Changing Virtual Machine Configurations

You can create a virtual machine with characteristics that the VM Host cannot supply at the time of creation. This allows you to create virtual machines to run after system configuration changes. For example, the following command creates the virtual machine compass1 with 3 vCPUs and 4 MB of allocated memory:

# hpvmcreate -P compass1 -c 3 -r 4GB
HPVM guest compass1 configuration problems:
    Warning 1: Guest's vcpus exceeds server's physical cpus.
    Warning 2: Insufficient cpu resource for guest.
These problems may prevent HPVM guest compass1 from starting.
hpvmcreate: The creation process is continuing.

Because the VM Host is not currently configured to support the new virtual machine, warning messages indicate the specific characteristics that are inadequate.

When you start a virtual machine, the VM Host determines whether the current system configuration can support the virtual machine's characteristics. The ability of the system to run the virtual machine can be affected by the other virtual machines that are currently running, because they share the physical processors and memory. Any allocated vswitches must be started, and storage devices must be made available to the virtual machine. If the virtual machine cannot be started, the following type of message is generated:

# hpvmstart -P compass1
HPVM guest compass1 configuration problems:
Warning 1: Insufficient free memory for guest.
Warning 2: Insufficient cpu resource for guest.
   These problems may prevent HPVM guest compass1 from booting.
hpvmstart: Unable to continue.

You can either change the system configuration, or modify the virtual machine. To modify the characteristics of a virtual machine, use the hpvmmodify command. Table 3-4 describes the options you can use on the hpvmmodify command.

Table 3-4 Options to the hpvmmodify Command

Option	Description
-P vm-name	Specifies the name of the virtual machine. You must specify either the -P option or the —p option..
-p vm_number	Specifies the number of the virtual machine. To determine the virtual machine number, enter the hpvmstatus command.
-F	Suppresses all resource conflict checks and associated warning messages (force mode). Use force mode for troubleshooting purposes only.
-s	Sanity-checks the virtual machine configuration and returns warnings or errors, but does not create the virtual machine.
-N new-vm-name	Specifies a new name for the virtual machine. The name can consist of up to 256 alphanumeric characters including A-Z, a-z, 0-9, the dash (-), the underscore character (_), and the period (.). The virtual machine name cannot start with a dash (-).
-l vm_label	Modifies the descriptive label for this virtual machine. The label can contain up to 256 alphanumeric characters, including A-Z, a-z, 0-9, the dash (-), the underscore character (_), and the period (.). To include spaces, the label must be quoted (" ").
-B start_attr	Modifies the startup behavior of the virtual machine.For start_attr, enter one of the following: auto: Automatically starts the virtual machine when Integrity VM is initialized on the VM Host. manual: The virtual machine is not started automatically. Use the hpvmstart command to start the virtual machine manually.
-O os_type[:version]	Modifies the type and version of the operating system running on the virtual machine. For the os-type, specify one of the the following (case-insensitive) values: hpux windows linux
-c number_vcpus	Modifies the number of virtual CPUs this virtual machine detects at boot time. If unspecified, the number defaults to one. The maximum number of vCPUs that you can allocate to a virtual machine is the number of physical processors on the VM Host system.
-e percent | -E cycles	Modifies the virtual machine's CPU entitlement in CPU cycles. To specify the percentage of CPU power, enter the following option: -e percent To specify the clock cycles, enter one of the following options: -E cyclesM (for megahertz) -E cyclesG (for gigahertz)
-g group[:{admin|oper}]	Specifies a group authorization. The specified administrative level (admin or oper) is applied to the specified user group.
-u user[:{admin|oper}]	Specifies a user authorization. The specified administrative level (admin or oper) is applied to the specified user.
-a rsrc	Adds a virtual storage or network device to the virtual machine. For more information, see hpvmresources(1M).
-m rsrc	Modifies an existing I/O resource for a virtual machine. The resource is specified as described below. You must specify the hardware address of the device to modify. The physical device portion of the rsrc specifies a new physical device that will replace the one in use.
-d rsrc	Deletes a virtual resource.
-r amount	Modifies the amount of memory available to this virtual machine. Specify the amount as either amountM (for megabtyes) or amountG (for gigabytes).
-i package-name	Specifies whether the virtual machine is managed by Serviceguard or gWLM (or both). For the argument, specify one or more of the following parameters: SG indicates that the VM Host is a Serviceguard cluster node. SG_pkgname indicates that the VM Host is a Serviceguard package. GWLM indicates that the VM Host is managed by gWLM. NONE indicates there are no external managers. For a node that is managed by both Serviceguard and gWLM, parameters are separated with a comma. For example: SG_compass1,gWLM. Do not specify this option. This option is used internally by Integrity VM.
-j [0|1]	Specifies whether the virtual machine is a distributed guest (that is, managed by Serviceguard) and can be failed over to another cluster member running Integrity VM. Do not specify this option. This option is used internally by Integrity VM.
-x keyword=parameter	Specifies values for dynamic memory setting associated with the guest, including: dynamic_memory_control ram_dyn_type ram_dyn_min ram_dyn_max ram_dyn_target_start For more information about dynamic memory, see Section : Dynamic Memory.

For example, to modify the characteristics of the problematic virtual machine compass1 to remove vCPUs and memory, enter the following command:

# hpvmmodify -P compass1 -c 1 -r 2G

This command changes the following characteristics of the virtual machine named compass1:

The hpvmmodify command generated no warnings, so the VM Host system is ready to start the virtual machine.

After you make the necessary modifications, use the hpvmstart command to start the virtual machine. For example:

# hpvmstart -P compass1
(C) Copyright 2000 - 2007 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
Initializing System Event Log
Initializing Forward Progress Log
Opening minor device and creating guest machine container
Creation of VM, minor device 2
Allocating guest memory: 2048MB
  allocating low RAM (0-40000000, 2048MB)
/opt/hpvm/lbin/hpvmapp (/var/opt/hpvm/uuids/8ba249f2-3399-11db-aacc-00306ef392e0
/vmm_config.next): Allocated 1073741824 bytes at 0x6000000100000000
    locking memory: 0-40000000
  allocating firmware RAM (ffaa0000-ffab5000, 84KB)
/opt/hpvm/lbin/hpvmapp (/var/opt/hpvm/uuids/8ba249f2-3399-11db-aacc-00306ef392e0
/vmm_config.next): Allocated 86016 bytes at 0x6000000140000000
    locked SAL RAM: 00000000ffaa0000 (4KB)
    locked ESI RAM: 00000000ffaa1000 (4KB)
    locked PAL RAM: 00000000ffaa4000 (4KB)
    locked Min Save State: 00000000ffaa5000 (1KB)
RAM alignment: 40000000
Memory base low : 6000000100000000
Memory base FW  : 6000000140000000
Loading boot image
Image initial IP=102000 GP=62C000
Initialize guest memory mapping tables
Starting event polling thread
Starting thread initialization
Daemonizing....
hpvmstart: Successful start initiation of guest 'compass1'

The virtual machine compass1 is started. Now the guest operating system must be installed. For information about creating HP-UX guests, see Chapter 4. For information about creating Windows guests, see Chapter 5.