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Configure KVM Hypervisor with OLVM (Oracle Linux Virtual Manager) – Part 2

Introduction

Keyword Dictionary: 

OLVM – Oracle Linux Virtual Manager
KVM – Kernel-based Virtual Machine
OVM – Oracle Virtual Manager
ODA – Oracle Data Appliance 

OLVM (Oracle Linux Virtual Manager) elevated the KVM (kernel-based virtual Machine)  management processes and reduced administration overhead.  As Oracle is moving out of OVM (Oracle Virtual Manager), customers who are using OVM as their virtualized platform need to plan the OLVM journey. Many small-medium scale businesses are still using virtualized ODA and hosted the VMS on top of ODA.  

I think now is the right time to move out of OVM to Oracle KVM.  KVM hypervisors are much more stable than OVM. Oracle’s future plans are combined with open-source virtualization. Also, there are many more features than the OVM. The below-mentioned table demonstrates the enhancements OLVM has over the old OVM platform.

Virtualization technology still has a high demand for managing on-prem databases on top of Oracle KVM.  Also, I have listed down some of the key features of OLVM.

 

Key features of OLVM

• Live VM migration between hosts
• Oracle Enterprise Manager Integration (OEM)
• CPU Pinning Capabilities
• VM High Availability
• Virtual Appliances and Templates (ovf/ova support)
• Snapshotting of existing VMs. This is an additional feature from OVM
• Role-based User Access
• Web-based User Interface (UI)
• Representation State Transfer (REST)
• Application Programming Interface (API)

 

Integrate KVM with OLVM

In this article, I will cover how to add pre-existing KVM hypervisor to the OLVM engine. I have shared the oracle note explaining how to prepare the KVM.

https://docs.oracle.com/en/virtualization/oracle-linux-virtualization-manager/getstart/getstarted-manager-install.html#manager-prep-kvm

OL8 server needs to enable the ol8 repo to integrate KVM with OLVM.  Make sure you can have internet access on these hosts to access the repo. Once you configure the KVM then can remove the internet connection from KVM hypervisors.

dnf config-manager --enable ol8_baseos_latest

dnf install oracle-ovirt-release-el8

[root@kvm01 ~]# dnf install oracle-ovirt-release-el8
Last metadata expiration check: 0:02:04 ago on Fri 22 Jul 2022 12:08:59 AM EDT.
Dependencies resolved.
===============================================================================================================================================================================================================
 Package                                                    Architecture                             Version                                         Repository                                           Size
===============================================================================================================================================================================================================
Installing:
 oracle-ovirt-release-el8                                   x86_64                                   1.0-1.0.3.el8                                   ol8_baseos_latest                                    23 k

Transaction Summary
===============================================================================================================================================================================================================
Install  1 Package

Total download size: 23 k
Installed size: 35 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
oracle-ovirt-release-el8-1.0-1.0.3.el8.x86_64.rpm                                                                                                                              9.0 kB/s |  23 kB     00:02
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                                                                                                                                                          9.0 kB/s |  23 kB     00:02
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
  Preparing        :                                                                                                                                                                                       1/1
  Running scriptlet: oracle-ovirt-release-el8-1.0-1.0.3.el8.x86_64                                                                                                                                         1/1
  Installing       : oracle-ovirt-release-el8-1.0-1.0.3.el8.x86_64                                                                                                                                         1/1
  Running scriptlet: oracle-ovirt-release-el8-1.0-1.0.3.el8.x86_64                                                                                                                                         1/1
Enabling OLVM 4.4 required Yum Channels...
Enabling ol8_baseos_latest Yum Channel...
Enabling ol8_UEKR6 Yum Channel...
Enabling ol8_gluster_appstream Yum Channel...
Enabling ol8_kvm_appstream Yum Channel...
Disabling yum module virt:ol
Enabling yum module virt:kvm_utils2
Enabling module pki-deps
Enabling module postgresql:13
Required oVirt 4.4 Yum Channels enabled.
Done.

  Verifying        : oracle-ovirt-release-el8-1.0-1.0.3.el8.x86_64                                                                                                                                         1/1

Installed:
  oracle-ovirt-release-el8-1.0-1.0.3.el8.x86_64

Complete!
[root@kvm02 ~]#

This will list down the new repositories

[root@kvm01 ~]# dnf repolist
repo id                                                                      repo name
ol8_UEKR6                                                                    Latest Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 6 for Oracle Linux 8 (x86_64)
ol8_appstream                                                                Oracle Linux 8 Application Stream (x86_64)
ol8_baseos_latest                                                            Oracle Linux 8 BaseOS Latest (x86_64)
ol8_gluster_appstream                                                        Oracle Linux 8 Gluster Appstream (x86_64)
ol8_kvm_appstream                                                            Oracle Linux 8 KVM Application Stream (x86_64)
ovirt-4.4                                                                    Latest oVirt 4.4 Release (x86_64)
ovirt-4.4-extra                                                              oVirt 4.4 Extra (x86_64)
[root@kvm01 ~]#

There are two ways to add KVM to OLVM

1. Add KVM using the root password.
2. Add KVM using OLVM (Public Key) – recommended approach

This below mention figure shows how to add a KVM to OLVM. OLVM stored the log file under “/var/log/ovirt-engine/host-deploy/”. KVM adding process is fully automated via ansible.

 

This is how it looks after integrating kvm01 with OLVM.  All the KVM events can be viewed from the events tab. 

 

This figure illustrates the KVM events.

 

The Conclusion

OLVM is a far better product than OVM. There are many features introduced in the latest updates. As this is combined with the open-source world products will be more mature in the coming years. As of 31 March 2021, Premier Support for OVM will end and the product goes into life sustaining support. OVM will still get the maintenance update 3.4.6.3 but further development on the product and new features has stopped. If an organization using OVM as the virtualized platform needs to plan its new journey with OLVM.

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