using ovm_utils

The utilities are available for download from http://support.oracle.com search for patch name 13602094.

It's a small 2.5Mb zip file which you should install on the manager node and unzip in /u01/app/oracle/ovm-manager-3. There are manpages for the utilities as well. These are installed in /u01/app/oracle/ovm-manager-3/ovm_utils/man/man8. To make it easy, simply add this to your MANPATH : export MANPATH=/u01/app/oracle/ovm-manager-3/ovm_utils/man.

To use the utilities you need the admin username and password for the manager instance and in general you can just use localhost as the hostname. If you want to be able to connect to a remote manager instance, you have to first enable SSL on the manager node. By default we listen only on 127.0.0.1. There is an option in the utils to make a secure connection, use -X, but again, you first have to enable SSL for this. You can enable secure connections using ovm_utils and the addkeystore command. We have a support note for this.

So the format is something like : ./ovm_managercontrol -u admin -p mypassword -h localhost -c [options...]..
There are quite a few commands in the various utilities at this point. I broke the utilities up into categories :br

Here a a few (hopefully) useful examples:

# ovm_managercontrol -u admin -p Manager -h localhost -c getsessiontimeout

# ovm_managercontrol -u admin -p Manager -h localhost -c setsessiontimeout -T 60

Session timeout is the Oracle VM Console session timeout (connect to a Virtual Machine console). When you have a slow network, the default timeout of 30 seconds might be too short and this lets you set this to a longer (or shorter value).

# ovm_servercontrol -u admin -p Manager -h localhost -c listnfsexports -s server1
Oracle VM Server Control utility 0.5.1.
Connected.
Command : listnfsexports
NFS Exports :
        id         : 0004fb0000230000978a28e2dc85e06b
        client     : ca-srs1
        options    :
        repository : SATA_ST3500320AS_5QM1EYTX
        path       : /OVS/Repositories/0004fb000003000031fac25b24740cca/
---
        id         : 0004fb00002300004b161fd1a0d106b7
        client     : ca-vdi1
        options    : rw,no_root_squash
        repository : SATA_ST3500320AS_5QM1EYTX
        path       : /OVS/Repositories/0004fb000003000031fac25b24740cca/
---
Exit... 

nfs exports are very useful and new in 3.1. It is now possible to export a local ocfs2 repository on a FC, iscsi or local disk device to be exported from an Oracle VM server to the outside world. You define which repository and which client can mount the repository. listnfsexports lists the exports defined on a specific Oracle VM Server.

# ovm_servercontrol -u admin -p Manager -h localhost -c createnfsexport -s server1 
-C ca-vdi1 -o rw,no_root_squash -r SATA_ST3500320AS_5QM1EYTX
Oracle VM Server Control utility 0.5.1.
Connected.
Command : createnfsexport
Creating nfs export for repository 'SATA_ST3500320AS_5QM1EYTX' on server.
Created repository export
Exit... 

Here I have a repository named SATA_ST3500320AS_5QM1EYTX (this happens to be a local disk on server1) and I am exporting that repo through nfs to external server ca-vdi1. So now, on ca-vdi1, I can do mount server1:/OVS/Repositories/0004fb000003000031fac25b24740cca /mnt and I can backup(or restore) files.

# /ovm_servercontrol -u admin -p Manager -h localhost -c deletenfsexport -s server1 
-i 0004fb0000230000978a28e2dc85e06b
Oracle VM Server Control utility 0.5.1.
Connected.
Command : deletenfsexport
Deleting nfs export with ID '0004fb0000230000978a28e2dc85e06b'
Deleted repository export
Exit... 

Simply deleting a repository. You need to specify the UUID of the nfs export, which you can find using listnfsexports.

# ovm_repocontrol -u admin -p Manager -h localhost -c create -r foo -s wopr5 
-i 3600144f057ef8a0000004fb3194b0001
Oracle VM Repository Control utility 0.5.1.
Connected.
Command : create
Found LUN with id '3600144f057ef8a0000004fb3194b0001'
Creating Filesystem...
Creating repository... Please wait...
Create repository completed.
Exit... 

Create a repository on the LUN with a specific UUID. This works around slow storage where we hit a 2 minute timeout.

# ovm_vmcontrol -u admin -p Manager -h ovmm -c vcpuget -v apitest
Oracle VM VM Control utility 0.3.9.
Connected.
Command : vcpuget
Current pinning of virtual CPUs to physical threads : 2,3

Pinning virtual CPU's to physical threads.

# ovm_vmcontrol -u admin -p Manager -h ovmm -c vcpuset -v apitest -s 5,6
Oracle VM VM Control utility 0.3.9.
Connected.
Command : vcpuset
Pinning virtual CPUs
Pinning of virtual CPUs to physical threads '5,6''apitest' completed.
A restart of Virtual Machine 'apitest' is required. 

# vm_servercontrol  -u admin -p Manager -h localhost -s server -c events -A all
Oracle VM Server Control utility 0.3.10.
Connected.
Command : events
Server Events
Acknowledging Virtual Machine events
        Virtual Machines on this server :
VM : el5u4_32_pvm_1
VM : el6u1_64_hvm_1
VM : el5u7_64_hvm_1
VM : el5u7_64_pvm_1
VM : el6u1_64_pvm_1
VM : el6u2bd5_32_pvhvm_1
VM : el6u1_32_pvm_1
VM : uek-boot-el5-64
Exit..

Acknowledging events on a given server, including any guest events.