Oracle VM Server for SPARC for Dummies (How-to)

A small How-to for beginners to work with Solaris and the Oracle VM Server for SPARC virtualization platform, formerly known as Sun Logical Domains.

Logical Domains is a virtualization and physical resource sharing technology for the SPARC V9-based UNIX line of servers introduced in May 2007 by Sun Microsystems.

It is possible to control the hypervisor from the command line or visual control interfaces, the latter will not be considered here.

Examples are given for Solaris 10 OS, in Solaris 11 it is worth considering the features of network configuration.

In Sun terminology, virtual machines are referred to as domains; there are several types of domains.

Domain roles

Control Domain - The control domain, in which Oracle VM Server works, is created during installation by default from the system where Oracle VM Server is installed, it is called primary. There can only be one management domain.
Service Domain - The domain of virtual devices such as virtual switches, virtual disks, etc. Any domain can be configured as a Service Domain; by default, the Control Domain is already a Service Domain.
I / O Domain - A domain that has access to physical PCIe devices on the server. May provide access to these devices if configured as a Service Domain. It has better performance compared to Guest Domain, almost comparable to a non-virtualized server. The maximum number of domains is limited by the number of PCIe buses on the server. The use of such domains complicates migration. By default, the Control Domain acts as an I / O Domain.

View available PCIe buses and devices:
```
# /usr/sbin/ldm list-io
      
      

        
        
        
      

    
        
        
        
      
      

        
        
        
      

    
     
```
Root Domain - The root domain has more advanced access to the architecture of physical PCIe server devices than the I / O Domain. It has access to all services provided by PCIe devices, for example, to the fabric error handling factory. The number of root domains depends on the server architecture.
Guest Domain - The guest domain has only virtual devices.

Virtual device and service designations

vnet - Virtual Network. Virtual network card.
vsw - Virtual Switch. Virtual switch.
vds - Virtual Disk Server. Virtual hard disk. The disk usage model is built on a client-server architecture, therefore, the vdc client is used to access the disk, and vds is a service for accessing physical disks or their images.
vdc - Virtual Disk Client. Provides access to a virtual hard disk. Despite the fact that virtual disks belong to the Guest Domain, most operations with them are performed on the Service Domain.
vcc - Virtual Console Concentrator. Typically, this virtual device has a Control Domain (primary). It provides access to virtual machine consoles. The svc: / ldoms / vntsd: default service provides access to virtual machine consoles, launched in the Control Domain.

An example of creating basic services

Typically, device services are created in the Control Domain, but you can select a separate domain for this - the Service Domain.

We create a console concentrator in the primary domain, with the name primary-vcc0 and the range of ports used 5000-5100:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm add-vcc port-range=5000-5100 primary-vcc0 primary

Create a virtual hard disk server in the primary domain, called primary-vds0:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm add-vds primary-vds0 primary

We create a virtual switch in the primary domain, called primary-vsw0 and bind it to the nxge0 network interface. Use mac address of network card:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm add-vsw net-dev=nxge0 primary-vsw0 primary

The specified mac address is used:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm add-vsw mac-addr=2:04:4f:fb:9f:0d net-dev=nxge0 primary-vsw0 primary

View a list of primary domain services:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm list-services primary

Setting up a Control Domain and releasing resources from it for other domains

View a list of cryptographic devices. Used in SPARC systems, the presence of these devices in the domain does not allow you to dynamically reconfigure the number of CPUs:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm list -o crypto primary

Naturally set this parameter to 0, or do not touch this command at all:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm set-mau 0 primary

Set the number of cores to the primary domain:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm set-vcpu 8 primary

We start reconfiguration of the primary domain or just reboot the server:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm start-reconf primary

Set the amount of RAM for the primary domain:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm set-memory 4G primary

Save the current domain configuration as initial:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm add-config initial

View a list of domain configurations (initial [next poweron] means that the configuration will be used the next time the hypervisor is loaded):

 # /usr/sbin/ldm list-config

Reboot the hypervisor:

 # shutdown -y -g0 -i6

By default, there is no network connection between the Control Domain and other domains, this is due to the fact that the Control Domain uses a physical interface (eg: nxge0), and the rest of the domains are virtual (eg: vsw0).

Configuring a virtual switch as the main interface in Control Domain

List of various network interfaces to the system:

 # /usr/sbin/dladm show-link

We include the necessary virtual switch:

 # /usr/sbin/ifconfig vsw0 plumb

Turn off the physical interface:

 # /usr/sbin/ifconfig nxge0 down unplumb

We set the IP address and mark the interface of the virtual switch on:

 # /usr/sbin/ifconfig vsw0 192.168.0.108 netmask 255.255.0.0 broadcast+up

Or you can use DHCP:

 # /usr/sbin/ifconfig vsw0 dhcp start

Do not forget to register the network interface settings in the configuration files:

 # mv /etc/hostname.nxge0 /etc/hostname.vsw0

When using DHCP:

 # mv /etc/dhcp.nxge0 /etc/dhcp.vsw0

Creating Guest Domain

Creating the ldg1 domain:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm add-domain ldg1

Adding processors to the ldg1 domain:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm add-vcpu 8 ldg1

Adding RAM to the ldg1 domain:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm add-memory 2G ldg1

Adding the vnet1 network interface connected to the vsw0 switch in the ldg1 domain:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm add-vnet vnet1 primary-vsw0 ldg1

Add the physical hard drive / dev / dsk / c2t1d0s2 to the primary-vds0 virtual disk server named vol1.

 # /usr/sbin/ldm add-vdsdev /dev/dsk/c2t1d0s2 vol1@primary-vds0

Or:

Creating a file system with a mount point:

 # zfs create -o mountpoint=/LDoms rpool/LDoms

Creating a file system of a certain size:

 # /usr/sbin/zfs create -V 10G rpool/LDoms/disk1

Add the ZFS partition as a virtual disk to the disk server:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm add-vdsdev /dev/zvol/dsk/rpool/LDoms/disk1 vol1@primary-vds0

Or:

Create a 10 gigabyte file:

 # /usr/sbin/mkfile 10G < >

Add the file as a virtual disk:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm add-vdsdev < > vol1@primary-vds0

Add the virtual disk vol1 @ primary-vds0 to the ldg1 domain as vdisk1:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm add-vdisk vdisk1 vol1@primary-vds0 ldg1

We set autoload for the ldg1 domain when the server starts:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm set-var auto-boot\?=true ldg1

Install the disk from which the ldg1 domain will be loaded:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm set-var boot-device=vdisk1 ldg1

Bind the ldg1 domain to the Control Domain:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm bind-domain ldg1

View information about the ldg1 domain, the CONS column will indicate the port on which to connect to the domain:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm list-domain ldg1

View all resources associated with the ldg1 domain:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm list-bindings ldg1

Connect to the domain console listening on port 5000:

 # /usr/bin/telnet localhost 5000

Start the ldg1 domain if it is stopped:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm start-domain ldg1

Install Oracle Solaris 10 from a DVD

Stop the volume management service:

 # /usr/sbin/svcadm disable volfs

We stop the necessary domain:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm stop ldg1

Exclude from the list of managed domains:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm unbind-domain ldg1

Add the drive / dev / dsk / c0t0d0s2 to the primary-vds0 virtual disk server under the name dvd_vol:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm add-vdsdev /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s2 dvd_vol@primary-vds0

We connect the virtualized drive to the ldg1 domain under the name vdisk_cd_media:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm add-vdisk vdisk_cd_media dvd_vol@primary-vds0 ldg1

View all resources associated with the ldg1 domain:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm list-bindings ldg1

Bind the ldg1 domain to the Control Domain:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm bind-domain ldg1

Launch ldg1 domain:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm start-domain ldg1

Connect to the domain console:

 # /usr/bin/telnet localhost 5000

Browse domain device aliases for vdisk_cd_media:

 ok devalias

Boot from disk:

 ok boot vdisk_cd_media:f

Install Oracle Solaris 10 from an image

Stop necessary domain:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm stop ldg1

Exclude from the list of managed domains:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm unbind-domain ldg1

Add the solaris10.iso image to the primary-vds0 virtual disk server named iso_vol:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm add-vdsdev /export/solaris10.iso iso_vol@primary-vds0

Connect the virtualized drive to the ldg1 domain as vdisk_iso:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm add-vdisk vdisk_iso iso_vol@primary-vds0 ldg1

View all resources related to the ldg1 domain:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm list-bindings ldg1

Associate ldg1 domain with Control Domain:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm bind-domain ldg1

Launch ldg1 domain:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm start-domain ldg1

Connect to the domain console:

 # /usr/bin/telnet localhost 5000

Browse domain device aliases for vdisk_iso:

 ok devalias

Boot from the image:

 ok boot vdisk_iso:f

Domain Deletion

Stop ldg1 domain:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm stop-domain ldg1

Unlink ldg1 domain:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm unbind-domain ldg1

Delete ldg1 domain:

 # /usr/sbin/ldm remove-domain ldg1

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