Managing Virtual Machines
The following sections describe the different aspects of managing a CHARON-SSP virtual machine.
Creating a Virtual Machine
The first step to running a SPARC-based virtual machine is creating the initial configuration. To do this, follow the steps below.
| Step | Descriptions |
|---|---|
| 1. | From the opening splash screen entitled Welcome to CHARON Manager, click the icon labelled Create a New Virtual Machine. |
| 2. | Select the appropriate Hardware Model by clicking the radio button labelled with the SPARC model that most closely matches the system to you wish to run. |
| 3. | Enter a name for the virtual machine into the field labelled, Virtual machine name. |
| 4. | Click the button labelled OK. |
The steps above will create a new virtual machine configuration. It will appear in the left hand pane of the management interface labelled with the Virtual machine name you specified. The screenshot below shows the management interface splash screen after the virtual machine LEELA was created.
The initial creation of the virtual machine is very sparse. To complete the configuration it is important to continue on to Modifying the Virtual Machine.
Modifying a Virtual Machine
Whether completing configuration of a newly created virtual machine or adjusting the set up of an existing configuration the Virtual Machine Settings window can be opened by first clicking the name of the virtual machine in the left-hand pane of the management console. This should be followed by clicking the button labelled Edit Virtual Machine.
The example below shows the Virtual Machine Settings window for a virtual Enterprise 450 system.
The following section describes each part of the Virtual Machine Settings window
For any changes to take effect, the virtual machine must be restarted. However, it is also recommended that before making any configuration changes the virtual machine is shutdown correctly.
Model Configuration
To view or change the virtual machine model, select Model in the Device column of the left hand pane. The current setting will be displayed in the field labelled Hardware Model. To change the model, click the Hardware Model drop-down box and select the appropriate model (see the example below).
The models currently supported by CHARON-SSP/4M for Linux are:
- Sun SPARCstation 20
The models currently supported by CHARON-SSP/4U for Linux are:
- Sun Enterprise 450
CPU Configuration
To view or change the current virtual machine CPU configuration, select CPU in the Device column of the left-hand pane.
The following table lists each of the fields in the CPU configuration window and describes their operation.
| Field | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Number of CPU | Configure the number of CPUs attached to the virtual machine. Not all virtual SPARC systems support the configuration of multiple CPUs. For those virtual systems that do support multiple CPUs, they can still be restricted by the formula:
An attempt to configure more virtual CPUs than allowed will result in the following error message: | |
| Runtime Optimization | This option controls the Dynamic Instruction Translation (DIT). This option is on by default. | |
| CPU binding | Assign specific host CPUs to the processing of SPARC instructions. This field is a comma-delimited list of CPU IDs. Leaving this blank will cause the virtual machine software to assign affinity itself. | |
| I/O binding | Assign specific host CPUs to the processing of virtual machine I/O requests. This field is a comma-delimited list of CPU IDs. Leaving this blank will cause the virtual machine to assign I/O processing affinity itself. | |
| Reserved I/O CPUs | Reserve a number of CPUs on the host system for the purpose of processing virtual machine I/O requests. If neither I/O binding and Reserved I/O CPUs are not set, then the virtual machine software will assign 1/3 (rounded down) of the host CPUs to I/O processing. |
Memory Configuration
To view or change the current virtual machine memory configuration, select Memory in the Device column of the left-hand pane.
The following table lists each of the fields in the memory configuration window and describes their operation.
| Field | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Memory for this virtual machine | Set the amount of RAM allocated to the virtual machine. Memory can only be allocated in certain increments. The table below describes the allocation rules for each virtual machine model. | |
| Virtual Machine Model | Memory Allocation Rules | |
| Sun SPARCstion 20 | 64MB, 128MB, 256MB and 512MB. | |
| Sun Enterprise 450 | 1 - 32 GB in 1 GB increments. | |
| Memory allocator | This option specifies the memory allocation method used for the virtual machine. The default is malloc. | |
| Allocator | Description | |
| malloc | All virtual machine RAM is allocated from system heap. | |
| hugetlb | All virtual machine RAM is allocate from hugetlbfs. | |
| mmap | All virtual machine RAM is allocated from file-backed virtual memory via mmap. | |
SCSI Configuration
To view or change the current virtual machine SCSI configuration, select SCSI in the Device column of the left-hand pane. This will open the SCSI configuration window, shown below.
From this window it is possible to create virtual disk and tape container files as well as attach virtual storage devices (both physical and container files) to the virtual machine.
Creating Container Files
Often it is convenient to use container files for virtual disk and tape devices. The following sections describes creating both disk and tape container files.
Creating a New Virtual Disk Container File
To begin creating a virtual disk container file, click the button labelled Create vdisk in the SCSI device Virtual Machine Settings window. This will display the Create New Virtual Disk window shown below.
To create a virtual disk container file, follow the instructions listed below.
| Step | Description |
|---|---|
| 1. | Specify a name for the virtual disk container file in the field Virtual disk name. |
| 2. | Select the location on the host file system for the container file by clicking the button Location and navigating to the correct path. |
| 3. | Select the virtual disk type from the drop-down list Virtual disk type.
|
| 4. | Click the button labelled Create to generate the virtual disk container file. Depending on the size of the container file, this may take some time. |
Creating a New Virtual Tape Container File
To begin creating a virtual tape container file, click the button labelled Create vtape in the SCSI device Virtual Machine Settings window. This will display the Create New Virtual Tape window shown below.
To create a virtual tape container file, follow the instructions listed below.
| Step | Description |
|---|---|
| 1. | Specify a name for the virtual tape container file in the field Virtual tape name |
| 2. | Select the location on the host file system for the container file by clicking the button Location and navigating to the correct path. |
| 3. | Specify the size for the virtual tape file in megabytes (MB) in the field Tape size. |
| 4. | Click the button labelled Create to generate the virtual tape container file. Depending on the size of the container file, this may take some time. |
Add/Edit Virtual SCSI Device
To add a new virtual disk device click the button labelled Add... To adjust an existing virtual disk device, select it from the list of configured devices and click the button labelled Edit.... In both cases a widow similar to the one below will pop up to further configure the virtual disk device.
The following table lists each of the fields in the Add/Edit SCSI Device configuration window and describes their operation.
| Field | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| SCSI device type | Drop-down list of configurable device types. The table below describes the available device types: | |
| SCSI device type | Description | |
| Virtual Disk | Virtual disk device backed by a container file. | |
| Virtual CDROM | Virtual CDROM device, backed by a container file. | |
| Virtual Tape | Virtual tape device backed by a container file. | |
| Physical Disk | Virtual disk device connected to a host-attached physical disk device. | |
| Physical CDROM | Virtual CDROM device connected to a host-attached physical optical drive. | |
| Physical Tape | Virtual tape device connected to a host-attached physical tape drive. | |
| SCSI bus | Specify either the Primary SCSI Bus and the External SCSI Bus on CHARON-SSP/4M virtual machines only. | |
| SCSI ID | SCSI device identification number.
In all cases the SCSI device ID 7 is reserved for the SCSI bus controller and cannot be used for a user configurable SCSI device. | |
| SCSI device path | Click the path to specify the location of the virtual SCSI device. The table below lists example device paths depending on the setting of the SCSI device type option. | |
| SCSI Device Type | Example SCSI Device Path | |
| Virtual Disk | /usr/local/vm/lela/scsi0.vdisk | |
| Virtual CDROM | /usr/local/share/iso/sunos_4.1.4.iso | |
| Virtual Tape | /usr/local/vm/lela/scsi1.vtape | |
| Physical Disk | /dev/sda | |
| Physical CDROM | /dev/sg1 | |
| Physical Tape | /dev/st0 | |
Removing a Virtual Storage Device
To remove a virtual storage device, select the device in the Virtual Machine Settings SCSI configuration window, then click the button labelled Remove. The device will be removed immediately and the management console does not ask for confirmation.
If the virtual SCSI storage device is attached to a container file the file itself is not removed when the configuration is.
TTYA Configuration
To view or change the current virtual machine console configuration, select TTYA in the Device column of the left-hand pane. This will open the TTYA configuration window, shown below. In this example the console is disabled.
It is possible to configure the virtual console device in one of three ways by selecting one of three options described below from the drop-down list labelled Type.
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| TCP | Configure the console device as a network device. |
| Physical | Configure the console device as physical terminal directly attached to the host system. |
| Disable | Disable the virtual console device entirely. |
The following sections describe the specific configuration details of the physical and network consoles.
Physical Console Device
The image below shows the physical console device configuration window.
The only option for the physical terminal is Device. This is a drop-down list of all directly attached serial ports available on the host system.
Network Console Device
The image below shows the network console device configuration window.
The following table lists each of the fields in the network console device configuration window and describes their operation.
| Field | Description | ||
| Port | This option specifies the TCP/IP port to user when listening for incoming console client connections. A different port must be specified for each network console or serial port. Using a port that is already in use will result in the following error messages in the virtual machine log file.
| ||
| Console | Specify in which way the network console will be viewed. | ||
| Console | Description | ||
| Built-in | The built-in console is displayed and accessible from the Console tab in the CHARON-AXP/SMA Manager. | ||
| External | An external network console device allows an external client (e.g. a telnet client) to attach to the port and interact with the virtual console device. | ||
TTYB Configuration
To view or change the virtual machine TTYB configuration, select TTYB in the Device column of the left-hand pane.
The virtual TTYB serial device can be configured as both a physical or network connected device. The configuration of this device is very similar to TTYA. For further details related to configuring this device, consult the section TTYA Configuration.
Ethernet Configuration
To view or change the virtual machine Ethernet configuration, select Ethernet in the Device column of the left-hand pane.
To remove an existing virtual Ethernet adapter, select the adapter from the list of configured devices and click the button labelled Remove...
To create a virtual network, click the button labelled Create Virtual Network. For further details on creating, changing and removing a virtual network ,see the section Managing Virtual Networks.
To add a new virtual Ethernet adapter click the button labelled Add... To adjust an existing virtual Ethernet adapter, select it from the list of configured devices and click the button labelled Edit.... In both cases a widow similar to the one below will pop up to further configure the virtual Ethernet device.
The following table lists each of the fields in the Add/Edit Ethernet Adapter configuration window and describes their operation.
| Field | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Interface | Select the host attached Ethernet device to be connected to the virtual device. This field is a drop-down list of all the network adapters available on the host system. | |
| Set MAC Address | To force the MAC address of the virtual Ethernet device to a specific value, select the checkbox and enter the address as size groups of two character hexadecimal digits, separated by a colon, e.g. 08:00:2b:aa:bb:cc. This option can be useful in the case where licensing is tied to a network adapter MAC address. | |
Log Configuration
To view or change the virtual machine logging configuration, select Log in the Device column of the left-hand pane.
The following table lists each of the fields in the log configuration window and describes their operation.
| Field | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Log path | Specify the path name for the log file. | |
| Severity | Set the minimum level of messages that should be reported. Legal values are debug, info, warning, error and fatal. The default is info. | |
| Output to | Indicate where virtual machine logging information should be written to. The default is file. | |
| Option | Description | |
| file | Output virtual machine logging information only to the file configured in Log path. | |
| console | Output virtual machine logging information only to the virtual machine console. | |
| all | Output virtual machine logging information to both the file configured in Log path and the virtual machine console. | |
Renaming a Virtual Machine
To rename a virtual machine, follow the steps shown below.
| Step | Description |
|---|---|
| 1. | Click the virtual machine to rename in the left hand pane. |
| 2. | Take note of the name of the configuration file in the field Config file. This will be needed later in step 5. |
| 3. | Right-click the virtual machine name and select Remove VM from the List.
This action will not ask for any confirmation and the virtual machine will be immediately removed from the list. |
| 4. | Click the icon labelled Open a Virtual Machine on the main management console splash screen. |
| 5. | A new window labelled Open Virtual Machine will appear. To continue:
|
| 6. | Enter the new name of the virtual machine in the field labelled New VM name.
|
| 7. | Click the button labelled Open. |
There is no confirmation and the newly renamed virtual machine will appear in the left-hand pane.
This process does not rename the configuration file, container files, log files or any other associated files. It simply changes the name of the virtual machine as it appears in the list.
Removing a Virtual Machine
The complete removal of a virtual machine must be performed in a number of steps. Each of these steps is detailed below.
| Step | Description |
|---|---|
| 1. | Click the name of the virtual machine that is to be removed in the left hand pane of the management console. |
| 2. |
The management console does not confirm this action and the configuration, log files and all associated container files are immediately deleted. |
| 3. | Any container files (virtual disk or tape) that were part of the configuration are no longer on the system. |
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