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The Geek Diary LDOMs ➢ How to install and configure LDOMs (Oracle VM for SPARC)

Chennai
Madurai

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.

NAME

Guest No direct access to underlying hardware and does not provide virtual device or services to
other ldoms. Uses virtual device.

I/O 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.

Service provides virtualized devices and services to guest domains.

Control 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.

ABBREVIATION NAME PURPOSE

VLDC virtual logical domain communication channel between logical domain and
channel hypervisor

VCC Virtual console Acts as a virtual console for each logical domain
concentrator

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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 Mathematical Each core of T series CPU will have a MAU for accelerated
arithmetic unit RAS/DSA encryption

Memory 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 physical storage device that is virtualized by VDS service in
device control domain

VDISK Virtual disk VDISK in guest domain is connected to the VDS service in
control domain/service domain

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

Create the essential services like vsw, vcc and vds required to serve the guest LDOMs.

Chennai
Madurai

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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

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

primary# ldm bind ldom01

primary# ldm start ldom01
LDom ldom01 started
ok> devalias
ok> boot sol10_iso

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 ..

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

s starting or stopping n normal d delayed reconfiguration

– placeholder t transition – placeholder

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How to install and configure ldom or oracle vm server for SPARC http://thegeekdiary.com/how-to-install-and-configure-ldoms-oracle-vm-f...

COLUMN 4 COLUMN 5 COLUMN 6

c control domain v virtual I/O service domain s source domain in migration

– placeholder – placeholder t target domain in migration
e error occurred in migration
– placeholder

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

Filed Under: LDOMs

Tagged: IO domain, LDOMs, primary domain, service domain

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…
1. LDOMs (OVM for SPARC) Command line reference [cheat sheet]
2. How to create an I/O domain
3. How to save LDOM configuration and restore from xml file
4. How to reset LDOM configuration to factory default
5. LDOM live migration basics explained

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How to login into console from ILOM, ALOM,

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