How to install and configure LDOMs (Oracle VM for SPARC) Virtualization has been a need of time over several past years as we have machines now even with 16 cores and memory in TBs. A single machine is now capable of accommodating even more than 100 VMs at a time. Oracle VM for SPARC formerly known as LDOMs has played a key role in oracles virtualization strategies and is improving with every version. Before start configuring our first oracle VM for SPARC let us understand types of ldoms, ldom services and virtual devices. TYPES OF LOGICAL DOMAINS Name Guest I/O Service Control Purpose No direct access to underlying hardware and does not provide virtual device or services to other ldoms. Uses virtual device. has direct access to underlying hardware in the server. It can be used in cases like oracle DB which wants direct/raw access to the storage devices. provides virtualized devices and services to guest domains. Service domain that also runs the ldoms manager software to control the configuration of hypervisor. This ldom manager is responsible for mapping between physical and virtual devices. VIRTUAL SERVICES AND DEVICES Abbreviation Name Purpose VLDC VCC virtual logical domain channel Virtual console concentrator communication channel between logical domain and hypervisor Acts as a virtual console for each logical domain VSW Virtual switch service provides network access for guest ldoms to the physical network ports VDS virtual disk service provides virtual storage service for guest ldoms VCPU virtual CPU Each thread of a T series CPU acts as a virtual CPU
MAU Memory Mathematical arithmetic unit Each core of T series CPU will have a MAU for accelerated RAS/DSA encryption Physical memory is mapped into virtual memory and assigned to ldoms VCONS Virtual console a port in guest ldom that connects to the VCC service in control domain VNET Virtual network network port in guest ldom which is connected to the VSW service in the control domain VSDEV Virtual disk service device physical storage device that is virtualized by VDS service in control domain VDISK Virtual disk VDISK in guest domain is connected to the VDS service in control domain/service domain INSTALLING THE OVM SOFTWARE To install the LDOM software simply unzip the software zip and run the install-ldm script with -s option in case you don t want to use the configuration assistant to configure the primary and guest ldoms. primary # unzip OVM_Server_SPARC_latest.zip primary #./install-ldm -s CREATING THE DEFAULT SERVICES Create the essential services like vsw, vcc and vds required to serve the guest LDOMs. primary# ldm add-vcc port-range=5000-5100 primary-vcc0 primary primary# ldm add-vds primary-vds0 primary primary# ldm add-vsw net-dev=nxge0 primary-vsw0 primary primary# ldm list-services primary VDS NAME VOLUME OPTIONS DEVICE primary-vds0 VCC NAME PORT-RANGE primary-vcc0 5000-5100 VSW NAME MAC NET-DEV DEVICE MODE primary-vsw0 02:04:4f:fb:9f:0d nxge0 switch@0 prog,promisc
INITIAL CONFIGURATION OF THE CONTROL DOMAIN By default all the VCPUs, Memory and MAUs are assigned to the primary domain which is the default domain created after installing the OVM for SPARC software. Primary or control domain is used to configure all the guest ldoms and provide necessary virtual services to them like vcc, vsw and vds. Logical domain manager is responsible to create, delete, modify and control ldoms, thus make sure the ldmd service is running before configuring the primary and guest domains. Use delayed reconfiguration in order to configure the primary ldom without rebooting for previous changes to take effect. primary# svcs -a grep ldmd online 14:23:34 svc:/ldoms/ldmd:default primary# ldm set-mau 1 primary primary# ldm set-vcpu 8 primary primary# ldm start-reconf primary (delayed reconfiguration) primary# ldm set-memory 4G primary primary# ldm add-config new_config primary# ldm list-config factory-default new_config [current] Reboot the primary domain for configuration settings to take effect primary# shutdown -y -g0 -i6 ENABLE NETWORKING BETWEEN PRIMARY AND GUEST DOMAINS By default communication between control domain and all the guest domains is disabled. To enable it, virtual switch has to be configured as the network device instead of nxge0. primary# ifconfig nxge0 down unplumb primary# ifconfig vsw0 plumb primary# ifconfig vsw0 192.168.1.2 netmask + broadcast + up primary# mv /etc/hostname.nxge0 /etc/hostname.vsw0 ENABLE VIRTUAL NETWORK TERMINAL SERVER DAEMON The vntsd daemon is responsible to provide the virtual network terminal services to the guest ldoms. If this service is not running enable it with svcadm command. primary# svcadm enable vntsd primary# svcs vntsd STATE STIME FMRI online Oct_12 svc:/ldoms/vntsd:default
SETTING UP THE GUEST DOMAIN We would assign 8 VCPUs, 2 GB of memory and 1 MAU to our first guest ldom. Also a virtual network vnet1 will be created and associated with the virtual switch vsw0. primary# ldm add-domain ldom01 primary# ldm add-vcpu 8 ldom01 primary# ldm add-memory 2G ldom01 primary-domain# ldm set-mau 1 ldom01 primary# ldm add-vnet vnet1 primary-vsw0 ldom01 ADDING STORAGE TO THE GUEST DOMAIN Here we first need to specify the physical device that needs to be exported by vdsdev to the guest domain and then we actually add the virtual disk thus created to the guest domain. Now use any one of the 3 methods mentioned below. 1. Adding physical disks primary# ldm add-vdsdev /dev/dsk/c2t1d0s2 vol1@primary-vds0 primary# ldm add-vdisk vdisk1 vol1@primary-vds0 ldom01 2. Adding file primary# mkfile 10g /ldoms/ldom01_boot primary# ldm add-vdsdev /ldoms/ldom01_boot vol1@primary-vds0 primary# ldm add-vdisk vdisk1 vol1@primary-vds0 ldom01 3. Adding a volume primary# zfs create -V 5gb pool/vol01 primary# ldm add-vdsdev /dev/zvol/dsk/pool/vol01 vol1@primary-vds0 primary# ldm add-vdisk vdisk1 vol1@primary-vds0 ldom01 SETTING VARIABLES Setup the boot environment variable for the guest ldom. primary# ldm set-var auto-boot?=true ldom01 primary# ldm set-var boot-device=vdisk1 ldom01 SETTING UP THE SOLARIS ISO IMAGE FOR INSTALLING GUEST LDOM Now we can also do a jumpstart installation of the guest domain. But one of the easiest and most widely used method is add iso image as virtual disk to the guest ldom and install it from it. Here you can access the vdisk sol10_iso in the ok prompt and boot from it. primary# ldm add-vdsdev options=ro /data/sol_10.iso iso@primary-vds0 primary# ldm add-vdisk sol10_iso iso@primary-vds0 ldom01
BIND AND START INSTALLING THE LDOM primary# ldm bind ldom01 primary# ldm start ldom01 LDom ldom01 started ok> devalias ok> boot sol10_iso CONNECT THE GUEST DOMAIN Now check the port which is bound with the guest domain and connect the virtual console of the guest domain. primary:~ # ldm list NAME STATE FLAGS CONS VCPU MEMORY UTIL UPTIME primary active -n-cv SP 8 4G 0.3% 8h 46m ldom01 active -n--- 5000 8 2G 48% 1h 52m primary# telnet localhost 5000 Trying 127.0.0.1... Connected to localhost. Escape character is ^]. Connecting to console "ldom01" in group "ldom01"... Press ~? for control options.. FLAG DEFINITIONS Now you can see various flags in the ldm list command output. The falgs represent the current state of the ldom. column 1 column 2 column 3 column 4 column 5 column 6 s starting or stopping n normal t transition d delayed reconfiguration c control domain v virtual I/O service domain s source domain in migration t target domain in migration e error occurred in migration OTHER USEFUL COMMANDS View current version of Oracle VM server for SPARC software primary# ldm -V
Long listing of domains primary# ldm list -l List the resource for all LDOMs and per LDOM # ldm list -o cpu primary # ldm list -o network,memory ldom01 List the boot variables # ldm list-variable boot-device ldg1 boot-device=/virtual-devices@100/channel-devices@200/disk@0:a List the bindings of all the LDOMs # ldm list-bindings ldom List all server resources, bound and unbound. # ldm list-devices -a # ldm list-devices mem