4.5 The KVM Provisioning Adapter

Because you probably want to get your Cloud Manager Orchestration environment configured for use in your KVM hypervisor environment at installation time, detailed configuration information you need for the kvm provisioning adapter job is included in the Configuring the KVM Provisioning Adapter in the NetIQ Cloud Manager 2.1.5 Orchestration Installation Guide.

This section includes the following information:

4.5.1 Understanding the Functionality of the KVM Provisioning Adapter

The Orchestration KVM provisioning adapter does not use a command line tool, nor does it communicate with the KVM daemon directly. The Orchestration Server manages KVM virtual machines using the libvirt API set, which communicates with the KVM daemon.

The KVM hypervisor runs on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 SP1 host machines where the Cloud Manager KVM provisioning adapter can discover its guest virtual machines. For information about configuring the KVM provisioning adapter, see Section 4.5, The KVM Provisioning Adapter.

The KVM provisioning adapter does not store a copy of the VM’s configuration file on disk with the VM’s disk files. Instead, the Orchestration Server searches for VM configuration files during discovery and requests the configuration from the libvirt daemon for other provisioning actions. Because the configuration can exist on any host, the kvm provisioning adapter uses a custom fact (resource.vm.registered.vmhost) to store the ID of the host with which the VM is currently associated. Additionally, the Orchestration Server keeps a backup copy of the VM’s configuration file on the VM Resource object (using the resource.vm.libvirt.xml fact) as a backup if the registered host becomes unavailable through a hardware failure or similar malfunction.

4.5.2 The kvm.policy File

The kvm.policy file contains the policy settings for the kvm provisioning adapter job. The policy is deployed automatically when the Orchestration Server starts. By default, the optimal values are preset for the configuration of the job and joblets in the policy.

Those settings are made on the following facts:

  • job.vdisk_creation_pattern

  • job.multicastRate

  • job.joblet.copyMaxRetry

  • job.multicast

  • job.multicastWait

  • job.multicastQuorum

  • job.multicastMinReceivers

  • job.vmagentPeriod

  • job.vmagentRetry

  • job.vmagentTimeout

  • job.vmagentFallback

  • job.vmagentSocketPath

We strongly recommend that you do not edit these facts.

4.5.3 Provisioning Actions Supported by the KVM Provisioning Adapter

The following table lists the VM provisioning actions supported by the Orchestration Console for the kvm provisioning adapter job.

Table 4-6 Provisioning Actions Supported by the KVM Provisioning Adapter

Orchestration Server Managed VM Action

SLES 9 Guest

SLES 10 Guest

RHEL 5 Guest

RHEL 6 Guest

Other Linux Guest

Windows Guest

Discover VM Hosts & Repositories

X

X

X

X

X

X

Discover VM Images

X

X

X

X

X

X

Discover Disks

X

X

X

X

X

X

Provision

X

X

X

X

X

X

Clone

X

X

X

X

X

X

Shutdown

X

X

X

X

X

X

Destroy

X

X

X

X

X

X

Suspend

X

X

X

X

X

X

Pause

X

X

X

X

X

X

Resume

X

X

X

X

X

X

Create Template

X

X

X

X

X

X

Move Disk Image1

X

X

X

X

X

X

Hot Migrate 2

X

X

X

X

X

X

Checkpoint

Restore Checkpoint

Install Orchestration Agent

Make Standalone

X

X

X

X

X

X

Check Status (Resync State)

X

X

X

X

X

X

Personalize

X

X

X

X

X

Save Config

X

X

X

X

X

X

Apply Config

X

X

X

X

X

X

Cancel Action

X

X

X

X

X

X

Check Host Assignment

X

X

X

X

X

X

Build

Launch Remote Desktop

X

X

X

X

X

X

1 A “move” is the relocation of VM disk images between two storage devices when the VM is in a not running state (this includes VMs that are suspended with a checkpoint file). This function does not require shared storage; the move is between separate repositories.

2 A “hot migrate” (also called a “live migrate”) is the migration of a running VM to another host and starting it there with minimal resulting downtime (measured in milliseconds). This action requires shared storage. SSH or TLS authentication must be configured for this action to work.

3 For more information about RHEL 6 support, see