, the NIU hybrid I/O feature is available for NIU network devices only.
The following example shows the output on an UltraSPARC T2 server:
# grep nxge /etc/path_to_inst "/niu@80/network@0" 0 "nxge" "/niu@80/network@1" 1 "nxge"
The following example shows the output on a SPARC T3-1 or SPARC T4-1 server:
# grep nxge /etc/path_to_inst "/niu@480/network@0" 0 "nxge" "/niu@480/network@1" 1 "nxge"
primary# dladm show-phys -L |grep nxge0 net2 nxge0 /SYS/MB
# ldm add-vsw net-dev=nxge0 primary-vsw0 primary
The following example uses net0 instead of nxge0.
# ldm add-vsw net-dev=net0 primary-vsw0 primary
# ldm add-vnet mode=hybrid vnet01 primary-vsw0 ldom01
# ldm set-vnet mode= vnet01 ldom01