So now let’s get down to understand the architecture of Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager. We’ll try to understand, what are the relationships between the different components like the engine host and the KVM host? What are the services interrelated into these particular architecture? And how the work process happens inside your Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager.
To start with, let’s concentrate on the oVirt engine, the backbone of Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager. It is based on WildFly, a robust Java application, and it functions as a web service, providing centralized management capabilities for both server and desktop virtualisation environment.
In its role as a control center, the oVirt engine interacts closely with the virtual desktop and Server Manager, which is VDSM service. This service acts as a host agent, running continuously as a daemon on the KVM host.
To direct communication with the VDSM service on Oracle Linux KVM host, the oVirt engine performs a wide array of tasks, including but not limited to managing virtual machines, creating new images from templates, monitoring host resources and ensuring overall system health and performance.
The seamless integration between the oVirt engine and the VDSM service enables an efficient and streamlined management of the virtualized infrastructure, empowering administrators with the tools they need to oversee and optimize their virtual environments effectively.
So the oVirt engine host and the KVM host interaction is done by using your oVirt engine and the VDSM service. Now, when we talk about the oVirt engine, we’ll try to get into more details about the services and the features provided by the oVirt engine.
oVirt Engine encompasses a wide area of functionality, providing users with extensive capabilities. Firstly, it enables the management of Oracle Linux KVM host, ensuring efficient utilization and optimization of resources to support the virtualized environments.
Moreover, users have comprehensive control over virtual machines, from their creation and deployment to ongoing monitoring and Maintenance tasks. This includes actions such as starting, stopping, migrating, and monitoring virtual machines, ensuring they operate smoothly and meet performance requirements.
Additionally, the engine facilitates the configuration and management of logical networks, allowing for seamless communication between virtualized components and enhancing network connectivity and efficiency.
Furthermore, it integrates with storage domains and enables the management of virtual disks, ensuring reliable storage solutions, which are in place to support virtual machine operations and data storage requirements effectively.
And the engine also supports the setup and management of cluster, host and virtual machines high availability features, enhancing the system reliability and fault tolerance to minimize downtime and maintain continuous operations.
It also offers support for live migration and editing of virtual machines, allowing for seamless adjustments and optimizations without interrupting ongoing operations or affecting service availabilities.
The engine also facilitates dynamic load balancing across virtual machines based on resource usage and predefined policies. This ensures optimal performance and resource allocation, enhancing the overall efficiency of the virtualized environment.
And it also provides the comprehensive monitoring and oversight of all objects within the environment, including virtual machines, host, storage, and networks. This enables the administrators to maintain a system, health and performance, and proactively address any issues that may arise.
The majority of these tasks can be conveniently performed through the administration portal, which offers a centralized and user-friendly interface for managing the virtualized infrastructures. It is also manages the streamlined operations with a subset of tasks that can be executed using the VM portal or the cockpit, providing users with flexibility and choice in their management approach.
So these are the features of the oVirt engine. You can understand, like most of the features can be managed by using these interfaces or portals which are provided by the oVirt engine application.
Now let’s try to get a little bit of understanding about the basic architecture of the host, which is the KVM host. So the engine, as you know, is the brain of Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager.
It is installed on the Oracle Linux server and helps manage everything in the virtualization. But the real workhorses are the Oracle Linux KVM hosts. These hosts are like the muscle, providing the computing power needed to run virtual machines.
Think of an engine as the manager and the KVM host as the workers. The engine tells the host what to do and the host do all the heavy-lifting, running the virtual machines, and handling all the computing tasks.
So while the engine is important for managing everything, it is the host that actually make things happen by running the virtual machines and keeping everything running smoothly. Now, what is the components inside the host? And we’ll try to understand the different components of the host and how they provide a virtualization support to the host.
The collaboration between the KVM, which is the kernel-based virtual machine and the quick emulator, which is QEMU, is pivotal in providing comprehensive virtualization capabilities.
KVM functions as a loadable kernel module, leveraging hardware extensions to achieve full virtualization. This empowers the host system to share its physical hardware resources with virtual machines seamlessly.
KVM operates within the kernel space, while virtual machines operates as individual QEMU processes, or also the quick emulator processes in the user space. The quick emulator plays a complementary role by emulating hardware components essential for virtual machines, such as the CPU, memory, network, and disk devices.
The symbolic relationship enables KVM to function as a complete hypervisor catering to the diverse needs of virtualized environments. One of the KVM’s notable features is its ability to execute code directly on the host CPU through QEMU, granting virtual machines unrestricted access to host resources without necessitating modifications to their operating systems.
Facilitating the management of KVM host is the virtual desktop and server manager service serving as a host agent. So VDSM is responsible for overseeing all aspects of host management, including virtual machines, networks, and storages.
It acts as an intermediary between the engine and the KVM host, ensuring seamless communication and coordination. Adding another layer of functionality is the libvirt daemon operating as a service called as libvirtd on Oracle Linux KVM host.
It provides an application programming interface which is API for managing various hypervisors, including Oracle Linux KVM. The VDSM relies on libvirt to manage the lifecycle of virtual machines and their associated devices on the host, while also collecting pertinent statistics for analysis within the virtual machines.
The guest agent plays a crucial role in facilitating communication with the engine, operating within the guest environment. The guest agent provides valuable insights into resource usage, enabling the engine to make informed decisions.
This communication occurs over a virtualized serial connection, allowing the guest agent to relay essential information such as guest machine name, operating system details, IP addresses, installed applications, and utilizing metrics for the network and DRAM usages. So the agent, the QEMU, and the libvirt are the crucial components inside your KVM host.
Now let’s try to get an understanding of the feature, which is available with the OLVM or you could say like the oVirt engine, which is called as the self-hosted engine. So self-hosted engine is a revolutionary concept in virtualization management.
Imagine a virtualization environment where the management engine runs directly on the virtualization host themselves, eliminating the need for a separate management server. This innovative approach not only streamlines management, but also enhances the resilience and efficiency of your virtualized infrastructure.
The self-hosted engine is a cornerstone of Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager, offering a seamless and integrated solution for managing your virtual environment. By running the management engine directly on the host, it simplifies deployment and reduces overhead, resulting in a more agile and cost effective solution.
With the self-hosted engine, you can leverage the full power of Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager without the complexity of managing a separate management server. This means faster deployment time, reduced maintenance efforts, and improved resource utilization, ultimately leading to a more efficient and responsive virtualization environment.
But the benefits don’t stop there. The self-hosted engine also enhances the resilience of your virtualized infrastructure by eliminating single point of failure. With the management engine distributed across multiple hosts, you can ensure high availability and continuity of operations, even in the event of host failures.
The self-hosted engine offers unmatched scalability, allowing you to easily scale your virtualization environment to meet growing business demands. Whether you are running a small scale deployment or managing a large scale enterprise environment, the self-hosted engine provides the flexibility and scalability you need to succeed.
The oVirt engine virtual appliance is a pre-installed image for installing your engine virtual machine, which enable faster provisioning of pre-installed engine virtual machines in your virtual environment.
So in conclusion, the Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager with self-hosted engine represents a paradigm shift to virtualization management. By running the management engine directly on the hosts, it offers a more efficient, resilient, and scalable solution for managing your virtualization infrastructures.
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