How to install and configure LDOMs (Oracle VM

for SPARC)

https://www.thegeekdiary.com/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 Purpose

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 D
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.

Virtual Services and Devices

Abbreviation Name Purpose

VLDC virtual logical domain communication channel between logical domain a

channel hypervisor

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

VSW Virtual switch service provides network access for guest ldoms to the ph
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 CP

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

Memory Physical memory is mapped into virtual memory a

to ldoms

VCONS Virtual console a port in guest ldom that connects to the VCC serv
control domain

VNET Virtual network network port in guest ldom which is connected to t

service in the control domain

VSDEV Virtual disk service physical storage device that is virtualized by VDS
device control domain
VDISK Virtual disk VDISK in guest domain is connected to the VDS s
control domain/service domain

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

‫ إلى المجال‬MAUs ‫ و‬Memory ‫ و‬VCPUs ‫ يتم تعيين جميع‬، ‫التكوين األولي لمجال التحكم بشكل افتراضي‬
‫ ُيستخدم المجال األساسي أو‬.SPARC ‫ لبرنامج‬OVM ‫األساسي وهو المجال االفتراضي الذي تم إنشاؤه بعد تثبيت‬
.vds ‫ و‬vsw ‫ و‬vcc ‫نطاق التحكم لتكوين جميع مجاالت الضيف وتقديم الخدمات االفتراضية الالزمة لهم مثل‬
‫ وبالتالي التأكد من تشغيل خدمة‬، ‫يكون مدير المجال المنطقي مسؤوًال عن إنشاء وحذف وتعديل والتحكم في النطاقات‬
‫ استخدم إعادة التكوين المؤجلة لتهيئة النطاق األساسي دون إعادة‬.‫ قبل تكوين المجالين األساسي والضيف‬ldmd
‫التشغيل حتى تصبح التغييرات السابقة سارية المفعول‬
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

s starting or stopping n normal d delayed reconfiguration
– placeholder t transition – placeholder

column 4 column 5 column 6

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

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

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