Using the oVirt Server Suite User Interface

oVirt Server Suite 0

Using the oVirt ServerSuite User Interface

A Guide to the oVirt User Interface

Susan Burgess

Using the oVirt Server Suite User Interface

oVirt Server Suite 0 Using the oVirt Server Suite User InterfaceA Guide to the oVirt User InterfaceEdition 0.95

Author Susan Burgess [email protected] © 2008 Red Hat Incorporated

Copyright © 2008 Red Hat Incorporated. This material may only be distributed subject to the termsand conditions set forth in the Open Publication License, V1.0 or later. The latest version of the OPL ispresently available at http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/.

Red Hat and the Red Hat "Shadow Man" logo are registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. in the UnitedStates and other countries.

All other trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners.

The GPG fingerprint of the [email protected] key is:

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1801 Varsity DriveRaleigh, NC 27606-2072USAPhone: +1 919 754 3700Phone: 888 733 4281Fax: +1 919 754 3701PO Box 13588Research Triangle Park, NC 27709USA

This document describes how to use the oVirt Server Suite User Interface to manage the oVirt ServerSuite.

mailto:[email protected]

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iii

Preface v1. About the oVirt Server Suite User Interface ...................................................................... v

1.1. About Using the oVirt Server Suite Online Help ...................................................... v1.2. About Using the oVirt Server Suite User Interface Guide ......................................... v

2. The oVirt Server Suite Documentation Suite ..................................................................... v3. Audience ........................................................................................................................ v4. Document Conventions ................................................................................................... vi

4.1. Typographic Conventions ..................................................................................... vi4.2. Pull-quote Conventions ....................................................................................... viii4.3. Notes and Warnings ........................................................................................... viii

5. We Need Feedback! ....................................................................................................... ix

1. Introduction 11.1. Overview ..................................................................................................................... 11.2. Prerequisites ................................................................................................................ 21.3. Types of Users ............................................................................................................ 2

1.3.1. Open Source Developers ................................................................................... 21.3.2. Users ................................................................................................................ 3

2. Quick Start 52.1. Add Hosts to a Hardware Pool ..................................................................................... 52.2. Add Storage to a Hardware Pool .................................................................................. 62.3. Create a Virtual Machine Pool ...................................................................................... 72.4. Create Virtual Machines ............................................................................................... 82.5. Assign User Permissions ............................................................................................ 11

3. Getting Started 133.1. Logging on ................................................................................................................. 133.2. Understanding the User Interface ................................................................................ 13

3.2.1. About the Interface .......................................................................................... 133.2.2. Using the Navigator ......................................................................................... 153.2.3. Using the Content and Detail Panes ................................................................. 16

3.3. Using Online Help ...................................................................................................... 173.4. Using Search ............................................................................................................. 17

4. Managing Hardware Resources 194.1. Logging in as the Hardware Administrator .................................................................... 194.2. Viewing Hardware Resources ..................................................................................... 20

4.2.1. Viewing Hardware Resource Details ................................................................. 214.2.2. Managing Hardware Resource Quotas .............................................................. 21

4.3. Creating and Deleting Hardware Pools ........................................................................ 224.3.1. Creating Hardware Pools ................................................................................. 224.3.2. Deleting Hardware Pools .................................................................................. 24

4.4. Adding and Removing Physical Hosts ......................................................................... 254.4.1. Adding Physical Hosts ..................................................................................... 254.4.2. Removing Physical Hosts from a Hardware Pool ............................................... 27

4.5. Moving Hosts between Hardware Pools ....................................................................... 284.5.1. Move Hosts to Existing Hardware Pools ............................................................ 284.5.2. Move Hosts to a New Hardware Pool ............................................................... 29

5. Managing Storage Pools 315.1. Adding Existing Storage to the Resource Pool ............................................................. 315.2. Creating New Storage Pools ....................................................................................... 335.3. Moving Storage Servers between Hardware Pools ....................................................... 34

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5.3.1. Move Storage Servers to Existing Hardware Pools ............................................ 345.3.2. Move Storage Servers to a New Hardware Pool ................................................ 35

5.4. Removing Storage Servers ......................................................................................... 365.4.1. Removing Storage Servers from a Hardware Pool ............................................. 365.4.2. Deleting Storage Servers from oVirt .................................................................. 38

6. Managing Virtual Resources 416.1. Working with Virtual Machine Pools ............................................................................. 41

6.1.1. Viewing Virtual Machine Pools ......................................................................... 416.1.2. Creating Virtual Machine Pools ......................................................................... 436.1.3. Managing Virtual Machine Pool Quotas ............................................................. 446.1.4. Moving a Virtual Machine Pool to a Smart Pool ................................................. 466.1.5. Deleting Virtual Machine Pools ......................................................................... 47

6.2. Working with Virtual Machines .................................................................................... 486.2.1. Viewing Virtual Machines ................................................................................. 486.2.2. Adding Virtual Machines .................................................................................. 506.2.3. Managing Virtual Machines .............................................................................. 516.2.4. Moving a Virtual Machine to a Smart Pool ......................................................... 556.2.5. Deleting Virtual Machines ................................................................................. 55

7. Managing User Access 577.1. Assigning Permissions with User Roles ....................................................................... 57

7.1.1. How User Roles Work ..................................................................................... 577.2. Managing Users ......................................................................................................... 58

7.2.1. The User Access Page .................................................................................... 587.2.2. Adding Users to a Pool .................................................................................... 597.2.3. Changing Users Roles ..................................................................................... 597.2.4. Revoking User Permissions .............................................................................. 60

A. Revision History 61

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PrefaceoVirt Server Suite is an open cross-platform virtualization management system. oVirt Server Suiteprovides a small image that runs on a host and provides virtualization services to virtual machines(VMs), and a web-based management interface that enables users to manage hosts and storage,install and remove virtual machines and level resources across a large group of machines. oVirtServer Suite scales from a small group of users with little need for access control and quotamanagement, all the way up to hundreds or even thousands of hosts with robust control overgrouping, permissions, and quotas.

1. About the oVirt Server Suite User InterfaceoVirt Server Suite Appliance is a web-based management user interface for oVirt Server Suite hosts,users, and virtual machines.

1.1. About Using the oVirt Server Suite Online HelpOnline help describes how to use the interface to manage virtual hosts, users and virtual machines.

1.2. About Using the oVirt Server Suite User Interface GuideThis guide describes how to use the interface to manage virtual hosts, users and virtual machines.

2. The oVirt Server Suite Documentation SuiteoVirt Server Suite documentation suite provides information on installation, development ofapplications, configuration and usage of oVirt Server Suite and its related products.

• oVirt Server Suite Release Notes - this document contains release specific information and knownissues with the beta release.

• Online Help - describes how to use the oVirt Server Suite user interface.

• Using the oVirt Server Suite Server Suite User Interface - this document describes how to use theoVirt Server Suite user interface.

• oVirt Installation Guide - this document describes how to install both the developer version andthe production versions of oVirt. A production install of oVirt Server Suite allows a user to managephysical hosts.

3. AudienceThis documentation suite is intended for anyone who wants to manage virtual machines! oVirt islightweight enough to work for a developer managing, say, a single host with four VMs, yet robustenough for a large organization managing tens of thousands of VMs. Although oVirt is developedusing Fedora, oVirt is not tied to a particular platform. Solaris and Windows users can use the oVirtbrowser interface, and in the future the oVirt Server Suite User Interface will run across platforms aswell. Typical users can b e:

• Open Source Developers who are prototyping and experimenting with oVirt Server Suite. Importantaspects are an easy installation of the system and the ability to make changes in order to build acommunity of users and developers.

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• Users at the enterprise level: Hardware Administrators, team administrators and virtual machineusers at large or small IT facilities.• Typically, hardware administrators can use the oVirt Server Suite User Interface to manage

thousands of Virtual Machines running on thousands of Host systems, often with complex userroles involved.

• Team administrators manage user quotas, permissions, and subgroups for team hardware,monitor physical hosts, maintain available team VMs, and install images/appliances.

• oVirt Server Suite User Interface users create, destroy, and generally use VMs available to themafter connecting to VMs from a browser interface.

4. Document ConventionsThis manual uses several conventions to highlight certain words and phrases and draw attention tospecific pieces of information.

In PDF and paper editions, this manual uses typefaces drawn from the Liberation Fonts1 set. TheLiberation Fonts set is also used in HTML editions if the set is installed on your system. If not,alternative but equivalent typefaces are displayed. Note: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and later includesthe Liberation Fonts set by default.

4.1. Typographic ConventionsFour typographic conventions are used to call attention to specific words and phrases. Theseconventions, and the circumstances they apply to, are as follows.

Mono-spaced Bold

Used to highlight system input, including shell commands, file names and paths. Also used to highlightkey caps and key-combinations. For example:

To see the contents of the file my_next_bestselling_novel in your currentworking directory, enter the cat my_next_bestselling_novel command at theshell prompt and press Enter to execute the command.

The above includes a file name, a shell command and a key cap, all presented in Mono-spaced Boldand all distinguishable thanks to context.

Key-combinations can be distinguished from key caps by the hyphen connecting each part of a key-combination. For example:

Press Enter to execute the command.

Press Ctrl+Alt+F1 to switch to the first virtual terminal. Press Ctrl+Alt+F7 toreturn to your X-Windows session.

The first sentence highlights the particular key cap to press. The second highlights two sets of threekey caps, each set pressed simultaneously.

If source code is discussed, class names, methods, functions, variable names and returned valuesmentioned within a paragraph will be presented as above, in Mono-spaced Bold. For example:

1 https://fedorahosted.org/liberation-fonts/

https://fedorahosted.org/liberation-fonts/

https://fedorahosted.org/liberation-fonts/

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File-related classes include filesystem for file systems, file for files, and dir fordirectories. Each class has its own associated set of permissions.

Proportional Bold

This denotes words or phrases encountered on a system, including application names; dialoguebox text; labelled buttons; check-box and radio button labels; menu titles and sub-menu titles. Forexample:

Choose System > Preferences > Mouse from the main menu bar to launch MousePreferences. In the Buttons tab, click the Left-handed mouse check box and clickClose to switch the primary mouse button from the left to the right (making the mousesuitable for use in the left hand).

To insert a special character into a gedit file, choose Applications > Accessories> Character Map from the main menu bar. Next, choose Search > Find… from theCharacter Map menu bar, type the name of the character in the Search field andclick Next. The character you sought will be highlighted in the Character Table.Double-click this highlighted character to place it in the Text to copy field and thenclick the Copy button. Now switch back to your document and choose Edit > Pastefrom the gedit menu bar.

The above text includes application names; system-wide menu names and items; application-specificmenu names; and buttons and text found within a GUI interface, all presented in Proportional Bold andall distinguishable by context.

Note the > shorthand used to indicate traversal through a menu and its sub-menus. This is to avoidthe difficult-to-follow 'Select Mouse from the Preferences sub-menu in the System menu of the mainmenu bar' approach.

Mono-spaced Bold Italic or Proportional Bold Italic

Whether Mono-spaced Bold or Proportional Bold, the addition of Italics indicates replaceable orvariable text. Italics denotes text you do not input literally or displayed text that changes depending oncircumstance. For example:

To connect to a remote machine using ssh, type ssh [email protected] ata shell prompt. If the remote machine is example.com and your username on thatmachine is john, type ssh [email protected].

The mount -o remount file-system command remounts the named filesystem. For example, to remount the /home file system, the command is mount -oremount /home.

To see the version of a currently installed package, use the rpm -q packagecommand. It will return a result as follows: package-version-release.

Note the words in bold italics above — username, domain.name, file-system, package, version andrelease. Each word is a placeholder, either for text you enter when issuing a command or for textdisplayed by the system.

Aside from standard usage for presenting the title of a work, italics denotes the first use of a new andimportant term. For example:

When the Apache HTTP Server accepts requests, it dispatches child processesor threads to handle them. This group of child processes or threads is known as

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a server-pool. Under Apache HTTP Server 2.0, the responsibility for creating andmaintaining these server-pools has been abstracted to a group of modules calledMulti-Processing Modules (MPMs). Unlike other modules, only one module from theMPM group can be loaded by the Apache HTTP Server.

4.2. Pull-quote ConventionsTwo, commonly multi-line, data types are set off visually from the surrounding text.

Output sent to a terminal is set in Mono-spaced Roman and presented thus:

books Desktop documentation drafts mss photos stuff svnbooks_tests Desktop1 downloads images notes scripts svgs

Source-code listings are also set in Mono-spaced Roman but are presented and highlighted asfollows:

package org.jboss.book.jca.ex1;

import javax.naming.InitialContext;

public class ExClient{ public static void main(String args[]) throws Exception { InitialContext iniCtx = new InitialContext(); Object ref = iniCtx.lookup("EchoBean"); EchoHome home = (EchoHome) ref; Echo echo = home.create();

System.out.println("Created Echo");

System.out.println("Echo.echo('Hello') = " + echo.echo("Hello")); } }

4.3. Notes and WarningsFinally, we use three visual styles to draw attention to information that might otherwise be overlooked.

NoteA note is a tip or shortcut or alternative approach to the task at hand. Ignoring a noteshould have no negative consequences, but you might miss out on a trick that makesyour life easier.

We Need Feedback!

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ImportantImportant boxes detail things that are easily missed: configuration changes that onlyapply to the current session, or services that need restarting before an update willapply. Ignoring Important boxes won't cause data loss but may cause irritation andfrustration.

WarningA Warning should not be ignored. Ignoring warnings will most likely cause data loss.

5. We Need Feedback!If you find a typographical error in this manual, or if you have thought of a way to make this manualbetter, we would love to hear from you! Please submit a report in Bugzilla: http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/ against the product oVirt Server Suite.

When submitting a bug report, be sure to mention the manual's identifier:Using_the_oVirt_Server_Suite_User_Interface

If you have a suggestion for improving the documentation, try to be as specific as possible whendescribing it. If you have found an error, please include the section number and some of thesurrounding text so we can find it easily.

http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/

http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/

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Chapter 1.

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IntroductionoVirt is the next step in Red Hat's Virtualization platform for any application, anywhere, anytimebecause it provides a simple yet powerful way to manage virtual machines. With the enormousflexibility and choice that the Red Hat Virtualization platform affords, you need an easy, visual way ofmanaging virtual machines (VMs) that could be running thousands of software applications, deployedin a myriad ways, using different operating systems and hardware platforms.

From running a few VMs on a single host to managing thousands of VMs over hundreds of hosts on anetwork, oVirt makes virtualization easy and scales to meet your needs. Manage and administer oVirtwith the oVirt Server Suite User Interface (also called the oVirt UI) that runs on any platform with aweb browser that can authenticate with a kerberos server.

1.1. OverviewoVirt allows centralized management of your computing environment, reducing the costs ofmanagement of the infrastructure and allowing people to focus on their core tasks instead of theinfrastructure itself.

Chapter 1. Introduction

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The oVirt host image is a small, stateless Fedora build that can run from a flash drive, a CDROM,or entirely in RAM via PXE. It enables users to manipulate virtual machines, provides a secureauthenticated channel (GSSAPI/SASL2) for remote access and allows easy management andallocation of storage. oVirt has several components:• A host browser and status update daemon that keeps the oVirt database in sync with the available

hosts and virtual machines on the network, updating the oVirst database when new hosts appear,old hosts disappear, and VMs change their status;

• A task engine that reads a task queue from the oVirt database and makes appropriate libvirt calls,updating the database on the success or failure of those tasks;

• A monitoring agent that receives performance data from oVirt hosts and stores it for display in theuser interface;

• An appliance that allows users to manage virtual machines, view usage and performance, managehosts and storage servers, manage user permissions, and perform many other management tasks.

1.2. PrerequisitesTo use the oVirt Server Suite, the following is required:

• An oVirt host image. On boot (via cdrom, flash drive, or PXE), the host image loads its keytab andkerberos configuration from the oVirt management application or from local storage and announcesitself.

• A kerberos/LDAP server for authentication and authorization (oVirt ships with FreeIPA).

• A database for storing oVirt data. oVirt comes bundled with Postgres. Future releases will supportadditional databases.

• DNS/DHCP services on the local LAN. If not available, oVirt can provide them for oVirt hosts over aprivate network if desired.

• Network attached storage (NFS, iSCSI or Fibre Channel) for hosting oVirt Guests running on anymachine reachable from the oVirt host. The oVirt host will automatically make the storage targets onthe iSCSI server it is configured for available for oVirt guest installs.

1.3. Types of UsersUnderstanding what kind of user you are will help you to quickly identify the features of oVirt that areof the most benefit to you, and the sections where you can find this information. There are two kindsof users, developers and users. Users can range from individuals, to small businesses or labs toenterprise large-scale deployments.

1.3.1. Open Source DevelopersRed Hat supports open source developers and so we'd like ourselves and others to be able to usethe oVirt system easily and effectively. Follow the instructions in Read Installing oVirt to quicklyget a development system up and running. Once a system is up and running you can use the oVirtmanagement interface to create new Virtual Machines to run on the managed node.

Users

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1.3.2. UsersMedium to large scale enterprises who need to manage large numbers of virtual machines andphysical hosts need a system that scales to their usage. oVirt is designed to scale from a smallnumber of virtual machines and hosts to thousands of virtual machines and hosts. There are threedifferent types of users in the enterprise:

• Hardware Administrators

• Rack physical hosts and provision them with the oVirt managed node image

• Create Virtual Pools for teams and assign hosts and storage to teams of users

• Group hosts and storage in physical networks

• Connect network attached storage (iSCSI, NFS)

• Manage top-level user group membership

• View usage and loading of resources, prepare hosts for downtime by migrating VMs

• Team administrators

• Manage user quotas, permissions, and subgroups for team hardware

• Monitor physical hosts for resource issues, bottlenecks

• Maintain available team VM install images/appliances

• Define SLA for team hardware, in terms of: CPU availability; memory usage; network bandwidth

• oVirt Users

• Connect to VMs from the browser interface with a console plug-in

• Create, destroy, pause, resume, save, restore VMs on a team hardware collection

• Configure VMs as virtual clusters

• View current and historic performance information for VMs to determine SLA needs

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Chapter 2.

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Quick StartThis section is intended for users who wish to start using oVirt quickly. While it is recommended thatyou read the entire document, this section briefly describes how to apply oVirt's functionality to typicalvirtualization tasks. This section provides examples of how you can use oVirt to set up a number ofnodes and how to set up a team environment.

Note:It is assumed that you have oVirt installed and setup as described in the Installationguide, or on the website.

A Sample ScenariooVirt enables a development team to access hardware, storage and virtual machines for a new projectin a quick, efficient and balanced way. A development team requires hardware resources, storage anda number of virtual machines to proceed with their project. In this exercise, the hardware administratorsets up the hardware resources, the team administrator assigns user permissions, and the developerscan define, start or stop the VMs.

The scenario is as follows, given physical hosts and adequate networked storage:

• Create a hardware pool for a team.

• In the hardware pool, make a set of Virtual machines with appropriate resource allocations andlimits for three developers working on a project.

• Assign the developers appropriate permissions to use and manage their VMs.

2.1. Add Hosts to a Hardware PoolA hardware pool consists of fake or hardware oVirt nodes. Nodes are automatically added to thehardware pool when they first bootup. If your nodes have not yet been booted up, from a commandshell, if you are on a development version run:

# virsh start node3

on your host machine to start your first fake oVirt node. If you are using a production version, withphysical machines, boot up your first piece of physical hardware, and make sure it PXE boots as anoVirt node. Once your first piece of hardware (either virtual or physical) is booted:

1. Click on the default hardware pool in the Resource Pools Navigator on the right hand side of theoVirt User Interface. The Contents pane and the Hardware resource menu display on the right-hand side of the page.

2. Click on the Hosts tab in the Hardware Resource Menu.

3. The Hosts page appears in the Contents pane and displays the hosts that you just booted. Thismeans that you have successfully registered at least one piece of hardware with oVirt.

Chapter 2. Quick Start

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2.2. Add Storage to a Hardware PoolThe hardware pool requires storage. You can setup iSCSI or NFS storage. If you are using thedeveloper version, storage is exported from the appliance. You can also add your own NFS or iSCSIstorage. Assuming that you have set up hosts as described in the previous section, the defaulthardware pool in the Resource Pools Navigator is selected. The Contents page and the Hardwareresource menu displays on the right-hand side of the page, the hosts display on the page.

1. Click on the Storage tab in the Hardware Resource Menu.

2. The Storage page appears in the Contents pane. If this is the first time you are setting up Storage,a message on the page prompts you to add the first storage volume to the hardware pool.

Create a Virtual Machine Pool

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3. Click the message on the page, or Add Storage Server. The Add Storage Pool dialog boxdisplays. For purposes of this exercise, use the storage exported by the appliance. Enter thefollowing:

• Storage Type - iSCSI

• IP Address - 192.168.50.2

• Port - 3260

• Target - ovirtpriv:storage

4. The storage volume appears in the Contents pane. This storage server can now be usedanywhere in the oVirt system.

2.3. Create a Virtual Machine PoolIn the previous steps we added hosts and storage to the default hardware pool. The next step is tocreate a Virtual Machine Pool within the default hardware pool. Virtual machines can only be createdwithin a virtual machine pool. Assuming that you have set up hosts and storage as described inthe previous sections, the default hardware pool in the Resource Pools Navigator is selected. TheContents page and the Hardware resource menu displays on the right-hand side of the page, theStorage volumes display on the page.

1. Click Virtual Machine Pools on the menu.


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2. The Virtual Machine page appears in the Contents pane. If this is the first time you are setting upvirtual machine pools, a message on the page prompts you to add the first virtual machine pool tothe hardware pool.

3. Click the message on the page, or New Machine Pool. The Add New Virtual Machine Pooldialog box displays. Enter a name for the virtual machine pool. For example, in this exercise thename of the virtual machine pool is "switch".

4. The new virtual machine pool, "switch" displays on the Virtual Machine Pool page and in theNavigator pane.

2.4. Create Virtual MachinesIn the previous steps we added hosts, storage and a virtual machine pool to the default hardware pool.The next step is to create a Virtual Machines within the Virtual Machine Pool created in the previoussection. Virtual machines can only be created within a virtual machine pool. Assuming that you have

Create Virtual Machines

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set up hosts, storage and the "switch" virtual machine pool as described in the previous sections,the default hardware pool in the Resource Pools Navigator is selected. The Contents page and theHardware resource menu displays on the right-hand side of the page, the Virtual Machine Pools pagedisplays on the page.

1. Select the virtual machine pool, switch, from the Navigator Pane. The Virtual Machine Pool menuand page displays in the Content pane.

2. Click Virtual Machine on the menu.

3. The Virtual Machine Summary page appears in the Contents pane.

4. Click Virtual Machines on the menu. The Virtual Machines menu displays. If this is the first timeyou are setting up virtual machines, a message on the page prompts you to add the first virtualmachine to the resource pool.

5. Click the message on the page, or Add Virtual Machine. The Add Virtual Machine dialog boxdisplays.


10

Enter the following for the virtual machine pool.

• Name - the name of the virtual machine.

• Operating System - choose from the list, for example Fedora 9 or windows-xp

• CPUs - assign the number of CPUs for this virtual machine

• Memory - assign how much memory can be used.

• Storage - Select the storage server on which the guest is to be installed.

• VNIC - leave the default, or change if required.

• UUID - Accept the default, or change if required.

6. Click Start VM now? to start the virtual machine immediately.

7. Click Add Virtual Machine.

8. The new virtual machine is created and displays on the Virtual Machine page.

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2.5. Assign User PermissionsIn the previous steps we added hosts, storage, a virtual machine pool and virtual machines. The finalstep is to assign user permissions. User permissions can be assigned at any level, in this example,we will specify which users can use the virtual machine pool "switch". Assuming that you have set uphosts, storage, the "switch" virtual machine pool and added the virtual machine "RHEL" as describedin the previous sections, the switch virtual machine pool is selected in the Resource Pools Navigator.The Contents page and the Hardware resource menu displays on the right-hand side of the page, theVirtual Machines page displays on the page.

1. Select the virtual machine pool, switch, from the Navigator Pane. The Virtual Machine Pool menuand page displays in the Content pane.

2. Click User Access on the menu.

3. The User Access page appears in the Contents pane.

4. Click Add User on the menu. The Add New User dialog box displays.

5. Select the Role for the user.

• Administrator

• Super Admin

• User

• Monitor

6. Select the user from the list of LDAP Users.


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7. Click Create User Permission.

8. The user permissions are created and display on the Virtual Machine page.

Chapter 3.

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Getting StartedThis section enables you to start using the oVirt Server Suite User Interface. The oVirt Server SuiteUser Interface provides a graphical interface that enables you to easily manage hosts, storage, userpermissions and virtual machines. The parts of the interface and how they work together are describedin this section. The user interface allows you to see your virtualized systems at a glance, providingimmediate information on loads, performance and usage.

3.1. Logging onoVirt is seamlessly integrated into the default single-sign-on system such as kerberos or a certificatemanagement system. There is no need to log in and out of the oVirt User Interface. The httpusername/password authentication is provided in case a proper single-sign-on system is not in place.

For example, if Kerberos is the single sign-on system, log in using the kinit command:

kinit [email protected]

Enter the password when prompted.

Note:In the developer installation this is not necessary because the developer appliancemaintains a continuous kerberos ticket for the default user, ovirtadmin.

In the production installation, log in as ovirtadmin. This effects a login as the superuser.

3.2. Understanding the User InterfaceThe user interface enables you to control large (or small) numbers of managed nodes, create anduse virtual machines, and manage users. It provides a number of views, including a high level view ofa number of resources, or a detailed view of a single resource. In both instances you can both viewthe information, and make changes to the individual components. This enables you to optimise theperformance of your virtualized system, correct any potential problems and set up provisions for futureexpansion.

3.2.1. About the InterfaceThe oVirt Server Suite User Interface consists of the following components:

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• The Resource Navigator on the left-hand side of the page. Use the Resource Navigator to locateindividual nodes in the system. The Resource Navigator contains:

• A browser tree consisting of hardware and virtual machine pools.

• A toolbar with buttons to Add or Delete Resources.

• The Content Pane on the right-hand side of the page displays rich contextual information thatenables you to manage, monitor and view the virtualized system at a glance The Content Panedisplays the contents of a resource pool, and menus and toolbars that enable you to manage theresources. In some instances, there may also be descriptions and graphics that add meaning to thelists. It contains:

• A menu bar across the top of the page that contains from left to right:

• The Product Name

• Contextual Menu Options.

• Search

• Online Help

• The main Content pane displays information about the selected resource or resource pool. TheContents pane may contain lists, descriptions or graphic information, check boxes, action buttonsand tabs depending on the context.

• The Detail pane is the lower part of the content pane. The Detail pane displays information aboutthe selected item in the main content pane. You can also edit properties of the resource selectedin the Content Pane directly from the Detail pane.

Using the Navigator

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3.2.2. Using the NavigatorThe Navigator enables you to locate resources (that is, hardware pools, virtual machine pools andsmart pools), displaying the resources as nodes in their existing context. You can also use theNavigator to add or delete pools.

The Navigator displays the hardware and virtual resources in a hierarchy. Hardware and Pools canhave several levels of hardware and virtual machine subpools. Smart Pools are listed in a separatepane above the toolbar. To view sub-pools, click the Expand button on the parent pool.

Hardware Pools display as follows in the hierarchy:

Virtual Machine Pools nodes display as follows in the hierarchy:

Smart Pools display as follows in the hierarchy:

To navigate to a resource:

1. Click on the Hardware Pool in the navigator. The Summary page and the Hardware resourcemenu display in the Content Pane.

2. Click on the Expand icon to display the virtual machine pools, or hardware sub-pools attached tothe hardware resource.

3. Click on a Virtual Machine Pool in the Navigator. The Summary page and the Virtual Machinesmenu display in the Content Pane.

4. Click on a Smart Machine Pool in the Navigator. The Summary page and the Smart Pools menudisplay in the Content Pane.

To manage resources from the Navigator, use the Navigator menu at the bottom of the panel.

From left to right the buttons are:• Add Hardware Pool

• Add Virtual Pool

• Add Smart Pool

• Delete Selected Pool

Navigate to the appropriate hardware pool on the browser tree:

• To add a hardware pool or sub-pool, click the Add Hardware button. The new hardware pooldisplays in the Navigator.

Chapter 3. Getting Started

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• To add a virtual machine pool, click the Add Virtual Machine Pool button. The new Virtual Machinepool displays below the selected node.

• To add a smart pool, click the Add Smart Pool button. The new Smart pool displays below theselected node.

• To delete a pool, click the Delete Selected Pool button. The selected pool is removed from thebrowser tree.

3.2.3. Using the Content and Detail PanesThe Content Pane on the right-hand side of the oVirt Server Suite User Interface displays informationon resources or resource collections, and enables management of the resources by means of menus,toolbars and buttons. It displays information and menus appropriate to the pool selected in theNavigator. For example:• If a hardware pool is selected in the Navigator, the Hardware Resources Menu and toolbar display

in the Contents Pane.

• If a virtual machine pool is selected in the Navigator, the Virtual Machines Pool menu and toolbardisplay in the Contents Pane.

• If a smart pool is selected in the Navigator, the Smart Pools Menu and toolbar display in theContents Pane.

The Details pane on the lower part of the Content pane displays details on the item selected in theContent pane. There are also links that enable you to edit resources directly from the Details pane. Forexample, you can edit the name or the quota for hardware, virtual or smart pools using the Edit or EditDefault Quota icons on the Details pane.

3.2.3.1. The Menubar and ToolbarThe menubar and toolbar appear across the top of the Content Pane. The menus available are:

• Hardware Resource menu and toolbar

• Virtual Resource menu and toolbar

• Smart Pool menu and toolbar

Using Online Help

17

These menus are described fully in the following sections.

3.3. Using Online HelpOnline help can be accessed from the oVirt Server Suite User Interface. Click the Help button on thetop right hand corner of the page.

3.4. Using SearchUse Search to quickly find hardware or virtual resources. Search can be accessed from the oVirtServer Suite User Interface. Enter the search term in the Search text box and click the Search icon onthe top right hand corner of the page. oVirt finds the existing resource and displays it on the Contentpane.

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Chapter 4.

19

Managing Hardware ResourcesThis section describes how to set up and manage hardware resources. In a typical data center, ahardware administrator would need to:

• Create Hardware Pools

• Create Virtual Pools for teams and assign hosts and storage to teams of users

• Group hosts and storage in physical networks

• Connect network attached storage (iSCSI, NFS)

• Manage top-level user group membership

• View usage and loading of resources, prepare hosts for downtime by migrating VMs

Setting up, managing and monitoring the hardware resources is the key role of a hardwareadministrator. While this can be a complex task in any environment, it can become even morecomplex in a data centre with virtualized servers, hosts and storage. However, oVirt's Server SuiteUser Interface enables hardware administrators to manage a virtualized system efficiently.

4.1. Logging in as the Hardware AdministratorBefore you can manage any hardware resources, you must be logged in to the system as theadministrator. This gives you the requisite privileges.

1. kinit as the kerberos admin user. (If you are using the developer installation, the password is"ovirtadmin").

2. Browse to oVirt Server Suite User Interface page.

3. The main page displays, with a summary of resources and lists of hardware pools, hosts andstorage servers. On the left hand side of the page is the Navigator panel. Click the expand buttonon the default hardware pool. The resources display in a tree browser. On the right hand side isthe Content Pane where details of the selected node and contextual menus display.

Chapter 4. Managing Hardware Resources

20

4. Use the Navigator panel to navigate to a resource pool. You can also use the Navigator menu toadd or delete resources.

4.2. Viewing Hardware ResourcesThe oVirt Server Suite User Interface page provides an overview of the resources, their availability,and current levels of load of the entire system, or any part of it, depending on your selection of nodesin the Navigator panel.

To view a summary of a specific hardware pool:

1. Use the Navigator panel to select the required hardware pool node.

2. Click the pool name and the Summary Page displays on the Contents Pane.

3. The number of CPUs, amounts of used and available memory, storage and virtual resourcesappear in both a graphical and list form. Information on the history, performance and networktraffic is also displayed.

4. To view information on the physical host machines in this hardware resource pool, click Hosts onthe menu bar. The Hosts page displays the list of hosts in the resource pool.

5. To view information on the storage in this hardware resource pool, click Storage on the menu bar.The Storage page displays the list of storage servers in the resource pool.

Viewing Hardware Resource Details

21

6. The Details Pane at the bottom of the Contents page displays details of the selected resource.

4.2.1. Viewing Hardware Resource DetailsTo view details of a hardware resource:

1. Use the Navigator panel to select the required hardware pool node.

2. Click the pool name and the Summary Page displays on the Contents pane and the Details paneacross the lower part of the pane.

3. The Details pane shows the default quota of the hardware resource. It also contains the Edit, EditDefault Quota and Delete Default Quotabuttons.• The number of CPUs

• Memory - amounts of used and available Memory

• NICs - number of network connections in the resource

• VMs - number of virtual machines running in this resource

• Disk - the amount of storage - in gigabytes.

4. You can review the information and choose to change details of the resource in the Details pane.

4.2.2. Managing Hardware Resource QuotasUse the Details Pane on the Contents page to set up, change or remove quotas for resources.

Use the Navigator panel to select the required hardware pool node. Click the pool name and theSummary Page displays on the Contents Pane. The Details pane shows the default quota of thehardware resource.

It also contains the Edit, Edit Default Quota and Remove Default Quota buttons. The RemoveDefault Quota does not appear if no quotas have been set up.

To change hardware resource details from the Details Pane:


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1. Click Edit to change the name of the resource. The Edit Hardware Pool dialog box displays.

2. Enter the new Name for the resource and click the Edit Hardware Pool button.

3. The Edit Hardware Pool dialog box closes, a message appears confirming the change, and thechanged name displays in the Content and Navigator panes.

To add or change hardware resource quota from the Details Pane:

1. Click Edit Quota to change the name of the resource. The Edit Quota dialog box displays. If thisis the first time that the quota is being set, this dialog box displays as the Add New Quota dialogbox.

2. Enter the new Total Virtual CPUs permitted for the resource.

3. Enter the new Total Memory (MB) permitted for the resource.

4. Enter the new Total Virtual NICs permitted for the resource.

5. Enter the new Total VMs permitted for the resource.

6. Enter the new Total Storage (GB) permitted for the resource.

7. Click the Edit Quota (or Add Quota) button.

8. The Edit Quota dialog box closes, a message appears confirming the change, and the changedquota displays in the Details Pane..

4.3. Creating and Deleting Hardware PoolsCreating and deleting Hardware Pools is a simple task using oVirt's Administration User Interface.

4.3.1. Creating Hardware PoolsCreating a hardware pool in which the virtual machines can run in an optimal fashion is crucial forsystem performance. For example, the hardware administrator might need to create a VM ResourcePool out of 5 physical nodes and a set of iSCSI targets. The resource pool would contain a combinedtotal of 10 processors, 20GB RAM, 100GB storage. The hardware administrator then assigns 3 usersto this resource pool and assigns constraints on those users, for example; Each user may use 3VCPUs, 30GB storage and 6GB RAM. However, the first step is to create the Hardware Pools.

To do this you need to know the following:

• The number of hosts required

• The number of processors required

• The amount of storage required

• The amount of RAM required

• The permissions and privileges of the users

Creating Hardware Pools

23

To create a hardware resource pool from the Navigator Panel1. Use the Navigator panel to select the required hardware pool node. The Summary page and the

Hardware Pool menu displays.

2. The Navigator toolbar appears at the bottom on the panel.

Click Add Hardware Pool. The Add Hardware Pool dialog box displays.

3. Enter the name of the new resource pool and click the Create Hardware Pool button. A messageindicates that the hardware pool was successfully created. Click OK.


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Note:You must enter a name for the new hardware pool. oVirt validates the name fieldand prompts you to enter a name before the resource pool is created.

4. You can now add hosts, storage, virtual machines and users to the new hardware pool. Click theappropriate option on the menubar. Adding hosts, storage and virtual machines is described laterin this section.

Hardware Pool NamesNames can be any combination of alphanumeric characters, spaces and special characters. Validname lengths are 1-256 characters. It is recommended that you use meaningful names for theresource pools.

4.3.2. Deleting Hardware PoolsFrom time to time you will need to remove hardware pools; for example, a project no longer requires aparticular hardware pool, or you need to optimise performance of the data center. Hardware Pools areremoved from the Navigator panel.

To do this you need to ensure the following:

• There are no virtual machines in any sub-pools.

• There are no virtual machine pools and virtual machine sub-pools in the pool or sub-pools.

• There are no hardware resource sub-pools.

To delete a resource pool:1. Use the Navigator panel to select the required hardware pool or sub-pool node. The Summary

page and the Hardware Pool menu displays.

Adding and Removing Physical Hosts

25

2. The Navigator toolbar appears at the bottom on the panel.

Click the last icon on the toolbar, Delete Selected Pool. A message appears prompting you toconfirm that you wish to delete the selected resource. Click OK.

3. The hardware pool is removed and no longer displays in the Navigator Panel.

NoteIf there are any sub-pools or virtual machines in any node beneath the resource pool,the resource pool will not be deleted.

4.4. Adding and Removing Physical HostsCreating and deleting hosts is a simple task using oVirt's Administration User Interface.

4.4.1. Adding Physical HostsAs the hardware administrator you will frequently need to add physical hosts to new or existingresource pools.


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To add a host to an existing hardware pool:1. Navigate to the hardware pool in the Navigator panel. The Summary page displays in the Content

pane, with the Hardware Resource menu.

2. Click Hosts from the Hardware Resource menu to view existing hosts. The Hosts toolbar displays.The Content pane lists any existing hosts.

The following information about the existing hosts displays:• Host Name - The name of the host

• UUID - The unique identifier of the host

• Hypervisor Type - the type of hypervisor

• CPUs - the number of processors in the host

• Speed - the speed of the processors

• Arch - the version of the processors

• RAM - the size of the memory, and the percentage currently in use

• Status - the availability of the host

• Load - the current load of the host

If there are no hosts for the selected resource, the content pane displays a message promptingyou to add the first host for the resource.

Removing Physical Hosts from a Hardware Pool

27

3. Click Add Host from the Hosts toolbar, (or click Add first host to this hardware pool if there areno existing hosts. The Add Host dialog box displays.

The Add Host dialog box displays the availability and usage statistics of the available hosts.

4. Select an available host. An available host is any host that the user has permissions on and doesnot have any VMs currently running on it.

5. Select the check box of the hosts that you wish to add to the hardware pool. At least one checkbox must be selected for the Add Host button to be enabled.

6. Click Add Host. The host displays on the Summary Page of the hardware pool.

7. To view all the hosts in the hardware pool, Click Hosts on the menubar. The new host displays inthe list of hosts on the Hosts Page of the hardware pool.

4.4.2. Removing Physical Hosts from a Hardware PoolAs the hardware administrator you will frequently need to remove physical hosts. Hosts are onlyremoved from the specific hardware pool, they remain available for allocation to other pools, or to thesame pool.

To remove a host from an existing hardware pool:1. Navigate to the hardware pool, click Hosts to view existing hosts.


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2. Select the check box of the host that you wish to delete.

3. From the Hosts toolbar, click Remove.

4. A message displays indicating that the host was successfully moved. Click OK.

5. To view all the hosts in the hardware pool, click Hosts on the menubar. The removed host doesnot display in the list of hosts on the Hosts Page of the hardware pool.

NoteThe host will still appear in the list of Hosts in the Add Hosts dialog box, and can beassigned to hardware pools as required.

4.5. Moving Hosts between Hardware PoolsThis process shows how to move hosts into new or existing Hardware Pools. For example, you mayneed to do this to balance the load, improve performance for particular applications, or if hosts arebeing replaced or retired.

4.5.1. Move Hosts to Existing Hardware PoolsTo move hosts to existing Hardware Pools:

1. Use the Navigator panel to select the required hardware pool node. The Summary page and theHardware Pool menu displays.

2. Click Hosts on the menu bar. The Hosts page displays the list of existing Hosts, and the Hoststoolbar displays.

3. On the Hosts page, select the check box of the hosts to be moved. If no hosts are selected, youwill be prompted to select at least one host before the Move Hosts dialog box displays.

4. Click Move menu on the Hosts toolbar. The Move Hosts dialog box appears.

Move Hosts to a New Hardware Pool

29

5. Navigate to the destination resource pool node in the Move Hosts dialog box.

6. Click the destination resource pool node in the Move Hosts dialog box.

7. The selected host is removed from the current hardware pool, and the dialog box closes.

8. To view the hosts in the destination hardware pool, click the destination host node in the Navigatorpanel. The Summary page for the destination host resource pool displays.

9. Click Hosts on the menu bar. The moved host displays in the list of hosts for the destinationhardware pool.

4.5.2. Move Hosts to a New Hardware PoolYou can use the Move Hosts dialog box to move hosts directly to a new hardware resource pool. Tomove hosts to a new hardware resource pool:

1. In the Navigator panel, select the required hardware pool node under which the new hardwareresource sub-pool is to be created. The Summary page and the Hardware Pool menu displays.

2. Click Hosts on the menu bar. The Hosts page displays the list of existing Hosts, and the Hoststoolbar displays.

3. On the Hosts page, select the check box of the hosts to be moved. If no hosts are selected, youwill be prompted to select at least one host before the Move Hosts dialog box displays.

4. Click Move menu on the Hosts toolbar. The Move Hosts dialog box displays.


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5. Click the Move to new Hardware Pool button in the Move Hosts dialog box. The Add NewHardware Pool dialog box displays.

6. Enter the name of the new resource pool and click the Create Hardware Pool button.


7. The new hardware resource pool is created under the selected resource, and the host is movedinto it.

8. To view the hosts in the destination hardware pool, click the destination host node in the Navigatorpanel. The Summary page for the destination host resource pool displays.

9. Click Hosts on the menubar. The moved host displays in the list of hosts on the Hosts Page of thedestination hardware pool.

Chapter 5.

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Managing Storage PoolsSetting up, managing and monitoring system storage is a vital role of a hardware administrator. Whilethis can be a complex task in any environment, it can become even more complex in a data centrewith virtualized storage. oVirt's Administration User Interface provides hardware administrators withtools to assign and manage virtualized storage effectively and efficiently. The oVirt User Interfaceallows you to add either existing or new storage pools to a hardware pool.

5.1. Adding Existing Storage to the Resource PoolThis process shows how to add an existing storage pool to an existing hardware pool using theStorage Tab. The Storage toolbar allows you to add a storage pool, create storage servers, moveservers and delete storage.

Note:You can also add storage servers from the Summary page.

1. In the Navigator panel, select the required hardware pool node. The Summary page and theHardware Pool menu display.

2. From the menu bar, click the Storage tab. The Storage page and toolbar display.

3. Click Add Storage Server from the toolbar. The Add Storage Pool dialog box displays.

Chapter 5. Managing Storage Pools

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The Add Storage Pool dialog box allows you to either add a new storage pool or import anexisting storage pool.

4. To add an existing storage pool, click the Import Existing Pools tab.

The Import Existing Pools on the Add Storage dialog box displays the alias, Existing hardwarepool, IP and Type of the available Storage Servers.

Creating New Storage Pools

33

5. Select the storage pools that you wish to add to the hardware pool. At least one storage pool mustbe selected for the Add Storage Pools button to be enabled.

6. Click Add Storage Pools. The storage pool displays on the Storage Page of the hardware pool.

5.2. Creating New Storage PoolsAs the hardware administrator you may be required to provide additional storage servers to the systemas more projects commence or grow to require more storage resources.

To create a storage pool:1. Use the Navigator panel to select the required hardware pool node.

2. Click the pool name and the Summary Page displays on the Contents Pane. The numbers andamounts of used and available memory, storage and virtual resources appear in both a graphicaland list form.

3. To see details on the storage in the pool, click Storage on the menu bar. The Storage page andtoolbar display.

4. Click Create Storage Server from the toolbar. The Add New Storage Pool dialog box displays.


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5. To add a new storage pool, ensure the Add New Pool tab is selected.

Enter the following information on the new storage pool:• Type - the type of storage, either iSCSI or NFS

• IP - The IP address of the storage pool

• Port - The port of the storage pool

• Target - the name of the target drive

NoteIt is mandatory to provide details for each of the above fields.

6. Click the New Storage Pool. The new storage pool displays on the Storage Page of the hardwarepool.

5.3. Moving Storage Servers between Hardware PoolsThis process shows how to move storage servers into new or existing Hardware Pools. For example,you may need to do this to balance the load, improve performance for particular applications, or ifstorage servers are being replaced or retired.

5.3.1. Move Storage Servers to Existing Hardware PoolsTo move storage to existing Hardware Pools:

1. Use the Navigator panel to select the required hardware pool node. The Summary page and theHardware Pool menu display.

2. Click Storage on the menu bar. The Storage page displays the list of existing Storage Servers,and the Storage toolbar displays.

3. On the Storage page, select the check box of the storage servers to be moved. If no storageservers are selected, you will be prompted to select at least one storage pool before the MoveStorage dialog box displays.

4. Click Move on the Storage toolbar. The Move Storage dialog box displays.

5. Select the destination resource pool node in the Move Storage dialog box.

Move Storage Servers to a New Hardware Pool

35

6. The selected storage pool is removed from the current hardware pool, and the dialog box closes.

7. To view the storage pool in the destination hardware pool, click the destination host node in theNavigator panel. The Summary page for the destination host resource pool displays.

8. Click Storage on the menu bar. The moved storage pool displays in the list of storage servers forthe destination hardware pool.

5.3.2. Move Storage Servers to a New Hardware PoolYou can also move a storage pool directly to a new hardware resource sub-pool. To move a storagepool to a new hardware resource sub-pool:

1. In the Navigator panel, select the required hardware pool node. The Summary page and theHardware Pool menu displays.

2. Click Storage on the menu bar. The Storage page displays the list of existing storage servers, andthe Storage toolbar displays.

3. On the Storage page, select the check box of the storage pool to be moved. If no storage poolare selected, you will be prompted to select at least one host before the Move Storage dialog boxdisplays.

4. Click Move menu on the Storage toolbar. The Move Storage dialog box displays.

5. Click the Move to New Hardware Pool button in the Move Storage dialog box. The Add NewHardware Pool dialog box displays.


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6. Enter the name of the new resource pool and click the Create Hardware Pool button. A messageindicates that the new resource pool has been successfully created. Click OK.


7. The selected storage pool is removed from the resource pool, and the dialog box closes.

8. To view the storage pool in the destination hardware pool, click the destination host node in theNavigator panel. The Summary page for the destination host resource pool displays.

9. Click Storage on the menu bar. The moved storage pool displays in the list on the Storage pageof the destination hardware pool.

5.4. Removing Storage ServersThis section describes how to remove storage servers. For example, you may need to do this ifstorage servers are being replaced or retired. There are two ways to do this, you can choose toremove a storage pool from a particular hardware pool, or you may choose to delete it altogether.

5.4.1. Removing Storage Servers from a Hardware PoolStorage servers that are merely removed from a hardware pool remain available to be reassignedlater, or assigned to other hardware pools. After removal they will still appear in the lists of assigned orunassigned storage servers, for example in the Add storage pool dialog box.

To remove a storage pool from a hardware pool:



3. On the Storage page, select the check box of the storage pools to be removed. If no storage poolsare selected, you will be prompted to select at least one storage pool when you click Remove.

4. Click Remove on the Storage toolbar. The Remove Storage Pool dialog displays.

Removing Storage Servers from a Hardware Pool

37

5. Select the Remove this Storage Pool..(moving it to default) option and click the RemoveStorage Pool button. The Storage pool is removed from the hardware resource, however it is stillavailable for use.

6. Click Storage on the menu bar. The removed storage pool no longer displays in the list of storageservers for the hardware pool.

7. Navigate to the default hardware resource pool. Click Storage on the menu bar. The removedstorage pool displays in the default pool.


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NoteTo check if the storage pool is still available, use the Add Storage Server button onthe Storage toolbar. Refer Section 5.1, “Adding Existing Storage to the Resource Pool”.

5.4.2. Deleting Storage Servers from oVirtStorage servers that are deleted from a hardware pool are also deleted from the system. After deletionthey will no longer display in the lists of storage servers, for example in the Add Storage Pool dialogbox.

To delete a storage pool from a hardware pool:



Deleting Storage Servers from oVirt

39

3. On the Storage page, select the storage pool to be deleted. If no storage pools are selected, youwill be prompted to select at least one storage pool when you click Delete.

4. Click Remove on the Storage toolbar. The Remove Storage Pool dialog displays.

5. Select the Delete this Storage pool (making its storage volumes unavailable) option and clickthe Remove Storage Pool button. The Storage pool is permanently removed from the system.

6. Click Storage on the menu bar. The deleted storage pool no longer displays in the list of storageservers for the hardware pool.

NoteTo check that the deleted storage pool is no longer available, use the Add StorageServer button on the Storage toolbar. Refer Section 5.1, “Adding Existing Storage tothe Resource Pool”.

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Chapter 6.

41

Managing Virtual ResourcesManaging virtual resources is a simple task using oVirt's Server Suite User Interface. Virtual resourcesinclude virtual pools and virtual machines. Virtual machines run inside the Virtual Machine Pools.This section describes how to view, set up and manage virtual resources. Typically, hardwareadministrators or team administrators set up the virtual resources, users start and manage the virtualmachines required for their work.

6.1. Working with Virtual Machine PoolsVirtual Machines reside in virtual pools. While users can use and manage virtual machines accordingto their needs, team administrators would typically set up the virtual pools. Virtual pools are set upwithin a hardware resource pool, and once created cannot be moved to another hardware resourcepool. It is therefore important to ensure that you have adequate hardware resources for the VirtualMachine Pool when you initially set it up.

6.1.1. Viewing Virtual Machine PoolsThe oVirt Server Suite User Interface provides an overview of the resources, their availability, andcurrent levels of load of the entire system. You can view virtual resources from the hardware resourcepool, or from within a virtual machines resource pool.

To view a list of Virtual Machine Pools in a hardware resource:1. Use the Navigator panel to select the hardware resource node. The Summary page and the

Hardware resource menu displays.

2. Click Virtual Machine Pools from the hardware resource menu.

3. A list of existing virtual machine pools and the load level of each pool displays in the content pane.

4. For more information on a specific virtual machine pool, select the pool in the list. The followingitems display in the Details pane, including details on usage, availability and total quota amountsallowed.

• CPU

• Memory

• NICs

• (Number of)Virtual Machines

• Disk(Storage)

To view the resources of a specific Virtual Machine Pool from the Navigator panel:1. Use the Navigator panel to select the Virtual Machine Pool node within a hardware resource pool.

2. Click the pool name and the Summary Page displays on the Virtual Contents Pane.

Chapter 6. Managing Virtual Resources

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3. For more information on a specific virtual machine pool, select the pool in the list. The followingitems display in the Details pane, including details on usage, availability and total quota amountsallowed.

• CPU

• Memory

• NICs

• (Number of)Virtual Machines

• Disk(Storage)

4. To see details of the virtual machines, click Virtual Machines on the menu bar. The VirtualMachines page displays the Virtual Machine toolbar and the list of virtual machines, if any, in theresource pool.

5. You can use the Virtual Machine toolbar to add, delete and manage the virtual machines withinthe pool. Virtual machines are described in more detail later in this section.

To change the name of the virtual machine pool:1. Navigate to the required virtual machine pool and ensure that the Contents and Details pane

display.

2. Click Edit to change the name of the virtual machine pool. The Edit Virtual Machine Pool dialogbox displays.

3. Enter the new Name for the virtual machine pool and click the Edit Virtual Machine Pool button.

4. The Edit Virtual Machine Pool dialog box closes, a message appears confirming the change,and the changed name displays in the Content and Navigator panes.

Creating Virtual Machine Pools

43

6.1.2. Creating Virtual Machine PoolsCreating a Virtual Machine Pool in which the virtual machines can run in an optimal fashion iscrucial for system performance. For example, the hardware administrator might need to create a VMResource Pool out of 5 physical nodes and a set of iSCSI targets. Once the hardware resources areset up the next step is to create the Virtual Machine Pools.

To create a Virtual Machine Pool from the Navigator Panel:1. Use the Navigator panel to select the Hardware Resource Pool node within which to create the

Virtual Machine Pool. The Summary page and the Hardware Resource menu displays.

2. The Navigator toolbar appears at the bottom on the panel. Click Add Virtual Machine Pool. TheAdd New Virtual Machine Pool dialog box displays.

3. Enter the name of the new resource pool and click the Create Virtual Machine Pool button. Amessage indicates that the virtual machine resource pool was successfully created. Click OK.

Note:You must enter a name for the new Virtual Machine Resource Pool. oVirt validatesthe name field and prompts you to enter a name before the resource pool iscreated.

4. The Virtual Machine pool appears in the Navigator panel. Select the Virtual Machine pool. TheVirtual Resource menu displays in the content pane. The next step is to set up the quotas for theVirtual Machine Pool.

5. You can now add virtual machines and users to the new Virtual Machine Pool. Adding virtualmachines is described later in this section.

To create a Virtual Machine Pool from the Content Page:1. Use the Navigator panel to select the Hardware Resource Pool node within which to create the

Virtual Machine Pool. The Summary page and the Hardware Resource menu displays.

2. On the Hardware resource menu, click Add Virtual Machine Pools. The Virtual Machine Poolstoolbar appears on the Content Pane. Existing virtual machine pools display on the page.


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3. Click New Virtual Machine Pool. The Add New Virtual Machine Pool dialog box displays.

4. Enter the name of the new resource pool and click the Create Virtual Machine Pool button. Amessage indicates that the virtual machine resource pool was successfully created. Click OK.

Note:You must enter a name for the new Virtual Machine Resource Pool. oVirt validatesthe name field and prompts you to enter a name before the resource pool iscreated.

5. The Virtual Machine pool appears in the Navigator panel. Select the Virtual Machine pool. TheVirtual Resource menu displays in the content pane. The next step is to set up the quotas for theVirtual Machine Pool.

6. You can now add virtual machines and users to the new Virtual Machine Pool. Adding virtualmachines is described later in this section.

Virtual Machine Pool NamesNames can be any combination of alphanumeric characters, spaces and special characters. Validname lengths are 1-256 characters. It is recommended that you use meaningful names for theresource pools.

6.1.3. Managing Virtual Machine Pool QuotasA Virtual Machine Pool requires a quota of hardware resources to be assigned to it. Set up the quotadepending on the type and number of virtual machines that are to created within the Virtual Machinepool, and the actual availability of the physical resources. Quotas are managed from the Details pane,which can be accessed from the hardware resource pool or the virtual machine pool.

Managing Virtual Machine Pool Quotas

45

To allocate quotas from the hardware resource menu:1. Use the Navigator panel to select the required hardware pool node. On the Hardware Resource

menu, click Virtual Machine Pools. The Virtual Machine Pools toolbar appears on the ContentPane. Existing virtual machine pools display on the page.

2. Select the virtual machine pool and the Details pane for the resource pool displays. Use theDetails Pane on the Contents page to set up, change or remove quotas for resources.

The Details pane shows the default quota of the virtual machine pool.

It also contains the Edit, Edit Quota and Revert to Default Quota buttons. The Revert toDefault Quota does not appear if no quotas have been set up.

3. Click Edit Quota to allocate resources. The Edit Quota dialog box displays. If this is the first timethat the quota is being set, this dialog box displays as the Add New Quota dialog box.

4. Enter the new Total Virtual CPUs permitted for the virtual machine pool.

5. Enter the new Total Memory (MB) permitted for the virtual machine pool.

6. Enter the new Total Virtual NICs permitted for the virtual machine pool.

7. Enter the new Total VMs permitted to run in the virtual machine pool.

8. Enter the new Total Storage (GB) permitted for the virtual machine pool. Ensure that this memoryis actually available.


10. The Edit Quota dialog box closes, a message appears confirming the change, and the changedquota displays in the Details Pane.

To allocate quotas from the Navigator panel:1. Use the Navigator panel to select the required Virtual Machine Pool node. Information on the the

Virtual Machine Pool displays on the Content and Details pane.


46

The Details pane displays the default quota of the virtual machine pool.

It also contains the Edit, Edit Quota and Revert to Default Quota buttons. The Revert toDefault Quota does not appear if no quotas have been set up.

2. Click Edit Quota to allocate resources. The Edit Quota dialog box displays. If this is the first timethat the quota is being set, this dialog box displays as the Add New Quota dialog box.

3. Enter the new Total Virtual CPUs permitted for the virtual machine pool.

4. Enter the new Total Memory (MB) permitted for the virtual machine pool.

5. Enter the new Total Virtual NICs permitted for the virtual machine pool.

6. Enter the new Total VMs permitted to run in the virtual machine pool.

7. Enter the new Total Storage (GB) permitted for the virtual machine pool. Ensure that this memoryis actually available.


9. The Edit Quota dialog box closes, a message appears confirming the change, and the changedquota displays in the Details Pane.

6.1.4. Moving a Virtual Machine Pool to a Smart PoolUsers can choose to set up smart pools which are collections of the various resources. A smart poolis a collection of hardware and virtual resources that a user needs quick access to. You can move aVirtual Machine pool into a Smart Pool provided you have the requisite permissions.

To move a virtual machine pool into a smart pool:

1. Navigate to the appropriate hardware resource pool and select Virtual Machines Pool from theHardware Resource menu. The list of virtual machine pools displays on the Content pane.

2. Select the Virtual Machine pool to be moved. Ensure the check box is selected.

Deleting Virtual Machine Pools

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3. Click Add to Smart Pool on the toolbar. The list of existing smart pools that you have permissionsto displays.

4. Select the smart pool in the list.

The selected virtual machine pool is moved to the smart pool and the dialog box closes.

Note:The Virtual Machine pool will remain in the Hardware Resource pool. It is onlyvisible and accessible from the Smart Pool.

5. To view the storage pool in the smart pool, click the smart pool in the Navigator panel. TheSummary page for the smart pool displays.

6. Click Pools on the menu bar. The moved Virtual Machine pool displays in the list of pools.

6.1.5. Deleting Virtual Machine PoolsFrom time to time you will need to remove resource pools; for example, a project no longer requiresa particular Virtual Machine Pool, or you need to optimise performance of the data center. VirtualMachine Pools can be removed from the Navigator panel, or from the Virtual Machine Pools tab of theHardware Resource menu.

NoteYou can only remove a Virtual Machine Pool if there are no virtual machines in thepool.

To delete a resource pool from the Navigator panel:1. Use the Navigator panel to select the required Virtual Machine Pool node. The Summary page

and the Virtual Resource menu displays.

2. The Navigator toolbar appears at the bottom on the panel. Click Delete Selected Pool. Amessage appears prompting you to confirm that you wish to delete the selected resource. ClickOK.

3. The Virtual Machine Pool is removed and no longer displays in the Navigator Panel.

To delete a resource pool from the Contents pane:1. Use the Navigator panel to select the required hardware pool node. On the Hardware Resource

menu, click Virtual Machine Pools. The Virtual Machine Pools toolbar appears on the ContentPane. A list of existing virtual machine pools displays on the page.


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2. Select the virtual machine pool to be deleted, and ensure the check box is selected.

3. Click Delete on the Virtual Machine Pools tab. A message appears prompting you to confirm thatyou wish to delete the selected resource. Click OK.

4. The Virtual Machine Pool is removed and no longer displays in the Content Pane.

6.2. Working with Virtual MachinesVirtual machines are created within Virtual Machine Pools. oVirt Server Suite provides a graphicinterface for you to Start/Stop virtual machines, manage VM lifecycles using Hibernate/Suspend,define new Virtual machines, manage available storage (expand/shrink volumes) and monitor currentand previous performance information

6.2.1. Viewing Virtual MachinesNavigate to an existing Virtual Machine Pool and click the Virtual Machines tab to view, add ormanage virtual machines. The Virtual Resource page and toolbar displays. The Virtual Machinestoolbar enables you to add virtual machines (VMs), use the VMs and delete VMs.

To view a list of Virtual Machines:1. Use the Navigator panel to select the appropriate virtual machine pool in the hardware resource

node. The Virtual Resource Menu and page displays.

2. A list of existing virtual machines displays in the content pane.

Viewing Virtual Machines

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The list includes the following information for each virtual machine.• Description - the name of the VM

• UUID - the unique identifier

• Host - the name of the physical host on which the VM resides

• CPUs - the number of CPUs assigned to the VM

• Memory - the amount of memory assigned to the VM

• vNic Mac Address -

• State - the status of the VM

• Load - the current load

To view the details of a virtual machine1. For more information on a specific virtual machine pool, click the virtual machine in the list. Ensure

that the checkbox is selected.

2. Items similar to the items described below display in the Details pane, including details on usage,availability and total quota amounts allowed.

• Uuid - the unique identifier of the virtual machine

• Number of vcpus allocated - the number of virtual cpus allocated to the VM

• Number of vcpus used - the number of virtual cpus in use

• Memory allocated - the amount of memory allocated to the VM

• Memory used - the amount of memory actually used by the VM

• vNIC MAC Address - the MAC address of the virtual network interface card

• Boot device - the device by which the VM is booted

• Provisioning source - the configuration details of the source

• State - the state of the VMm one of:• Stopped

• Suspended

• Running

• Pending State - one of the above

3. The Details pane also contains the Edit, cancel queued tasks and Delete buttons, or buttonssimilar to the buttons described above.


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Note:The details of the Virtual Machines and the buttons displayed vary according to the typeof VM.

6.2.2. Adding Virtual MachinesAdding a virtual machine includes specifying the name and defining the resources and quotas that theVM can use.

1. To add a virtual machine, navigate to the appropriate virtual pool and select the Virtual Machinestab.

2. Click Add Virtual Machine from the Virtual Machine Pool toolbar. The Add a Virtual Machinedialog box displays.

Managing Virtual Machines

51

Enter the following information:

• Name of the Virtual Machine

• Operating System

Select from

• PXE Boot

• Boot from HD

• Fedora 9 (Cobbler Image)

• Windows-Server-2008 (Cobbler Image)

• Windows-XP (Cobbler Image)

• oVirt-Node-x86_64 (Cobbler Profile)

• CPUs - Enter the maximum number of CPUs the VM is permitted to use.

oVirt indicates the maximum that is permitted at start-up. Entering a value in this field ismandatory.

• Memory (MB) - Enter the maximum amount of memory that the VM is permitted to use.

oVirt indicates the maximum that is permitted at start-up. Entering a value in this field ismandatory.

• Select the Storage Servers that the VM is permitted to use. The Storage table displays theAlias, Size and Type of Storage that is available.

• The network VNIC is entered by default. You can change this if necessary.

• The UUID is assigned by oVirt. You can change this if necessary.

• Select the Start VM Now check box to start the VM immediately. The VM will start depending onthe availability of resources.

3. Click Add Virtual Machine. A message indicates that the VM was successfully created. Click OK.

The VM appears in the list of VMs on the Virtual Machine Pool page.

6.2.3. Managing Virtual MachinesThis section describes how to use and manage virtual machines, including modifying the properties ofa virtual machine and migrating a virtual machine.

Using Virtual Machines1. Navigate to an existing Virtual Machine Pool and click the Virtual Machines tab to view, add or

manage virtual machines.


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2. Select the check box of a virtual machine and click the Actions option on the toolbar. The Actionsmenu displays.

3. From the Actions menu you can do the following to a virtual machine:

• Start

• Shutdown

• Suspend

• Resume

• Save

• Restore

4. A Virtual Machine Actions Result dialog box displays, indicating the result or results of theAction.

Modifying Virtual Machines1. Navigate to an existing Virtual Machine Pool and click the Virtual Machines tab on the Virtual

Resources menu.

Managing Virtual Machines

53











• Suspended

• Running


3. Click the Edit button to modify the properties of the VM. The Edit Virtual Machine dialog boxdisplays. Use the Edit Virtual Machine dialog box to change the the properties of the VM. ReferSection 6.2.2, “Adding Virtual Machines” for detailed information on the fields. The Edit VirtualMachine dialog box contains the same fields as the Add Virtual Machine dialog box.

4. Click Edit Virtual Machine. A message indicates that the VM was successfully edited. Click OK.

Migrating Virtual Machines1. Navigate to an existing Virtual Machine Pool and click the Virtual Machines tab on the Virtual

Resources menu.


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• Suspended

• Running


3.

Note:If the Details pane contains the Migrate button, it is possible to migrate the VM.

Click the Migrate button. The Migrate Virtual Machine dialog box displays. Use the MigrateVirtual Machine dialog box to choose the Migration destination.

Moving a Virtual Machine to a Smart Pool

55

4. The Migrate Virtual Machine dialog box displays a list of available host machines to which theVM can be migrated. Select the host to which the VM is to be migrated.

Information on the hosts, such as the UUID, Status and Load is also displayed, enabling youto assess which host is the best target for the VM. For more information on the host, referSection 4.4.1, “Adding Physical Hosts”.

5. Click Migrate Virtual Machine. A message indicates that the VM was successfully migrated.

6.2.4. Moving a Virtual Machine to a Smart PoolUsers can choose to set up smart pools which are collections of the various resources. A smart poolis a collection of hardware and virtual resources that a user needs quick access to. You can move aVirtual Machine into a Smart Pool provided you have the requisite permissions.

To move a virtual machine into a smart pool:

1. Navigate to the appropriate Virtual Machine Pool using the Navigator. The list of virtual machinesand the Virtual Resource toolbar displays on the Content pane.

2. Select the Virtual Machine pool to be moved. Ensure the check box is selected.

3. Click Add to Smart Pool on the toolbar. The list of existing smart pools that you have permissionsto displays.

4. Select the smart pool from the list.

The selected virtual machine is moved to the smart pool and the dialog box closes.

Note:The Virtual Machine will remain in the Virtual Resource pool. It is also visible andaccessible from the Smart Pool.

5. To view the VM in the smart pool, click the smart pool in the Navigator panel. The Summary pagefor the smart pool displays.

6. Click Virtual Machines on the menu bar. The moved Virtual Machine displays in the list of VMs.

6.2.5. Deleting Virtual MachinesDeletion of a virtual machine is a permanent action that cannot be undone.


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1. To delete a virtual machine, navigate to the appropriate virtual pool and select the VirtualMachines tab.

2. Select the check box of the VM to be deleted.

3. Click Delete from the Virtual Machine Pool toolbar. A message prompts you to confirm thedeletion. Click OK.

4. A message indicates that the VM was successfully deleted. The VM does not display in the list ofVMs on the Virtual Machine Pool page.

Chapter 7.

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Managing User AccessoVirt's user access management is integrated with the Kerberos infrastructure that provides a singlesign-on environment. oVirt is tightly integrated with the freeIPA project, so that administrators canauthenticate, authorize, and audit their virtual resources across the enterprise. Permissions aredefined by User Roles which allocate specific permissions to users in hardware or virtual pools.oVirt accesses the LDAP database for valid users, who can then be set up with permissions for oVirtresources.

Users must be logged in via Kerberos to access oVirt. oVirt user permissions determine the hardwareand virtual pools that are accessible to the user.

7.1. Assigning Permissions with User RolesoVirt has four hierarchical permission levels that are reflected in four User Roles. The top-level roleimplies all lower levels and so on, with each role assuming all the permissions of the roles beneath it.Thus, the top-level role of Super Admin has its own permissions as well as all the permissions of allthe roles beneath it. In contrast, because Monitor is the lowest role, it has only its own permissions.Permission levels are attached to "pools", either hardware pools or VM resource pools, and they areinherited by subpools of those pools. Individual VMs do not have permission levels.

7.1.1. How User Roles WorkoVirt's hierarchical permissions model means that user permissions are set by the hardwareadministrator at the top level, and the finer detail is added by the team administrator:

• Rather than specifying which box a particular application is running on, hardware administratorsdedicate machines and storage to discrete groups, which then treat those resources generically.

• Team administrators determine hardware and virtual resource usage based on software-definedresource limits and SLA definitions.

• Users manage their own VMs, within their assigned quota/SLA, as required without requiringadministrator attention.

7.1.1.1. User Roles in oVirtUsers are granted access in a particular role within a hardware or virtual pool. However users can begranted access to multiple pools, and can have different roles in different pools.

User Roles are:

• User Admin or Super Admin

A User Admin or Super Admin user can grant permissions and quota to other users, along withall other permissions. Typically the hardware administrator is the Super Admin, who can assignpermissions to groups or teams, allowing access to resources and storage.

• Administrator

An Administrator can create and delete hardware pools and virtual machine resource pools, andcreate, delete, and manipulate the objects in those pools (hosts, storage servers, quota, VMs,). Thisincludes the ability to create and delete VMs in a VM resource pool. Typically the team administrator

Chapter 7. Managing User Access

58

is the Administrator. The Administrator must understand and determine the physical and virtualresource that a team requires for their work.

• User

A user can access a VM page and do the following (with a VM in a VM resource pool):

• start

• stop

• suspend

• resume

• restore

Typically, most users who need to use the VMs for their work will have this role.

• Monitor or View

A user with Monitor or View privileges can only view objects in the assigned VM pool.

7.2. Managing UsersThe oVirt Server Suite User Interface provides the ability to manage users. Users are created withina hardware or virtual resource pool context, and cannot be moved between resource pools. However,user roles can be changed as necessary by the team or hardware administrator.

7.2.1. The User Access PageBefore you can assign user permissions, you must be logged into the oVirt Server Suite User Interfaceas the administrator. This gives you the requisite privileges.

1. kinit as the kerberos admin user. (If you are using the developer installation this is "ovirtadmin").

2. Browse to the oVirt Server Suite User Interface.

3. Navigate either to top-level, or required resource or virtual pool and click User Access on themenubar.

The User Access page displays. The list of existing users, their roles and status display in the list.

4. You can add users from the LDAP database, change user roles within a pool and remove usersfor the selected pool.

Adding Users to a Pool

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7.2.2. Adding Users to a PoolTo add a user to a hardware or virtual resource pool:

1. Select the appropriate Hardware or Virtual Resource pool.

2. From the menu, select User Access. The User Access page displays.

3. Click Add User on the tool bar. The Add User dialog box displays.

4. Select the appropriate Role from:

• Super Admin

• Administrator

• User

• Monitor

5. Select the User name from the Users listbox.

6. Click Add User.

7. The new user's User name displays in the list of existing users.

7.2.3. Changing Users RolesUsers may need to change their roles as required by project requirements o or staff movement. Forexample, a team administrator may be required to take on the super admin role, or a person withmonitor privileges may need user privileges.

To change a User role:


2. From the menu bar, select User Access. The User Access page displays a list of existing users.

3. Select the check box to the left of the user name.

4. Click Change Role on the tool bar. The Change Role menu displays if at least one user wasselected in the previous step.

5. Click the required role from the list:

Chapter 7. Managing User Access

60

• Super Administrator

• Administrator

• User

• Monitor

6. The User name appears in the list of existing users on the page with the changed role.

7.2.4. Revoking User PermissionsYou can revoke a user's permission to view or work in a hardware or virtual resource pool.

To revoke user permissions:


2. From the menu, select User Access. The User Access page displays with a list of existing users.

3. Select the check box to the left of the user name.

4. Click Remove on the tool bar. A message displays prompting you to select at least one user if nouser was selected in the previous step.

5. A message prompts you to confirm. Click OK.

6. A message confirms the removal and the user name no longer appears in the list of existing users.

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Appendix A. Revision HistoryRevision HistoryRevision 2.0 18th November 2008 [email protected] to productnumber and edition numberAdded Quick Start chapter, a tutorialUpdated screenshotsAdded Smart PoolsAdded Working with Storage as a separate chapterRevision 1.0 3rd September 2008 [email protected] .6-1 Wednesday June 18th 2008 [email protected]: #232215Need to have a BZ. Also, need a real bug#




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