Top Ten Tips for Using Integrity Virtual Machines

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Introduction ...................................................................................................................................3

#1 – Do Not Install OS using Golden Image of a VM Host ....................................................................3

Symptoms: Performance, Reliability.............................................................................................3

Prevention and Treatment..........................................................................................................3

#2 – Install VM Kit in the Guests........................................................................................................4

Symptoms: Performance, Functionality.........................................................................................4

Prevention and Treatment..........................................................................................................4

#3 – Use Multipath or RAID Technology on the VM Host, Not the Guest ..................................................5

Symptoms: Functionality............................................................................................................5

Prevention and Treatment..........................................................................................................5

#4 – Install the Required Patches on the VM Host.................................................................................5

Symptoms: Performance, Reliability.............................................................................................5

Prevention and Treatment..........................................................................................................5

#5 – Configure Sufficient Swap Space on the VM Host.........................................................................5

Symptoms: Functionality............................................................................................................5

Prevention and Treatment..........................................................................................................5

#6 – Do Not Exceed the Maximum Supported Number of Virtual Storage Devices.....................................6

Symptoms: Functionality............................................................................................................6

Prevention and Treatment..........................................................................................................6

#7 – Do Not Share Disks Between Guests and the VM Host...................................................................6

Symptoms: Functionality, Reliability.............................................................................................6

Prevention and Treatment..........................................................................................................6

Summary of content (8 pages)

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Top Ten Tips for Using Integrity Virtual Machines Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 3 #1 – Do Not Install OS using Golden Image of a VM Host .................................................................... 3 Symptoms: Performance, Reliability............................................................................................. 3 Prevention and Treatment..................................
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#8 – Do Not Use Hardware Monitoring Tools in a VM.......................................................................... 6 Symptoms: Functionality............................................................................................................ 6 Prevention and Treatment.......................................................................................................... 6 #9 –Set Entitlements Conservatively ...................................................................................
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Introduction For most people, the first time they use a new technology it is not used to its maximum potential. The same is true for Integrity Virtual Machines (Integrity VM).
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#2 – Install VM Kit in the Guests Symptoms: Performance, Functionality Applications in the VM, especially those that are disk I/O intensive, perform poorly. This is especially pertinent when virtual disks are mapped to logical volumes on the VM Host. The command line interfaces hpvminfo and hpvmcollect are delivered with guest kits. Prevention and Treatment HP-UX Guests The HPVM-Guest bundle is provided in an SD (tape format) depot file, /opt/hpvm/guest-images/hpux/hpvm_guest_depot.sd on the VM Host system.
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#3 – Use Multipath or RAID Technology on the VM Host, Not the Guest Symptoms: Functionality Multipathing or RAID technology doesn’t work as expected. For example, mirroring on the VM didn’t help whenever one of the virtual hard drives was ‘lost.’ Prevention and Treatment Multipath technologies address physical connections to storage and are not applicable to virtual machines. Similarly RAID functionality applies to physical storage units.
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#6 – Do Not Exceed the Maximum Supported Number of Virtual Storage Devices Symptoms: Functionality Virtual storage devices (disk or DVD) do not respond to I/O transactions or are otherwise inoperable. Prevention and Treatment Version 2.0 of Integrity VM supports up to 30 virtual storage devices per virtual machine.
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#9 –Set Entitlements Conservatively Symptoms: Functionality, Performance Virtual machines may not start, displaying the message: Warning 1: Insufficient cpu resource for guest. These problems may prevent HPVM guest vm-name from booting. hpvmstart: Unable to continue. Otherwise, virtual machines may not perform as well as expected due to inadequate resource allocation. Prevention and Treatment Such problems often result when using multi-CPU virtual machines (virtual SMPs).
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For more information http://docs.hp.com/en/vse.html provides most of the HP documentation for Integrity Virtual Machines, including • Integrity VM Installation, Configuration, and Administration Guide • Best Practices for Using Integrity Virtual Machines and other white papers http://www.hp.com/go/virtualization © 2007 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice.