4.6.1. Registering and Configuring File Servers

In Oracle VM, the term file server is used to indicated file-based storage made available to the environment from another physical server, as opposed to local storage. Describing the technology used to expose file systems, NFS shares and so on, is beyond the scope of this guide. The procedure below explains how you can bring the exposed file-based storage into Oracle VM, prepare it for the installation of a storage repository, and configure the file server and discovered file systems.

To register a file server:

  1. Make sure that your storage server exposes a writable file system (through an NFS share or a Sun ZFS storage pool) to the storage network of your server pool.

  2. In Oracle VM Manager open the Hardware view and open the Storage tab in the navigation pane.

  3. In the navigation pane, select and right-click File Servers, then select Register File Server. The File Server Discovery dialog box is displayed, where you enter the information necessary for Oracle VM Manager to discover the external storage mount points.

    This figure shows the Register File Server dialog box.
  4. Always enter the following information:

    • Name: the name you wish to use to identify the file server

    • Storage Plug-in: the storage plug-in corresponding to the type of file server (generic NFS or vendor-specific)

    • Access Host: the host name or IP address of the server offering the file system

    • Description: optional information you would like to add about this file server

  5. If you are adding a non-generic file server, for example a Sun ZFS Storage Appliance, also enter the additional plug-in options to enable Oracle VM Manager to access the file server's configuration management functions:

    • Admin Host: the host name or IP address where administrative access to the file server is allowed with appropriate credentials

    • Admin User Name: a user name with administrator access to the file server

    • Admin Password: the administrator password for the user name you entered

  6. Click Next to proceed to the admin server selection screen. If you are working with a non-clustered server pool, you may skip this screen.

  7. Use the arrow buttons to move the required Oracle VM Servers to the Selected Servers box.

    This figure shows the Add Admin Servers dialog box.
  8. Click Next to proceed to the file systems selection screen. If certain file systems contain existing Virtual Machine resources, select the corresponding check boxes and choose a server from the list below to read the content of the selected file systems. This allows Oracle VM Manager to add the existing resources to the system.

    This figure shows the Select File Systems dialog box.
  9. Click Finish to complete the file server registration. The new file server appears in the navigation pane, under File Servers.

    Note

    If you created shares to be used as server pool file systems, these are discovered in the same process. Since these file systems are relatively small, be sure to keep those available for the server pools and create storage repositories on the higher capacity file systems.

    At the end of the file server registration a refresh operation is triggered to make sure all file systems available on the file server appear in Oracle VM Manager. When the operation is complete, the available file systems appear in the navigation pane, under the file server to which they belong. The file systems also show up to the right of the File Servers overview table when you select that particular file server.

    This figure shows the Storage tab in Hardware view with the File Systems tab displayed.

Your file server and file systems are now ready to be used either for storage repositories or as server pool file systems. A server pool file system is selected during the creation of the server pool; to create storage repositories on your file systems, see Section 4.8, “Preparing and Configuring Storage Repositories”.

Of course, you can always make changes to the storage configuration you just registered. The steps and options to do so are described below.

To change the registered file server configuration:

  1. If you need to modify a file server, select it in the tree structure in the navigation pane, right-click it and choose one of these options:

    • Edit File Server: change file server settings such as name, access host, description and plug-in options; change admin server settings in the second section of the wizard

    • Refresh File Server: request an update of the file server configuration in case changes have been made to the disks and file systems

    • Add/Remove Admin Server: determine which Oracle VM Servers are responsible for information exchange with this file server

    • Delete File Server: remove the selected file server from your Oracle VM environment

  2. If you need to modify a file system, expand the file server it belongs to, select it in the tree structure in the navigation pane, right-click it and choose one of these options:

    • Edit File System: change the name and description of the file system

    • Refresh File System: request an update of the file system information to see if changes have been made to the size and contents

    • Delete File System: stop using the selected file system in your Oracle VM environment