Virtualization
OpenShift Virtualization installation, usage, and release notes
Abstract
Chapter 1. About
1.1. About OpenShift Virtualization
Learn about OpenShift Virtualization’s capabilities and support scope.
1.1.1. What you can do with OpenShift Virtualization
OpenShift Virtualization is an add-on to OpenShift Container Platform that allows you to run and manage virtual machine workloads alongside container workloads.
OpenShift Virtualization adds new objects into your OpenShift Container Platform cluster by using Kubernetes custom resources to enable virtualization tasks. These tasks include:
- Creating and managing Linux and Windows virtual machines (VMs)
- Running pod and VM workloads alongside each other in a cluster
- Connecting to virtual machines through a variety of consoles and CLI tools
- Importing and cloning existing virtual machines
- Managing network interface controllers and storage disks attached to virtual machines
- Live migrating virtual machines between nodes
An enhanced web console provides a graphical portal to manage these virtualized resources alongside the OpenShift Container Platform cluster containers and infrastructure.
OpenShift Virtualization is designed and tested to work well with Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation features.
When you deploy OpenShift Virtualization with OpenShift Data Foundation, you must create a dedicated storage class for Windows virtual machine disks. See Optimizing ODF PersistentVolumes for Windows VMs for details.
You can use OpenShift Virtualization with OVN-Kubernetes or one of the other certified network plugins listed in Certified OpenShift CNI Plug-ins.
You can check your OpenShift Virtualization cluster for compliance issues by installing the Compliance Operator and running a scan with the ocp4-moderate
and ocp4-moderate-node
profiles. The Compliance Operator uses OpenSCAP, a NIST-certified tool, to scan and enforce security policies.
1.1.1.1. OpenShift Virtualization supported cluster version
OpenShift Virtualization 4.17 is supported for use on OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 clusters. To use the latest z-stream release of OpenShift Virtualization, you must first upgrade to the latest version of OpenShift Container Platform.
1.1.2. About volume and access modes for virtual machine disks
If you use the storage API with known storage providers, the volume and access modes are selected automatically. However, if you use a storage class that does not have a storage profile, you must configure the volume and access mode.
For best results, use the ReadWriteMany
(RWX) access mode and the Block
volume mode. This is important for the following reasons:
-
ReadWriteMany
(RWX) access mode is required for live migration. The
Block
volume mode performs significantly better than theFilesystem
volume mode. This is because theFilesystem
volume mode uses more storage layers, including a file system layer and a disk image file. These layers are not necessary for VM disk storage.For example, if you use Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation, Ceph RBD volumes are preferable to CephFS volumes.
You cannot live migrate virtual machines with the following configurations:
-
Storage volume with
ReadWriteOnce
(RWO) access mode - Passthrough features such as GPUs
Set the evictionStrategy
field to None
for these virtual machines. The None
strategy powers down VMs during node reboots.
1.1.3. Single-node OpenShift differences
You can install OpenShift Virtualization on single-node OpenShift.
However, you should be aware that Single-node OpenShift does not support the following features:
- High availability
- Pod disruption
- Live migration
- Virtual machines or templates that have an eviction strategy configured
1.1.4. Additional resources
1.2. Security policies
Learn about OpenShift Virtualization security and authorization.
Key points
-
OpenShift Virtualization adheres to the
restricted
Kubernetes pod security standards profile, which aims to enforce the current best practices for pod security. - Virtual machine (VM) workloads run as unprivileged pods.
-
Security context constraints (SCCs) are defined for the
kubevirt-controller
service account. - TLS certificates for OpenShift Virtualization components are renewed and rotated automatically.
1.2.1. About workload security
By default, virtual machine (VM) workloads do not run with root privileges in OpenShift Virtualization, and there are no supported OpenShift Virtualization features that require root privileges.
For each VM, a virt-launcher
pod runs an instance of libvirt
in session mode to manage the VM process. In session mode, the libvirt
daemon runs as a non-root user account and only permits connections from clients that are running under the same user identifier (UID). Therefore, VMs run as unprivileged pods, adhering to the security principle of least privilege.
1.2.2. TLS certificates
TLS certificates for OpenShift Virtualization components are renewed and rotated automatically. You are not required to refresh them manually.
Automatic renewal schedules
TLS certificates are automatically deleted and replaced according to the following schedule:
- KubeVirt certificates are renewed daily.
- Containerized Data Importer controller (CDI) certificates are renewed every 15 days.
- MAC pool certificates are renewed every year.
Automatic TLS certificate rotation does not disrupt any operations. For example, the following operations continue to function without any disruption:
- Migrations
- Image uploads
- VNC and console connections
1.2.3. Authorization
OpenShift Virtualization uses role-based access control (RBAC) to define permissions for human users and service accounts. The permissions defined for service accounts control the actions that OpenShift Virtualization components can perform.
You can also use RBAC roles to manage user access to virtualization features. For example, an administrator can create an RBAC role that provides the permissions required to launch a virtual machine. The administrator can then restrict access by binding the role to specific users.
1.2.3.1. Default cluster roles for OpenShift Virtualization
By using cluster role aggregation, OpenShift Virtualization extends the default OpenShift Container Platform cluster roles to include permissions for accessing virtualization objects.
Default cluster role | OpenShift Virtualization cluster role | OpenShift Virtualization cluster role description |
---|---|---|
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| A user that can view all OpenShift Virtualization resources in the cluster but cannot create, delete, modify, or access them. For example, the user can see that a virtual machine (VM) is running but cannot shut it down or gain access to its console. |
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| A user that can modify all OpenShift Virtualization resources in the cluster. For example, the user can create VMs, access VM consoles, and delete VMs. |
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A user that has full permissions to all OpenShift Virtualization resources, including the ability to delete collections of resources. The user can also view and modify the OpenShift Virtualization runtime configuration, which is located in the |
1.2.3.2. RBAC roles for storage features in OpenShift Virtualization
The following permissions are granted to the Containerized Data Importer (CDI), including the cdi-operator
and cdi-controller
service accounts.
1.2.3.2.1. Cluster-wide RBAC roles
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1.2.3.2.2. Namespaced RBAC roles
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1.2.3.3. Additional SCCs and permissions for the kubevirt-controller service account
Security context constraints (SCCs) control permissions for pods. These permissions include actions that a pod, a collection of containers, can perform and what resources it can access. You can use SCCs to define a set of conditions that a pod must run with to be accepted into the system.
The virt-controller
is a cluster controller that creates the virt-launcher
pods for virtual machines in the cluster. These pods are granted permissions by the kubevirt-controller
service account.
The kubevirt-controller
service account is granted additional SCCs and Linux capabilities so that it can create virt-launcher
pods with the appropriate permissions. These extended permissions allow virtual machines to use OpenShift Virtualization features that are beyond the scope of typical pods.
The kubevirt-controller
service account is granted the following SCCs:
-
scc.AllowHostDirVolumePlugin = true
This allows virtual machines to use the hostpath volume plugin. -
scc.AllowPrivilegedContainer = false
This ensures the virt-launcher pod is not run as a privileged container. scc.AllowedCapabilities = []corev1.Capability{"SYS_NICE", "NET_BIND_SERVICE"}
-
SYS_NICE
allows setting the CPU affinity. -
NET_BIND_SERVICE
allows DHCP and Slirp operations.
-
Viewing the SCC and RBAC definitions for the kubevirt-controller
You can view the SecurityContextConstraints
definition for the kubevirt-controller
by using the oc
tool:
$ oc get scc kubevirt-controller -o yaml
You can view the RBAC definition for the kubevirt-controller
clusterrole by using the oc
tool:
$ oc get clusterrole kubevirt-controller -o yaml
1.2.4. Additional resources
1.3. OpenShift Virtualization Architecture
The Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) deploys operator pods for each component of OpenShift Virtualization:
-
Compute:
virt-operator
-
Storage:
cdi-operator
-
Network:
cluster-network-addons-operator
-
Scaling:
ssp-operator
OLM also deploys the hyperconverged-cluster-operator
pod, which is responsible for the deployment, configuration, and life cycle of other components, and several helper pods: hco-webhook
, and hyperconverged-cluster-cli-download
.
After all operator pods are successfully deployed, you should create the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR). The configurations set in the HyperConverged
CR serve as the single source of truth and the entrypoint for OpenShift Virtualization, and guide the behavior of the CRs.
The HyperConverged
CR creates corresponding CRs for the operators of all other components within its reconciliation loop. Each operator then creates resources such as daemon sets, config maps, and additional components for the OpenShift Virtualization control plane. For example, when the HyperConverged Operator (HCO) creates the KubeVirt
CR, the OpenShift Virtualization Operator reconciles it and creates additional resources such as virt-controller
, virt-handler
, and virt-api
.
The OLM deploys the Hostpath Provisioner (HPP) Operator, but it is not functional until you create a hostpath-provisioner
CR.
1.3.1. About the HyperConverged Operator (HCO)
The HCO, hco-operator
, provides a single entry point for deploying and managing OpenShift Virtualization and several helper operators with opinionated defaults. It also creates custom resources (CRs) for those operators.
Component | Description |
---|---|
|
Validates the |
|
Provides the |
| Contains all operators, CRs, and objects needed by OpenShift Virtualization. |
| A Scheduling, Scale, and Performance (SSP) CR. This is automatically created by the HCO. |
| A Containerized Data Importer (CDI) CR. This is automatically created by the HCO. |
|
A CR that instructs and is managed by the |
1.3.2. About the Containerized Data Importer (CDI) Operator
The CDI Operator, cdi-operator
, manages CDI and its related resources, which imports a virtual machine (VM) image into a persistent volume claim (PVC) by using a data volume.
Component | Description |
---|---|
| Manages the authorization to upload VM disks into PVCs by issuing secure upload tokens. |
| Directs external disk upload traffic to the appropriate upload server pod so that it can be written to the correct PVC. Requires a valid upload token. |
| Helper pod that imports a virtual machine image into a PVC when creating a data volume. |
1.3.3. About the Cluster Network Addons Operator
The Cluster Network Addons Operator, cluster-network-addons-operator
, deploys networking components on a cluster and manages the related resources for extended network functionality.
Component | Description |
---|---|
| Manages TLS certificates of Kubemacpool’s webhooks. |
| Provides a MAC address pooling service for virtual machine (VM) network interface cards (NICs). |
| Marks network bridges available on nodes as node resources. |
| Installs Container Network Interface (CNI) plugins on cluster nodes, enabling the attachment of VMs to Linux bridges through network attachment definitions. |
1.3.4. About the Hostpath Provisioner (HPP) Operator
The HPP Operator, hostpath-provisioner-operator
, deploys and manages the multi-node HPP and related resources.
Component | Description |
---|---|
| Provides a worker for each node where the HPP is designated to run. The pods mount the specified backing storage on the node. |
| Implements the Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver interface of the HPP. |
| Implements the legacy driver interface of the HPP. |
1.3.5. About the Scheduling, Scale, and Performance (SSP) Operator
The SSP Operator, ssp-operator
, deploys the common templates, the related default boot sources, the pipeline tasks, and the template validator.
1.3.6. About the OpenShift Virtualization Operator
The OpenShift Virtualization Operator, virt-operator
, deploys, upgrades, and manages OpenShift Virtualization without disrupting current virtual machine (VM) workloads. In addition, the OpenShift Virtualization Operator deploys the common instance types and common preferences.
Component | Description |
---|---|
| HTTP API server that serves as the entry point for all virtualization-related flows. |
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Observes the creation of a new VM instance object and creates a corresponding pod. When the pod is scheduled on a node, |
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Monitors any changes to a VM and instructs |
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Contains the VM that was created by the user as implemented by |
Chapter 2. Release notes
2.1. OpenShift Virtualization release notes
2.1.1. Providing documentation feedback
To report an error or to improve our documentation, log in to your Red Hat Jira account and submit a Jira issue.
2.1.2. About Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization
With Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization, you can bring traditional virtual machines (VMs) into OpenShift Container Platform and run them alongside containers. In OpenShift Virtualization, VMs are native Kubernetes objects that you can manage by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console or the command line.
OpenShift Virtualization is represented by the icon.
You can use OpenShift Virtualization the OVN-Kubernetes Container Network Interface (CNI) network provider.
Learn more about what you can do with OpenShift Virtualization.
Learn more about OpenShift Virtualization architecture and deployments.
Prepare your cluster for OpenShift Virtualization.
2.1.2.1. OpenShift Virtualization supported cluster version
OpenShift Virtualization 4.17 is supported for use on OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 clusters. To use the latest z-stream release of OpenShift Virtualization, you must first upgrade to the latest version of OpenShift Container Platform.
2.1.2.2. Supported guest operating systems
To view the supported guest operating systems for OpenShift Virtualization, see Certified Guest Operating Systems in Red Hat OpenStack Platform, Red Hat Virtualization, OpenShift Virtualization and Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM.
2.1.2.3. Microsoft Windows SVVP certification
OpenShift Virtualization is certified in Microsoft’s Windows Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP) to run Windows Server workloads.
The SVVP certification applies to:
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS workers. In the Microsoft SVVP Catalog, they are named Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 on RHEL CoreOS 9.
- Intel and AMD CPUs.
2.1.3. Quick starts
Quick start tours are available for several OpenShift Virtualization features. To view the tours, click the Help icon ? in the menu bar on the header of the OpenShift Container Platform web console and then select Quick Starts. You can filter the available tours by entering the keyword virtualization
in the Filter field.
2.1.4. New and changed features
This release adds new features and enhancements related to the following components and concepts:
2.1.4.1. Infrastructure
- Configuring VM eviction strategies for an entire cluster is now generally available.
-
The
inferFromVolume
attribute is now supported for use with imported container disks. When requested, OpenShift Virtualization can copy the labelsinstancetype.kubevirt.io/default-instancetype
andinstancetype.kubevirt.io/default-preference
from a source container disk to the boot volume of a new VM.
-
You can now select a custom namespace for Red Hat golden images instead of using the default
openshift-virtualization-os-images
namespace. By using a custom namespace, cluster administrators can restrict user access to the default boot sources. To update this setting by using the web console, go to Virtualization → Overview → Settings → Cluster → General settings → Bootable volumes project.
2.1.4.2. Virtualization
You can now increase VM workload density on nodes by overcommitting memory (RAM) with the
wasp-agent
. The wasp agent assigns swap resources to worker nodes and manages pod evictions when nodes are at risk.NoteOvercommitting memory on a highly utilized system can decrease workload performance.
- Enabling post-copy live migration for VM workloads is now generally available.
- As a cluster administrator, you can expose USB devices in a cluster, making them available for virtual machine (VM) owners to assign to VMs. You expose a USB device by first enabling host passthrough and then configuring the VM to access the USB device.
-
You can now use the Application-Aware Quota (AAQ) Operator to customize and manage resource quotas for individual components in an OpenShift Container Platform cluster. The AAQ Operator provides the
ApplicationAwareResourceQuota
andApplicationAwareClusterResourceQuota
custom resource definitions (CRDs) that can be used to allocate resources without interfering with cluster-level activities such as upgrades and node maintenance.
- OpenShift Virtualization release 4.17.1 introduces support for Microsoft Windows Server 2025 as a certified guest operating system. See Certified Guest Operating Systems in OpenShift Virtualization for more details.
2.1.4.3. Storage
-
The
VirtualMachineSnapshot
API version is now v1beta1.
-
The
VirtualMachineExport
API version is now v1beta1.
2.1.4.4. Web console
The OpenShift Container Platform web console includes a new focused view, which presents a condensed navigation menu specific to the OpenShift Virtualization perspective. This view complements but does not replace the existing OpenShift Container Platform web console Virtualization navigation options.
To access the new view, navigate to Administrator → Virtualization in the web console.
- An OpenShift Virtualization guided tour is now available. You can access the tour by either clicking Start Tour on the Welcome to OpenShift Virtualization dialog or navigating to Virtualization → Overview → Settings → User → Getting started resources → Guided tour.
- Hot plugging memory for VMs from the web console is now generally available.
- Hot plugging CPUs for VMs from the web console is now generally available.
2.1.5. Deprecated and removed features
2.1.5.1. Deprecated features
Deprecated features are included in the current release and supported. However, they will be removed in a future release and are not recommended for new deployments.
-
The
DevPreviewLongLifecycle
profile is deprecated. The profile is nowLongLifecycle
and is generally available.
-
The
tekton-tasks-operator
is deprecated and Tekton tasks and example pipelines are now deployed by thessp-operator
.
-
The
copy-template
,modify-vm-template
, andcreate-vm-from-template
tasks are deprecated.
- Support for Windows Server 2012 R2 templates is deprecated.
-
The alerts
KubeVirtComponentExceedsRequestedMemory
andKubeVirtComponentExceedsRequestedCPU
are deprecated. You can safely silence them.
2.1.5.2. Removed features
Removed features are those that were deprecated in earlier releases. They are now removed from OpenShift Virtualization and are no longer supported.
- CentOS 7 and CentOS Stream 8 are now in the End of Life phase. As a consequence, the container images for these operating systems have been removed from OpenShift Virtualization and are no longer community supported.
2.1.6. Technology Preview features
Some features in this release are currently in Technology Preview. These experimental features are not intended for production use. Note the following scope of support on the Red Hat Customer Portal for these features:
Technology Preview Features Support Scope
You can now migrate storage classes for running and stopped VMs.
NoteStorage live migration is not enabled by default in the
HyperConverged
custom resource. To enable the required feature gates, follow the workaround documented in Enable storage live migration in OpenShift Virtualization 4.17 in the Red Hat knowledge base.
- You can now enable nested virtualization on OpenShift Virtualization hosts.
2.1.7. Known issues
Nodes
-
Uninstalling OpenShift Virtualization does not remove the
feature.node.kubevirt.io
node labels created by OpenShift Virtualization. You must remove the labels manually. (CNV-38543)
- In a heterogeneous cluster with different compute nodes, virtual machines that have HyperV reenlightenment enabled cannot be scheduled on nodes that do not support timestamp-counter scaling (TSC) or have the appropriate TSC frequency. (BZ#2151169)
Storage
If you clone more than 100 VMs using the
csi-clone
cloning strategy, then the Ceph CSI might not purge the clones. Manually deleting the clones might also fail. (CNV-23501)-
As a workaround, you can restart the
ceph-mgr
to purge the VM clones.
-
As a workaround, you can restart the
Virtualization
-
When adding a virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM) device to a Windows VM, the BitLocker Drive Encryption system check passes even if the vTPM device is not persistent. This is because a vTPM device that is not persistent stores and recovers encryption keys using ephemeral storage for the lifetime of the
virt-launcher
pod. When the VM migrates or is shut down and restarts, the vTPM data is lost. (CNV-36448)
OpenShift Virtualization links a service account token in use by a pod to that specific pod. OpenShift Virtualization implements a service account volume by creating a disk image that contains a token. If you migrate a VM, then the service account volume becomes invalid. (CNV-33835)
- As a workaround, use user accounts rather than service accounts because user account tokens are not bound to a specific pod.
Web console
- When you create a persistent volume claim (PVC) by selecting With Data upload form from the Create PersistentVolumeClaim list in the web console, uploading data to the PVC by using the Upload Data field fails. (CNV-37607)
Chapter 3. Getting started
3.1. Getting started with OpenShift Virtualization
You can explore the features and functionalities of OpenShift Virtualization by installing and configuring a basic environment.
Cluster configuration procedures require cluster-admin
privileges.
3.1.1. Tours and quick starts
You can start exploring OpenShift Virtualization by taking tours in the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Getting started tour
This short guided tour introduces several key aspects of using OpenShift Virtualization. There are two ways to start the tour:
- On the Welcome to OpenShift Virtualization dialog, click Start Tour.
- Go to Virtualization → Overview → Settings → User → Getting started resources and click Guided tour.
Quick starts
Quick start tours are available for several OpenShift Virtualization features. To access quick starts, complete the following steps:
- Click the Help icon ? in the menu bar on the header of the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
- Select Quick Starts.
You can filter the available tours by entering the keyword virtualization
in the Filter field.
3.1.2. Planning and installing OpenShift Virtualization
Plan and install OpenShift Virtualization on an OpenShift Container Platform cluster:
Planning and installation resources
3.1.3. Creating and managing virtual machines
Create a virtual machine (VM):
Create a VM from a Red Hat image.
You can create a VM by using a Red Hat template or an instance type.
Create a VM from a custom image.
You can create a VM by importing a custom image from a container registry or a web page, by uploading an image from your local machine, or by cloning a persistent volume claim (PVC).
Connect a VM to a secondary network:
- Linux bridge network.
- Open Virtual Network (OVN)-Kubernetes secondary network.
Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) network.
NoteVMs are connected to the pod network by default.
Connect to a VM:
- Connect to the serial console or VNC console of a VM.
- Connect to a VM by using SSH.
- Connect to the desktop viewer for Windows VMs.
Manage a VM:
3.1.4. Next steps
3.2. Using the CLI tools
You can manage OpenShift Virtualization resources by using the virtctl
command line tool.
You can access and modify virtual machine (VM) disk images by using the libguestfs
command line tool. You deploy libguestfs
by using the virtctl libguestfs
command.
3.2.1. Installing virtctl
To install virtctl
on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9, Linux, Windows, and MacOS operating systems, you download and install the virtctl
binary file.
To install virtctl
on RHEL 8, you enable the OpenShift Virtualization repository and then install the kubevirt-virtctl
package.
3.2.1.1. Installing the virtctl binary on RHEL 9, Linux, Windows, or macOS
You can download the virtctl
binary for your operating system from the OpenShift Container Platform web console and then install it.
Procedure
- Navigate to the Virtualization → Overview page in the web console.
-
Click the Download virtctl link to download the
virtctl
binary for your operating system. Install
virtctl
:For RHEL 9 and other Linux operating systems:
Decompress the archive file:
$ tar -xvf <virtctl-version-distribution.arch>.tar.gz
Run the following command to make the
virtctl
binary executable:$ chmod +x <path/virtctl-file-name>
Move the
virtctl
binary to a directory in yourPATH
environment variable.You can check your path by running the following command:
$ echo $PATH
Set the
KUBECONFIG
environment variable:$ export KUBECONFIG=/home/<user>/clusters/current/auth/kubeconfig
For Windows:
- Decompress the archive file.
-
Navigate the extracted folder hierarchy and double-click the
virtctl
executable file to install the client. Move the
virtctl
binary to a directory in yourPATH
environment variable.You can check your path by running the following command:
C:\> path
For macOS:
- Decompress the archive file.
Move the
virtctl
binary to a directory in yourPATH
environment variable.You can check your path by running the following command:
echo $PATH
3.2.1.2. Installing the virtctl RPM on RHEL 8
You can install the virtctl
RPM package on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8 by enabling the OpenShift Virtualization repository and installing the kubevirt-virtctl
package.
Prerequisites
- Each host in your cluster must be registered with Red Hat Subscription Manager (RHSM) and have an active OpenShift Container Platform subscription.
Procedure
Enable the OpenShift Virtualization repository by using the
subscription-manager
CLI tool to run the following command:# subscription-manager repos --enable cnv-4.17-for-rhel-8-x86_64-rpms
Install the
kubevirt-virtctl
package by running the following command:# yum install kubevirt-virtctl
3.2.2. virtctl commands
The virtctl
client is a command-line utility for managing OpenShift Virtualization resources.
The virtual machine (VM) commands also apply to virtual machine instances (VMIs) unless otherwise specified.
3.2.2.1. virtctl information commands
You use virtctl
information commands to view information about the virtctl
client.
Command | Description |
---|---|
|
View the |
|
View a list of |
| View a list of options for a specific command. |
|
View a list of global command options for any |
3.2.2.2. VM information commands
You can use virtctl
to view information about virtual machines (VMs) and virtual machine instances (VMIs).
Command | Description |
---|---|
| View the file systems available on a guest machine. |
| View information about the operating systems on a guest machine. |
| View the logged-in users on a guest machine. |
3.2.2.3. VM manifest creation commands
You can use virtctl create
commands to create manifests for virtual machines, instance types, and preferences.
Command | Description |
---|---|
|
Create a |
| Create a VM manifest, specifying a name for the VM. |
| Create a VM manifest that uses an existing cluster-wide instance type. |
| Create a VM manifest that uses an existing namespaced instance type. |
| Create a manifest for a cluster-wide instance type. |
| Create a manifest for a namespaced instance type. |
| Create a manifest for a cluster-wide VM preference, specifying a name for the preference. |
| Create a manifest for a namespaced VM preference. |
3.2.2.4. VM management commands
You use virtctl
virtual machine (VM) management commands to manage and migrate virtual machines (VMs) and virtual machine instances (VMIs).
Command | Description |
---|---|
| Start a VM. |
| Start a VM in a paused state. This option enables you to interrupt the boot process from the VNC console. |
| Stop a VM. |
| Force stop a VM. This option might cause data inconsistency or data loss. |
| Pause a VM. The machine state is kept in memory. |
| Unpause a VM. |
| Migrate a VM. |
| Cancel a VM migration. |
| Restart a VM. |
3.2.2.5. VM connection commands
You use virtctl
connection commands to expose ports and connect to virtual machines (VMs) and virtual machine instances (VMIs).
Command | Description |
---|---|
| Connect to the serial console of a VM. |
| Create a service that forwards a designated port of a VM and expose the service on the specified port of the node.
Example: |
| Copy a file from your machine to a VM. This command uses the private key of an SSH key pair. The VM must be configured with the public key. |
| Copy a file from a VM to your machine. This command uses the private key of an SSH key pair. The VM must be configured with the public key. |
| Open an SSH connection with a VM. This command uses the private key of an SSH key pair. The VM must be configured with the public key. |
| Connect to the VNC console of a VM.
You must have |
| Display the port number and connect manually to a VM by using any viewer through the VNC connection. |
| Specify a port number to run the proxy on the specified port, if that port is available. If a port number is not specified, the proxy runs on a random port. |
3.2.2.6. VM export commands
Use virtctl vmexport
commands to create, download, or delete a volume exported from a VM, VM snapshot, or persistent volume claim (PVC). Certain manifests also contain a header secret, which grants access to the endpoint to import a disk image in a format that OpenShift Virtualization can use.
Command | Description |
---|---|
|
Create a
|
|
Delete a |
|
Download the volume defined in a
Optional:
|
|
Create a |
| Retrieve the manifest for an existing export. The manifest does not include the header secret. |
| Create a VM export for a VM example, and retrieve the manifest. The manifest does not include the header secret. |
| Create a VM export for a VM snapshot example, and retrieve the manifest. The manifest does not include the header secret. |
| Retrieve the manifest for an existing export. The manifest includes the header secret. |
| Retrieve the manifest for an existing export in json format. The manifest does not include the header secret. |
| Retrieve the manifest for an existing export. The manifest includes the header secret and writes it to the file specified. |
3.2.2.7. VM memory dump commands
You can use the virtctl memory-dump
command to output a VM memory dump on a PVC. You can specify an existing PVC or use the --create-claim
flag to create a new PVC.
Prerequisites
-
The PVC volume mode must be
FileSystem
. The PVC must be large enough to contain the memory dump.
The formula for calculating the PVC size is
(VMMemorySize + 100Mi) * FileSystemOverhead
, where100Mi
is the memory dump overhead.You must enable the hot plug feature gate in the
HyperConverged
custom resource by running the following command:$ oc patch hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv \ --type json -p '[{"op": "add", "path": "/spec/featureGates", \ "value": "HotplugVolumes"}]'
Downloading the memory dump
You must use the virtctl vmexport download
command to download the memory dump:
$ virtctl vmexport download <vmexport_name> --vm|pvc=<object_name> \ --volume=<volume_name> --output=<output_file>
Command | Description |
---|---|
|
Save the memory dump of a VM on a PVC. The memory dump status is displayed in the Optional:
|
|
Rerun the This command overwrites the previous memory dump. |
| Remove a memory dump. You must remove a memory dump manually if you want to change the target PVC.
This command removes the association between the VM and the PVC, so that the memory dump is not displayed in the |
3.2.2.8. Hot plug and hot unplug commands
You use virtctl
to add or remove resources from running virtual machines (VMs) and virtual machine instances (VMIs).
Command | Description |
---|---|
| Hot plug a data volume or persistent volume claim (PVC). Optional:
|
| Hot unplug a virtual disk. |
| Hot plug a Linux bridge network interface. |
| Hot unplug a Linux bridge network interface. |
3.2.2.9. Image upload commands
You use the virtctl image-upload
commands to upload a VM image to a data volume.
Command | Description |
---|---|
| Upload a VM image to a data volume that already exists. |
| Upload a VM image to a new data volume of a specified requested size. |
3.2.3. Deploying libguestfs by using virtctl
You can use the virtctl guestfs
command to deploy an interactive container with libguestfs-tools
and a persistent volume claim (PVC) attached to it.
Procedure
To deploy a container with
libguestfs-tools
, mount the PVC, and attach a shell to it, run the following command:$ virtctl guestfs -n <namespace> <pvc_name> 1
- 1
- The PVC name is a required argument. If you do not include it, an error message appears.
3.2.3.1. Libguestfs and virtctl guestfs commands
Libguestfs
tools help you access and modify virtual machine (VM) disk images. You can use libguestfs
tools to view and edit files in a guest, clone and build virtual machines, and format and resize disks.
You can also use the virtctl guestfs
command and its sub-commands to modify, inspect, and debug VM disks on a PVC. To see a complete list of possible sub-commands, enter virt-
on the command line and press the Tab key. For example:
Command | Description |
---|---|
| Edit a file interactively in your terminal. |
| Inject an ssh key into the guest and create a login. |
| See how much disk space is used by a VM. |
| See the full list of all RPMs installed on a guest by creating an output file containing the full list. |
|
Display the output file list of all RPMs created using the |
| Seal a virtual machine disk image to be used as a template. |
By default, virtctl guestfs
creates a session with everything needed to manage a VM disk. However, the command also supports several flag options if you want to customize the behavior:
Flag Option | Description |
---|---|
|
Provides help for |
| To use a PVC from a specific namespace.
If you do not use the
If you do not include a |
|
Lists the
You can configure the container to use a custom image by using the |
|
Indicates that
By default,
If a cluster does not have any
If not set, the |
|
Shows the pull policy for the
You can also overwrite the image’s pull policy by setting the |
The command also checks if a PVC is in use by another pod, in which case an error message appears. However, once the libguestfs-tools
process starts, the setup cannot avoid a new pod using the same PVC. You must verify that there are no active virtctl guestfs
pods before starting the VM that accesses the same PVC.
The virtctl guestfs
command accepts only a single PVC attached to the interactive pod.
3.2.4. Using Ansible
To use the Ansible collection for OpenShift Virtualization, see Red Hat Ansible Automation Hub (Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console).
Chapter 4. Installing
4.1. Preparing your cluster for OpenShift Virtualization
Review this section before you install OpenShift Virtualization to ensure that your cluster meets the requirements.
- Installation method considerations
- You can use any installation method, including user-provisioned, installer-provisioned, or assisted installer, to deploy OpenShift Container Platform. However, the installation method and the cluster topology might affect OpenShift Virtualization functionality, such as snapshots or live migration.
- Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation
- If you deploy OpenShift Virtualization with Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation, you must create a dedicated storage class for Windows virtual machine disks. See Optimizing ODF PersistentVolumes for Windows VMs for details.
- IPv6
- You cannot run OpenShift Virtualization on a single-stack IPv6 cluster.
FIPS mode
If you install your cluster in FIPS mode, no additional setup is required for OpenShift Virtualization.
4.1.1. Supported platforms
You can use the following platforms with OpenShift Virtualization:
- On-premise bare metal servers. See Planning a bare metal cluster for OpenShift Virtualization.
- Amazon Web Services bare metal instances. See Installing a cluster on AWS with customizations.
IBM Cloud® Bare Metal Servers. See Deploy OpenShift Virtualization on IBM Cloud® Bare Metal nodes.
ImportantInstalling OpenShift Virtualization on IBM Cloud® Bare Metal Servers is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.
For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.
Bare metal instances or servers offered by other cloud providers are not supported.
4.1.1.1. OpenShift Virtualization on AWS bare metal
You can run OpenShift Virtualization on an Amazon Web Services (AWS) bare-metal OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
OpenShift Virtualization is also supported on Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) Classic clusters, which have the same configuration requirements as AWS bare-metal clusters.
Before you set up your cluster, review the following summary of supported features and limitations:
- Installing
You can install the cluster by using installer-provisioned infrastructure, ensuring that you specify bare-metal instance types for the worker nodes. For example, you can use the
c5n.metal
type value for a machine based on x86_64 architecture. You specify bare-metal instance types by editing theinstall-config.yaml
file.For more information, see the OpenShift Container Platform documentation about installing on AWS.
- Accessing virtual machines (VMs)
-
There is no change to how you access VMs by using the
virtctl
CLI tool or the OpenShift Container Platform web console. You can expose VMs by using a
NodePort
orLoadBalancer
service.- The load balancer approach is preferable because OpenShift Container Platform automatically creates the load balancer in AWS and manages its lifecycle. A security group is also created for the load balancer, and you can use annotations to attach existing security groups. When you remove the service, OpenShift Container Platform removes the load balancer and its associated resources.
- Networking
- You cannot use Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) or bridge Container Network Interface (CNI) networks, including virtual LAN (VLAN). If your application requires a flat layer 2 network or control over the IP pool, consider using OVN-Kubernetes secondary overlay networks.
- Storage
You can use any storage solution that is certified by the storage vendor to work with the underlying platform.
ImportantAWS bare-metal and ROSA clusters might have different supported storage solutions. Ensure that you confirm support with your storage vendor.
Using Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) or Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) with OpenShift Virtualization might cause performance and functionality limitations as shown in the following table:
Table 4.1. EFS and EBS performance and functionality limitations Feature EBS volume EFS volume Shared storage solutions gp2
gp3
io2
VM live migration
Not available
Not available
Available
Available
Available
Fast VM creation by using cloning
Available
Not available
Available
VM backup and restore by using snapshots
Available
Not available
Available
Consider using CSI storage, which supports ReadWriteMany (RWX), cloning, and snapshots to enable live migration, fast VM creation, and VM snapshots capabilities.
- Hosted control planes (HCPs)
- HCPs for OpenShift Virtualization are not currently supported on AWS infrastructure.
4.1.2. Hardware and operating system requirements
Review the following hardware and operating system requirements for OpenShift Virtualization.
4.1.2.1. CPU requirements
Supported by Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9.
See Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog for supported CPUs.
NoteIf your worker nodes have different CPUs, live migration failures might occur because different CPUs have different capabilities. You can mitigate this issue by ensuring that your worker nodes have CPUs with the appropriate capacity and by configuring node affinity rules for your virtual machines.
See Configuring a required node affinity rule for details.
- Support for AMD and Intel 64-bit architectures (x86-64-v2).
- Support for Intel 64 or AMD64 CPU extensions.
- Intel VT or AMD-V hardware virtualization extensions enabled.
- NX (no execute) flag enabled.
4.1.2.2. Operating system requirements
Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) installed on worker nodes.
See About RHCOS for details.
NoteRHEL worker nodes are not supported.
4.1.2.3. Storage requirements
- Supported by OpenShift Container Platform. See Optimizing storage.
- You must create a default OpenShift Virtualization or OpenShift Container Platform storage class. The purpose of this is to address the unique storage needs of VM workloads and offer optimized performance, reliability, and user experience. If both OpenShift Virtualization and OpenShift Container Platform default storage classes exist, the OpenShift Virtualization class takes precedence when creating VM disks.
To mark a storage class as the default for virtualization workloads, set the annotation storageclass.kubevirt.io/is-default-virt-class
to "true"
.
-
If the storage provisioner supports snapshots, you must associate a
VolumeSnapshotClass
object with the default storage class.
4.1.2.3.1. About volume and access modes for virtual machine disks
If you use the storage API with known storage providers, the volume and access modes are selected automatically. However, if you use a storage class that does not have a storage profile, you must configure the volume and access mode.
For best results, use the ReadWriteMany
(RWX) access mode and the Block
volume mode. This is important for the following reasons:
-
ReadWriteMany
(RWX) access mode is required for live migration. The
Block
volume mode performs significantly better than theFilesystem
volume mode. This is because theFilesystem
volume mode uses more storage layers, including a file system layer and a disk image file. These layers are not necessary for VM disk storage.For example, if you use Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation, Ceph RBD volumes are preferable to CephFS volumes.
You cannot live migrate virtual machines with the following configurations:
-
Storage volume with
ReadWriteOnce
(RWO) access mode - Passthrough features such as GPUs
Set the evictionStrategy
field to None
for these virtual machines. The None
strategy powers down VMs during node reboots.
4.1.3. Live migration requirements
-
Shared storage with
ReadWriteMany
(RWX) access mode. Sufficient RAM and network bandwidth.
NoteYou must ensure that there is enough memory request capacity in the cluster to support node drains that result in live migrations. You can determine the approximate required spare memory by using the following calculation:
Product of (Maximum number of nodes that can drain in parallel) and (Highest total VM memory request allocations across nodes)
The default number of migrations that can run in parallel in the cluster is 5.
- If the virtual machine uses a host model CPU, the nodes must support the virtual machine’s host model CPU.
- A dedicated Multus network for live migration is highly recommended. A dedicated network minimizes the effects of network saturation on tenant workloads during migration.
4.1.4. Physical resource overhead requirements
OpenShift Virtualization is an add-on to OpenShift Container Platform and imposes additional overhead that you must account for when planning a cluster. Each cluster machine must accommodate the following overhead requirements in addition to the OpenShift Container Platform requirements. Oversubscribing the physical resources in a cluster can affect performance.
The numbers noted in this documentation are based on Red Hat’s test methodology and setup. These numbers can vary based on your own individual setup and environments.
Memory overhead
Calculate the memory overhead values for OpenShift Virtualization by using the equations below.
Cluster memory overhead
Memory overhead per infrastructure node ≈ 150 MiB
Memory overhead per worker node ≈ 360 MiB
Additionally, OpenShift Virtualization environment resources require a total of 2179 MiB of RAM that is spread across all infrastructure nodes.
Virtual machine memory overhead
Memory overhead per virtual machine ≈ (1.002 × requested memory) \ + 218 MiB \ 1 + 8 MiB × (number of vCPUs) \ 2 + 16 MiB × (number of graphics devices) \ 3 + (additional memory overhead) 4
- 1
- Required for the processes that run in the
virt-launcher
pod. - 2
- Number of virtual CPUs requested by the virtual machine.
- 3
- Number of virtual graphics cards requested by the virtual machine.
- 4
- Additional memory overhead:
- If your environment includes a Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) network device or a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), allocate 1 GiB additional memory overhead for each device.
- If Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) is enabled, add 256 MiB.
- If Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is enabled, add 53 MiB.
CPU overhead
Calculate the cluster processor overhead requirements for OpenShift Virtualization by using the equation below. The CPU overhead per virtual machine depends on your individual setup.
Cluster CPU overhead
CPU overhead for infrastructure nodes ≈ 4 cores
OpenShift Virtualization increases the overall utilization of cluster level services such as logging, routing, and monitoring. To account for this workload, ensure that nodes that host infrastructure components have capacity allocated for 4 additional cores (4000 millicores) distributed across those nodes.
CPU overhead for worker nodes ≈ 2 cores + CPU overhead per virtual machine
Each worker node that hosts virtual machines must have capacity for 2 additional cores (2000 millicores) for OpenShift Virtualization management workloads in addition to the CPUs required for virtual machine workloads.
Virtual machine CPU overhead
If dedicated CPUs are requested, there is a 1:1 impact on the cluster CPU overhead requirement. Otherwise, there are no specific rules about how many CPUs a virtual machine requires.
Storage overhead
Use the guidelines below to estimate storage overhead requirements for your OpenShift Virtualization environment.
Cluster storage overhead
Aggregated storage overhead per node ≈ 10 GiB
10 GiB is the estimated on-disk storage impact for each node in the cluster when you install OpenShift Virtualization.
Virtual machine storage overhead
Storage overhead per virtual machine depends on specific requests for resource allocation within the virtual machine. The request could be for ephemeral storage on the node or storage resources hosted elsewhere in the cluster. OpenShift Virtualization does not currently allocate any additional ephemeral storage for the running container itself.
Example
As a cluster administrator, if you plan to host 10 virtual machines in the cluster, each with 1 GiB of RAM and 2 vCPUs, the memory impact across the cluster is 11.68 GiB. The estimated on-disk storage impact for each node in the cluster is 10 GiB and the CPU impact for worker nodes that host virtual machine workloads is a minimum of 2 cores.
4.1.5. Single-node OpenShift differences
You can install OpenShift Virtualization on single-node OpenShift.
However, you should be aware that Single-node OpenShift does not support the following features:
- High availability
- Pod disruption
- Live migration
- Virtual machines or templates that have an eviction strategy configured
Additional resources
4.1.6. Object maximums
You must consider the following tested object maximums when planning your cluster:
4.1.7. Cluster high-availability options
You can configure one of the following high-availability (HA) options for your cluster:
Automatic high availability for installer-provisioned infrastructure (IPI) is available by deploying machine health checks.
NoteIn OpenShift Container Platform clusters installed using installer-provisioned infrastructure and with a properly configured
MachineHealthCheck
resource, if a node fails the machine health check and becomes unavailable to the cluster, it is recycled. What happens next with VMs that ran on the failed node depends on a series of conditions. See Run strategies for more detailed information about the potential outcomes and how run strategies affect those outcomes.-
Automatic high availability for both IPI and non-IPI is available by using the Node Health Check Operator on the OpenShift Container Platform cluster to deploy the
NodeHealthCheck
controller. The controller identifies unhealthy nodes and uses a remediation provider, such as the Self Node Remediation Operator or Fence Agents Remediation Operator, to remediate the unhealthy nodes. For more information on remediation, fencing, and maintaining nodes, see the Workload Availability for Red Hat OpenShift documentation. High availability for any platform is available by using either a monitoring system or a qualified human to monitor node availability. When a node is lost, shut it down and run
oc delete node <lost_node>
.NoteWithout an external monitoring system or a qualified human monitoring node health, virtual machines lose high availability.
4.2. Installing OpenShift Virtualization
Install OpenShift Virtualization to add virtualization functionality to your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
If you install OpenShift Virtualization in a restricted environment with no internet connectivity, you must configure Operator Lifecycle Manager for disconnected environments.
If you have limited internet connectivity, you can configure proxy support in OLM to access the OperatorHub.
4.2.1. Installing the OpenShift Virtualization Operator
Install the OpenShift Virtualization Operator by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console or the command line.
4.2.1.1. Installing the OpenShift Virtualization Operator by using the web console
You can deploy the OpenShift Virtualization Operator by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Prerequisites
- Install OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 on your cluster.
-
Log in to the OpenShift Container Platform web console as a user with
cluster-admin
permissions.
Procedure
- From the Administrator perspective, click Operators → OperatorHub.
- In the Filter by keyword field, type Virtualization.
- Select the OpenShift Virtualization Operator tile with the Red Hat source label.
- Read the information about the Operator and click Install.
On the Install Operator page:
- Select stable from the list of available Update Channel options. This ensures that you install the version of OpenShift Virtualization that is compatible with your OpenShift Container Platform version.
For Installed Namespace, ensure that the Operator recommended namespace option is selected. This installs the Operator in the mandatory
openshift-cnv
namespace, which is automatically created if it does not exist.WarningAttempting to install the OpenShift Virtualization Operator in a namespace other than
openshift-cnv
causes the installation to fail.For Approval Strategy, it is highly recommended that you select Automatic, which is the default value, so that OpenShift Virtualization automatically updates when a new version is available in the stable update channel.
While it is possible to select the Manual approval strategy, this is inadvisable because of the high risk that it presents to the supportability and functionality of your cluster. Only select Manual if you fully understand these risks and cannot use Automatic.
WarningBecause OpenShift Virtualization is only supported when used with the corresponding OpenShift Container Platform version, missing OpenShift Virtualization updates can cause your cluster to become unsupported.
-
Click Install to make the Operator available to the
openshift-cnv
namespace. - When the Operator installs successfully, click Create HyperConverged.
- Optional: Configure Infra and Workloads node placement options for OpenShift Virtualization components.
- Click Create to launch OpenShift Virtualization.
Verification
- Navigate to the Workloads → Pods page and monitor the OpenShift Virtualization pods until they are all Running. After all the pods display the Running state, you can use OpenShift Virtualization.
4.2.1.2. Installing the OpenShift Virtualization Operator by using the command line
Subscribe to the OpenShift Virtualization catalog and install the OpenShift Virtualization Operator by applying manifests to your cluster.
4.2.1.2.1. Subscribing to the OpenShift Virtualization catalog by using the CLI
Before you install OpenShift Virtualization, you must subscribe to the OpenShift Virtualization catalog. Subscribing gives the openshift-cnv
namespace access to the OpenShift Virtualization Operators.
To subscribe, configure Namespace
, OperatorGroup
, and Subscription
objects by applying a single manifest to your cluster.
Prerequisites
- Install OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 on your cluster.
-
Install the OpenShift CLI (
oc
). -
Log in as a user with
cluster-admin
privileges.
Procedure
Create a YAML file that contains the following manifest:
apiVersion: v1 kind: Namespace metadata: name: openshift-cnv --- apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1 kind: OperatorGroup metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged-group namespace: openshift-cnv spec: targetNamespaces: - openshift-cnv --- apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1 kind: Subscription metadata: name: hco-operatorhub namespace: openshift-cnv spec: source: redhat-operators sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace name: kubevirt-hyperconverged startingCSV: kubevirt-hyperconverged-operator.v4.17.0 channel: "stable" 1
- 1
- Using the
stable
channel ensures that you install the version of OpenShift Virtualization that is compatible with your OpenShift Container Platform version.
Create the required
Namespace
,OperatorGroup
, andSubscription
objects for OpenShift Virtualization by running the following command:$ oc apply -f <file name>.yaml
You can configure certificate rotation parameters in the YAML file.
4.2.1.2.2. Deploying the OpenShift Virtualization Operator by using the CLI
You can deploy the OpenShift Virtualization Operator by using the oc
CLI.
Prerequisites
-
Subscribe to the OpenShift Virtualization catalog in the
openshift-cnv
namespace. -
Log in as a user with
cluster-admin
privileges.
Procedure
Create a YAML file that contains the following manifest:
apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged namespace: openshift-cnv spec:
Deploy the OpenShift Virtualization Operator by running the following command:
$ oc apply -f <file_name>.yaml
Verification
Ensure that OpenShift Virtualization deployed successfully by watching the
PHASE
of the cluster service version (CSV) in theopenshift-cnv
namespace. Run the following command:$ watch oc get csv -n openshift-cnv
The following output displays if deployment was successful:
Example output
NAME DISPLAY VERSION REPLACES PHASE kubevirt-hyperconverged-operator.v4.17.0 OpenShift Virtualization 4.17.0 Succeeded
4.2.2. Next steps
- The hostpath provisioner is a local storage provisioner designed for OpenShift Virtualization. If you want to configure local storage for virtual machines, you must enable the hostpath provisioner first.
4.3. Uninstalling OpenShift Virtualization
You uninstall OpenShift Virtualization by using the web console or the command line interface (CLI) to delete the OpenShift Virtualization workloads, the Operator, and its resources.
4.3.1. Uninstalling OpenShift Virtualization by using the web console
You uninstall OpenShift Virtualization by using the web console to perform the following tasks:
You must first delete all virtual machines, and virtual machine instances.
You cannot uninstall OpenShift Virtualization while its workloads remain on the cluster.
4.3.1.1. Deleting the HyperConverged custom resource
To uninstall OpenShift Virtualization, you first delete the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR).
Prerequisites
-
You have access to an OpenShift Container Platform cluster using an account with
cluster-admin
permissions.
Procedure
- Navigate to the Operators → Installed Operators page.
- Select the OpenShift Virtualization Operator.
- Click the OpenShift Virtualization Deployment tab.
-
Click the Options menu
beside
kubevirt-hyperconverged
and select Delete HyperConverged. - Click Delete in the confirmation window.
4.3.1.2. Deleting Operators from a cluster using the web console
Cluster administrators can delete installed Operators from a selected namespace by using the web console.
Prerequisites
-
You have access to an OpenShift Container Platform cluster web console using an account with
cluster-admin
permissions.
Procedure
- Navigate to the Operators → Installed Operators page.
- Scroll or enter a keyword into the Filter by name field to find the Operator that you want to remove. Then, click on it.
On the right side of the Operator Details page, select Uninstall Operator from the Actions list.
An Uninstall Operator? dialog box is displayed.
Select Uninstall to remove the Operator, Operator deployments, and pods. Following this action, the Operator stops running and no longer receives updates.
NoteThis action does not remove resources managed by the Operator, including custom resource definitions (CRDs) and custom resources (CRs). Dashboards and navigation items enabled by the web console and off-cluster resources that continue to run might need manual clean up. To remove these after uninstalling the Operator, you might need to manually delete the Operator CRDs.
4.3.1.3. Deleting a namespace using the web console
You can delete a namespace by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Prerequisites
-
You have access to an OpenShift Container Platform cluster using an account with
cluster-admin
permissions.
Procedure
- Navigate to Administration → Namespaces.
- Locate the namespace that you want to delete in the list of namespaces.
- On the far right side of the namespace listing, select Delete Namespace from the Options menu .
- When the Delete Namespace pane opens, enter the name of the namespace that you want to delete in the field.
- Click Delete.
4.3.1.4. Deleting OpenShift Virtualization custom resource definitions
You can delete the OpenShift Virtualization custom resource definitions (CRDs) by using the web console.
Prerequisites
-
You have access to an OpenShift Container Platform cluster using an account with
cluster-admin
permissions.
Procedure
- Navigate to Administration → CustomResourceDefinitions.
-
Select the Label filter and enter
operators.coreos.com/kubevirt-hyperconverged.openshift-cnv
in the Search field to display the OpenShift Virtualization CRDs. - Click the Options menu beside each CRD and select Delete CustomResourceDefinition.
4.3.2. Uninstalling OpenShift Virtualization by using the CLI
You can uninstall OpenShift Virtualization by using the OpenShift CLI (oc
).
Prerequisites
-
You have access to an OpenShift Container Platform cluster using an account with
cluster-admin
permissions. -
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
). - You have deleted all virtual machines and virtual machine instances. You cannot uninstall OpenShift Virtualization while its workloads remain on the cluster.
Procedure
Delete the
HyperConverged
custom resource:$ oc delete HyperConverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Delete the OpenShift Virtualization Operator subscription:
$ oc delete subscription kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Delete the OpenShift Virtualization
ClusterServiceVersion
resource:$ oc delete csv -n openshift-cnv -l operators.coreos.com/kubevirt-hyperconverged.openshift-cnv
Delete the OpenShift Virtualization namespace:
$ oc delete namespace openshift-cnv
List the OpenShift Virtualization custom resource definitions (CRDs) by running the
oc delete crd
command with thedry-run
option:$ oc delete crd --dry-run=client -l operators.coreos.com/kubevirt-hyperconverged.openshift-cnv
Example output
customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io "cdis.cdi.kubevirt.io" deleted (dry run) customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io "hostpathprovisioners.hostpathprovisioner.kubevirt.io" deleted (dry run) customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io "hyperconvergeds.hco.kubevirt.io" deleted (dry run) customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io "kubevirts.kubevirt.io" deleted (dry run) customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io "networkaddonsconfigs.networkaddonsoperator.network.kubevirt.io" deleted (dry run) customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io "ssps.ssp.kubevirt.io" deleted (dry run) customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io "tektontasks.tektontasks.kubevirt.io" deleted (dry run)
Delete the CRDs by running the
oc delete crd
command without thedry-run
option:$ oc delete crd -l operators.coreos.com/kubevirt-hyperconverged.openshift-cnv
Additional resources
Chapter 5. Postinstallation configuration
5.1. Postinstallation configuration
The following procedures are typically performed after OpenShift Virtualization is installed. You can configure the components that are relevant for your environment:
- Node placement rules for OpenShift Virtualization Operators, workloads, and controllers
- Installing the Kubernetes NMState and SR-IOV Operators
- Configuring a Linux bridge network for external access to virtual machines (VMs)
- Configuring a dedicated secondary network for live migration
- Configuring an SR-IOV network
- Enabling the creation of load balancer services by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console
- Defining a default storage class for the Container Storage Interface (CSI)
- Configuring local storage by using the Hostpath Provisioner (HPP)
5.2. Specifying nodes for OpenShift Virtualization components
The default scheduling for virtual machines (VMs) on bare metal nodes is appropriate. Optionally, you can specify the nodes where you want to deploy OpenShift Virtualization Operators, workloads, and controllers by configuring node placement rules.
You can configure node placement rules for some components after installing OpenShift Virtualization, but virtual machines cannot be present if you want to configure node placement rules for workloads.
5.2.1. About node placement rules for OpenShift Virtualization components
You can use node placement rules for the following tasks:
- Deploy virtual machines only on nodes intended for virtualization workloads.
- Deploy Operators only on infrastructure nodes.
- Maintain separation between workloads.
Depending on the object, you can use one or more of the following rule types:
nodeSelector
- Allows pods to be scheduled on nodes that are labeled with the key-value pair or pairs that you specify in this field. The node must have labels that exactly match all listed pairs.
affinity
- Enables you to use more expressive syntax to set rules that match nodes with pods. Affinity also allows for more nuance in how the rules are applied. For example, you can specify that a rule is a preference, not a requirement. If a rule is a preference, pods are still scheduled when the rule is not satisfied.
tolerations
- Allows pods to be scheduled on nodes that have matching taints. If a taint is applied to a node, that node only accepts pods that tolerate the taint.
5.2.2. Applying node placement rules
You can apply node placement rules by editing a Subscription
, HyperConverged
, or HostPathProvisioner
object using the command line.
Prerequisites
-
The
oc
CLI tool is installed. - You are logged in with cluster administrator permissions.
Procedure
Edit the object in your default editor by running the following command:
$ oc edit <resource_type> <resource_name> -n {CNVNamespace}
- Save the file to apply the changes.
5.2.3. Node placement rule examples
You can specify node placement rules for a OpenShift Virtualization component by editing a Subscription
, HyperConverged
, or HostPathProvisioner
object.
5.2.3.1. Subscription object node placement rule examples
To specify the nodes where OLM deploys the OpenShift Virtualization Operators, edit the Subscription
object during OpenShift Virtualization installation.
Currently, you cannot configure node placement rules for the Subscription
object by using the web console.
The Subscription
object does not support the affinity
node pplacement rule.
Example Subscription
object with nodeSelector
rule
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
name: hco-operatorhub
namespace: openshift-cnv
spec:
source: redhat-operators
sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
name: kubevirt-hyperconverged
startingCSV: kubevirt-hyperconverged-operator.v4.17.0
channel: "stable"
config:
nodeSelector:
example.io/example-infra-key: example-infra-value 1
- 1
- OLM deploys the OpenShift Virtualization Operators on nodes labeled
example.io/example-infra-key = example-infra-value
.
Example Subscription
object with tolerations
rule
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
name: hco-operatorhub
namespace: openshift-cnv
spec:
source: redhat-operators
sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
name: kubevirt-hyperconverged
startingCSV: kubevirt-hyperconverged-operator.v4.17.0
channel: "stable"
config:
tolerations:
- key: "key"
operator: "Equal"
value: "virtualization" 1
effect: "NoSchedule"
- 1
- OLM deploys OpenShift Virtualization Operators on nodes labeled
key = virtualization:NoSchedule
taint. Only pods with the matching tolerations are scheduled on these nodes.
5.2.3.2. HyperConverged object node placement rule example
To specify the nodes where OpenShift Virtualization deploys its components, you can edit the nodePlacement
object in the HyperConverged custom resource (CR) file that you create during OpenShift Virtualization installation.
Example HyperConverged
object with nodeSelector
rule
apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged namespace: openshift-cnv spec: infra: nodePlacement: nodeSelector: example.io/example-infra-key: example-infra-value 1 workloads: nodePlacement: nodeSelector: example.io/example-workloads-key: example-workloads-value 2
Example HyperConverged
object with affinity
rule
apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged namespace: openshift-cnv spec: infra: nodePlacement: affinity: nodeAffinity: requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution: nodeSelectorTerms: - matchExpressions: - key: example.io/example-infra-key operator: In values: - example-infra-value 1 workloads: nodePlacement: affinity: nodeAffinity: requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution: nodeSelectorTerms: - matchExpressions: - key: example.io/example-workloads-key 2 operator: In values: - example-workloads-value preferredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution: - weight: 1 preference: matchExpressions: - key: example.io/num-cpus operator: Gt values: - 8 3
- 1
- Infrastructure resources are placed on nodes labeled
example.io/example-infra-key = example-value
. - 2
- workloads are placed on nodes labeled
example.io/example-workloads-key = example-workloads-value
. - 3
- Nodes that have more than eight CPUs are preferred for workloads, but if they are not available, pods are still scheduled.
Example HyperConverged
object with tolerations
rule
apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1
kind: HyperConverged
metadata:
name: kubevirt-hyperconverged
namespace: openshift-cnv
spec:
workloads:
nodePlacement:
tolerations: 1
- key: "key"
operator: "Equal"
value: "virtualization"
effect: "NoSchedule"
- 1
- Nodes reserved for OpenShift Virtualization components are labeled with the
key = virtualization:NoSchedule
taint. Only pods with matching tolerations are scheduled on reserved nodes.
5.2.3.3. HostPathProvisioner object node placement rule example
You can edit the HostPathProvisioner
object directly or by using the web console.
You must schedule the hostpath provisioner and the OpenShift Virtualization components on the same nodes. Otherwise, virtualization pods that use the hostpath provisioner cannot run. You cannot run virtual machines.
After you deploy a virtual machine (VM) with the hostpath provisioner (HPP) storage class, you can remove the hostpath provisioner pod from the same node by using the node selector. However, you must first revert that change, at least for that specific node, and wait for the pod to run before trying to delete the VM.
You can configure node placement rules by specifying nodeSelector
, affinity
, or tolerations
for the spec.workload
field of the HostPathProvisioner
object that you create when you install the hostpath provisioner.
Example HostPathProvisioner
object with nodeSelector
rule
apiVersion: hostpathprovisioner.kubevirt.io/v1beta1
kind: HostPathProvisioner
metadata:
name: hostpath-provisioner
spec:
imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
pathConfig:
path: "</path/to/backing/directory>"
useNamingPrefix: false
workload:
nodeSelector:
example.io/example-workloads-key: example-workloads-value 1
- 1
- Workloads are placed on nodes labeled
example.io/example-workloads-key = example-workloads-value
.
5.2.4. Additional resources
5.3. Postinstallation network configuration
By default, OpenShift Virtualization is installed with a single, internal pod network.
After you install OpenShift Virtualization, you can install networking Operators and configure additional networks.
5.3.1. Installing networking Operators
You must install the About the Kubernetes NMState Operator to configure a Linux bridge network for live migration or external access to virtual machines (VMs). For installation instructions, see Installing the Kubernetes NMState Operator by using the web console.
You can install the SR-IOV Operator to manage SR-IOV network devices and network attachments. For installation instructions, see Installing the SR-IOV Network Operator..
You can add the About MetalLB and the MetalLB Operator to manage the lifecycle for an instance of MetalLB on your cluster. For installation instructions, see Installing the MetalLB Operator from the OperatorHub using the web console.
5.3.2. Configuring a Linux bridge network
After you install the Kubernetes NMState Operator, you can configure a Linux bridge network for live migration or external access to virtual machines (VMs).
5.3.2.1. Creating a Linux bridge NNCP
You can create a NodeNetworkConfigurationPolicy
(NNCP) manifest for a Linux bridge network.
Prerequisites
- You have installed the Kubernetes NMState Operator.
Procedure
Create the
NodeNetworkConfigurationPolicy
manifest. This example includes sample values that you must replace with your own information.apiVersion: nmstate.io/v1 kind: NodeNetworkConfigurationPolicy metadata: name: br1-eth1-policy 1 spec: desiredState: interfaces: - name: br1 2 description: Linux bridge with eth1 as a port 3 type: linux-bridge 4 state: up 5 ipv4: enabled: false 6 bridge: options: stp: enabled: false 7 port: - name: eth1 8
- 1
- Name of the policy.
- 2
- Name of the interface.
- 3
- Optional: Human-readable description of the interface.
- 4
- The type of interface. This example creates a bridge.
- 5
- The requested state for the interface after creation.
- 6
- Disables IPv4 in this example.
- 7
- Disables STP in this example.
- 8
- The node NIC to which the bridge is attached.
5.3.2.2. Creating a Linux bridge NAD by using the web console
You can create a network attachment definition (NAD) to provide layer-2 networking to pods and virtual machines by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
A Linux bridge network attachment definition is the most efficient method for connecting a virtual machine to a VLAN.
Configuring IP address management (IPAM) in a network attachment definition for virtual machines is not supported.
Procedure
- In the web console, click Networking → NetworkAttachmentDefinitions.
Click Create Network Attachment Definition.
NoteThe network attachment definition must be in the same namespace as the pod or virtual machine.
- Enter a unique Name and optional Description.
- Select CNV Linux bridge from the Network Type list.
- Enter the name of the bridge in the Bridge Name field.
- Optional: If the resource has VLAN IDs configured, enter the ID numbers in the VLAN Tag Number field.
- Optional: Select MAC Spoof Check to enable MAC spoof filtering. This feature provides security against a MAC spoofing attack by allowing only a single MAC address to exit the pod.
- Click Create.
5.3.3. Configuring a network for live migration
After you have configured a Linux bridge network, you can configure a dedicated network for live migration. A dedicated network minimizes the effects of network saturation on tenant workloads during live migration.
5.3.3.1. Configuring a dedicated secondary network for live migration
To configure a dedicated secondary network for live migration, you must first create a bridge network attachment definition (NAD) by using the CLI. Then, you add the name of the NetworkAttachmentDefinition
object to the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR).
Prerequisites
-
You installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
). -
You logged in to the cluster as a user with the
cluster-admin
role. - Each node has at least two Network Interface Cards (NICs).
- The NICs for live migration are connected to the same VLAN.
Procedure
Create a
NetworkAttachmentDefinition
manifest according to the following example:Example configuration file
apiVersion: "k8s.cni.cncf.io/v1" kind: NetworkAttachmentDefinition metadata: name: my-secondary-network 1 namespace: openshift-cnv spec: config: '{ "cniVersion": "0.3.1", "name": "migration-bridge", "type": "macvlan", "master": "eth1", 2 "mode": "bridge", "ipam": { "type": "whereabouts", 3 "range": "10.200.5.0/24" 4 } }'
- 1
- Specify the name of the
NetworkAttachmentDefinition
object. - 2
- Specify the name of the NIC to be used for live migration.
- 3
- Specify the name of the CNI plugin that provides the network for the NAD.
- 4
- Specify an IP address range for the secondary network. This range must not overlap the IP addresses of the main network.
Open the
HyperConverged
CR in your default editor by running the following command:oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Add the name of the
NetworkAttachmentDefinition
object to thespec.liveMigrationConfig
stanza of theHyperConverged
CR:Example
HyperConverged
manifestapiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged spec: liveMigrationConfig: completionTimeoutPerGiB: 800 network: <network> 1 parallelMigrationsPerCluster: 5 parallelOutboundMigrationsPerNode: 2 progressTimeout: 150 # ...
- 1
- Specify the name of the Multus
NetworkAttachmentDefinition
object to be used for live migrations.
-
Save your changes and exit the editor. The
virt-handler
pods restart and connect to the secondary network.
Verification
When the node that the virtual machine runs on is placed into maintenance mode, the VM automatically migrates to another node in the cluster. You can verify that the migration occurred over the secondary network and not the default pod network by checking the target IP address in the virtual machine instance (VMI) metadata.
$ oc get vmi <vmi_name> -o jsonpath='{.status.migrationState.targetNodeAddress}'
5.3.3.2. Selecting a dedicated network by using the web console
You can select a dedicated network for live migration by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Prerequisites
- You configured a Multus network for live migration.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization > Overview in the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
- Click the Settings tab and then click Live migration.
- Select the network from the Live migration network list.
5.3.4. Configuring an SR-IOV network
After you install the SR-IOV Operator, you can configure an SR-IOV network.
5.3.4.1. Configuring SR-IOV network devices
The SR-IOV Network Operator adds the SriovNetworkNodePolicy.sriovnetwork.openshift.io
CustomResourceDefinition to OpenShift Container Platform. You can configure an SR-IOV network device by creating a SriovNetworkNodePolicy custom resource (CR).
When applying the configuration specified in a SriovNetworkNodePolicy
object, the SR-IOV Operator might drain the nodes, and in some cases, reboot nodes. Reboot only happens in the following cases:
-
With Mellanox NICs (
mlx5
driver) a node reboot happens every time the number of virtual functions (VFs) increase on a physical function (PF). -
With Intel NICs, a reboot only happens if the kernel parameters do not include
intel_iommu=on
andiommu=pt
.
It might take several minutes for a configuration change to apply.
Prerequisites
-
You installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
). -
You have access to the cluster as a user with the
cluster-admin
role. - You have installed the SR-IOV Network Operator.
- You have enough available nodes in your cluster to handle the evicted workload from drained nodes.
- You have not selected any control plane nodes for SR-IOV network device configuration.
Procedure
Create an
SriovNetworkNodePolicy
object, and then save the YAML in the<name>-sriov-node-network.yaml
file. Replace<name>
with the name for this configuration.apiVersion: sriovnetwork.openshift.io/v1 kind: SriovNetworkNodePolicy metadata: name: <name> 1 namespace: openshift-sriov-network-operator 2 spec: resourceName: <sriov_resource_name> 3 nodeSelector: feature.node.kubernetes.io/network-sriov.capable: "true" 4 priority: <priority> 5 mtu: <mtu> 6 numVfs: <num> 7 nicSelector: 8 vendor: "<vendor_code>" 9 deviceID: "<device_id>" 10 pfNames: ["<pf_name>", ...] 11 rootDevices: ["<pci_bus_id>", "..."] 12 deviceType: vfio-pci 13 isRdma: false 14
- 1
- Specify a name for the CR object.
- 2
- Specify the namespace where the SR-IOV Operator is installed.
- 3
- Specify the resource name of the SR-IOV device plugin. You can create multiple
SriovNetworkNodePolicy
objects for a resource name. - 4
- Specify the node selector to select which nodes are configured. Only SR-IOV network devices on selected nodes are configured. The SR-IOV Container Network Interface (CNI) plugin and device plugin are deployed only on selected nodes.
- 5
- Optional: Specify an integer value between
0
and99
. A smaller number gets higher priority, so a priority of10
is higher than a priority of99
. The default value is99
. - 6
- Optional: Specify a value for the maximum transmission unit (MTU) of the virtual function. The maximum MTU value can vary for different NIC models.
- 7
- Specify the number of the virtual functions (VF) to create for the SR-IOV physical network device. For an Intel network interface controller (NIC), the number of VFs cannot be larger than the total VFs supported by the device. For a Mellanox NIC, the number of VFs cannot be larger than
127
. - 8
- The
nicSelector
mapping selects the Ethernet device for the Operator to configure. You do not need to specify values for all the parameters. It is recommended to identify the Ethernet adapter with enough precision to minimize the possibility of selecting an Ethernet device unintentionally. If you specifyrootDevices
, you must also specify a value forvendor
,deviceID
, orpfNames
. If you specify bothpfNames
androotDevices
at the same time, ensure that they point to an identical device. - 9
- Optional: Specify the vendor hex code of the SR-IOV network device. The only allowed values are either
8086
or15b3
. - 10
- Optional: Specify the device hex code of SR-IOV network device. The only allowed values are
158b
,1015
,1017
. - 11
- Optional: The parameter accepts an array of one or more physical function (PF) names for the Ethernet device.
- 12
- The parameter accepts an array of one or more PCI bus addresses for the physical function of the Ethernet device. Provide the address in the following format:
0000:02:00.1
. - 13
- The
vfio-pci
driver type is required for virtual functions in OpenShift Virtualization. - 14
- Optional: Specify whether to enable remote direct memory access (RDMA) mode. For a Mellanox card, set
isRdma
tofalse
. The default value isfalse
.
NoteIf
isRDMA
flag is set totrue
, you can continue to use the RDMA enabled VF as a normal network device. A device can be used in either mode.-
Optional: Label the SR-IOV capable cluster nodes with
SriovNetworkNodePolicy.Spec.NodeSelector
if they are not already labeled. For more information about labeling nodes, see "Understanding how to update labels on nodes". Create the
SriovNetworkNodePolicy
object:$ oc create -f <name>-sriov-node-network.yaml
where
<name>
specifies the name for this configuration.After applying the configuration update, all the pods in
sriov-network-operator
namespace transition to theRunning
status.To verify that the SR-IOV network device is configured, enter the following command. Replace
<node_name>
with the name of a node with the SR-IOV network device that you just configured.$ oc get sriovnetworknodestates -n openshift-sriov-network-operator <node_name> -o jsonpath='{.status.syncStatus}'
5.3.5. Enabling load balancer service creation by using the web console
You can enable the creation of load balancer services for a virtual machine (VM) by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Prerequisites
- You have configured a load balancer for the cluster.
-
You are logged in as a user with the
cluster-admin
role.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → Overview.
- On the Settings tab, click Cluster.
- Expand General settings and SSH configuration.
- Set SSH over LoadBalancer service to on.
5.4. Postinstallation storage configuration
The following storage configuration tasks are mandatory:
- You must configure a default storage class for your cluster. Otherwise, the cluster cannot receive automated boot source updates.
- You must configure storage profiles if your storage provider is not recognized by CDI. A storage profile provides recommended storage settings based on the associated storage class.
Optional: You can configure local storage by using the hostpath provisioner (HPP).
See the storage configuration overview for more options, including configuring the Containerized Data Importer (CDI), data volumes, and automatic boot source updates.
5.4.1. Configuring local storage by using the HPP
When you install the OpenShift Virtualization Operator, the Hostpath Provisioner (HPP) Operator is automatically installed. The HPP Operator creates the HPP provisioner.
The HPP is a local storage provisioner designed for OpenShift Virtualization. To use the HPP, you must create an HPP custom resource (CR).
HPP storage pools must not be in the same partition as the operating system. Otherwise, the storage pools might fill the operating system partition. If the operating system partition is full, performance can be effected or the node can become unstable or unusable.
5.4.1.1. Creating a storage class for the CSI driver with the storagePools stanza
To use the hostpath provisioner (HPP) you must create an associated storage class for the Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver.
When you create a storage class, you set parameters that affect the dynamic provisioning of persistent volumes (PVs) that belong to that storage class. You cannot update a StorageClass
object’s parameters after you create it.
Virtual machines use data volumes that are based on local PVs. Local PVs are bound to specific nodes. While a disk image is prepared for consumption by the virtual machine, it is possible that the virtual machine cannot be scheduled to the node where the local storage PV was previously pinned.
To solve this problem, use the Kubernetes pod scheduler to bind the persistent volume claim (PVC) to a PV on the correct node. By using the StorageClass
value with volumeBindingMode
parameter set to WaitForFirstConsumer
, the binding and provisioning of the PV is delayed until a pod is created using the PVC.
Procedure
Create a
storageclass_csi.yaml
file to define the storage class:apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1 kind: StorageClass metadata: name: hostpath-csi provisioner: kubevirt.io.hostpath-provisioner reclaimPolicy: Delete 1 volumeBindingMode: WaitForFirstConsumer 2 parameters: storagePool: my-storage-pool 3
- 1
- The two possible
reclaimPolicy
values areDelete
andRetain
. If you do not specify a value, the default value isDelete
. - 2
- The
volumeBindingMode
parameter determines when dynamic provisioning and volume binding occur. SpecifyWaitForFirstConsumer
to delay the binding and provisioning of a persistent volume (PV) until after a pod that uses the persistent volume claim (PVC) is created. This ensures that the PV meets the pod’s scheduling requirements. - 3
- Specify the name of the storage pool defined in the HPP CR.
- Save the file and exit.
Create the
StorageClass
object by running the following command:$ oc create -f storageclass_csi.yaml
5.5. Configuring higher VM workload density
You can increase the number of virtual machines (VMs) on nodes by overcommitting memory (RAM). Increasing VM workload density can be useful in the following situations:
- You have many similar workloads.
- You have underused workloads.
Memory overcommitment can lower workload performance on a highly utilized system.
5.5.1. Using wasp-agent to increase VM workload density
The wasp-agent
component facilitates memory overcommitment by assigning swap resources to worker nodes. It also manages pod evictions when nodes are at risk due to high swap I/O traffic or high utilization.
Swap resources can be only assigned to virtual machine workloads (VM pods) of the Burstable
Quality of Service (QoS) class. VM pods of the Guaranteed
QoS class and pods of any QoS class that do not belong to VMs cannot swap resources.
For descriptions of QoS classes, see Configure Quality of Service for Pods (Kubernetes documentation).
Prerequisites
-
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
). -
You are logged into the cluster with the
cluster-admin
role. - A memory overcommit ratio is defined.
- The node belongs to a worker pool.
The wasp-agent
component deploys an Open Container Initiative (OCI) hook to enable swap usage for containers on the node level. The low-level nature requires the DaemonSet
object to be privileged.
Procedure
Configure the
kubelet
service to permit swap usage:Create or edit a
KubeletConfig
file with the parameters shown in the following example:Example of a
KubeletConfig
fileapiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1 kind: KubeletConfig metadata: name: custom-config spec: machineConfigPoolSelector: matchLabels: pools.operator.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/worker: '' # MCP #machine.openshift.io/cluster-api-machine-role: worker # machine #node-role.kubernetes.io/worker: '' # node kubeletConfig: failSwapOn: false
Wait for the worker nodes to sync with the new configuration by running the following command:
$ oc wait mcp worker --for condition=Updated=True --timeout=-1s
Provision swap by creating a
MachineConfig
object. For example:apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1 kind: MachineConfig metadata: labels: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker name: 90-worker-swap spec: config: ignition: version: 3.4.0 systemd: units: - contents: | [Unit] Description=Provision and enable swap ConditionFirstBoot=no [Service] Type=oneshot Environment=SWAP_SIZE_MB=5000 ExecStart=/bin/sh -c "sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/var/tmp/swapfile count=${SWAP_SIZE_MB} bs=1M && \ sudo chmod 600 /var/tmp/swapfile && \ sudo mkswap /var/tmp/swapfile && \ sudo swapon /var/tmp/swapfile && \ free -h && \ sudo systemctl set-property --runtime system.slice MemorySwapMax=0 IODeviceLatencyTargetSec=\"/ 50ms\"" [Install] RequiredBy=kubelet-dependencies.target enabled: true name: swap-provision.service
To have enough swap space for the worst-case scenario, make sure to have at least as much swap space provisioned as overcommitted RAM. Calculate the amount of swap space to be provisioned on a node by using the following formula:
NODE_SWAP_SPACE = NODE_RAM * (MEMORY_OVER_COMMIT_PERCENT / 100% - 1)
Example
NODE_SWAP_SPACE = 16 GB * (150% / 100% - 1) = 16 GB * (1.5 - 1) = 16 GB * (0.5) = 8 GB
Create a privileged service account by running the following commands:
$ oc adm new-project wasp
$ oc create sa -n wasp wasp
$ oc create clusterrolebinding wasp --clusterrole=cluster-admin --serviceaccount=wasp:wasp
$ oc adm policy add-scc-to-user -n wasp privileged -z wasp
Wait for the worker nodes to sync with the new configuration by running the following command:
$ oc wait mcp worker --for condition=Updated=True --timeout=-1s
Determine the pull URL for the wasp agent image by running the following command:
$ oc get csv -n openshift-cnv -l=operators.coreos.com/kubevirt-hyperconverged.openshift-cnv -ojson | jq '.items[0].spec.relatedImages[] | select(.name|test(".*wasp-agent.*")) | .image'
Deploy
wasp-agent
by creating aDaemonSet
object as shown in the following example:kind: DaemonSet apiVersion: apps/v1 metadata: name: wasp-agent namespace: wasp labels: app: wasp tier: node spec: selector: matchLabels: name: wasp template: metadata: annotations: description: >- Configures swap for workloads labels: name: wasp spec: containers: - env: - name: SWAP_UTILIZATION_THRESHOLD_FACTOR value: "0.8" - name: MAX_AVERAGE_SWAP_IN_PAGES_PER_SECOND value: "1000" - name: MAX_AVERAGE_SWAP_OUT_PAGES_PER_SECOND value: "1000" - name: AVERAGE_WINDOW_SIZE_SECONDS value: "30" - name: VERBOSITY value: "1" - name: FSROOT value: /host - name: NODE_NAME valueFrom: fieldRef: fieldPath: spec.nodeName image: >- quay.io/openshift-virtualization/wasp-agent:v4.17 1 imagePullPolicy: Always name: wasp-agent resources: requests: cpu: 100m memory: 50M securityContext: privileged: true volumeMounts: - mountPath: /host name: host - mountPath: /rootfs name: rootfs hostPID: true hostUsers: true priorityClassName: system-node-critical serviceAccountName: wasp terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 5 volumes: - hostPath: path: / name: host - hostPath: path: / name: rootfs updateStrategy: type: RollingUpdate rollingUpdate: maxUnavailable: 10% maxSurge: 0
- 1
- Replace the
image
value with the image URL from the previous step.
Deploy alerting rules by creating a
PrometheusRule
object. For example:apiVersion: monitoring.coreos.com/v1 kind: PrometheusRule metadata: labels: tier: node wasp.io: "" name: wasp-rules namespace: wasp spec: groups: - name: alerts.rules rules: - alert: NodeHighSwapActivity annotations: description: High swap activity detected at {{ $labels.instance }}. The rate of swap out and swap in exceeds 200 in both operations in the last minute. This could indicate memory pressure and may affect system performance. runbook_url: https://github.com/openshift-virtualization/wasp-agent/tree/main/docs/runbooks/NodeHighSwapActivity.md summary: High swap activity detected at {{ $labels.instance }}. expr: rate(node_vmstat_pswpout[1m]) > 200 and rate(node_vmstat_pswpin[1m]) > 200 for: 1m labels: kubernetes_operator_component: kubevirt kubernetes_operator_part_of: kubevirt operator_health_impact: warning severity: warning
Add the
cluster-monitoring
label to thewasp
namespace by running the following command:$ oc label namespace wasp openshift.io/cluster-monitoring="true"
Enable memory overcommitment in OpenShift Virtualization by using the web console or the CLI.
Web console
- In the OpenShift Container Platform web console, go to Virtualization → Overview → Settings → General settings → Memory density.
- Set Enable memory density to on.
CLI
Run the following command:
$ oc patch --type=merge \ -f <../manifests/openshift/hco-set-memory-overcommit.yaml> \ --patch-file <../manifests/openshift/hco-set-memory-overcommit.yaml>
Verification
To verify the deployment of
wasp-agent
, run the following command:$ oc rollout status ds wasp-agent -n wasp
If the deployment is successful, the following message is displayed:
Example output
daemon set "wasp-agent" successfully rolled out
To verify that swap is correctly provisioned, complete the following steps:
View a list of worker nodes by running the following command:
$ oc get nodes -l node-role.kubernetes.io/worker
Select a node from the list and display its memory usage by running the following command:
$ oc debug node/<selected_node> -- free -m 1
- 1
- Replace
<selected_node>
with the node name.
If swap is provisioned, an amount greater than zero is displayed in the
Swap:
row.Table 5.1. Example output total
used
free
shared
buff/cache
available
Mem:
31846
23155
1044
6014
14483
8690
Swap:
8191
2337
5854
Verify the OpenShift Virtualization memory overcommitment configuration by running the following command:
$ oc get -n openshift-cnv HyperConverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -o jsonpath="{.spec.higherWorkloadDensity.memoryOvercommitPercentage}"
Example output
150
The returned value must match the value you had previously configured.
5.5.2. Pod eviction conditions used by wasp-agent
The wasp agent manages pod eviction when the system is heavily loaded and nodes are at risk. Eviction is triggered if one of the following conditions is met:
- High swap I/O traffic
This condition is met when swap-related I/O traffic is excessively high.
Condition
averageSwapInPerSecond > maxAverageSwapInPagesPerSecond && averageSwapOutPerSecond > maxAverageSwapOutPagesPerSecond
By default,
maxAverageSwapInPagesPerSecond
andmaxAverageSwapOutPagesPerSecond
are set to 1000 pages. The default time interval for calculating the average is 30 seconds.- High swap utilization
This condition is met when swap utilization is excessively high, causing the current virtual memory usage to exceed the factored threshold. The
NODE_SWAP_SPACE
setting in yourMachineConfig
object can impact this condition.Condition
nodeWorkingSet + nodeSwapUsage < totalNodeMemory + totalSwapMemory × thresholdFactor
5.5.2.1. Environment variables
You can use the following environment variables to adjust the values used to calculate eviction conditions:
Environment variable | Function |
|
Sets the value of |
|
Sets the value of |
|
Sets the |
| Sets the time interval for calculating the average swap usage. |
Chapter 6. Updating
6.1. Updating OpenShift Virtualization
Learn how Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) delivers z-stream and minor version updates for OpenShift Virtualization.
6.1.1. OpenShift Virtualization on RHEL 9
OpenShift Virtualization 4.17 is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9. You can update to OpenShift Virtualization 4.17 from a version that was based on RHEL 8 by following the standard OpenShift Virtualization update procedure. No additional steps are required.
As in previous versions, you can perform the update without disrupting running workloads. OpenShift Virtualization 4.17 supports live migration from RHEL 8 nodes to RHEL 9 nodes.
6.1.1.1. RHEL 9 machine type
All VM templates that are included with OpenShift Virtualization now use the RHEL 9 machine type by default: machineType: pc-q35-rhel9.<y>.0
, where <y>
is a single digit corresponding to the latest minor version of RHEL 9. For example, the value pc-q35-rhel9.2.0
is used for RHEL 9.2.
Updating OpenShift Virtualization does not change the machineType
value of any existing VMs. These VMs continue to function as they did before the update. You can optionally change a VM’s machine type so that it can benefit from RHEL 9 improvements.
Before you change a VM’s machineType
value, you must shut down the VM.
6.1.2. About updating OpenShift Virtualization
- Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) manages the lifecycle of the OpenShift Virtualization Operator. The Marketplace Operator, which is deployed during OpenShift Container Platform installation, makes external Operators available to your cluster.
- OLM provides z-stream and minor version updates for OpenShift Virtualization. Minor version updates become available when you update OpenShift Container Platform to the next minor version. You cannot update OpenShift Virtualization to the next minor version without first updating OpenShift Container Platform.
- OpenShift Virtualization subscriptions use a single update channel that is named stable. The stable channel ensures that your OpenShift Virtualization and OpenShift Container Platform versions are compatible.
If your subscription’s approval strategy is set to Automatic, the update process starts as soon as a new version of the Operator is available in the stable channel. It is highly recommended to use the Automatic approval strategy to maintain a supportable environment. Each minor version of OpenShift Virtualization is only supported if you run the corresponding OpenShift Container Platform version. For example, you must run OpenShift Virtualization 4.17 on OpenShift Container Platform 4.17.
- Though it is possible to select the Manual approval strategy, this is not recommended because it risks the supportability and functionality of your cluster. With the Manual approval strategy, you must manually approve every pending update. If OpenShift Container Platform and OpenShift Virtualization updates are out of sync, your cluster becomes unsupported.
- The amount of time an update takes to complete depends on your network connection. Most automatic updates complete within fifteen minutes.
- Updating OpenShift Virtualization does not interrupt network connections.
- Data volumes and their associated persistent volume claims are preserved during update.
If you have virtual machines running that use hostpath provisioner storage, they cannot be live migrated and might block an OpenShift Container Platform cluster update.
As a workaround, you can reconfigure the virtual machines so that they can be powered off automatically during a cluster update. Set the evictionStrategy
field to None
and the runStrategy
field to Always
.
6.1.2.1. About workload updates
When you update OpenShift Virtualization, virtual machine workloads, including libvirt
, virt-launcher
, and qemu
, update automatically if they support live migration.
Each virtual machine has a virt-launcher
pod that runs the virtual machine instance (VMI). The virt-launcher
pod runs an instance of libvirt
, which is used to manage the virtual machine (VM) process.
You can configure how workloads are updated by editing the spec.workloadUpdateStrategy
stanza of the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR). There are two available workload update methods: LiveMigrate
and Evict
.
Because the Evict
method shuts down VMI pods, only the LiveMigrate
update strategy is enabled by default.
When LiveMigrate
is the only update strategy enabled:
- VMIs that support live migration are migrated during the update process. The VM guest moves into a new pod with the updated components enabled.
VMIs that do not support live migration are not disrupted or updated.
-
If a VMI has the
LiveMigrate
eviction strategy but does not support live migration, it is not updated.
-
If a VMI has the
If you enable both LiveMigrate
and Evict
:
-
VMIs that support live migration use the
LiveMigrate
update strategy. -
VMIs that do not support live migration use the
Evict
update strategy. If a VMI is controlled by aVirtualMachine
object that hasrunStrategy: Always
set, a new VMI is created in a new pod with updated components.
Migration attempts and timeouts
When updating workloads, live migration fails if a pod is in the Pending
state for the following periods:
- 5 minutes
-
If the pod is pending because it is
Unschedulable
. - 15 minutes
- If the pod is stuck in the pending state for any reason.
When a VMI fails to migrate, the virt-controller
tries to migrate it again. It repeats this process until all migratable VMIs are running on new virt-launcher
pods. If a VMI is improperly configured, however, these attempts can repeat indefinitely.
Each attempt corresponds to a migration object. Only the five most recent attempts are held in a buffer. This prevents migration objects from accumulating on the system while retaining information for debugging.
6.1.2.2. About Control Plane Only updates
Every even-numbered minor version of OpenShift Container Platform, including 4.10 and 4.12, is an Extended Update Support (EUS) version. However, because Kubernetes design mandates serial minor version updates, you cannot directly update from one EUS version to the next.
After you update from the source EUS version to the next odd-numbered minor version, you must sequentially update OpenShift Virtualization to all z-stream releases of that minor version that are on your update path. When you have upgraded to the latest applicable z-stream version, you can then update OpenShift Container Platform to the target EUS minor version.
When the OpenShift Container Platform update succeeds, the corresponding update for OpenShift Virtualization becomes available. You can now update OpenShift Virtualization to the target EUS version.
6.1.2.2.1. Preparing to update
Before beginning a Control Plane Only update, you must:
- Pause worker nodes' machine config pools before you start a Control Plane Only update so that the workers are not rebooted twice.
- Disable automatic workload updates before you begin the update process. This is to prevent OpenShift Virtualization from migrating or evicting your virtual machines (VMs) until you update to your target EUS version.
By default, OpenShift Virtualization automatically updates workloads, such as the virt-launcher
pod, when you update the OpenShift Virtualization Operator. You can configure this behavior in the spec.workloadUpdateStrategy
stanza of the HyperConverged
custom resource.
Learn more about Performing a Control Plane Only update.
6.1.3. Preventing workload updates during a Control Plane Only update
When you update from one Extended Update Support (EUS) version to the next, you must manually disable automatic workload updates to prevent OpenShift Virtualization from migrating or evicting workloads during the update process.
Prerequisites
- You are running an EUS version of OpenShift Container Platform and want to update to the next EUS version. You have not yet updated to the odd-numbered version in between.
- You read "Preparing to perform a Control Plane Only update" and learned the caveats and requirements that pertain to your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
- You paused the worker nodes' machine config pools as directed by the OpenShift Container Platform documentation.
- It is recommended that you use the default Automatic approval strategy. If you use the Manual approval strategy, you must approve all pending updates in the web console. For more details, refer to the "Manually approving a pending Operator update" section.
Procedure
Run the following command and record the
workloadUpdateMethods
configuration:$ oc get kv kubevirt-kubevirt-hyperconverged \ -n openshift-cnv -o jsonpath='{.spec.workloadUpdateStrategy.workloadUpdateMethods}'
Turn off all workload update methods by running the following command:
$ oc patch hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv \ --type json -p '[{"op":"replace","path":"/spec/workloadUpdateStrategy/workloadUpdateMethods", "value":[]}]'
Example output
hyperconverged.hco.kubevirt.io/kubevirt-hyperconverged patched
Ensure that the
HyperConverged
Operator isUpgradeable
before you continue. Enter the following command and monitor the output:$ oc get hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv -o json | jq ".status.conditions"
Example 6.1. Example output
[ { "lastTransitionTime": "2022-12-09T16:29:11Z", "message": "Reconcile completed successfully", "observedGeneration": 3, "reason": "ReconcileCompleted", "status": "True", "type": "ReconcileComplete" }, { "lastTransitionTime": "2022-12-09T20:30:10Z", "message": "Reconcile completed successfully", "observedGeneration": 3, "reason": "ReconcileCompleted", "status": "True", "type": "Available" }, { "lastTransitionTime": "2022-12-09T20:30:10Z", "message": "Reconcile completed successfully", "observedGeneration": 3, "reason": "ReconcileCompleted", "status": "False", "type": "Progressing" }, { "lastTransitionTime": "2022-12-09T16:39:11Z", "message": "Reconcile completed successfully", "observedGeneration": 3, "reason": "ReconcileCompleted", "status": "False", "type": "Degraded" }, { "lastTransitionTime": "2022-12-09T20:30:10Z", "message": "Reconcile completed successfully", "observedGeneration": 3, "reason": "ReconcileCompleted", "status": "True", "type": "Upgradeable" 1 } ]
- 1
- The OpenShift Virtualization Operator has the
Upgradeable
status.
Manually update your cluster from the source EUS version to the next minor version of OpenShift Container Platform:
$ oc adm upgrade
Verification
Check the current version by running the following command:
$ oc get clusterversion
NoteUpdating OpenShift Container Platform to the next version is a prerequisite for updating OpenShift Virtualization. For more details, refer to the "Updating clusters" section of the OpenShift Container Platform documentation.
Update OpenShift Virtualization.
- With the default Automatic approval strategy, OpenShift Virtualization automatically updates to the corresponding version after you update OpenShift Container Platform.
- If you use the Manual approval strategy, approve the pending updates by using the web console.
Monitor the OpenShift Virtualization update by running the following command:
$ oc get csv -n openshift-cnv
- Update OpenShift Virtualization to every z-stream version that is available for the non-EUS minor version, monitoring each update by running the command shown in the previous step.
Confirm that OpenShift Virtualization successfully updated to the latest z-stream release of the non-EUS version by running the following command:
$ oc get hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv -o json | jq ".status.versions"
Example output
[ { "name": "operator", "version": "4.17.0" } ]
Wait until the
HyperConverged
Operator has theUpgradeable
status before you perform the next update. Enter the following command and monitor the output:$ oc get hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv -o json | jq ".status.conditions"
- Update OpenShift Container Platform to the target EUS version.
Confirm that the update succeeded by checking the cluster version:
$ oc get clusterversion
Update OpenShift Virtualization to the target EUS version.
- With the default Automatic approval strategy, OpenShift Virtualization automatically updates to the corresponding version after you update OpenShift Container Platform.
- If you use the Manual approval strategy, approve the pending updates by using the web console.
Monitor the OpenShift Virtualization update by running the following command:
$ oc get csv -n openshift-cnv
The update completes when the
VERSION
field matches the target EUS version and thePHASE
field readsSucceeded
.Restore the
workloadUpdateMethods
configuration that you recorded from step 1 with the following command:$ oc patch hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv --type json -p \ "[{\"op\":\"add\",\"path\":\"/spec/workloadUpdateStrategy/workloadUpdateMethods\", \"value\":{WorkloadUpdateMethodConfig}}]"
Example output
hyperconverged.hco.kubevirt.io/kubevirt-hyperconverged patched
Verification
Check the status of VM migration by running the following command:
$ oc get vmim -A
Next steps
- You can now unpause the worker nodes' machine config pools.
6.1.4. Configuring workload update methods
You can configure workload update methods by editing the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR).
Prerequisites
To use live migration as an update method, you must first enable live migration in the cluster.
NoteIf a
VirtualMachineInstance
CR containsevictionStrategy: LiveMigrate
and the virtual machine instance (VMI) does not support live migration, the VMI will not update.
Procedure
To open the
HyperConverged
CR in your default editor, run the following command:$ oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Edit the
workloadUpdateStrategy
stanza of theHyperConverged
CR. For example:apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged spec: workloadUpdateStrategy: workloadUpdateMethods: 1 - LiveMigrate 2 - Evict 3 batchEvictionSize: 10 4 batchEvictionInterval: "1m0s" 5 # ...
- 1
- The methods that can be used to perform automated workload updates. The available values are
LiveMigrate
andEvict
. If you enable both options as shown in this example, updates useLiveMigrate
for VMIs that support live migration andEvict
for any VMIs that do not support live migration. To disable automatic workload updates, you can either remove theworkloadUpdateStrategy
stanza or setworkloadUpdateMethods: []
to leave the array empty. - 2
- The least disruptive update method. VMIs that support live migration are updated by migrating the virtual machine (VM) guest into a new pod with the updated components enabled. If
LiveMigrate
is the only workload update method listed, VMIs that do not support live migration are not disrupted or updated. - 3
- A disruptive method that shuts down VMI pods during upgrade.
Evict
is the only update method available if live migration is not enabled in the cluster. If a VMI is controlled by aVirtualMachine
object that hasrunStrategy: Always
configured, a new VMI is created in a new pod with updated components. - 4
- The number of VMIs that can be forced to be updated at a time by using the
Evict
method. This does not apply to theLiveMigrate
method. - 5
- The interval to wait before evicting the next batch of workloads. This does not apply to the
LiveMigrate
method.
NoteYou can configure live migration limits and timeouts by editing the
spec.liveMigrationConfig
stanza of theHyperConverged
CR.- To apply your changes, save and exit the editor.
6.1.5. Approving pending Operator updates
6.1.5.1. Manually approving a pending Operator update
If an installed Operator has the approval strategy in its subscription set to Manual, when new updates are released in its current update channel, the update must be manually approved before installation can begin.
Prerequisites
- An Operator previously installed using Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM).
Procedure
- In the Administrator perspective of the OpenShift Container Platform web console, navigate to Operators → Installed Operators.
- Operators that have a pending update display a status with Upgrade available. Click the name of the Operator you want to update.
- Click the Subscription tab. Any updates requiring approval are displayed next to Upgrade status. For example, it might display 1 requires approval.
- Click 1 requires approval, then click Preview Install Plan.
- Review the resources that are listed as available for update. When satisfied, click Approve.
- Navigate back to the Operators → Installed Operators page to monitor the progress of the update. When complete, the status changes to Succeeded and Up to date.
6.1.6. Monitoring update status
6.1.6.1. Monitoring OpenShift Virtualization upgrade status
To monitor the status of a OpenShift Virtualization Operator upgrade, watch the cluster service version (CSV) PHASE
. You can also monitor the CSV conditions in the web console or by running the command provided here.
The PHASE
and conditions values are approximations that are based on available information.
Prerequisites
-
Log in to the cluster as a user with the
cluster-admin
role. -
Install the OpenShift CLI (
oc
).
Procedure
Run the following command:
$ oc get csv -n openshift-cnv
Review the output, checking the
PHASE
field. For example:Example output
VERSION REPLACES PHASE 4.9.0 kubevirt-hyperconverged-operator.v4.8.2 Installing 4.9.0 kubevirt-hyperconverged-operator.v4.9.0 Replacing
Optional: Monitor the aggregated status of all OpenShift Virtualization component conditions by running the following command:
$ oc get hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv \ -o=jsonpath='{range .status.conditions[*]}{.type}{"\t"}{.status}{"\t"}{.message}{"\n"}{end}'
A successful upgrade results in the following output:
Example output
ReconcileComplete True Reconcile completed successfully Available True Reconcile completed successfully Progressing False Reconcile completed successfully Degraded False Reconcile completed successfully Upgradeable True Reconcile completed successfully
6.1.6.2. Viewing outdated OpenShift Virtualization workloads
You can view a list of outdated workloads by using the CLI.
If there are outdated virtualization pods in your cluster, the OutdatedVirtualMachineInstanceWorkloads
alert fires.
Procedure
To view a list of outdated virtual machine instances (VMIs), run the following command:
$ oc get vmi -l kubevirt.io/outdatedLauncherImage --all-namespaces
Configure workload updates to ensure that VMIs update automatically.
6.1.7. Additional resources
Chapter 7. Virtual machines
7.1. Creating VMs from Red Hat images
7.1.1. Creating virtual machines from Red Hat images overview
Red Hat images are golden images. They are published as container disks in a secure registry. The Containerized Data Importer (CDI) polls and imports the container disks into your cluster and stores them in the openshift-virtualization-os-images
project as snapshots or persistent volume claims (PVCs).
Red Hat images are automatically updated. You can disable and re-enable automatic updates for these images. See Managing Red Hat boot source updates.
Cluster administrators can enable automatic subscription for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) virtual machines in the OpenShift Virtualization web console.
You can create virtual machines (VMs) from operating system images provided by Red Hat by using one of the following methods:
Do not create VMs in the default openshift-*
namespaces. Instead, create a new namespace or use an existing namespace without the openshift
prefix.
7.1.1.1. About golden images
A golden image is a preconfigured snapshot of a virtual machine (VM) that you can use as a resource to deploy new VMs. For example, you can use golden images to provision the same system environment consistently and deploy systems more quickly and efficiently.
7.1.1.1.1. How do golden images work?
Golden images are created by installing and configuring an operating system and software applications on a reference machine or virtual machine. This includes setting up the system, installing required drivers, applying patches and updates, and configuring specific options and preferences.
After the golden image is created, it is saved as a template or image file that can be replicated and deployed across multiple clusters. The golden image can be updated by its maintainer periodically to incorporate necessary software updates and patches, ensuring that the image remains up to date and secure, and newly created VMs are based on this updated image.
7.1.1.1.2. Red Hat implementation of golden images
Red Hat publishes golden images as container disks in the registry for versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Container disks are virtual machine images that are stored as a container image in a container image registry. Any published image will automatically be made available in connected clusters after the installation of OpenShift Virtualization. After the images are available in a cluster, they are ready to use to create VMs.
7.1.1.2. About VM boot sources
Virtual machines (VMs) consist of a VM definition and one or more disks that are backed by data volumes. VM templates enable you to create VMs using predefined specifications.
Every template requires a boot source, which is a fully configured disk image including configured drivers. Each template contains a VM definition with a pointer to the boot source. Each boot source has a predefined name and namespace. For some operating systems, a boot source is automatically provided. If it is not provided, then an administrator must prepare a custom boot source.
Provided boot sources are updated automatically to the latest version of the operating system. For auto-updated boot sources, persistent volume claims (PVCs) and volume snapshots are created with the cluster’s default storage class. If you select a different default storage class after configuration, you must delete the existing boot sources in the cluster namespace that are configured with the previous default storage class.
7.1.2. Creating virtual machines from instance types
You can simplify virtual machine (VM) creation by using instance types, whether you use the OpenShift Container Platform web console or the CLI to create VMs.
7.1.2.1. About instance types
An instance type is a reusable object where you can define resources and characteristics to apply to new VMs. You can define custom instance types or use the variety that are included when you install OpenShift Virtualization.
To create a new instance type, you must first create a manifest, either manually or by using the virtctl
CLI tool. You then create the instance type object by applying the manifest to your cluster.
OpenShift Virtualization provides two CRDs for configuring instance types:
-
A namespaced object:
VirtualMachineInstancetype
-
A cluster-wide object:
VirtualMachineClusterInstancetype
These objects use the same VirtualMachineInstancetypeSpec
.
7.1.2.1.1. Required attributes
When you configure an instance type, you must define the cpu
and memory
attributes. Other attributes are optional.
When you create a VM from an instance type, you cannot override any parameters defined in the instance type.
Because instance types require defined CPU and memory attributes, OpenShift Virtualization always rejects additional requests for these resources when creating a VM from an instance type.
You can manually create an instance type manifest. For example:
Example YAML file with required fields
apiVersion: instancetype.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: VirtualMachineInstancetype metadata: name: example-instancetype spec: cpu: guest: 1 1 memory: guest: 128Mi 2
You can create an instance type manifest by using the virtctl
CLI utility. For example:
Example virtctl
command with required fields
$ virtctl create instancetype --cpu 2 --memory 256Mi
where:
--cpu <value>
- Specifies the number of vCPUs to allocate to the guest. Required.
--memory <value>
- Specifies an amount of memory to allocate to the guest. Required.
You can immediately create the object from the new manifest by running the following command:
$ virtctl create instancetype --cpu 2 --memory 256Mi | oc apply -f -
7.1.2.1.2. Optional attributes
In addition to the required cpu
and memory
attributes, you can include the following optional attributes in the VirtualMachineInstancetypeSpec
:
annotations
- List annotations to apply to the VM.
gpus
- List vGPUs for passthrough.
hostDevices
- List host devices for passthrough.
ioThreadsPolicy
- Define an IO threads policy for managing dedicated disk access.
launchSecurity
- Configure Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV).
nodeSelector
- Specify node selectors to control the nodes where this VM is scheduled.
schedulerName
- Define a custom scheduler to use for this VM instead of the default scheduler.
7.1.2.2. Pre-defined instance types
OpenShift Virtualization includes a set of pre-defined instance types called common-instancetypes
. Some are specialized for specific workloads and others are workload-agnostic.
These instance type resources are named according to their series, version, and size. The size value follows the .
delimiter and ranges from nano
to 8xlarge
.
Use case | Series | Characteristics | vCPU to memory ratio | Example resource |
---|---|---|---|---|
Universal | U |
| 1:4 |
|
Overcommitted | O |
| 1:4 |
|
Compute-exclusive | CX |
| 1:2 |
|
NVIDIA GPU | GN |
| 1:4 |
|
Memory-intensive | M |
| 1:8 |
|
Network-intensive | N |
| 1:2 |
|
7.1.2.3. Creating manifests by using the virtctl tool
You can use the virtctl
CLI utility to simplify creating manifests for VMs, VM instance types, and VM preferences. For more information, see VM manifest creation commands.
If you have a VirtualMachine
manifest, you can create a VM from the command line.
7.1.2.4. Creating a VM from an instance type by using the web console
You can create a virtual machine (VM) from an instance type by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console. You can also use the web console to create a VM by copying an existing snapshot or to clone a VM.
You can create a VM from a list of available bootable volumes. You can add Linux- or Windows-based volumes to the list.
Procedure
In the web console, navigate to Virtualization → Catalog.
The InstanceTypes tab opens by default.
Select either of the following options:
Select a suitable bootable volume from the list. If the list is truncated, click the Show all button to display the entire list.
NoteThe bootable volume table lists only those volumes in the
openshift-virtualization-os-images
namespace that have theinstancetype.kubevirt.io/default-preference
label.- Optional: Click the star icon to designate a bootable volume as a favorite. Starred bootable volumes appear first in the volume list.
Click Add volume to upload a new volume or to use an existing persistent volume claim (PVC), a volume snapshot, or a
containerDisk
volume. Click Save.Logos of operating systems that are not available in the cluster are shown at the bottom of the list. You can add a volume for the required operating system by clicking the Add volume link.
In addition, there is a link to the Create a Windows boot source quick start. The same link appears in a popover if you hover the pointer over the question mark icon next to the Select volume to boot from line.
Immediately after you install the environment or when the environment is disconnected, the list of volumes to boot from is empty. In that case, three operating system logos are displayed: Windows, RHEL, and Linux. You can add a new volume that meets your requirements by clicking the Add volume button.
- Click an instance type tile and select the resource size appropriate for your workload.
Optional: Choose the virtual machine details, including the VM’s name, that apply to the volume you are booting from:
For a Linux-based volume, follow these steps to configure SSH:
- If you have not already added a public SSH key to your project, click the edit icon beside Authorized SSH key in the VirtualMachine details section.
Select one of the following options:
- Use existing: Select a secret from the secrets list.
Add new: Follow these steps:
- Browse to the public SSH key file or paste the file in the key field.
- Enter the secret name.
- Optional: Select Automatically apply this key to any new VirtualMachine you create in this project.
- Click Save.
For a Windows volume, follow either of these set of steps to configure sysprep options:
If you have not already added sysprep options for the Windows volume, follow these steps:
- Click the edit icon beside Sysprep in the VirtualMachine details section.
- Add the Autoattend.xml answer file.
- Add the Unattend.xml answer file.
- Click Save.
If you want to use existing sysprep options for the Windows volume, follow these steps:
- Click Attach existing sysprep.
- Enter the name of the existing sysprep Unattend.xml answer file.
- Click Save.
Optional: If you are creating a Windows VM, you can mount a Windows driver disk:
- Click the Customize VirtualMachine button.
- On the VirtualMachine details page, click Storage.
- Select the Mount Windows drivers disk checkbox.
- Optional: Click View YAML & CLI to view the YAML file. Click CLI to view the CLI commands. You can also download or copy either the YAML file contents or the CLI commands.
- Click Create VirtualMachine.
After the VM is created, you can monitor the status on the VirtualMachine details page.
7.1.3. Creating virtual machines from templates
You can create virtual machines (VMs) from Red Hat templates by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
7.1.3.1. About VM templates
- Boot sources
You can expedite VM creation by using templates that have an available boot source. Templates with a boot source are labeled Available boot source if they do not have a custom label.
Templates without a boot source are labeled Boot source required. See Creating virtual machines from custom images.
- Customization
- You can customize the disk source and VM parameters before you start the VM.
See storage volume types and storage fields for details about disk source settings.
If you copy a VM template with all its labels and annotations, your version of the template is marked as deprecated when a new version of the Scheduling, Scale, and Performance (SSP) Operator is deployed. You can remove this designation. See Customizing a VM template by using the web console.
- Single-node OpenShift
-
Due to differences in storage behavior, some templates are incompatible with single-node OpenShift. To ensure compatibility, do not set the
evictionStrategy
field for templates or VMs that use data volumes or storage profiles.
7.1.3.2. Creating a VM from a template
You can create a virtual machine (VM) from a template with an available boot source by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Optional: You can customize template or VM parameters, such as data sources, cloud-init, or SSH keys, before you start the VM.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → Catalog in the web console.
Click Boot source available to filter templates with boot sources.
The catalog displays the default templates. Click All Items to view all available templates for your filters.
- Click a template tile to view its details.
- Optional: If you are using a Windows template, you can mount a Windows driver disk by selecting the Mount Windows drivers disk checkbox.
If you do not need to customize the template or VM parameters, click Quick create VirtualMachine to create a VM from the template.
If you need to customize the template or VM parameters, do the following:
- Click Customize VirtualMachine.
- Expand Storage or Optional parameters to edit data source settings.
Click Customize VirtualMachine parameters.
The Customize and create VirtualMachine pane displays the Overview, YAML, Scheduling, Environment, Network interfaces, Disks, Scripts, and Metadata tabs.
- Edit the parameters that must be set before the VM boots, such as cloud-init or a static SSH key.
Click Create VirtualMachine.
The VirtualMachine details page displays the provisioning status.
7.1.3.2.1. Storage volume types
Type | Description |
---|---|
ephemeral | A local copy-on-write (COW) image that uses a network volume as a read-only backing store. The backing volume must be a PersistentVolumeClaim. The ephemeral image is created when the virtual machine starts and stores all writes locally. The ephemeral image is discarded when the virtual machine is stopped, restarted, or deleted. The backing volume (PVC) is not mutated in any way. |
persistentVolumeClaim | Attaches an available PV to a virtual machine. Attaching a PV allows for the virtual machine data to persist between sessions. Importing an existing virtual machine disk into a PVC by using CDI and attaching the PVC to a virtual machine instance is the recommended method for importing existing virtual machines into OpenShift Container Platform. There are some requirements for the disk to be used within a PVC. |
dataVolume |
Data volumes build on the
Specify |
cloudInitNoCloud | Attaches a disk that contains the referenced cloud-init NoCloud data source, providing user data and metadata to the virtual machine. A cloud-init installation is required inside the virtual machine disk. |
containerDisk | References an image, such as a virtual machine disk, that is stored in the container image registry. The image is pulled from the registry and attached to the virtual machine as a disk when the virtual machine is launched.
A Only RAW and QCOW2 formats are supported disk types for the container image registry. QCOW2 is recommended for reduced image size. Note
A |
emptyDisk | Creates an additional sparse QCOW2 disk that is tied to the life-cycle of the virtual machine interface. The data survives guest-initiated reboots in the virtual machine but is discarded when the virtual machine stops or is restarted from the web console. The empty disk is used to store application dependencies and data that otherwise exceeds the limited temporary file system of an ephemeral disk. The disk capacity size must also be provided. |
7.1.3.2.2. Storage fields
Field | Description |
---|---|
Blank (creates PVC) | Create an empty disk. |
Import via URL (creates PVC) | Import content via URL (HTTP or HTTPS endpoint). |
Use an existing PVC | Use a PVC that is already available in the cluster. |
Clone existing PVC (creates PVC) | Select an existing PVC available in the cluster and clone it. |
Import via Registry (creates PVC) | Import content via container registry. |
Container (ephemeral) | Upload content from a container located in a registry accessible from the cluster. The container disk should be used only for read-only filesystems such as CD-ROMs or temporary virtual machines. |
Name |
Name of the disk. The name can contain lowercase letters ( |
Size | Size of the disk in GiB. |
Type | Type of disk. Example: Disk or CD-ROM |
Interface | Type of disk device. Supported interfaces are virtIO, SATA, and SCSI. |
Storage Class | The storage class that is used to create the disk. |
Advanced storage settings
The following advanced storage settings are optional and available for Blank, Import via URL, and Clone existing PVC disks.
If you do not specify these parameters, the system uses the default storage profile values.
Parameter | Option | Parameter description |
---|---|---|
Volume Mode | Filesystem | Stores the virtual disk on a file system-based volume. |
Block |
Stores the virtual disk directly on the block volume. Only use | |
Access Mode | ReadWriteOnce (RWO) | Volume can be mounted as read-write by a single node. |
ReadWriteMany (RWX) | Volume can be mounted as read-write by many nodes at one time. Note This mode is required for live migration. |
7.1.3.2.3. Customizing a VM template by using the web console
You can customize an existing virtual machine (VM) template by modifying the VM or template parameters, such as data sources, cloud-init, or SSH keys, before you start the VM. If you customize a template by copying it and including all of its labels and annotations, the customized template is marked as deprecated when a new version of the Scheduling, Scale, and Performance (SSP) Operator is deployed.
You can remove the deprecated designation from the customized template.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → Templates in the web console.
- From the list of VM templates, click the template marked as deprecated.
- Click Edit next to the pencil icon beside Labels.
Remove the following two labels:
-
template.kubevirt.io/type: "base"
-
template.kubevirt.io/version: "version"
-
- Click Save.
- Click the pencil icon beside the number of existing Annotations.
Remove the following annotation:
-
template.kubevirt.io/deprecated
-
- Click Save.
7.1.4. Creating virtual machines from the command line
You can create virtual machines (VMs) from the command line by editing or creating a VirtualMachine
manifest. You can simplify VM configuration by using an instance type in your VM manifest.
You can also create VMs from instance types by using the web console.
7.1.4.1. Creating manifests by using the virtctl tool
You can use the virtctl
CLI utility to simplify creating manifests for VMs, VM instance types, and VM preferences. For more information, see VM manifest creation commands.
7.1.4.2. Creating a VM from a VirtualMachine manifest
You can create a virtual machine (VM) from a VirtualMachine
manifest.
Procedure
Edit the
VirtualMachine
manifest for your VM. The following example configures a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) VM:NoteThis example manifest does not configure VM authentication.
Example manifest for a RHEL VM
apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: rhel-9-minimal spec: dataVolumeTemplates: - metadata: name: rhel-9-minimal-volume spec: sourceRef: kind: DataSource name: rhel9 1 namespace: openshift-virtualization-os-images 2 storage: {} instancetype: name: u1.medium 3 preference: name: rhel.9 4 running: true template: spec: domain: devices: {} volumes: - dataVolume: name: rhel-9-minimal-volume name: rootdisk
- 1
- The
rhel9
golden image is used to install RHEL 9 as the guest operating system. - 2
- Golden images are stored in the
openshift-virtualization-os-images
namespace. - 3
- The
u1.medium
instance type requests 1 vCPU and 4Gi memory for the VM. These resource values cannot be overridden within the VM. - 4
- The
rhel.9
preference specifies additional attributes that support the RHEL 9 guest operating system.
Create a virtual machine by using the manifest file:
$ oc create -f <vm_manifest_file>.yaml
Optional: Start the virtual machine:
$ virtctl start <vm_name> -n <namespace>
Next steps
7.2. Creating VMs from custom images
7.2.1. Creating virtual machines from custom images overview
You can create virtual machines (VMs) from custom operating system images by using one of the following methods:
Importing the image as a container disk from a registry.
Optional: You can enable auto updates for your container disks. See Managing automatic boot source updates for details.
- Importing the image from a web page.
- Uploading the image from a local machine.
- Cloning a persistent volume claim (PVC) that contains the image.
The Containerized Data Importer (CDI) imports the image into a PVC by using a data volume. You add the PVC to the VM by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console or command line.
You must install the QEMU guest agent on VMs created from operating system images that are not provided by Red Hat.
You must also install VirtIO drivers on Windows VMs.
The QEMU guest agent is included with Red Hat images.
7.2.2. Creating VMs by using container disks
You can create virtual machines (VMs) by using container disks built from operating system images.
You can enable auto updates for your container disks. See Managing automatic boot source updates for details.
If the container disks are large, the I/O traffic might increase and cause worker nodes to be unavailable. You can perform the following tasks to resolve this issue:
You create a VM from a container disk by performing the following steps:
- Build an operating system image into a container disk and upload it to your container registry.
- If your container registry does not have TLS, configure your environment to disable TLS for your registry.
- Create a VM with the container disk as the disk source by using the web console or the command line.
You must install the QEMU guest agent on VMs created from operating system images that are not provided by Red Hat.
7.2.2.1. Building and uploading a container disk
You can build a virtual machine (VM) image into a container disk and upload it to a registry.
The size of a container disk is limited by the maximum layer size of the registry where the container disk is hosted.
For Red Hat Quay, you can change the maximum layer size by editing the YAML configuration file that is created when Red Hat Quay is first deployed.
Prerequisites
-
You must have
podman
installed. - You must have a QCOW2 or RAW image file.
Procedure
Create a Dockerfile to build the VM image into a container image. The VM image must be owned by QEMU, which has a UID of
107
, and placed in the/disk/
directory inside the container. Permissions for the/disk/
directory must then be set to0440
.The following example uses the Red Hat Universal Base Image (UBI) to handle these configuration changes in the first stage, and uses the minimal
scratch
image in the second stage to store the result:$ cat > Dockerfile << EOF FROM registry.access.redhat.com/ubi8/ubi:latest AS builder ADD --chown=107:107 <vm_image>.qcow2 /disk/ 1 RUN chmod 0440 /disk/* FROM scratch COPY --from=builder /disk/* /disk/ EOF
- 1
- Where
<vm_image>
is the image in either QCOW2 or RAW format. If you use a remote image, replace<vm_image>.qcow2
with the complete URL.
Build and tag the container:
$ podman build -t <registry>/<container_disk_name>:latest .
Push the container image to the registry:
$ podman push <registry>/<container_disk_name>:latest
7.2.2.2. Disabling TLS for a container registry
You can disable TLS (transport layer security) for one or more container registries by editing the insecureRegistries
field of the HyperConverged
custom resource.
Prerequisites
Open the
HyperConverged
CR in your default editor by running the following command:$ oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Add a list of insecure registries to the
spec.storageImport.insecureRegistries
field.Example
HyperConverged
custom resourceapiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged namespace: openshift-cnv spec: storageImport: insecureRegistries: 1 - "private-registry-example-1:5000" - "private-registry-example-2:5000"
- 1
- Replace the examples in this list with valid registry hostnames.
7.2.2.3. Creating a VM from a container disk by using the web console
You can create a virtual machine (VM) by importing a container disk from a container registry by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → Catalog in the web console.
- Click a template tile without an available boot source.
- Click Customize VirtualMachine.
- On the Customize template parameters page, expand Storage and select Registry (creates PVC) from the Disk source list.
-
Enter the container image URL. Example:
https://mirror.arizona.edu/fedora/linux/releases/38/Cloud/x86_64/images/Fedora-Cloud-Base-38-1.6.x86_64.qcow2
- Set the disk size.
- Click Next.
- Click Create VirtualMachine.
7.2.2.4. Creating a VM from a container disk by using the command line
You can create a virtual machine (VM) from a container disk by using the command line.
When the virtual machine (VM) is created, the data volume with the container disk is imported into persistent storage.
Prerequisites
- You must have access credentials for the container registry that contains the container disk.
Procedure
Edit the
VirtualMachine
manifest and save it as avm-rhel-datavolume.yaml
file:apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: creationTimestamp: null name: vm-rhel-datavolume 1 labels: kubevirt.io/vm: vm-rhel-datavolume spec: dataVolumeTemplates: - metadata: creationTimestamp: null name: rhel-dv 2 spec: sourceRef: kind: DataSource name: rhel9 namespace: openshift-virtualization-os-images storage: resources: requests: storage: 10Gi 3 instancetype: name: u1.small 4 preference: inferFromVolume: datavolumedisk1 runStrategy: Always template: metadata: creationTimestamp: null labels: kubevirt.io/vm: vm-rhel-datavolume spec: domain: devices: {} resources: {} terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 180 volumes: - dataVolume: name: rhel-dv name: datavolumedisk1 status: {}
Create the VM by running the following command:
$ oc create -f vm-rhel-datavolume.yaml
The
oc create
command creates the data volume and the VM. The CDI controller creates an underlying PVC with the correct annotation and the import process begins. When the import is complete, the data volume status changes toSucceeded
. You can start the VM.Data volume provisioning happens in the background, so there is no need to monitor the process.
Verification
The importer pod downloads the container disk from the specified URL and stores it on the provisioned persistent volume. View the status of the importer pod by running the following command:
$ oc get pods
Monitor the data volume until its status is
Succeeded
by running the following command:$ oc describe dv rhel-dv 1
- 1
- Specify the data volume name that you defined in the
VirtualMachine
manifest.
Verify that provisioning is complete and that the VM has started by accessing its serial console:
$ virtctl console vm-rhel-datavolume
7.2.3. Creating VMs by importing images from web pages
You can create virtual machines (VMs) by importing operating system images from web pages.
You must install the QEMU guest agent on VMs created from operating system images that are not provided by Red Hat.
7.2.3.1. Creating a VM from an image on a web page by using the web console
You can create a virtual machine (VM) by importing an image from a web page by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Prerequisites
- You must have access to the web page that contains the image.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → Catalog in the web console.
- Click a template tile without an available boot source.
- Click Customize VirtualMachine.
- On the Customize template parameters page, expand Storage and select URL (creates PVC) from the Disk source list.
-
Enter the image URL. Example:
https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/69/ver=/rhel---7/7.9/x86_64/product-software
-
Enter the container image URL. Example:
https://mirror.arizona.edu/fedora/linux/releases/38/Cloud/x86_64/images/Fedora-Cloud-Base-38-1.6.x86_64.qcow2
- Set the disk size.
- Click Next.
- Click Create VirtualMachine.
7.2.3.2. Creating a VM from an image on a web page by using the command line
You can create a virtual machine (VM) from an image on a web page by using the command line.
When the virtual machine (VM) is created, the data volume with the image is imported into persistent storage.
Prerequisites
- You must have access credentials for the web page that contains the image.
Procedure
Edit the
VirtualMachine
manifest and save it as avm-rhel-datavolume.yaml
file:apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: creationTimestamp: null name: vm-rhel-datavolume 1 labels: kubevirt.io/vm: vm-rhel-datavolume spec: dataVolumeTemplates: - metadata: creationTimestamp: null name: rhel-dv 2 spec: sourceRef: kind: DataSource name: rhel9 namespace: openshift-virtualization-os-images storage: resources: requests: storage: 10Gi 3 instancetype: name: u1.small 4 preference: inferFromVolume: datavolumedisk1 runStrategy: Always template: metadata: creationTimestamp: null labels: kubevirt.io/vm: vm-rhel-datavolume spec: domain: devices: {} resources: {} terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 180 volumes: - dataVolume: name: rhel-dv name: datavolumedisk1 status: {}
Create the VM by running the following command:
$ oc create -f vm-rhel-datavolume.yaml
The
oc create
command creates the data volume and the VM. The CDI controller creates an underlying PVC with the correct annotation and the import process begins. When the import is complete, the data volume status changes toSucceeded
. You can start the VM.Data volume provisioning happens in the background, so there is no need to monitor the process.
Verification
The importer pod downloads the image from the specified URL and stores it on the provisioned persistent volume. View the status of the importer pod by running the following command:
$ oc get pods
Monitor the data volume until its status is
Succeeded
by running the following command:$ oc describe dv rhel-dv 1
- 1
- Specify the data volume name that you defined in the
VirtualMachine
manifest.
Verify that provisioning is complete and that the VM has started by accessing its serial console:
$ virtctl console vm-rhel-datavolume
7.2.4. Creating VMs by uploading images
You can create virtual machines (VMs) by uploading operating system images from your local machine.
You can create a Windows VM by uploading a Windows image to a PVC. Then you clone the PVC when you create the VM.
You must install the QEMU guest agent on VMs created from operating system images that are not provided by Red Hat.
You must also install VirtIO drivers on Windows VMs.
7.2.4.1. Creating a VM from an uploaded image by using the web console
You can create a virtual machine (VM) from an uploaded operating system image by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Prerequisites
-
You must have an
IMG
,ISO
, orQCOW2
image file.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → Catalog in the web console.
- Click a template tile without an available boot source.
- Click Customize VirtualMachine.
- On the Customize template parameters page, expand Storage and select Upload (Upload a new file to a PVC) from the Disk source list.
- Browse to the image on your local machine and set the disk size.
- Click Customize VirtualMachine.
- Click Create VirtualMachine.
7.2.4.1.1. Generalizing a VM image
You can generalize a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) image to remove all system-specific configuration data before you use the image to create a golden image, a preconfigured snapshot of a virtual machine (VM). You can use a golden image to deploy new VMs.
You can generalize a RHEL VM by using the virtctl
, guestfs
, and virt-sysprep
tools.
Prerequisites
- You have a RHEL virtual machine (VM) to use as a base VM.
-
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
). -
You have installed the
virtctl
tool.
Procedure
Stop the RHEL VM if it is running, by entering the following command:
$ virtctl stop <my_vm_name>
- Optional: Clone the virtual machine to avoid losing the data from your original VM. You can then generalize the cloned VM.
Retrieve the
dataVolume
that stores the root filesystem for the VM by running the following command:$ oc get vm <my_vm_name> -o jsonpath="{.spec.template.spec.volumes}{'\n'}"
Example output
[{"dataVolume":{"name":"<my_vm_volume>"},"name":"rootdisk"},{"cloudInitNoCloud":{...}]
Retrieve the persistent volume claim (PVC) that matches the listed
dataVolume
by running the followimg command:$ oc get pvc
Example output
NAME STATUS VOLUME CAPACITY ACCESS MODES STORAGECLASS AGE <my_vm_volume> Bound …
NoteIf your cluster configuration does not enable you to clone a VM, to avoid losing the data from your original VM, you can clone the VM PVC to a data volume instead. You can then use the cloned PVC to create a golden image.
If you are creating a golden image by cloning a PVC, continue with the next steps, using the cloned PVC.
Deploy a new interactive container with
libguestfs-tools
and attach the PVC to it by running the following command:$ virtctl guestfs <my-vm-volume> --uid 107
This command opens a shell for you to run the next command.
Remove all configurations specific to your system by running the following command:
$ virt-sysprep -a disk.img
- In the OpenShift Container Platform console, click Virtualization → Catalog.
- Click Add volume.
In the Add volume window:
- From the Source type list, select Use existing Volume.
- From the Volume project list, select your project.
- From the Volume name list, select the correct PVC.
- In the Volume name field, enter a name for the new golden image.
- From the Preference list, select the RHEL version you are using.
- From the Default Instance Type list, select the instance type with the correct CPU and memory requirements for the version of RHEL you selected previously.
- Click Save.
The new volume appears in the Select volume to boot from list. This is your new golden image. You can use this volume to create new VMs.
Additional resources for generalizing VMs
7.2.4.2. Creating a Windows VM
You can create a Windows virtual machine (VM) by uploading a Windows image to a persistent volume claim (PVC) and then cloning the PVC when you create a VM by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Prerequisites
- You created a Windows installation DVD or USB with the Windows Media Creation Tool. See Create Windows 10 installation media in the Microsoft documentation.
-
You created an
autounattend.xml
answer file. See Answer files (unattend.xml) in the Microsoft documentation.
Procedure
Upload the Windows image as a new PVC:
- Navigate to Storage → PersistentVolumeClaims in the web console.
- Click Create PersistentVolumeClaim → With Data upload form.
- Browse to the Windows image and select it.
Enter the PVC name, select the storage class and size and then click Upload.
The Windows image is uploaded to a PVC.
Configure a new VM by cloning the uploaded PVC:
- Navigate to Virtualization → Catalog.
- Select a Windows template tile and click Customize VirtualMachine.
- Select Clone (clone PVC) from the Disk source list.
- Select the PVC project, the Windows image PVC, and the disk size.
Apply the answer file to the VM:
- Click Customize VirtualMachine parameters.
- On the Sysprep section of the Scripts tab, click Edit.
-
Browse to the
autounattend.xml
answer file and click Save.
Set the run strategy of the VM:
- Clear Start this VirtualMachine after creation so that the VM does not start immediately.
- Click Create VirtualMachine.
-
On the YAML tab, replace
running:false
withrunStrategy: RerunOnFailure
and click Save.
Click the options menu and select Start.
The VM boots from the
sysprep
disk containing theautounattend.xml
answer file.
7.2.4.2.1. Generalizing a Windows VM image
You can generalize a Windows operating system image to remove all system-specific configuration data before you use the image to create a new virtual machine (VM).
Before generalizing the VM, you must ensure the sysprep
tool cannot detect an answer file after the unattended Windows installation.
Prerequisites
- A running Windows VM with the QEMU guest agent installed.
Procedure
- In the OpenShift Container Platform console, click Virtualization → VirtualMachines.
- Select a Windows VM to open the VirtualMachine details page.
- Click Configuration → Disks.
-
Click the Options menu
beside the
sysprep
disk and select Detach. - Click Detach.
-
Rename
C:\Windows\Panther\unattend.xml
to avoid detection by thesysprep
tool. Start the
sysprep
program by running the following command:%WINDIR%\System32\Sysprep\sysprep.exe /generalize /shutdown /oobe /mode:vm
-
After the
sysprep
tool completes, the Windows VM shuts down. The disk image of the VM is now available to use as an installation image for Windows VMs.
You can now specialize the VM.
7.2.4.2.2. Specializing a Windows VM image
Specializing a Windows virtual machine (VM) configures the computer-specific information from a generalized Windows image onto the VM.
Prerequisites
- You must have a generalized Windows disk image.
-
You must create an
unattend.xml
answer file. See the Microsoft documentation for details.
Procedure
- In the OpenShift Container Platform console, click Virtualization → Catalog.
- Select a Windows template and click Customize VirtualMachine.
- Select PVC (clone PVC) from the Disk source list.
- Select the PVC project and PVC name of the generalized Windows image.
- Click Customize VirtualMachine parameters.
- Click the Scripts tab.
-
In the Sysprep section, click Edit, browse to the
unattend.xml
answer file, and click Save. - Click Create VirtualMachine.
During the initial boot, Windows uses the unattend.xml
answer file to specialize the VM. The VM is now ready to use.
Additional resources for creating Windows VMs
7.2.4.3. Creating a VM from an uploaded image by using the command line
You can upload an operating system image by using the virtctl
command line tool. You can use an existing data volume or create a new data volume for the image.
Prerequisites
-
You must have an
ISO
,IMG
, orQCOW2
operating system image file. -
For best performance, compress the image file by using the virt-sparsify tool or the
xz
orgzip
utilities. -
You must have
virtctl
installed. - The client machine must be configured to trust the OpenShift Container Platform router’s certificate.
Procedure
Upload the image by running the
virtctl image-upload
command:$ virtctl image-upload dv <datavolume_name> \ 1 --size=<datavolume_size> \ 2 --image-path=</path/to/image> \ 3
Note-
If you do not want to create a new data volume, omit the
--size
parameter and include the--no-create
flag. - When uploading a disk image to a PVC, the PVC size must be larger than the size of the uncompressed virtual disk.
-
To allow insecure server connections when using HTTPS, use the
--insecure
parameter. When you use the--insecure
flag, the authenticity of the upload endpoint is not verified.
-
If you do not want to create a new data volume, omit the
Optional. To verify that a data volume was created, view all data volumes by running the following command:
$ oc get dvs
7.2.5. Installing the QEMU guest agent and VirtIO drivers
The QEMU guest agent is a daemon that runs on the virtual machine (VM) and passes information to the host about the VM, users, file systems, and secondary networks.
You must install the QEMU guest agent on VMs created from operating system images that are not provided by Red Hat.
7.2.5.1. Installing the QEMU guest agent
7.2.5.1.1. Installing the QEMU guest agent on a Linux VM
The qemu-guest-agent
is widely available and available by default in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) virtual machines (VMs). Install the agent and start the service.
To create snapshots of an online (Running state) VM with the highest integrity, install the QEMU guest agent.
The QEMU guest agent takes a consistent snapshot by attempting to quiesce the VM file system as much as possible, depending on the system workload. This ensures that in-flight I/O is written to the disk before the snapshot is taken. If the guest agent is not present, quiescing is not possible and a best-effort snapshot is taken. The conditions under which the snapshot was taken are reflected in the snapshot indications that are displayed in the web console or CLI.
Procedure
- Log in to the VM by using a console or SSH.
Install the QEMU guest agent by running the following command:
$ yum install -y qemu-guest-agent
Ensure the service is persistent and start it:
$ systemctl enable --now qemu-guest-agent
Verification
Run the following command to verify that
AgentConnected
is listed in the VM spec:$ oc get vm <vm_name>
7.2.5.1.2. Installing the QEMU guest agent on a Windows VM
For Windows virtual machines (VMs), the QEMU guest agent is included in the VirtIO drivers. You can install the drivers during a Windows installation or on an existing Windows VM.
To create snapshots of an online (Running state) VM with the highest integrity, install the QEMU guest agent.
The QEMU guest agent takes a consistent snapshot by attempting to quiesce the VM file system as much as possible, depending on the system workload. This ensures that in-flight I/O is written to the disk before the snapshot is taken. If the guest agent is not present, quiescing is not possible and a best-effort snapshot is taken. The conditions under which the snapshot was taken are reflected in the snapshot indications that are displayed in the web console or CLI.
Procedure
-
In the Windows guest operating system, use the File Explorer to navigate to the
guest-agent
directory in thevirtio-win
CD drive. -
Run the
qemu-ga-x86_64.msi
installer.
Verification
Obtain a list of network services by running the following command:
$ net start
-
Verify that the output contains the
QEMU Guest Agent
.
7.2.5.2. Installing VirtIO drivers on Windows VMs
VirtIO drivers are paravirtualized device drivers required for Microsoft Windows virtual machines (VMs) to run in OpenShift Virtualization. The drivers are shipped with the rest of the images and do not require a separate download.
The container-native-virtualization/virtio-win
container disk must be attached to the VM as a SATA CD drive to enable driver installation. You can install VirtIO drivers during Windows installation or added to an existing Windows installation.
After the drivers are installed, the container-native-virtualization/virtio-win
container disk can be removed from the VM.
Driver name | Hardware ID | Description |
---|---|---|
viostor |
VEN_1AF4&DEV_1001 | The block driver. Sometimes labeled as an SCSI Controller in the Other devices group. |
viorng |
VEN_1AF4&DEV_1005 | The entropy source driver. Sometimes labeled as a PCI Device in the Other devices group. |
NetKVM |
VEN_1AF4&DEV_1000 | The network driver. Sometimes labeled as an Ethernet Controller in the Other devices group. Available only if a VirtIO NIC is configured. |
7.2.5.2.1. Attaching VirtIO container disk to Windows VMs during installation
You must attach the VirtIO container disk to the Windows VM to install the necessary Windows drivers. This can be done during creation of the VM.
Procedure
- When creating a Windows VM from a template, click Customize VirtualMachine.
- Select Mount Windows drivers disk.
- Click the Customize VirtualMachine parameters.
- Click Create VirtualMachine.
After the VM is created, the virtio-win
SATA CD disk will be attached to the VM.
7.2.5.2.2. Attaching VirtIO container disk to an existing Windows VM
You must attach the VirtIO container disk to the Windows VM to install the necessary Windows drivers. This can be done to an existing VM.
Procedure
- Navigate to the existing Windows VM, and click Actions → Stop.
- Go to VM Details → Configuration → Disks and click Add disk.
-
Add
windows-driver-disk
from container source, set the Type to CD-ROM, and then set the Interface to SATA. - Click Save.
- Start the VM, and connect to a graphical console.
7.2.5.2.3. Installing VirtIO drivers during Windows installation
You can install the VirtIO drivers while installing Windows on a virtual machine (VM).
This procedure uses a generic approach to the Windows installation and the installation method might differ between versions of Windows. See the documentation for the version of Windows that you are installing.
Prerequisites
-
A storage device containing the
virtio
drivers must be attached to the VM.
Procedure
-
In the Windows operating system, use the
File Explorer
to navigate to thevirtio-win
CD drive. Double-click the drive to run the appropriate installer for your VM.
For a 64-bit vCPU, select the
virtio-win-gt-x64
installer. 32-bit vCPUs are no longer supported.- Optional: During the Custom Setup step of the installer, select the device drivers you want to install. The recommended driver set is selected by default.
- After the installation is complete, select Finish.
- Reboot the VM.
Verification
-
Open the system disk on the PC. This is typically
C:
. - Navigate to Program Files → Virtio-Win.
If the Virtio-Win directory is present and contains a sub-directory for each driver, the installation was successful.
7.2.5.2.4. Installing VirtIO drivers from a SATA CD drive on an existing Windows VM
You can install the VirtIO drivers from a SATA CD drive on an existing Windows virtual machine (VM).
This procedure uses a generic approach to adding drivers to Windows. See the installation documentation for your version of Windows for specific installation steps.
Prerequisites
- A storage device containing the virtio drivers must be attached to the VM as a SATA CD drive.
Procedure
- Start the VM and connect to a graphical console.
- Log in to a Windows user session.
Open Device Manager and expand Other devices to list any Unknown device.
- Open the Device Properties to identify the unknown device.
- Right-click the device and select Properties.
- Click the Details tab and select Hardware Ids in the Property list.
- Compare the Value for the Hardware Ids with the supported VirtIO drivers.
- Right-click the device and select Update Driver Software.
- Click Browse my computer for driver software and browse to the attached SATA CD drive, where the VirtIO drivers are located. The drivers are arranged hierarchically according to their driver type, operating system, and CPU architecture.
- Click Next to install the driver.
- Repeat this process for all the necessary VirtIO drivers.
- After the driver installs, click Close to close the window.
- Reboot the VM to complete the driver installation.
7.2.5.2.5. Installing VirtIO drivers from a container disk added as a SATA CD drive
You can install VirtIO drivers from a container disk that you add to a Windows virtual machine (VM) as a SATA CD drive.
Downloading the container-native-virtualization/virtio-win
container disk from the Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog is not mandatory, because the container disk is downloaded from the Red Hat registry if it not already present in the cluster. However, downloading reduces the installation time.
Prerequisites
-
You must have access to the Red Hat registry or to the downloaded
container-native-virtualization/virtio-win
container disk in a restricted environment.
Procedure
Add the
container-native-virtualization/virtio-win
container disk as a CD drive by editing theVirtualMachine
manifest:# ... spec: domain: devices: disks: - name: virtiocontainerdisk bootOrder: 2 1 cdrom: bus: sata volumes: - containerDisk: image: container-native-virtualization/virtio-win name: virtiocontainerdisk
- 1
- OpenShift Virtualization boots the VM disks in the order defined in the
VirtualMachine
manifest. You can either define other VM disks that boot before thecontainer-native-virtualization/virtio-win
container disk or use the optionalbootOrder
parameter to ensure the VM boots from the correct disk. If you configure the boot order for a disk, you must configure the boot order for the other disks.
Apply the changes:
If the VM is not running, run the following command:
$ virtctl start <vm> -n <namespace>
If the VM is running, reboot the VM or run the following command:
$ oc apply -f <vm.yaml>
- After the VM has started, install the VirtIO drivers from the SATA CD drive.
7.2.5.3. Updating VirtIO drivers
7.2.5.3.1. Updating VirtIO drivers on a Windows VM
Update the virtio
drivers on a Windows virtual machine (VM) by using the Windows Update service.
Prerequisites
- The cluster must be connected to the internet. Disconnected clusters cannot reach the Windows Update service.
Procedure
- In the Windows Guest operating system, click the Windows key and select Settings.
- Navigate to Windows Update → Advanced Options → Optional Updates.
- Install all updates from Red Hat, Inc..
- Reboot the VM.
Verification
- On the Windows VM, navigate to the Device Manager.
- Select a device.
- Select the Driver tab.
-
Click Driver Details and confirm that the
virtio
driver details displays the correct version.
7.2.6. Cloning VMs
You can clone virtual machines (VMs) or create new VMs from snapshots.
7.2.6.1. Cloning a VM by using the web console
You can clone an existing VM by using the web console.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → VirtualMachines in the web console.
- Select a VM to open the VirtualMachine details page.
- Click Actions.
- Select Clone.
- On the Clone VirtualMachine page, enter the name of the new VM.
- (Optional) Select the Start cloned VM checkbox to start the cloned VM.
- Click Clone.
7.2.6.2. Creating a VM from an existing snapshot by using the web console
You can create a new VM by copying an existing snapshot.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → VirtualMachines in the web console.
- Select a VM to open the VirtualMachine details page.
- Click the Snapshots tab.
- Click the actions menu for the snapshot you want to copy.
- Select Create VirtualMachine.
- Enter the name of the virtual machine.
- (Optional) Select the Start this VirtualMachine after creation checkbox to start the new virtual machine.
- Click Create.
7.2.6.3. Additional resources
7.2.7. Creating VMs by cloning PVCs
You can create virtual machines (VMs) by cloning existing persistent volume claims (PVCs) with custom images.
You must install the QEMU guest agent on VMs created from operating system images that are not provided by Red Hat.
You clone a PVC by creating a data volume that references a source PVC.
7.2.7.1. About cloning
When cloning a data volume, the Containerized Data Importer (CDI) chooses one of the following Container Storage Interface (CSI) clone methods:
- CSI volume cloning
- Smart cloning
Both CSI volume cloning and smart cloning methods are efficient, but they have certain requirements for use. If the requirements are not met, the CDI uses host-assisted cloning. Host-assisted cloning is the slowest and least efficient method of cloning, but it has fewer requirements than either of the other two cloning methods.
7.2.7.1.1. CSI volume cloning
Container Storage Interface (CSI) cloning uses CSI driver features to more efficiently clone a source data volume.
CSI volume cloning has the following requirements:
- The CSI driver that backs the storage class of the persistent volume claim (PVC) must support volume cloning.
-
For provisioners not recognized by the CDI, the corresponding storage profile must have the
cloneStrategy
set to CSI Volume Cloning. - The source and target PVCs must have the same storage class and volume mode.
-
If you create the data volume, you must have permission to create the
datavolumes/source
resource in the source namespace. - The source volume must not be in use.
7.2.7.1.2. Smart cloning
When a Container Storage Interface (CSI) plugin with snapshot capabilities is available, the Containerized Data Importer (CDI) creates a persistent volume claim (PVC) from a snapshot, which then allows efficient cloning of additional PVCs.
Smart cloning has the following requirements:
- A snapshot class associated with the storage class must exist.
- The source and target PVCs must have the same storage class and volume mode.
-
If you create the data volume, you must have permission to create the
datavolumes/source
resource in the source namespace. - The source volume must not be in use.
7.2.7.1.3. Host-assisted cloning
When the requirements for neither Container Storage Interface (CSI) volume cloning nor smart cloning have been met, host-assisted cloning is used as a fallback method. Host-assisted cloning is less efficient than either of the two other cloning methods.
Host-assisted cloning uses a source pod and a target pod to copy data from the source volume to the target volume. The target persistent volume claim (PVC) is annotated with the fallback reason that explains why host-assisted cloning has been used, and an event is created.
Example PVC target annotation
apiVersion: v1 kind: PersistentVolumeClaim metadata: annotations: cdi.kubevirt.io/cloneFallbackReason: The volume modes of source and target are incompatible cdi.kubevirt.io/clonePhase: Succeeded cdi.kubevirt.io/cloneType: copy
Example event
NAMESPACE LAST SEEN TYPE REASON OBJECT MESSAGE test-ns 0s Warning IncompatibleVolumeModes persistentvolumeclaim/test-target The volume modes of source and target are incompatible
7.2.7.2. Creating a VM from a PVC by using the web console
You can create a virtual machine (VM) by importing an image from a web page by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console. You can create a virtual machine (VM) by cloning a persistent volume claim (PVC) by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Prerequisites
- You must have access to the web page that contains the image.
- You must have access to the namespace that contains the source PVC.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → Catalog in the web console.
- Click a template tile without an available boot source.
- Click Customize VirtualMachine.
- On the Customize template parameters page, expand Storage and select PVC (clone PVC) from the Disk source list.
-
Enter the image URL. Example:
https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/69/ver=/rhel---7/7.9/x86_64/product-software
-
Enter the container image URL. Example:
https://mirror.arizona.edu/fedora/linux/releases/38/Cloud/x86_64/images/Fedora-Cloud-Base-38-1.6.x86_64.qcow2
- Select the PVC project and the PVC name.
- Set the disk size.
- Click Next.
- Click Create VirtualMachine.
7.2.7.3. Creating a VM from a PVC by using the command line
You can create a virtual machine (VM) by cloning the persistent volume claim (PVC) of an existing VM by using the command line.
You can clone a PVC by using one of the following options:
Cloning a PVC to a new data volume.
This method creates a data volume whose lifecycle is independent of the original VM. Deleting the original VM does not affect the new data volume or its associated PVC.
Cloning a PVC by creating a
VirtualMachine
manifest with adataVolumeTemplates
stanza.This method creates a data volume whose lifecycle is dependent on the original VM. Deleting the original VM deletes the cloned data volume and its associated PVC.
7.2.7.3.1. Cloning a PVC to a data volume
You can clone the persistent volume claim (PVC) of an existing virtual machine (VM) disk to a data volume by using the command line.
You create a data volume that references the original source PVC. The lifecycle of the new data volume is independent of the original VM. Deleting the original VM does not affect the new data volume or its associated PVC.
Cloning between different volume modes is supported for host-assisted cloning, such as cloning from a block persistent volume (PV) to a file system PV, as long as the source and target PVs belong to the kubevirt
content type.
Smart-cloning is faster and more efficient than host-assisted cloning because it uses snapshots to clone PVCs. Smart-cloning is supported by storage providers that support snapshots, such as Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation.
Cloning between different volume modes is not supported for smart-cloning.
Prerequisites
- The VM with the source PVC must be powered down.
- If you clone a PVC to a different namespace, you must have permissions to create resources in the target namespace.
Additional prerequisites for smart-cloning:
- Your storage provider must support snapshots.
- The source and target PVCs must have the same storage provider and volume mode.
The value of the
driver
key of theVolumeSnapshotClass
object must match the value of theprovisioner
key of theStorageClass
object as shown in the following example:Example
VolumeSnapshotClass
objectkind: VolumeSnapshotClass apiVersion: snapshot.storage.k8s.io/v1 driver: openshift-storage.rbd.csi.ceph.com # ...
Example
StorageClass
objectkind: StorageClass apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1 # ... provisioner: openshift-storage.rbd.csi.ceph.com
Procedure
Create a
DataVolume
manifest as shown in the following example:apiVersion: cdi.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: DataVolume metadata: name: <datavolume> 1 spec: source: pvc: namespace: "<source_namespace>" 2 name: "<my_vm_disk>" 3 storage: {}
Create the data volume by running the following command:
$ oc create -f <datavolume>.yaml
NoteData volumes prevent a VM from starting before the PVC is prepared. You can create a VM that references the new data volume while the PVC is being cloned.
7.2.7.3.2. Creating a VM from a cloned PVC by using a data volume template
You can create a virtual machine (VM) that clones the persistent volume claim (PVC) of an existing VM by using a data volume template.
This method creates a data volume whose lifecycle is dependent on the original VM. Deleting the original VM deletes the cloned data volume and its associated PVC.
Prerequisites
- The VM with the source PVC must be powered down.
Procedure
Create a
VirtualMachine
manifest as shown in the following example:apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: labels: kubevirt.io/vm: vm-dv-clone name: vm-dv-clone 1 spec: running: false template: metadata: labels: kubevirt.io/vm: vm-dv-clone spec: domain: devices: disks: - disk: bus: virtio name: root-disk resources: requests: memory: 64M volumes: - dataVolume: name: favorite-clone name: root-disk dataVolumeTemplates: - metadata: name: favorite-clone spec: storage: accessModes: - ReadWriteOnce resources: requests: storage: 2Gi source: pvc: namespace: <source_namespace> 2 name: "<source_pvc>" 3
Create the virtual machine with the PVC-cloned data volume:
$ oc create -f <vm-clone-datavolumetemplate>.yaml
7.3. Connecting to virtual machine consoles
You can connect to the following consoles to access running virtual machines (VMs):
7.3.1. Connecting to the VNC console
You can connect to the VNC console of a virtual machine by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console or the virtctl
command line tool.
7.3.1.1. Connecting to the VNC console by using the web console
You can connect to the VNC console of a virtual machine (VM) by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
If you connect to a Windows VM with a vGPU assigned as a mediated device, you can switch between the default display and the vGPU display.
Procedure
- On the Virtualization → VirtualMachines page, click a VM to open the VirtualMachine details page.
- Click the Console tab. The VNC console session starts automatically.
Optional: To switch to the vGPU display of a Windows VM, select Ctl + Alt + 2 from the Send key list.
- Select Ctl + Alt + 1 from the Send key list to restore the default display.
- To end the console session, click outside the console pane and then click Disconnect.
7.3.1.2. Connecting to the VNC console by using virtctl
You can use the virtctl
command line tool to connect to the VNC console of a running virtual machine.
If you run the virtctl vnc
command on a remote machine over an SSH connection, you must forward the X session to your local machine by running the ssh
command with the -X
or -Y
flags.
Prerequisites
-
You must install the
virt-viewer
package.
Procedure
Run the following command to start the console session:
$ virtctl vnc <vm_name>
If the connection fails, run the following command to collect troubleshooting information:
$ virtctl vnc <vm_name> -v 4
7.3.1.3. Generating a temporary token for the VNC console
To access the VNC of a virtual machine (VM), generate a temporary authentication bearer token for the Kubernetes API.
Kubernetes also supports authentication using client certificates, instead of a bearer token, by modifying the curl command.
Prerequisites
-
A running VM with OpenShift Virtualization 4.14 or later and
ssp-operator
4.14 or later
Procedure
Enable the feature gate in the HyperConverged (
HCO
) custom resource (CR):$ oc patch hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv --type json -p '[{"op": "replace", "path": "/spec/featureGates/deployVmConsoleProxy", "value": true}]'
Generate a token by entering the following command:
$ curl --header "Authorization: Bearer ${TOKEN}" \ "https://api.<cluster_fqdn>/apis/token.kubevirt.io/v1alpha1/namespaces/<namespace>/virtualmachines/<vm_name>/vnc?duration=<duration>"
The
<duration>
parameter can be set in hours and minutes, with a minimum duration of 10 minutes. For example:5h30m
. If this parameter is not set, the token is valid for 10 minutes by default.Sample output:
{ "token": "eyJhb..." }
Optional: Use the token provided in the output to create a variable:
$ export VNC_TOKEN="<token>"
You can now use the token to access the VNC console of a VM.
Verification
Log in to the cluster by entering the following command:
$ oc login --token ${VNC_TOKEN}
Test access to the VNC console of the VM by using the
virtctl
command:$ virtctl vnc <vm_name> -n <namespace>
It is currently not possible to revoke a specific token.
To revoke a token, you must delete the service account that was used to create it. However, this also revokes all other tokens that were created by using the service account. Use the following command with caution:
$ virtctl delete serviceaccount --namespace "<namespace>" "<vm_name>-vnc-access"
7.3.1.3.1. Granting token generation permission for the VNC console by using the cluster role
As a cluster administrator, you can install a cluster role and bind it to a user or service account to allow access to the endpoint that generates tokens for the VNC console.
Procedure
Choose to bind the cluster role to either a user or service account.
Run the following command to bind the cluster role to a user:
$ kubectl create rolebinding "${ROLE_BINDING_NAME}" --clusterrole="token.kubevirt.io:generate" --user="${USER_NAME}"
Run the following command to bind the cluster role to a service account:
$ kubectl create rolebinding "${ROLE_BINDING_NAME}" --clusterrole="token.kubevirt.io:generate" --serviceaccount="${SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME}"
7.3.2. Connecting to the serial console
You can connect to the serial console of a virtual machine by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console or the virtctl
command line tool.
Running concurrent VNC connections to a single virtual machine is not currently supported.
7.3.2.1. Connecting to the serial console by using the web console
You can connect to the serial console of a virtual machine (VM) by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Procedure
- On the Virtualization → VirtualMachines page, click a VM to open the VirtualMachine details page.
- Click the Console tab. The VNC console session starts automatically.
- Click Disconnect to end the VNC console session. Otherwise, the VNC console session continues to run in the background.
- Select Serial console from the console list.
- To end the console session, click outside the console pane and then click Disconnect.
7.3.2.2. Connecting to the serial console by using virtctl
You can use the virtctl
command line tool to connect to the serial console of a running virtual machine.
Procedure
Run the following command to start the console session:
$ virtctl console <vm_name>
-
Press
Ctrl+]
to end the console session.
7.3.3. Connecting to the desktop viewer
You can connect to a Windows virtual machine (VM) by using the desktop viewer and the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).
7.3.3.1. Connecting to the desktop viewer by using the web console
You can connect to the desktop viewer of a Windows virtual machine (VM) by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Prerequisites
- You installed the QEMU guest agent on the Windows VM.
- You have an RDP client installed.
Procedure
- On the Virtualization → VirtualMachines page, click a VM to open the VirtualMachine details page.
- Click the Console tab. The VNC console session starts automatically.
- Click Disconnect to end the VNC console session. Otherwise, the VNC console session continues to run in the background.
- Select Desktop viewer from the console list.
- Click Create RDP Service to open the RDP Service dialog.
- Select Expose RDP Service and click Save to create a node port service.
-
Click Launch Remote Desktop to download an
.rdp
file and launch the desktop viewer.
7.4. Specifying an instance type or preference
You can specify an instance type, a preference, or both to define a set of workload sizing and runtime characteristics for reuse across multiple VMs.
7.4.1. Using flags to specify instance types and preferences
Specify instance types and preferences by using flags.
Prerequisites
- You must have an instance type, preference, or both on the cluster.
Procedure
To specify an instance type when creating a VM, use the
--instancetype
flag. To specify a preference, use the--preference
flag. The following example includes both flags:$ virtctl create vm --instancetype <my_instancetype> --preference <my_preference>
Optional: To specify a namespaced instance type or preference, include the
kind
in the value passed to the--instancetype
or--preference
flag command. The namespaced instance type or preference must be in the same namespace you are creating the VM in. The following example includes flags for a namespaced instance type and a namespaced preference:$ virtctl create vm --instancetype virtualmachineinstancetype/<my_instancetype> --preference virtualmachinepreference/<my_preference>
7.4.2. Inferring an instance type or preference
Inferring instance types, preferences, or both is enabled by default, and the inferFromVolumeFailure
policy of the inferFromVolume
attribute is set to Ignore
. When inferring from the boot volume, errors are ignored, and the VM is created with the instance type and preference left unset.
However, when flags are applied, the inferFromVolumeFailure
policy defaults to Reject
. When inferring from the boot volume, errors result in the rejection of the creation of that VM.
You can use the --infer-instancetype
and --infer-preference
flags to infer which instance type, preference, or both to use to define the workload sizing and runtime characteristics of a VM.
Prerequisites
-
You have installed the
virtctl
tool.
Procedure
To explicitly infer instance types from the volume used to boot the virtual machine, use the
--infer-instancetype
flag. To explicitly infer preferences, use the--infer-preference
flag. The following command includes both flags:$ virtctl create vm --volume-import type:pvc,src:my-ns/my-pvc --infer-instancetype --infer-preference
7.4.3. Setting the inferFromVolume labels
Use the following labels on your PVC, data source, or data volume to instruct the inference mechanism which instance type, preference, or both to use when trying to boot from a volume.
-
A cluster-wide instance type:
instancetype.kubevirt.io/default-instancetype
label. -
A namespaced instance type:
instancetype.kubevirt.io/default-instancetype-kind
label. Defaults to theVirtualMachineClusterInstancetype
label if left empty. -
A cluster-wide preference:
instancetype.kubevirt.io/default-preference
label. -
A namespaced preference:
instancetype.kubevirt.io/default-preference-kind
label. Defaults toVirtualMachineClusterPreference
label, if left empty.
Prerequisites
- You must have an instance type, preference, or both on the cluster.
Procedure
To apply a label to a data source, use
oc label
. The following command applies a label that points to a cluster-wide instance type:$ oc label DataSource foo instancetype.kubevirt.io/default-instancetype=<my_instancetype>
7.5. Configuring SSH access to virtual machines
You can configure SSH access to virtual machines (VMs) by using the following methods:
You create an SSH key pair, add the public key to a VM, and connect to the VM by running the
virtctl ssh
command with the private key.You can add public SSH keys to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9 VMs at runtime or at first boot to VMs with guest operating systems that can be configured by using a cloud-init data source.
You add the
virtctl port-foward
command to your.ssh/config
file and connect to the VM by using OpenSSH.You create a service, associate the service with the VM, and connect to the IP address and port exposed by the service.
You configure a secondary network, attach a virtual machine (VM) to the secondary network interface, and connect to the DHCP-allocated IP address.
7.5.1. Access configuration considerations
Each method for configuring access to a virtual machine (VM) has advantages and limitations, depending on the traffic load and client requirements.
Services provide excellent performance and are recommended for applications that are accessed from outside the cluster.
If the internal cluster network cannot handle the traffic load, you can configure a secondary network.
virtctl ssh
andvirtctl port-forwarding
commands- Simple to configure.
- Recommended for troubleshooting VMs.
-
virtctl port-forwarding
recommended for automated configuration of VMs with Ansible. - Dynamic public SSH keys can be used to provision VMs with Ansible.
- Not recommended for high-traffic applications like Rsync or Remote Desktop Protocol because of the burden on the API server.
- The API server must be able to handle the traffic load.
- The clients must be able to access the API server.
- The clients must have access credentials for the cluster.
- Cluster IP service
- The internal cluster network must be able to handle the traffic load.
- The clients must be able to access an internal cluster IP address.
- Node port service
- The internal cluster network must be able to handle the traffic load.
- The clients must be able to access at least one node.
- Load balancer service
- A load balancer must be configured.
- Each node must be able to handle the traffic load of one or more load balancer services.
- Secondary network
- Excellent performance because traffic does not go through the internal cluster network.
- Allows a flexible approach to network topology.
- Guest operating system must be configured with appropriate security because the VM is exposed directly to the secondary network. If a VM is compromised, an intruder could gain access to the secondary network.
7.5.2. Using virtctl ssh
You can add a public SSH key to a virtual machine (VM) and connect to the VM by running the virtctl ssh
command.
This method is simple to configure. However, it is not recommended for high traffic loads because it places a burden on the API server.
7.5.2.1. About static and dynamic SSH key management
You can add public SSH keys to virtual machines (VMs) statically at first boot or dynamically at runtime.
Only Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9 supports dynamic key injection.
Static SSH key management
You can add a statically managed SSH key to a VM with a guest operating system that supports configuration by using a cloud-init data source. The key is added to the virtual machine (VM) at first boot.
You can add the key by using one of the following methods:
- Add a key to a single VM when you create it by using the web console or the command line.
- Add a key to a project by using the web console. Afterwards, the key is automatically added to the VMs that you create in this project.
Use cases
- As a VM owner, you can provision all your newly created VMs with a single key.
Dynamic SSH key management
You can enable dynamic SSH key management for a VM with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9 installed. Afterwards, you can update the key during runtime. The key is added by the QEMU guest agent, which is installed with Red Hat boot sources.
You can disable dynamic key management for security reasons. Then, the VM inherits the key management setting of the image from which it was created.
Use cases
-
Granting or revoking access to VMs: As a cluster administrator, you can grant or revoke remote VM access by adding or removing the keys of individual users from a
Secret
object that is applied to all VMs in a namespace. - User access: You can add your access credentials to all VMs that you create and manage.
Ansible provisioning:
- As an operations team member, you can create a single secret that contains all the keys used for Ansible provisioning.
- As a VM owner, you can create a VM and attach the keys used for Ansible provisioning.
Key rotation:
- As a cluster administrator, you can rotate the Ansible provisioner keys used by VMs in a namespace.
- As a workload owner, you can rotate the key for the VMs that you manage.
7.5.2.2. Static key management
You can add a statically managed public SSH key when you create a virtual machine (VM) by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console or the command line. The key is added as a cloud-init data source when the VM boots for the first time.
You can also add a public SSH key to a project when you create a VM by using the web console. The key is saved as a secret and is added automatically to all VMs that you create.
If you add a secret to a project and then delete the VM, the secret is retained because it is a namespace resource. You must delete the secret manually.
7.5.2.2.1. Adding a key when creating a VM from a template
You can add a statically managed public SSH key when you create a virtual machine (VM) by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console. The key is added to the VM as a cloud-init data source at first boot. This method does not affect cloud-init user data.
Optional: You can add a key to a project. Afterwards, this key is added automatically to VMs that you create in the project.
Prerequisites
-
You generated an SSH key pair by running the
ssh-keygen
command.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → Catalog in the web console.
Click a template tile.
The guest operating system must support configuration from a cloud-init data source.
- Click Customize VirtualMachine.
- Click Next.
- Click the Scripts tab.
If you have not already added a public SSH key to your project, click the edit icon beside Authorized SSH key and select one of the following options:
- Use existing: Select a secret from the secrets list.
Add new:
- Browse to the SSH key file or paste the file in the key field.
- Enter the secret name.
- Optional: Select Automatically apply this key to any new VirtualMachine you create in this project.
- Click Save.
Click Create VirtualMachine.
The VirtualMachine details page displays the progress of the VM creation.
Verification
Click the Scripts tab on the Configuration tab.
The secret name is displayed in the Authorized SSH key section.
7.5.2.2.2. Adding a key when creating a VM from an instance type by using the web console
You can create a virtual machine (VM) from an instance type by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console. You can also use the web console to create a VM by copying an existing snapshot or to clone a VM.
You can create a VM from a list of available bootable volumes. You can add Linux- or Windows-based volumes to the list.
You can add a statically managed SSH key when you create a virtual machine (VM) from an instance type by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console. The key is added to the VM as a cloud-init data source at first boot. This method does not affect cloud-init user data.
Procedure
In the web console, navigate to Virtualization → Catalog.
The InstanceTypes tab opens by default.
Select either of the following options:
Select a suitable bootable volume from the list. If the list is truncated, click the Show all button to display the entire list.
NoteThe bootable volume table lists only those volumes in the
openshift-virtualization-os-images
namespace that have theinstancetype.kubevirt.io/default-preference
label.- Optional: Click the star icon to designate a bootable volume as a favorite. Starred bootable volumes appear first in the volume list.
Click Add volume to upload a new volume or to use an existing persistent volume claim (PVC), a volume snapshot, or a
containerDisk
volume. Click Save.Logos of operating systems that are not available in the cluster are shown at the bottom of the list. You can add a volume for the required operating system by clicking the Add volume link.
In addition, there is a link to the Create a Windows boot source quick start. The same link appears in a popover if you hover the pointer over the question mark icon next to the Select volume to boot from line.
Immediately after you install the environment or when the environment is disconnected, the list of volumes to boot from is empty. In that case, three operating system logos are displayed: Windows, RHEL, and Linux. You can add a new volume that meets your requirements by clicking the Add volume button.
- Click an instance type tile and select the resource size appropriate for your workload.
Optional: Choose the virtual machine details, including the VM’s name, that apply to the volume you are booting from:
For a Linux-based volume, follow these steps to configure SSH:
- If you have not already added a public SSH key to your project, click the edit icon beside Authorized SSH key in the VirtualMachine details section.
Select one of the following options:
- Use existing: Select a secret from the secrets list.
Add new: Follow these steps:
- Browse to the public SSH key file or paste the file in the key field.
- Enter the secret name.
- Optional: Select Automatically apply this key to any new VirtualMachine you create in this project.
- Click Save.
For a Windows volume, follow either of these set of steps to configure sysprep options:
If you have not already added sysprep options for the Windows volume, follow these steps:
- Click the edit icon beside Sysprep in the VirtualMachine details section.
- Add the Autoattend.xml answer file.
- Add the Unattend.xml answer file.
- Click Save.
If you want to use existing sysprep options for the Windows volume, follow these steps:
- Click Attach existing sysprep.
- Enter the name of the existing sysprep Unattend.xml answer file.
- Click Save.
Optional: If you are creating a Windows VM, you can mount a Windows driver disk:
- Click the Customize VirtualMachine button.
- On the VirtualMachine details page, click Storage.
- Select the Mount Windows drivers disk checkbox.
- Optional: Click View YAML & CLI to view the YAML file. Click CLI to view the CLI commands. You can also download or copy either the YAML file contents or the CLI commands.
- Click Create VirtualMachine.
After the VM is created, you can monitor the status on the VirtualMachine details page.
7.5.2.2.3. Adding a key when creating a VM by using the command line
You can add a statically managed public SSH key when you create a virtual machine (VM) by using the command line. The key is added to the VM at first boot.
The key is added to the VM as a cloud-init data source. This method separates the access credentials from the application data in the cloud-init user data. This method does not affect cloud-init user data.
Prerequisites
-
You generated an SSH key pair by running the
ssh-keygen
command.
Procedure
Create a manifest file for a
VirtualMachine
object and aSecret
object:Example manifest
apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: example-vm namespace: example-namespace spec: dataVolumeTemplates: - metadata: name: example-vm-volume spec: sourceRef: kind: DataSource name: rhel9 namespace: openshift-virtualization-os-images storage: resources: {} instancetype: name: u1.medium preference: name: rhel.9 running: true template: spec: domain: devices: {} volumes: - dataVolume: name: example-vm-volume name: rootdisk - cloudInitNoCloud: 1 userData: |- #cloud-config user: cloud-user name: cloudinitdisk accessCredentials: - sshPublicKey: propagationMethod: noCloud: {} source: secret: secretName: authorized-keys 2 --- apiVersion: v1 kind: Secret metadata: name: authorized-keys data: key: c3NoLXJzYSB... 3
Create the
VirtualMachine
andSecret
objects by running the following command:$ oc create -f <manifest_file>.yaml
Start the VM by running the following command:
$ virtctl start vm example-vm -n example-namespace
Verification
Get the VM configuration:
$ oc describe vm example-vm -n example-namespace
Example output
apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: example-vm namespace: example-namespace spec: template: spec: accessCredentials: - sshPublicKey: propagationMethod: noCloud: {} source: secret: secretName: authorized-keys # ...
7.5.2.3. Dynamic key management
You can enable dynamic key injection for a virtual machine (VM) by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console or the command line. Then, you can update the key at runtime.
Only Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9 supports dynamic key injection.
If you disable dynamic key injection, the VM inherits the key management method of the image from which it was created.
7.5.2.3.1. Enabling dynamic key injection when creating a VM from a template
You can enable dynamic public SSH key injection when you create a virtual machine (VM) from a template by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console. Then, you can update the key at runtime.
Only Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9 supports dynamic key injection.
The key is added to the VM by the QEMU guest agent, which is installed with RHEL 9.
Prerequisites
-
You generated an SSH key pair by running the
ssh-keygen
command.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → Catalog in the web console.
- Click the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 VM tile.
- Click Customize VirtualMachine.
- Click Next.
- Click the Scripts tab.
If you have not already added a public SSH key to your project, click the edit icon beside Authorized SSH key and select one of the following options:
- Use existing: Select a secret from the secrets list.
Add new:
- Browse to the SSH key file or paste the file in the key field.
- Enter the secret name.
- Optional: Select Automatically apply this key to any new VirtualMachine you create in this project.
- Set Dynamic SSH key injection to on.
- Click Save.
Click Create VirtualMachine.
The VirtualMachine details page displays the progress of the VM creation.
Verification
Click the Scripts tab on the Configuration tab.
The secret name is displayed in the Authorized SSH key section.
7.5.2.3.2. Enabling dynamic key injection when creating a VM from an instance type by using the web console
You can create a virtual machine (VM) from an instance type by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console. You can also use the web console to create a VM by copying an existing snapshot or to clone a VM.
You can create a VM from a list of available bootable volumes. You can add Linux- or Windows-based volumes to the list.
You can enable dynamic SSH key injection when you create a virtual machine (VM) from an instance type by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console. Then, you can add or revoke the key at runtime.
Only Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9 supports dynamic key injection.
The key is added to the VM by the QEMU guest agent, which is installed with RHEL 9.
Procedure
In the web console, navigate to Virtualization → Catalog.
The InstanceTypes tab opens by default.
Select either of the following options:
Select a suitable bootable volume from the list. If the list is truncated, click the Show all button to display the entire list.
NoteThe bootable volume table lists only those volumes in the
openshift-virtualization-os-images
namespace that have theinstancetype.kubevirt.io/default-preference
label.- Optional: Click the star icon to designate a bootable volume as a favorite. Starred bootable volumes appear first in the volume list.
Click Add volume to upload a new volume or to use an existing persistent volume claim (PVC), a volume snapshot, or a
containerDisk
volume. Click Save.Logos of operating systems that are not available in the cluster are shown at the bottom of the list. You can add a volume for the required operating system by clicking the Add volume link.
In addition, there is a link to the Create a Windows boot source quick start. The same link appears in a popover if you hover the pointer over the question mark icon next to the Select volume to boot from line.
Immediately after you install the environment or when the environment is disconnected, the list of volumes to boot from is empty. In that case, three operating system logos are displayed: Windows, RHEL, and Linux. You can add a new volume that meets your requirements by clicking the Add volume button.
- Click an instance type tile and select the resource size appropriate for your workload.
- Click the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 VM tile.
Optional: Choose the virtual machine details, including the VM’s name, that apply to the volume you are booting from:
For a Linux-based volume, follow these steps to configure SSH:
- If you have not already added a public SSH key to your project, click the edit icon beside Authorized SSH key in the VirtualMachine details section.
Select one of the following options:
- Use existing: Select a secret from the secrets list.
Add new: Follow these steps:
- Browse to the public SSH key file or paste the file in the key field.
- Enter the secret name.
- Optional: Select Automatically apply this key to any new VirtualMachine you create in this project.
- Click Save.
For a Windows volume, follow either of these set of steps to configure sysprep options:
If you have not already added sysprep options for the Windows volume, follow these steps:
- Click the edit icon beside Sysprep in the VirtualMachine details section.
- Add the Autoattend.xml answer file.
- Add the Unattend.xml answer file.
- Click Save.
If you want to use existing sysprep options for the Windows volume, follow these steps:
- Click Attach existing sysprep.
- Enter the name of the existing sysprep Unattend.xml answer file.
- Click Save.
- Set Dynamic SSH key injection in the VirtualMachine details section to on.
Optional: If you are creating a Windows VM, you can mount a Windows driver disk:
- Click the Customize VirtualMachine button.
- On the VirtualMachine details page, click Storage.
- Select the Mount Windows drivers disk checkbox.
- Optional: Click View YAML & CLI to view the YAML file. Click CLI to view the CLI commands. You can also download or copy either the YAML file contents or the CLI commands.
- Click Create VirtualMachine.
After the VM is created, you can monitor the status on the VirtualMachine details page.
7.5.2.3.3. Enabling dynamic SSH key injection by using the web console
You can enable dynamic key injection for a virtual machine (VM) by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console. Then, you can update the public SSH key at runtime.
The key is added to the VM by the QEMU guest agent, which is installed with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9.
Prerequisites
- The guest operating system is RHEL 9.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → VirtualMachines in the web console.
- Select a VM to open the VirtualMachine details page.
- On the Configuration tab, click Scripts.
If you have not already added a public SSH key to your project, click the edit icon beside Authorized SSH key and select one of the following options:
- Use existing: Select a secret from the secrets list.
Add new:
- Browse to the SSH key file or paste the file in the key field.
- Enter the secret name.
- Optional: Select Automatically apply this key to any new VirtualMachine you create in this project.
- Set Dynamic SSH key injection to on.
- Click Save.
7.5.2.3.4. Enabling dynamic key injection by using the command line
You can enable dynamic key injection for a virtual machine (VM) by using the command line. Then, you can update the public SSH key at runtime.
Only Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9 supports dynamic key injection.
The key is added to the VM by the QEMU guest agent, which is installed automatically with RHEL 9.
Prerequisites
-
You generated an SSH key pair by running the
ssh-keygen
command.
Procedure
Create a manifest file for a
VirtualMachine
object and aSecret
object:Example manifest
apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: example-vm namespace: example-namespace spec: dataVolumeTemplates: - metadata: name: example-vm-volume spec: sourceRef: kind: DataSource name: rhel9 namespace: openshift-virtualization-os-images storage: resources: {} instancetype: name: u1.medium preference: name: rhel.9 running: true template: spec: domain: devices: {} volumes: - dataVolume: name: example-vm-volume name: rootdisk - cloudInitNoCloud: 1 userData: |- #cloud-config runcmd: - [ setsebool, -P, virt_qemu_ga_manage_ssh, on ] name: cloudinitdisk accessCredentials: - sshPublicKey: propagationMethod: qemuGuestAgent: users: ["cloud-user"] source: secret: secretName: authorized-keys 2 --- apiVersion: v1 kind: Secret metadata: name: authorized-keys data: key: c3NoLXJzYSB... 3
Create the
VirtualMachine
andSecret
objects by running the following command:$ oc create -f <manifest_file>.yaml
Start the VM by running the following command:
$ virtctl start vm example-vm -n example-namespace
Verification
Get the VM configuration:
$ oc describe vm example-vm -n example-namespace
Example output
apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: example-vm namespace: example-namespace spec: template: spec: accessCredentials: - sshPublicKey: propagationMethod: qemuGuestAgent: users: ["cloud-user"] source: secret: secretName: authorized-keys # ...
7.5.2.4. Using the virtctl ssh command
You can access a running virtual machine (VM) by using the virtcl ssh
command.
Prerequisites
-
You installed the
virtctl
command line tool. - You added a public SSH key to the VM.
- You have an SSH client installed.
-
The environment where you installed the
virtctl
tool has the cluster permissions required to access the VM. For example, you ranoc login
or you set theKUBECONFIG
environment variable.
Procedure
Run the
virtctl ssh
command:$ virtctl -n <namespace> ssh <username>@example-vm -i <ssh_key> 1
- 1
- Specify the namespace, user name, and the SSH private key. The default SSH key location is
/home/user/.ssh
. If you save the key in a different location, you must specify the path.
Example
$ virtctl -n my-namespace ssh cloud-user@example-vm -i my-key
You can copy the virtctl ssh
command in the web console by selecting Copy SSH command from the options
menu beside a VM on the VirtualMachines page.
7.5.3. Using the virtctl port-forward command
You can use your local OpenSSH client and the virtctl port-forward
command to connect to a running virtual machine (VM). You can use this method with Ansible to automate the configuration of VMs.
This method is recommended for low-traffic applications because port-forwarding traffic is sent over the control plane. This method is not recommended for high-traffic applications such as Rsync or Remote Desktop Protocol because it places a heavy burden on the API server.
Prerequisites
-
You have installed the
virtctl
client. - The virtual machine you want to access is running.
-
The environment where you installed the
virtctl
tool has the cluster permissions required to access the VM. For example, you ranoc login
or you set theKUBECONFIG
environment variable.
Procedure
Add the following text to the
~/.ssh/config
file on your client machine:Host vm/* ProxyCommand virtctl port-forward --stdio=true %h %p
Connect to the VM by running the following command:
$ ssh <user>@vm/<vm_name>.<namespace>
7.5.4. Using a service for SSH access
You can create a service for a virtual machine (VM) and connect to the IP address and port exposed by the service.
Services provide excellent performance and are recommended for applications that are accessed from outside the cluster or within the cluster. Ingress traffic is protected by firewalls.
If the cluster network cannot handle the traffic load, consider using a secondary network for VM access.
7.5.4.1. About services
A Kubernetes service exposes network access for clients to an application running on a set of pods. Services offer abstraction, load balancing, and, in the case of the NodePort
and LoadBalancer
types, exposure to the outside world.
- ClusterIP
-
Exposes the service on an internal IP address and as a DNS name to other applications within the cluster. A single service can map to multiple virtual machines. When a client tries to connect to the service, the client’s request is load balanced among available backends.
ClusterIP
is the default service type. - NodePort
-
Exposes the service on the same port of each selected node in the cluster.
NodePort
makes a port accessible from outside the cluster, as long as the node itself is externally accessible to the client. - LoadBalancer
- Creates an external load balancer in the current cloud (if supported) and assigns a fixed, external IP address to the service.
For on-premise clusters, you can configure a load-balancing service by deploying the MetalLB Operator.
7.5.4.2. Creating a service
You can create a service to expose a virtual machine (VM) by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console, virtctl
command line tool, or a YAML file.
7.5.4.2.1. Enabling load balancer service creation by using the web console
You can enable the creation of load balancer services for a virtual machine (VM) by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Prerequisites
- You have configured a load balancer for the cluster.
-
You are logged in as a user with the
cluster-admin
role.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → Overview.
- On the Settings tab, click Cluster.
- Expand General settings and SSH configuration.
- Set SSH over LoadBalancer service to on.
7.5.4.2.2. Creating a service by using the web console
You can create a node port or load balancer service for a virtual machine (VM) by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Prerequisites
- You configured the cluster network to support either a load balancer or a node port.
- To create a load balancer service, you enabled the creation of load balancer services.
Procedure
- Navigate to VirtualMachines and select a virtual machine to view the VirtualMachine details page.
- On the Details tab, select SSH over LoadBalancer from the SSH service type list.
-
Optional: Click the copy icon to copy the
SSH
command to your clipboard.
Verification
- Check the Services pane on the Details tab to view the new service.
7.5.4.2.3. Creating a service by using virtctl
You can create a service for a virtual machine (VM) by using the virtctl
command line tool.
Prerequisites
-
You installed the
virtctl
command line tool. - You configured the cluster network to support the service.
-
The environment where you installed
virtctl
has the cluster permissions required to access the VM. For example, you ranoc login
or you set theKUBECONFIG
environment variable.
Procedure
Create a service by running the following command:
$ virtctl expose vm <vm_name> --name <service_name> --type <service_type> --port <port> 1
- 1
- Specify the
ClusterIP
,NodePort
, orLoadBalancer
service type.
Example
$ virtctl expose vm example-vm --name example-service --type NodePort --port 22
Verification
Verify the service by running the following command:
$ oc get service
Next steps
After you create a service with virtctl
, you must add special: key
to the spec.template.metadata.labels
stanza of the VirtualMachine
manifest. See Creating a service by using the command line.
7.5.4.2.4. Creating a service by using the command line
You can create a service and associate it with a virtual machine (VM) by using the command line.
Prerequisites
- You configured the cluster network to support the service.
Procedure
Edit the
VirtualMachine
manifest to add the label for service creation:apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: example-vm namespace: example-namespace spec: running: false template: metadata: labels: special: key 1 # ...
- 1
- Add
special: key
to thespec.template.metadata.labels
stanza.
NoteLabels on a virtual machine are passed through to the pod. The
special: key
label must match the label in thespec.selector
attribute of theService
manifest.-
Save the
VirtualMachine
manifest file to apply your changes. Create a
Service
manifest to expose the VM:apiVersion: v1 kind: Service metadata: name: example-service namespace: example-namespace spec: # ... selector: special: key 1 type: NodePort 2 ports: 3 protocol: TCP port: 80 targetPort: 9376 nodePort: 30000
-
Save the
Service
manifest file. Create the service by running the following command:
$ oc create -f example-service.yaml
- Restart the VM to apply the changes.
Verification
Query the
Service
object to verify that it is available:$ oc get service -n example-namespace
7.5.4.3. Connecting to a VM exposed by a service by using SSH
You can connect to a virtual machine (VM) that is exposed by a service by using SSH.
Prerequisites
- You created a service to expose the VM.
- You have an SSH client installed.
- You are logged in to the cluster.
Procedure
Run the following command to access the VM:
$ ssh <user_name>@<ip_address> -p <port> 1
- 1
- Specify the cluster IP for a cluster IP service, the node IP for a node port service, or the external IP address for a load balancer service.
7.5.5. Using a secondary network for SSH access
You can configure a secondary network, attach a virtual machine (VM) to the secondary network interface, and connect to the DHCP-allocated IP address by using SSH.
Secondary networks provide excellent performance because the traffic is not handled by the cluster network stack. However, the VMs are exposed directly to the secondary network and are not protected by firewalls. If a VM is compromised, an intruder could gain access to the secondary network. You must configure appropriate security within the operating system of the VM if you use this method.
See the Multus and SR-IOV documentation in the OpenShift Virtualization Tuning & Scaling Guide for additional information about networking options.
Prerequisites
- You configured a secondary network such as Linux bridge or SR-IOV.
-
You created a network attachment definition for a Linux bridge network or the SR-IOV Network Operator created a network attachment definition when you created an
SriovNetwork
object.
7.5.5.1. Configuring a VM network interface by using the web console
You can configure a network interface for a virtual machine (VM) by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Prerequisites
- You created a network attachment definition for the network.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → VirtualMachines.
- Click a VM to view the VirtualMachine details page.
- On the Configuration tab, click the Network interfaces tab.
- Click Add network interface.
- Enter the interface name and select the network attachment definition from the Network list.
- Click Save.
- Restart the VM to apply the changes.
7.5.5.2. Connecting to a VM attached to a secondary network by using SSH
You can connect to a virtual machine (VM) attached to a secondary network by using SSH.
Prerequisites
- You attached a VM to a secondary network with a DHCP server.
- You have an SSH client installed.
Procedure
Obtain the IP address of the VM by running the following command:
$ oc describe vm <vm_name> -n <namespace>
Example output
# ... Interfaces: Interface Name: eth0 Ip Address: 10.244.0.37/24 Ip Addresses: 10.244.0.37/24 fe80::858:aff:fef4:25/64 Mac: 0a:58:0a:f4:00:25 Name: default # ...
Connect to the VM by running the following command:
$ ssh <user_name>@<ip_address> -i <ssh_key>
Example
$ ssh cloud-user@10.244.0.37 -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa_cloud-user
7.6. Editing virtual machines
You can update a virtual machine (VM) configuration by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console. You can update the YAML file or the VirtualMachine details page.
You can also edit a VM by using the command line.
To edit a VM to configure disk sharing by using virtual disks or LUN, see Configuring shared volumes for virtual machines.
7.6.1. Hot plugging memory on a virtual machine
You can add or remove the amount of memory allocated to a virtual machine (VM) without having to restart the VM by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → VirtualMachines.
- Select the required VM to open the VirtualMachine details page.
- On the Configuration tab, click Edit CPU|Memory.
- Enter the desired amount of memory and click Save.
The system applies these changes immediately. If the VM is migratable, a live migration is triggered. If not, or if the changes cannot be live-updated, a RestartRequired
condition is added to the VM.
Linux guests require a kernel version of 5.16 or later and Windows guests require the latest viomem
drivers.
7.6.2. Hot plugging CPUs on a virtual machine
You can increase or decrease the number of CPU sockets allocated to a virtual machine (VM) without having to restart the VM by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → VirtualMachines.
- Select the required VM to open the VirtualMachine details page.
- On the Configuration tab, click Edit CPU|Memory.
- Select the vCPU radio button.
Enter the desired number of vCPU sockets and click Save.
If the VM is migratable, a live migration is triggered. If not, or if the changes cannot be live-updated, a
RestartRequired
condition is added to the VM.
7.6.3. Editing a virtual machine by using the command line
You can edit a virtual machine (VM) by using the command line.
Prerequisites
-
You installed the
oc
CLI.
Procedure
Obtain the virtual machine configuration by running the following command:
$ oc edit vm <vm_name>
- Edit the YAML configuration.
If you edit a running virtual machine, you need to do one of the following:
- Restart the virtual machine.
Run the following command for the new configuration to take effect:
$ oc apply vm <vm_name> -n <namespace>
7.6.4. Adding a disk to a virtual machine
You can add a virtual disk to a virtual machine (VM) by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → VirtualMachines in the web console.
- Select a VM to open the VirtualMachine details page.
- On the Disks tab, click Add disk.
Specify the Source, Name, Size, Type, Interface, and Storage Class.
- Optional: You can enable preallocation if you use a blank disk source and require maximum write performance when creating data volumes. To do so, select the Enable preallocation checkbox.
-
Optional: You can clear Apply optimized StorageProfile settings to change the Volume Mode and Access Mode for the virtual disk. If you do not specify these parameters, the system uses the default values from the
kubevirt-storage-class-defaults
config map.
- Click Add.
If the VM is running, you must restart the VM to apply the change.
7.6.4.1. Storage fields
Field | Description |
---|---|
Blank (creates PVC) | Create an empty disk. |
Import via URL (creates PVC) | Import content via URL (HTTP or HTTPS endpoint). |
Use an existing PVC | Use a PVC that is already available in the cluster. |
Clone existing PVC (creates PVC) | Select an existing PVC available in the cluster and clone it. |
Import via Registry (creates PVC) | Import content via container registry. |
Container (ephemeral) | Upload content from a container located in a registry accessible from the cluster. The container disk should be used only for read-only filesystems such as CD-ROMs or temporary virtual machines. |
Name |
Name of the disk. The name can contain lowercase letters ( |
Size | Size of the disk in GiB. |
Type | Type of disk. Example: Disk or CD-ROM |
Interface | Type of disk device. Supported interfaces are virtIO, SATA, and SCSI. |
Storage Class | The storage class that is used to create the disk. |
Advanced storage settings
The following advanced storage settings are optional and available for Blank, Import via URL, and Clone existing PVC disks.
If you do not specify these parameters, the system uses the default storage profile values.
Parameter | Option | Parameter description |
---|---|---|
Volume Mode | Filesystem | Stores the virtual disk on a file system-based volume. |
Block |
Stores the virtual disk directly on the block volume. Only use | |
Access Mode | ReadWriteOnce (RWO) | Volume can be mounted as read-write by a single node. |
ReadWriteMany (RWX) | Volume can be mounted as read-write by many nodes at one time. Note This mode is required for live migration. |
7.6.5. Mounting a Windows driver disk on a virtual machine
You can mount a Windows driver disk on a virtual machine (VM) by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → VirtualMachines.
- Select the required VM to open the VirtualMachine details page.
- On the Configuration tab, click Storage.
Select the Mount Windows drivers disk checkbox.
The Windows driver disk is displayed in the list of mounted disks.
7.6.6. Adding a secret, config map, or service account to a virtual machine
You add a secret, config map, or service account to a virtual machine by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
These resources are added to the virtual machine as disks. You then mount the secret, config map, or service account as you would mount any other disk.
If the virtual machine is running, changes do not take effect until you restart the virtual machine. The newly added resources are marked as pending changes at the top of the page.
Prerequisites
- The secret, config map, or service account that you want to add must exist in the same namespace as the target virtual machine.
Procedure
- Click Virtualization → VirtualMachines from the side menu.
- Select a virtual machine to open the VirtualMachine details page.
- Click Configuration → Environment.
- Click Add Config Map, Secret or Service Account.
- Click Select a resource and select a resource from the list. A six character serial number is automatically generated for the selected resource.
- Optional: Click Reload to revert the environment to its last saved state.
- Click Save.
Verification
- On the VirtualMachine details page, click Configuration → Disks and verify that the resource is displayed in the list of disks.
- Restart the virtual machine by clicking Actions → Restart.
You can now mount the secret, config map, or service account as you would mount any other disk.
Additional resources for config maps, secrets, and service accounts
7.7. Editing boot order
You can update the values for a boot order list by using the web console or the CLI.
With Boot Order in the Virtual Machine Overview page, you can:
- Select a disk or network interface controller (NIC) and add it to the boot order list.
- Edit the order of the disks or NICs in the boot order list.
- Remove a disk or NIC from the boot order list, and return it back to the inventory of bootable sources.
7.7.1. Adding items to a boot order list in the web console
Add items to a boot order list by using the web console.
Procedure
- Click Virtualization → VirtualMachines from the side menu.
- Select a virtual machine to open the VirtualMachine details page.
- Click the Details tab.
- Click the pencil icon that is located on the right side of Boot Order. If a YAML configuration does not exist, or if this is the first time that you are creating a boot order list, the following message displays: No resource selected. VM will attempt to boot from disks by order of appearance in YAML file.
- Click Add Source and select a bootable disk or network interface controller (NIC) for the virtual machine.
- Add any additional disks or NICs to the boot order list.
- Click Save.
If the virtual machine is running, changes to Boot Order will not take effect until you restart the virtual machine.
You can view pending changes by clicking View Pending Changes on the right side of the Boot Order field. The Pending Changes banner at the top of the page displays a list of all changes that will be applied when the virtual machine restarts.
7.7.2. Editing a boot order list in the web console
Edit the boot order list in the web console.
Procedure
- Click Virtualization → VirtualMachines from the side menu.
- Select a virtual machine to open the VirtualMachine details page.
- Click the Details tab.
- Click the pencil icon that is located on the right side of Boot Order.
Choose the appropriate method to move the item in the boot order list:
- If you do not use a screen reader, hover over the arrow icon next to the item that you want to move, drag the item up or down, and drop it in a location of your choice.
- If you use a screen reader, press the Up Arrow key or Down Arrow key to move the item in the boot order list. Then, press the Tab key to drop the item in a location of your choice.
- Click Save.
If the virtual machine is running, changes to the boot order list will not take effect until you restart the virtual machine.
You can view pending changes by clicking View Pending Changes on the right side of the Boot Order field. The Pending Changes banner at the top of the page displays a list of all changes that will be applied when the virtual machine restarts.
7.7.3. Editing a boot order list in the YAML configuration file
Edit the boot order list in a YAML configuration file by using the CLI.
Procedure
Open the YAML configuration file for the virtual machine by running the following command:
$ oc edit vm <vm_name> -n <namespace>
Edit the YAML file and modify the values for the boot order associated with a disk or network interface controller (NIC). For example:
disks: - bootOrder: 1 1 disk: bus: virtio name: containerdisk - disk: bus: virtio name: cloudinitdisk - cdrom: bus: virtio name: cd-drive-1 interfaces: - boot Order: 2 2 macAddress: '02:96:c4:00:00' masquerade: {} name: default
- Save the YAML file.
7.7.4. Removing items from a boot order list in the web console
Remove items from a boot order list by using the web console.
Procedure
- Click Virtualization → VirtualMachines from the side menu.
- Select a virtual machine to open the VirtualMachine details page.
- Click the Details tab.
- Click the pencil icon that is located on the right side of Boot Order.
- Click the Remove icon next to the item. The item is removed from the boot order list and saved in the list of available boot sources. If you remove all items from the boot order list, the following message displays: No resource selected. VM will attempt to boot from disks by order of appearance in YAML file.
If the virtual machine is running, changes to Boot Order will not take effect until you restart the virtual machine.
You can view pending changes by clicking View Pending Changes on the right side of the Boot Order field. The Pending Changes banner at the top of the page displays a list of all changes that will be applied when the virtual machine restarts.
7.8. Deleting virtual machines
You can delete a virtual machine from the web console or by using the oc
command line interface.
7.8.1. Deleting a virtual machine using the web console
Deleting a virtual machine permanently removes it from the cluster.
Procedure
- In the OpenShift Container Platform console, click Virtualization → VirtualMachines from the side menu.
Click the Options menu beside a virtual machine and select Delete.
Alternatively, click the virtual machine name to open the VirtualMachine details page and click Actions → Delete.
- Optional: Select With grace period or clear Delete disks.
- Click Delete to permanently delete the virtual machine.
7.8.2. Deleting a virtual machine by using the CLI
You can delete a virtual machine by using the oc
command line interface (CLI). The oc
client enables you to perform actions on multiple virtual machines.
Prerequisites
- Identify the name of the virtual machine that you want to delete.
Procedure
Delete the virtual machine by running the following command:
$ oc delete vm <vm_name>
NoteThis command only deletes a VM in the current project. Specify the
-n <project_name>
option if the VM you want to delete is in a different project or namespace.
7.9. Exporting virtual machines
You can export a virtual machine (VM) and its associated disks in order to import a VM into another cluster or to analyze the volume for forensic purposes.
You create a VirtualMachineExport
custom resource (CR) by using the command line interface.
Alternatively, you can use the virtctl vmexport
command to create a VirtualMachineExport
CR and to download exported volumes.
You can migrate virtual machines between OpenShift Virtualization clusters by using the Migration Toolkit for Virtualization.
7.9.1. Creating a VirtualMachineExport custom resource
You can create a VirtualMachineExport
custom resource (CR) to export the following objects:
- Virtual machine (VM): Exports the persistent volume claims (PVCs) of a specified VM.
-
VM snapshot: Exports PVCs contained in a
VirtualMachineSnapshot
CR. -
PVC: Exports a PVC. If the PVC is used by another pod, such as the
virt-launcher
pod, the export remains in aPending
state until the PVC is no longer in use.
The VirtualMachineExport
CR creates internal and external links for the exported volumes. Internal links are valid within the cluster. External links can be accessed by using an Ingress
or Route
.
The export server supports the following file formats:
-
raw
: Raw disk image file. -
gzip
: Compressed disk image file. -
dir
: PVC directory and files. -
tar.gz
: Compressed PVC file.
Prerequisites
- The VM must be shut down for a VM export.
Procedure
Create a
VirtualMachineExport
manifest to export a volume from aVirtualMachine
,VirtualMachineSnapshot
, orPersistentVolumeClaim
CR according to the following example and save it asexample-export.yaml
:VirtualMachineExport
exampleapiVersion: export.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: VirtualMachineExport metadata: name: example-export spec: source: apiGroup: "kubevirt.io" 1 kind: VirtualMachine 2 name: example-vm ttlDuration: 1h 3
Create the
VirtualMachineExport
CR:$ oc create -f example-export.yaml
Get the
VirtualMachineExport
CR:$ oc get vmexport example-export -o yaml
The internal and external links for the exported volumes are displayed in the
status
stanza:Output example
apiVersion: export.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: VirtualMachineExport metadata: name: example-export namespace: example spec: source: apiGroup: "" kind: PersistentVolumeClaim name: example-pvc tokenSecretRef: example-token status: conditions: - lastProbeTime: null lastTransitionTime: "2022-06-21T14:10:09Z" reason: podReady status: "True" type: Ready - lastProbeTime: null lastTransitionTime: "2022-06-21T14:09:02Z" reason: pvcBound status: "True" type: PVCReady links: external: 1 cert: |- -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- ... -----END CERTIFICATE----- volumes: - formats: - format: raw url: https://vmexport-proxy.test.net/api/export.kubevirt.io/v1beta1/namespaces/example/virtualmachineexports/example-export/volumes/example-disk/disk.img - format: gzip url: https://vmexport-proxy.test.net/api/export.kubevirt.io/v1beta1/namespaces/example/virtualmachineexports/example-export/volumes/example-disk/disk.img.gz name: example-disk internal: 2 cert: |- -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- ... -----END CERTIFICATE----- volumes: - formats: - format: raw url: https://virt-export-example-export.example.svc/volumes/example-disk/disk.img - format: gzip url: https://virt-export-example-export.example.svc/volumes/example-disk/disk.img.gz name: example-disk phase: Ready serviceName: virt-export-example-export
7.9.2. Accessing exported virtual machine manifests
After you export a virtual machine (VM) or snapshot, you can get the VirtualMachine
manifest and related information from the export server.
Prerequisites
You exported a virtual machine or VM snapshot by creating a
VirtualMachineExport
custom resource (CR).NoteVirtualMachineExport
objects that have thespec.source.kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
parameter do not generate virtual machine manifests.
Procedure
To access the manifests, you must first copy the certificates from the source cluster to the target cluster.
- Log in to the source cluster.
Save the certificates to the
cacert.crt
file by running the following command:$ oc get vmexport <export_name> -o jsonpath={.status.links.external.cert} > cacert.crt 1
- 1
- Replace
<export_name>
with themetadata.name
value from theVirtualMachineExport
object.
-
Copy the
cacert.crt
file to the target cluster.
Decode the token in the source cluster and save it to the
token_decode
file by running the following command:$ oc get secret export-token-<export_name> -o jsonpath={.data.token} | base64 --decode > token_decode 1
- 1
- Replace
<export_name>
with themetadata.name
value from theVirtualMachineExport
object.
-
Copy the
token_decode
file to the target cluster. Get the
VirtualMachineExport
custom resource by running the following command:$ oc get vmexport <export_name> -o yaml
Review the
status.links
stanza, which is divided intoexternal
andinternal
sections. Note themanifests.url
fields within each section:Example output
apiVersion: export.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: VirtualMachineExport metadata: name: example-export spec: source: apiGroup: "kubevirt.io" kind: VirtualMachine name: example-vm tokenSecretRef: example-token status: #... links: external: #... manifests: - type: all url: https://vmexport-proxy.test.net/api/export.kubevirt.io/v1beta1/namespaces/example/virtualmachineexports/example-export/external/manifests/all 1 - type: auth-header-secret url: https://vmexport-proxy.test.net/api/export.kubevirt.io/v1beta1/namespaces/example/virtualmachineexports/example-export/external/manifests/secret 2 internal: #... manifests: - type: all url: https://virt-export-export-pvc.default.svc/internal/manifests/all 3 - type: auth-header-secret url: https://virt-export-export-pvc.default.svc/internal/manifests/secret phase: Ready serviceName: virt-export-example-export
- 1
- Contains the
VirtualMachine
manifest,DataVolume
manifest, if present, and aConfigMap
manifest that contains the public certificate for the external URL’s ingress or route. - 2
- Contains a secret containing a header that is compatible with Containerized Data Importer (CDI). The header contains a text version of the export token.
- 3
- Contains the
VirtualMachine
manifest,DataVolume
manifest, if present, and aConfigMap
manifest that contains the certificate for the internal URL’s export server.
- Log in to the target cluster.
Get the
Secret
manifest by running the following command:$ curl --cacert cacert.crt <secret_manifest_url> -H \ 1 "x-kubevirt-export-token:token_decode" -H \ 2 "Accept:application/yaml"
For example:
$ curl --cacert cacert.crt https://vmexport-proxy.test.net/api/export.kubevirt.io/v1beta1/namespaces/example/virtualmachineexports/example-export/external/manifests/secret -H "x-kubevirt-export-token:token_decode" -H "Accept:application/yaml"
Get the manifests of
type: all
, such as theConfigMap
andVirtualMachine
manifests, by running the following command:$ curl --cacert cacert.crt <all_manifest_url> -H \ 1 "x-kubevirt-export-token:token_decode" -H \ 2 "Accept:application/yaml"
For example:
$ curl --cacert cacert.crt https://vmexport-proxy.test.net/api/export.kubevirt.io/v1beta1/namespaces/example/virtualmachineexports/example-export/external/manifests/all -H "x-kubevirt-export-token:token_decode" -H "Accept:application/yaml"
Next steps
-
You can now create the
ConfigMap
andVirtualMachine
objects on the target cluster by using the exported manifests.
7.10. Managing virtual machine instances
If you have standalone virtual machine instances (VMIs) that were created independently outside of the OpenShift Virtualization environment, you can manage them by using the web console or by using oc
or virtctl
commands from the command-line interface (CLI).
The virtctl
command provides more virtualization options than the oc
command. For example, you can use virtctl
to pause a VM or expose a port.
7.10.1. About virtual machine instances
A virtual machine instance (VMI) is a representation of a running virtual machine (VM). When a VMI is owned by a VM or by another object, you manage it through its owner in the web console or by using the oc
command-line interface (CLI).
A standalone VMI is created and started independently with a script, through automation, or by using other methods in the CLI. In your environment, you might have standalone VMIs that were developed and started outside of the OpenShift Virtualization environment. You can continue to manage those standalone VMIs by using the CLI. You can also use the web console for specific tasks associated with standalone VMIs:
- List standalone VMIs and their details.
- Edit labels and annotations for a standalone VMI.
- Delete a standalone VMI.
When you delete a VM, the associated VMI is automatically deleted. You delete a standalone VMI directly because it is not owned by VMs or other objects.
Before you uninstall OpenShift Virtualization, list and view the standalone VMIs by using the CLI or the web console. Then, delete any outstanding VMIs.
When you edit a VM, some settings might be applied to the VMIs dynamically and without the need for a restart. Any change made to a VM object that cannot be applied to the VMIs dynamically will trigger the RestartRequired
VM condition. Changes are effective on the next reboot, and the condition is removed.
7.10.2. Listing all virtual machine instances using the CLI
You can list all virtual machine instances (VMIs) in your cluster, including standalone VMIs and those owned by virtual machines, by using the oc
command-line interface (CLI).
Procedure
List all VMIs by running the following command:
$ oc get vmis -A
7.10.3. Listing standalone virtual machine instances using the web console
Using the web console, you can list and view standalone virtual machine instances (VMIs) in your cluster that are not owned by virtual machines (VMs).
VMIs that are owned by VMs or other objects are not displayed in the web console. The web console displays only standalone VMIs. If you want to list all VMIs in your cluster, you must use the CLI.
Procedure
Click Virtualization → VirtualMachines from the side menu.
You can identify a standalone VMI by a dark colored badge next to its name.
7.10.4. Editing a standalone virtual machine instance using the web console
You can edit the annotations and labels of a standalone virtual machine instance (VMI) using the web console. Other fields are not editable.
Procedure
- In the OpenShift Container Platform console, click Virtualization → VirtualMachines from the side menu.
- Select a standalone VMI to open the VirtualMachineInstance details page.
- On the Details tab, click the pencil icon beside Annotations or Labels.
- Make the relevant changes and click Save.
7.10.5. Deleting a standalone virtual machine instance using the CLI
You can delete a standalone virtual machine instance (VMI) by using the oc
command-line interface (CLI).
Prerequisites
- Identify the name of the VMI that you want to delete.
Procedure
Delete the VMI by running the following command:
$ oc delete vmi <vmi_name>
7.10.6. Deleting a standalone virtual machine instance using the web console
Delete a standalone virtual machine instance (VMI) from the web console.
Procedure
- In the OpenShift Container Platform web console, click Virtualization → VirtualMachines from the side menu.
- Click Actions → Delete VirtualMachineInstance.
- In the confirmation pop-up window, click Delete to permanently delete the standalone VMI.
7.11. Controlling virtual machine states
You can stop, start, restart, and unpause virtual machines from the web console.
You can use virtctl
to manage virtual machine states and perform other actions from the CLI. For example, you can use virtctl
to force stop a VM or expose a port.
7.11.1. Starting a virtual machine
You can start a virtual machine from the web console.
Procedure
- Click Virtualization → VirtualMachines from the side menu.
- Find the row that contains the virtual machine that you want to start.
Navigate to the appropriate menu for your use case:
To stay on this page, where you can perform actions on multiple virtual machines:
- Click the Options menu located at the far right end of the row and click Start VirtualMachine.
To view comprehensive information about the selected virtual machine before you start it:
- Access the VirtualMachine details page by clicking the name of the virtual machine.
- Click Actions → Start.
When you start virtual machine that is provisioned from a URL
source for the first time, the virtual machine has a status of Importing while OpenShift Virtualization imports the container from the URL endpoint. Depending on the size of the image, this process might take several minutes.
7.11.2. Stopping a virtual machine
You can stop a virtual machine from the web console.
Procedure
- Click Virtualization → VirtualMachines from the side menu.
- Find the row that contains the virtual machine that you want to stop.
Navigate to the appropriate menu for your use case:
To stay on this page, where you can perform actions on multiple virtual machines:
- Click the Options menu located at the far right end of the row and click Stop VirtualMachine.
To view comprehensive information about the selected virtual machine before you stop it:
- Access the VirtualMachine details page by clicking the name of the virtual machine.
- Click Actions → Stop.
7.11.3. Restarting a virtual machine
You can restart a running virtual machine from the web console.
To avoid errors, do not restart a virtual machine while it has a status of Importing.
Procedure
- Click Virtualization → VirtualMachines from the side menu.
- Find the row that contains the virtual machine that you want to restart.
Navigate to the appropriate menu for your use case:
To stay on this page, where you can perform actions on multiple virtual machines:
- Click the Options menu located at the far right end of the row and click Restart.
To view comprehensive information about the selected virtual machine before you restart it:
- Access the VirtualMachine details page by clicking the name of the virtual machine.
- Click Actions → Restart.
7.11.4. Pausing a virtual machine
You can pause a virtual machine from the web console.
Procedure
- Click Virtualization → VirtualMachines from the side menu.
- Find the row that contains the virtual machine that you want to pause.
Navigate to the appropriate menu for your use case:
To stay on this page, where you can perform actions on multiple virtual machines:
- Click the Options menu located at the far right end of the row and click Pause VirtualMachine.
To view comprehensive information about the selected virtual machine before you pause it:
- Access the VirtualMachine details page by clicking the name of the virtual machine.
- Click Actions → Pause.
7.11.5. Unpausing a virtual machine
You can unpause a paused virtual machine from the web console.
Prerequisites
- At least one of your virtual machines must have a status of Paused.
Procedure
- Click Virtualization → VirtualMachines from the side menu.
- Find the row that contains the virtual machine that you want to unpause.
Navigate to the appropriate menu for your use case:
To stay on this page, where you can perform actions on multiple virtual machines:
- Click the Options menu located at the far right end of the row and click Unpause VirtualMachine.
To view comprehensive information about the selected virtual machine before you unpause it:
- Access the VirtualMachine details page by clicking the name of the virtual machine.
- Click Actions → Unpause.
7.12. Using virtual Trusted Platform Module devices
Add a virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM) device to a new or existing virtual machine by editing the VirtualMachine
(VM) or VirtualMachineInstance
(VMI) manifest.
7.12.1. About vTPM devices
A virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM) device functions like a physical Trusted Platform Module (TPM) hardware chip.
You can use a vTPM device with any operating system, but Windows 11 requires the presence of a TPM chip to install or boot. A vTPM device allows VMs created from a Windows 11 image to function without a physical TPM chip.
If you do not enable vTPM, then the VM does not recognize a TPM device, even if the node has one.
A vTPM device also protects virtual machines by storing secrets without physical hardware. OpenShift Virtualization supports persisting vTPM device state by using Persistent Volume Claims (PVCs) for VMs. You must specify the storage class to be used by the PVC by setting the vmStateStorageClass
attribute in the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR):
kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged spec: vmStateStorageClass: <storage_class_name> # ...
The storage class must be of type Filesystem
and support the ReadWriteMany
(RWX) access mode.
7.12.2. Adding a vTPM device to a virtual machine
Adding a virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM) device to a virtual machine (VM) allows you to run a VM created from a Windows 11 image without a physical TPM device. A vTPM device also stores secrets for that VM.
Prerequisites
-
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
). -
You have configured a Persistent Volume Claim (PVC) to use a storage class of type
Filesystem
that supports theReadWriteMany
(RWX) access mode. This is necessary for the vTPM device data to persist across VM reboots.
Procedure
Run the following command to update the VM configuration:
$ oc edit vm <vm_name> -n <namespace>
Edit the VM specification to add the vTPM device. For example:
apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: example-vm spec: template: spec: domain: devices: tpm: 1 persistent: true 2 # ...
- To apply your changes, save and exit the editor.
- Optional: If you edited a running virtual machine, you must restart it for the changes to take effect.
7.13. Managing virtual machines with OpenShift Pipelines
Red Hat OpenShift Pipelines is a Kubernetes-native CI/CD framework that allows developers to design and run each step of the CI/CD pipeline in its own container.
By using OpenShift Pipelines tasks and the example pipeline, you can do the following:
- Create and manage virtual machines (VMs), persistent volume claims (PVCs), data volumes, and data sources.
- Run commands in VMs.
-
Manipulate disk images with
libguestfs
tools.
The tasks are located in the task catalog (ArtifactHub).
The example Windows pipeline is located in the pipeline catalog (ArtifactHub).
7.13.1. Prerequisites
-
You have access to an OpenShift Container Platform cluster with
cluster-admin
permissions. -
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
). - You have installed OpenShift Pipelines.
7.13.2. Supported virtual machine tasks
The following table shows the supported tasks.
Task | Description |
---|---|
|
Create a virtual machine from a provided manifest or with |
| Create a virtual machine from a template. |
| Copy a virtual machine template. |
| Modify a virtual machine template. |
| Create or delete data volumes or data sources. |
| Run a script or a command in a virtual machine and stop or delete the virtual machine afterward. |
|
Use the |
|
Use the |
| Wait for a specific status of a virtual machine instance and fail or succeed based on the status. |
Virtual machine creation in pipelines now utilizes ClusterInstanceType
and ClusterPreference
instead of template-based tasks, which have been deprecated. The create-vm-from-template
, copy-template
, and modify-vm-template
commands remain available but are not used in default pipeline tasks.
7.13.3. Windows EFI installer pipeline
You can run the Windows EFI installer pipeline by using the web console or CLI.
The Windows EFI installer pipeline installs Windows 10, Windows 11, or Windows Server 2022 into a new data volume from a Windows installation image (ISO file). A custom answer file is used to run the installation process.
The Windows EFI installer pipeline uses a config map file with sysprep
predefined by OpenShift Container Platform and suitable for Microsoft ISO files. For ISO files pertaining to different Windows editions, it may be necessary to create a new config map file with a system-specific sysprep
definition.
7.13.3.1. Running the example pipelines using the web console
You can run the example pipelines from the Pipelines menu in the web console.
Procedure
- Click Pipelines → Pipelines in the side menu.
- Select a pipeline to open the Pipeline details page.
- From the Actions list, select Start. The Start Pipeline dialog is displayed.
- Keep the default values for the parameters and then click Start to run the pipeline. The Details tab tracks the progress of each task and displays the pipeline status.
7.13.3.2. Running the example pipelines using the CLI
Use a PipelineRun
resource to run the example pipelines. A PipelineRun
object is the running instance of a pipeline. It instantiates a pipeline for execution with specific inputs, outputs, and execution parameters on a cluster. It also creates a TaskRun
object for each task in the pipeline.
Procedure
To run the Microsoft Windows 11 installer pipeline, create the following
PipelineRun
manifest:apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1 kind: PipelineRun metadata: generateName: windows11-installer-run- labels: pipelinerun: windows11-installer-run spec: params: - name: winImageDownloadURL value: <windows_image_download_url> 1 - name: acceptEula value: false 2 pipelineRef: params: - name: catalog value: redhat-pipelines - name: type value: artifact - name: kind value: pipeline - name: name value: windows-efi-installer - name: version value: 4.17 resolver: hub taskRunSpecs: - pipelineTaskName: modify-windows-iso-file PodTemplate: securityContext: fsGroup: 107 runAsUser: 107
- 1
- Specify the URL for the Windows 11 64-bit ISO file. The product’s language must be English (United States).
- 2
- Example
PipelineRun
objects have a special parameter,acceptEula
. By setting this parameter, you are agreeing to the applicable Microsoft user license agreements for each deployment or installation of the Microsoft products. If you set it to false, the pipeline exits at the first task.
Apply the
PipelineRun
manifest:$ oc apply -f windows11-customize-run.yaml
7.13.4. Additional resources
7.14. Advanced virtual machine management
7.14.1. Working with resource quotas for virtual machines
Create and manage resource quotas for virtual machines.
7.14.1.1. Setting resource quota limits for virtual machines
Resource quotas that only use requests automatically work with virtual machines (VMs). If your resource quota uses limits, you must manually set resource limits on VMs. Resource limits must be at least 100 MiB larger than resource requests.
Procedure
Set limits for a VM by editing the
VirtualMachine
manifest. For example:apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: with-limits spec: running: false template: spec: domain: # ... resources: requests: memory: 128Mi limits: memory: 256Mi 1
- 1
- This configuration is supported because the
limits.memory
value is at least100Mi
larger than therequests.memory
value.
-
Save the
VirtualMachine
manifest.
7.14.1.2. Additional resources
7.14.2. Configuring the Application-Aware Quota (AAQ) Operator
You can use the Application-Aware Quota (AAQ) Operator to customize and manage resource quotas for individual components in an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
7.14.2.1. About the AAQ Operator
The Application-Aware Quota (AAQ) Operator provides more flexible and extensible quota management compared to the native ResourceQuota
object in the OpenShift Container Platform platform.
In a multi-tenant cluster environment, where multiple workloads operate on shared infrastructure and resources, using the Kubernetes native ResourceQuota
object to limit aggregate CPU and memory consumption presents infrastructure overhead and live migration challenges for OpenShift Virtualization workloads.
OpenShift Virtualization requires significant compute resource allocation to handle virtual machine (VM) live migrations and manage VM infrastructure overhead. When upgrading OpenShift Virtualization, you must migrate VMs to upgrade the virt-launcher
pod. However, migrating a VM in the presence of a resource quota can cause the migration, and subsequently the upgrade, to fail.
With AAQ, you can allocate resources for VMs without interfering with cluster-level activities such as upgrades and node maintenance. The AAQ Operator also supports non-compute resources which eliminates the need to manage both the native resource quota and AAQ API objects separately.
7.14.2.1.1. AAQ Operator controller and custom resources
The AAQ Operator introduces two new API objects defined as custom resource definitions (CRDs) for managing alternative quota implementations across multiple namespaces:
ApplicationAwareResourceQuota
: Sets aggregate quota restrictions enforced per namespace. TheApplicationAwareResourceQuota
API is compatible with the nativeResourceQuota
object and shares the same specification and status definitions.Example manifest
apiVersion: aaq.kubevirt.io/v1alpha1 kind: ApplicationAwareResourceQuota metadata: name: example-resource-quota spec: hard: requests.memory: 1Gi limits.memory: 1Gi requests.cpu/vmi: "1" 1 requests.memory/vmi: 1Gi 2 # ...
ApplicationAwareClusterResourceQuota
: Mirrors theApplicationAwareResourceQuota
object at a cluster scope. It is compatible with the nativeClusterResourceQuota
API object and shares the same specification and status definitions. When creating an AAQ cluster quota, you can select multiple namespaces based on annotation selection, label selection, or both by editing thespec.selector.labels
orspec.selector.annotations
fields.Example manifest
apiVersion: aaq.kubevirt.io/v1alpha1 kind: ApplicationAwareClusterResourceQuota 1 metadata: name: example-resource-quota spec: quota: hard: requests.memory: 1Gi limits.memory: 1Gi requests.cpu/vmi: "1" requests.memory/vmi: 1Gi selector: annotations: null labels: matchLabels: kubernetes.io/metadata.name: default # ...
- 1
- You can only create an
ApplicationAwareClusterResourceQuota
object if thespec.allowApplicationAwareClusterResourceQuota
field in theHyperConverged
custom resource (CR) is set totrue
.
NoteIf both
spec.selector.labels
andspec.selector.annotations
fields are set, only namespaces that match both are selected.
The AAQ controller uses a scheduling gate mechanism to evaluate whether there is enough of a resource available to run a workload. If so, the scheduling gate is removed from the pod and it is considered ready for scheduling. The quota usage status is updated to indicate how much of the quota is used.
If the CPU and memory requests and limits for the workload exceed the enforced quota usage limit, the pod remains in SchedulingGated
status until there is enough quota available. The AAQ controller creates an event of type Warning
with details on why the quota was exceeded. You can view the event details by using the oc get events
command.
Pods that have the spec.nodeName
field set to a specific node cannot use namespaces that match the spec.namespaceSelector
labels defined in the HyperConverged
CR.
7.14.2.2. Enabling the AAQ Operator
To deploy the AAQ Operator, set the enableApplicationAwareQuota
feature gate to true
in the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR).
Prerequisites
-
You have access to the cluster as a user with
cluster-admin
privileges. -
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
).
Procedure
Set the
enableApplicationAwareQuota
feature gate totrue
in theHyperConverged
CR by running the following command:$ oc patch hco kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv \ --type json -p '[{"op": "add", "path": "/spec/featureGates/enableApplicationAwareQuota", "value": true}]'
7.14.2.3. Configuring the AAQ Operator by using the CLI
You can configure the AAQ Operator by specifying the fields of the spec.applicationAwareConfig
object in the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR).
Prerequisites
-
You have access to the cluster as a user with
cluster-admin
privileges. -
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
).
Procedure
Update the
HyperConverged
CR by running the following command:$ oc patch hco kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv --type merge -p '{ "spec": { "applicationAwareConfig": { "vmiCalcConfigName": "DedicatedVirtualResources", "namespaceSelector": { "matchLabels": { "app": "my-app" } }, "allowApplicationAwareClusterResourceQuota": true } } }'
where:
vmiCalcConfigName
Specifies how resource counting is managed for pods that run virtual machine (VM) workloads. Possible values are:
-
VmiPodUsage
: Counts compute resources for pods associated with VMs in the same way as native resource quotas and excludes migration-related resources. -
VirtualResources
: Counts compute resources based on the VM specifications, using the VM RAM size for memory and virtual CPUs for processing. -
DedicatedVirtualResources
(default): Similar toVirtualResources
, but separates resource tracking for pods associated with VMs by adding a/vmi
suffix to CPU and memory resource names. For example,requests.cpu/vmi
andrequests.memory/vmi
.
-
namespaceSelector
-
Determines the namespaces for which an AAQ scheduling gate is added to pods when they are created. If a namespace selector is not defined, the AAQ Operator targets namespaces with the
application-aware-quota/enable-gating
label as default. allowApplicationAwareClusterResourceQuota
-
If set to
true
, you can create and manage theApplicationAwareClusterResourceQuota
object. Setting this attribute totrue
can increase scheduling time.
7.14.2.4. Additional resources
7.14.3. Specifying nodes for virtual machines
You can place virtual machines (VMs) on specific nodes by using node placement rules.
7.14.3.1. About node placement for virtual machines
To ensure that virtual machines (VMs) run on appropriate nodes, you can configure node placement rules. You might want to do this if:
- You have several VMs. To ensure fault tolerance, you want them to run on different nodes.
- You have two chatty VMs. To avoid redundant inter-node routing, you want the VMs to run on the same node.
- Your VMs require specific hardware features that are not present on all available nodes.
- You have a pod that adds capabilities to a node, and you want to place a VM on that node so that it can use those capabilities.
Virtual machine placement relies on any existing node placement rules for workloads. If workloads are excluded from specific nodes on the component level, virtual machines cannot be placed on those nodes.
You can use the following rule types in the spec
field of a VirtualMachine
manifest:
nodeSelector
- Allows virtual machines to be scheduled on nodes that are labeled with the key-value pair or pairs that you specify in this field. The node must have labels that exactly match all listed pairs.
affinity
-
Enables you to use more expressive syntax to set rules that match nodes with virtual machines. For example, you can specify that a rule is a preference, rather than a hard requirement, so that virtual machines are still scheduled if the rule is not satisfied. Pod affinity, pod anti-affinity, and node affinity are supported for virtual machine placement. Pod affinity works for virtual machines because the
VirtualMachine
workload type is based on thePod
object. tolerations
Allows virtual machines to be scheduled on nodes that have matching taints. If a taint is applied to a node, that node only accepts virtual machines that tolerate the taint.
NoteAffinity rules only apply during scheduling. OpenShift Container Platform does not reschedule running workloads if the constraints are no longer met.
7.14.3.2. Node placement examples
The following example YAML file snippets use nodePlacement
, affinity
, and tolerations
fields to customize node placement for virtual machines.
7.14.3.2.1. Example: VM node placement with nodeSelector
In this example, the virtual machine requires a node that has metadata containing both example-key-1 = example-value-1
and example-key-2 = example-value-2
labels.
If there are no nodes that fit this description, the virtual machine is not scheduled.
Example VM manifest
metadata: name: example-vm-node-selector apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine spec: template: spec: nodeSelector: example-key-1: example-value-1 example-key-2: example-value-2 # ...
7.14.3.2.2. Example: VM node placement with pod affinity and pod anti-affinity
In this example, the VM must be scheduled on a node that has a running pod with the label example-key-1 = example-value-1
. If there is no such pod running on any node, the VM is not scheduled.
If possible, the VM is not scheduled on a node that has any pod with the label example-key-2 = example-value-2
. However, if all candidate nodes have a pod with this label, the scheduler ignores this constraint.
Example VM manifest
metadata: name: example-vm-pod-affinity apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine spec: template: spec: affinity: podAffinity: requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution: 1 - labelSelector: matchExpressions: - key: example-key-1 operator: In values: - example-value-1 topologyKey: kubernetes.io/hostname podAntiAffinity: preferredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution: 2 - weight: 100 podAffinityTerm: labelSelector: matchExpressions: - key: example-key-2 operator: In values: - example-value-2 topologyKey: kubernetes.io/hostname # ...
- 1
- If you use the
requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution
rule type, the VM is not scheduled if the constraint is not met. - 2
- If you use the
preferredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution
rule type, the VM is still scheduled if the constraint is not met, as long as all required constraints are met.
7.14.3.2.3. Example: VM node placement with node affinity
In this example, the VM must be scheduled on a node that has the label example.io/example-key = example-value-1
or the label example.io/example-key = example-value-2
. The constraint is met if only one of the labels is present on the node. If neither label is present, the VM is not scheduled.
If possible, the scheduler avoids nodes that have the label example-node-label-key = example-node-label-value
. However, if all candidate nodes have this label, the scheduler ignores this constraint.
Example VM manifest
metadata: name: example-vm-node-affinity apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine spec: template: spec: affinity: nodeAffinity: requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution: 1 nodeSelectorTerms: - matchExpressions: - key: example.io/example-key operator: In values: - example-value-1 - example-value-2 preferredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution: 2 - weight: 1 preference: matchExpressions: - key: example-node-label-key operator: In values: - example-node-label-value # ...
- 1
- If you use the
requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution
rule type, the VM is not scheduled if the constraint is not met. - 2
- If you use the
preferredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution
rule type, the VM is still scheduled if the constraint is not met, as long as all required constraints are met.
7.14.3.2.4. Example: VM node placement with tolerations
In this example, nodes that are reserved for virtual machines are already labeled with the key=virtualization:NoSchedule
taint. Because this virtual machine has matching tolerations
, it can schedule onto the tainted nodes.
A virtual machine that tolerates a taint is not required to schedule onto a node with that taint.
Example VM manifest
metadata: name: example-vm-tolerations apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine spec: tolerations: - key: "key" operator: "Equal" value: "virtualization" effect: "NoSchedule" # ...
7.14.3.3. Additional resources
7.14.4. Activating kernel samepage merging (KSM)
OpenShift Virtualization can activate kernel samepage merging (KSM) when nodes are overloaded. KSM deduplicates identical data found in the memory pages of virtual machines (VMs). If you have very similar VMs, KSM can make it possible to schedule more VMs on a single node.
You must only use KSM with trusted workloads.
7.14.4.1. Prerequisites
- Ensure that an administrator has configured KSM support on any nodes where you want OpenShift Virtualization to activate KSM.
7.14.4.2. About using OpenShift Virtualization to activate KSM
You can configure OpenShift Virtualization to activate kernel samepage merging (KSM) when nodes experience memory overload.
7.14.4.2.1. Configuration methods
You can enable or disable the KSM activation feature for all nodes by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console or by editing the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR). The HyperConverged
CR supports more granular configuration.
CR configuration
You can configure the KSM activation feature by editing the spec.configuration.ksmConfiguration
stanza of the HyperConverged
CR.
-
You enable the feature and configure settings by editing the
ksmConfiguration
stanza. -
You disable the feature by deleting the
ksmConfiguration
stanza. -
You can allow OpenShift Virtualization to enable KSM on only a subset of nodes by adding node selection syntax to the
ksmConfiguration.nodeLabelSelector
field.
Even if the KSM activation feature is disabled in OpenShift Virtualization, an administrator can still enable KSM on nodes that support it.
7.14.4.2.2. KSM node labels
OpenShift Virtualization identifies nodes that are configured to support KSM and applies the following node labels:
kubevirt.io/ksm-handler-managed: "false"
-
This label is set to
"true"
when OpenShift Virtualization activates KSM on a node that is experiencing memory overload. This label is not set to"true"
if an administrator activates KSM. kubevirt.io/ksm-enabled: "false"
-
This label is set to
"true"
when KSM is activated on a node, even if OpenShift Virtualization did not activate KSM.
These labels are not applied to nodes that do not support KSM.
7.14.4.3. Configuring KSM activation by using the web console
You can allow OpenShift Virtualization to activate kernel samepage merging (KSM) on all nodes in your cluster by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Procedure
- From the side menu, click Virtualization → Overview.
- Select the Settings tab.
- Select the Cluster tab.
- Expand Resource management.
Enable or disable the feature for all nodes:
- Set Kernel Samepage Merging (KSM) to on.
- Set Kernel Samepage Merging (KSM) to off.
7.14.4.4. Configuring KSM activation by using the CLI
You can enable or disable OpenShift Virtualization’s kernel samepage merging (KSM) activation feature by editing the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR). Use this method if you want OpenShift Virtualization to activate KSM on only a subset of nodes.
Procedure
Open the
HyperConverged
CR in your default editor by running the following command:$ oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Edit the
ksmConfiguration
stanza:To enable the KSM activation feature for all nodes, set the
nodeLabelSelector
value to{}
. For example:apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged namespace: openshift-cnv spec: configuration: ksmConfiguration: nodeLabelSelector: {} # ...
To enable the KSM activation feature on a subset of nodes, edit the
nodeLabelSelector
field. Add syntax that matches the nodes where you want OpenShift Virtualization to enable KSM. For example, the following configuration allows OpenShift Virtualization to enable KSM on nodes where both<first_example_key>
and<second_example_key>
are set to"true"
:apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged namespace: openshift-cnv spec: configuration: ksmConfiguration: nodeLabelSelector: matchLabels: <first_example_key>: "true" <second_example_key>: "true" # ...
To disable the KSM activation feature, delete the
ksmConfiguration
stanza. For example:apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged namespace: openshift-cnv spec: configuration: # ...
- Save the file.
7.14.4.5. Additional resources
- Specifying nodes for virtual machines
- Placing pods on specific nodes using node selectors
- Managing kernel samepage merging in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) documentation
7.14.5. Configuring certificate rotation
Configure certificate rotation parameters to replace existing certificates.
7.14.5.1. Configuring certificate rotation
You can do this during OpenShift Virtualization installation in the web console or after installation in the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR).
Procedure
Open the
HyperConverged
CR by running the following command:$ oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Edit the
spec.certConfig
fields as shown in the following example. To avoid overloading the system, ensure that all values are greater than or equal to 10 minutes. Express all values as strings that comply with the golangParseDuration
format.apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged namespace: openshift-cnv spec: certConfig: ca: duration: 48h0m0s renewBefore: 24h0m0s 1 server: duration: 24h0m0s 2 renewBefore: 12h0m0s 3
- Apply the YAML file to your cluster.
7.14.5.2. Troubleshooting certificate rotation parameters
Deleting one or more certConfig
values causes them to revert to the default values, unless the default values conflict with one of the following conditions:
-
The value of
ca.renewBefore
must be less than or equal to the value ofca.duration
. -
The value of
server.duration
must be less than or equal to the value ofca.duration
. -
The value of
server.renewBefore
must be less than or equal to the value ofserver.duration
.
If the default values conflict with these conditions, you will receive an error.
If you remove the server.duration
value in the following example, the default value of 24h0m0s
is greater than the value of ca.duration
, conflicting with the specified conditions.
Example
certConfig: ca: duration: 4h0m0s renewBefore: 1h0m0s server: duration: 4h0m0s renewBefore: 4h0m0s
This results in the following error message:
error: hyperconvergeds.hco.kubevirt.io "kubevirt-hyperconverged" could not be patched: admission webhook "validate-hco.kubevirt.io" denied the request: spec.certConfig: ca.duration is smaller than server.duration
The error message only mentions the first conflict. Review all certConfig values before you proceed.
7.14.6. Configuring the default CPU model
Use the defaultCPUModel
setting in the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR) to define a cluster-wide default CPU model.
The virtual machine (VM) CPU model depends on the availability of CPU models within the VM and the cluster.
If the VM does not have a defined CPU model:
-
The
defaultCPUModel
is automatically set using the CPU model defined at the cluster-wide level.
-
The
If both the VM and the cluster have a defined CPU model:
- The VM’s CPU model takes precedence.
If neither the VM nor the cluster have a defined CPU model:
- The host-model is automatically set using the CPU model defined at the host level.
7.14.6.1. Configuring the default CPU model
Configure the defaultCPUModel
by updating the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR). You can change the defaultCPUModel
while OpenShift Virtualization is running.
The defaultCPUModel
is case sensitive.
Prerequisites
- Install the OpenShift CLI (oc).
Procedure
Open the
HyperConverged
CR by running the following command:$ oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Add the
defaultCPUModel
field to the CR and set the value to the name of a CPU model that exists in the cluster:apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged namespace: openshift-cnv spec: defaultCPUModel: "EPYC"
- Apply the YAML file to your cluster.
7.14.7. Using UEFI mode for virtual machines
You can boot a virtual machine (VM) in Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) mode.
7.14.7.1. About UEFI mode for virtual machines
Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), like legacy BIOS, initializes hardware components and operating system image files when a computer starts. UEFI supports more modern features and customization options than BIOS, enabling faster boot times.
It stores all the information about initialization and startup in a file with a .efi
extension, which is stored on a special partition called EFI System Partition (ESP). The ESP also contains the boot loader programs for the operating system that is installed on the computer.
7.14.7.2. Booting virtual machines in UEFI mode
You can configure a virtual machine to boot in UEFI mode by editing the VirtualMachine
manifest.
Prerequisites
-
Install the OpenShift CLI (
oc
).
Procedure
Edit or create a
VirtualMachine
manifest file. Use thespec.firmware.bootloader
stanza to configure UEFI mode:Booting in UEFI mode with secure boot active
apiversion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: labels: special: vm-secureboot name: vm-secureboot spec: template: metadata: labels: special: vm-secureboot spec: domain: devices: disks: - disk: bus: virtio name: containerdisk features: acpi: {} smm: enabled: true 1 firmware: bootloader: efi: secureBoot: true 2 # ...
- 1
- OpenShift Virtualization requires System Management Mode (
SMM
) to be enabled for Secure Boot in UEFI mode to occur. - 2
- OpenShift Virtualization supports a VM with or without Secure Boot when using UEFI mode. If Secure Boot is enabled, then UEFI mode is required. However, UEFI mode can be enabled without using Secure Boot.
Apply the manifest to your cluster by running the following command:
$ oc create -f <file_name>.yaml
7.14.7.3. Enabling persistent EFI
You can enable EFI persistence in a VM by configuring an RWX storage class at the cluster level and adjusting the settings in the EFI section of the VM.
Prerequisites
- You must have cluster administrator privileges.
- You must have a storage class that supports RWX access mode and FS volume mode.
Procedure
Enable the
VMPersistentState
feature gate by running the following command:$ oc patch hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv \ --type json -p '[{"op":"replace","path":"/spec/featureGates/VMPersistentState", "value": true}]'
7.14.7.4. Configuring VMs with persistent EFI
You can configure a VM to have EFI persistence enabled by editing its manifest file.
Prerequisites
-
VMPersistentState
feature gate enabled.
Procedure
Edit the VM manifest file and save to apply settings.
apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: vm spec: template: spec: domain: firmware: bootloader: efi: persistent: true # ...
7.14.8. Configuring PXE booting for virtual machines
PXE booting, or network booting, is available in OpenShift Virtualization. Network booting allows a computer to boot and load an operating system or other program without requiring a locally attached storage device. For example, you can use it to choose your desired OS image from a PXE server when deploying a new host.
7.14.8.1. Prerequisites
- A Linux bridge must be connected.
- The PXE server must be connected to the same VLAN as the bridge.
7.14.8.2. PXE booting with a specified MAC address
As an administrator, you can boot a client over the network by first creating a NetworkAttachmentDefinition
object for your PXE network. Then, reference the network attachment definition in your virtual machine instance configuration file before you start the virtual machine instance. You can also specify a MAC address in the virtual machine instance configuration file, if required by the PXE server.
Prerequisites
- A Linux bridge must be connected.
- The PXE server must be connected to the same VLAN as the bridge.
Procedure
Configure a PXE network on the cluster:
Create the network attachment definition file for PXE network
pxe-net-conf
:apiVersion: "k8s.cni.cncf.io/v1" kind: NetworkAttachmentDefinition metadata: name: pxe-net-conf 1 spec: config: | { "cniVersion": "0.3.1", "name": "pxe-net-conf", 2 "type": "bridge", 3 "bridge": "bridge-interface", 4 "macspoofchk": false, 5 "vlan": 100, 6 "disableContainerInterface": true, "preserveDefaultVlan": false 7 }
- 1
- The name for the
NetworkAttachmentDefinition
object. - 2
- The name for the configuration. It is recommended to match the configuration name to the
name
value of the network attachment definition. - 3
- The actual name of the Container Network Interface (CNI) plugin that provides the network for this network attachment definition. This example uses a Linux bridge CNI plugin. You can also use an OVN-Kubernetes localnet or an SR-IOV CNI plugin.
- 4
- The name of the Linux bridge configured on the node.
- 5
- Optional: A flag to enable the MAC spoof check. When set to
true
, you cannot change the MAC address of the pod or guest interface. This attribute allows only a single MAC address to exit the pod, which provides security against a MAC spoofing attack. - 6
- Optional: The VLAN tag. No additional VLAN configuration is required on the node network configuration policy.
- 7
- Optional: Indicates whether the VM connects to the bridge through the default VLAN. The default value is
true
.
Create the network attachment definition by using the file you created in the previous step:
$ oc create -f pxe-net-conf.yaml
Edit the virtual machine instance configuration file to include the details of the interface and network.
Specify the network and MAC address, if required by the PXE server. If the MAC address is not specified, a value is assigned automatically.
Ensure that
bootOrder
is set to1
so that the interface boots first. In this example, the interface is connected to a network called<pxe-net>
:interfaces: - masquerade: {} name: default - bridge: {} name: pxe-net macAddress: de:00:00:00:00:de bootOrder: 1
NoteBoot order is global for interfaces and disks.
Assign a boot device number to the disk to ensure proper booting after operating system provisioning.
Set the disk
bootOrder
value to2
:devices: disks: - disk: bus: virtio name: containerdisk bootOrder: 2
Specify that the network is connected to the previously created network attachment definition. In this scenario,
<pxe-net>
is connected to the network attachment definition called<pxe-net-conf>
:networks: - name: default pod: {} - name: pxe-net multus: networkName: pxe-net-conf
Create the virtual machine instance:
$ oc create -f vmi-pxe-boot.yaml
Example output
virtualmachineinstance.kubevirt.io "vmi-pxe-boot" created
Wait for the virtual machine instance to run:
$ oc get vmi vmi-pxe-boot -o yaml | grep -i phase phase: Running
View the virtual machine instance using VNC:
$ virtctl vnc vmi-pxe-boot
- Watch the boot screen to verify that the PXE boot is successful.
Log in to the virtual machine instance:
$ virtctl console vmi-pxe-boot
Verification
Verify the interfaces and MAC address on the virtual machine and that the interface connected to the bridge has the specified MAC address. In this case, we used
eth1
for the PXE boot, without an IP address. The other interface,eth0
, got an IP address from OpenShift Container Platform.$ ip addr
Example output
... 3. eth1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN group default qlen 1000 link/ether de:00:00:00:00:de brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
7.14.8.3. OpenShift Virtualization networking glossary
The following terms are used throughout OpenShift Virtualization documentation:
- Container Network Interface (CNI)
- A Cloud Native Computing Foundation project, focused on container network connectivity. OpenShift Virtualization uses CNI plugins to build upon the basic Kubernetes networking functionality.
- Multus
- A "meta" CNI plugin that allows multiple CNIs to exist so that a pod or virtual machine can use the interfaces it needs.
- Custom resource definition (CRD)
- A Kubernetes API resource that allows you to define custom resources, or an object defined by using the CRD API resource.
- Network attachment definition (NAD)
- A CRD introduced by the Multus project that allows you to attach pods, virtual machines, and virtual machine instances to one or more networks.
- Node network configuration policy (NNCP)
-
A CRD introduced by the nmstate project, describing the requested network configuration on nodes. You update the node network configuration, including adding and removing interfaces, by applying a
NodeNetworkConfigurationPolicy
manifest to the cluster.
7.14.9. Using huge pages with virtual machines
You can use huge pages as backing memory for virtual machines in your cluster.
7.14.9.1. Prerequisites
- Nodes must have pre-allocated huge pages configured.
7.14.9.2. What huge pages do
Memory is managed in blocks known as pages. On most systems, a page is 4Ki. 1Mi of memory is equal to 256 pages; 1Gi of memory is 256,000 pages, and so on. CPUs have a built-in memory management unit that manages a list of these pages in hardware. The Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB) is a small hardware cache of virtual-to-physical page mappings. If the virtual address passed in a hardware instruction can be found in the TLB, the mapping can be determined quickly. If not, a TLB miss occurs, and the system falls back to slower, software-based address translation, resulting in performance issues. Since the size of the TLB is fixed, the only way to reduce the chance of a TLB miss is to increase the page size.
A huge page is a memory page that is larger than 4Ki. On x86_64 architectures, there are two common huge page sizes: 2Mi and 1Gi. Sizes vary on other architectures. To use huge pages, code must be written so that applications are aware of them. Transparent Huge Pages (THP) attempt to automate the management of huge pages without application knowledge, but they have limitations. In particular, they are limited to 2Mi page sizes. THP can lead to performance degradation on nodes with high memory utilization or fragmentation due to defragmenting efforts of THP, which can lock memory pages. For this reason, some applications may be designed to (or recommend) usage of pre-allocated huge pages instead of THP.
In OpenShift Virtualization, virtual machines can be configured to consume pre-allocated huge pages.
7.14.9.3. Configuring huge pages for virtual machines
You can configure virtual machines to use pre-allocated huge pages by including the memory.hugepages.pageSize
and resources.requests.memory
parameters in your virtual machine configuration.
The memory request must be divisible by the page size. For example, you cannot request 500Mi
memory with a page size of 1Gi
.
The memory layouts of the host and the guest OS are unrelated. Huge pages requested in the virtual machine manifest apply to QEMU. Huge pages inside the guest can only be configured based on the amount of available memory of the virtual machine instance.
If you edit a running virtual machine, the virtual machine must be rebooted for the changes to take effect.
Prerequisites
- Nodes must have pre-allocated huge pages configured.
Procedure
In your virtual machine configuration, add the
resources.requests.memory
andmemory.hugepages.pageSize
parameters to thespec.domain
. The following configuration snippet is for a virtual machine that requests a total of4Gi
memory with a page size of1Gi
:kind: VirtualMachine # ... spec: domain: resources: requests: memory: "4Gi" 1 memory: hugepages: pageSize: "1Gi" 2 # ...
Apply the virtual machine configuration:
$ oc apply -f <virtual_machine>.yaml
7.14.10. Enabling dedicated resources for virtual machines
To improve performance, you can dedicate node resources, such as CPU, to a virtual machine.
7.14.10.1. About dedicated resources
When you enable dedicated resources for your virtual machine, your virtual machine’s workload is scheduled on CPUs that will not be used by other processes. By using dedicated resources, you can improve the performance of the virtual machine and the accuracy of latency predictions.
7.14.10.2. Prerequisites
-
The CPU Manager must be configured on the node. Verify that the node has the
cpumanager = true
label before scheduling virtual machine workloads. - The virtual machine must be powered off.
7.14.10.3. Enabling dedicated resources for a virtual machine
You enable dedicated resources for a virtual machine in the Details tab. Virtual machines that were created from a Red Hat template can be configured with dedicated resources.
Procedure
- In the OpenShift Container Platform console, click Virtualization → VirtualMachines from the side menu.
- Select a virtual machine to open the VirtualMachine details page.
- On the Configuration → Scheduling tab, click the edit icon beside Dedicated Resources.
- Select Schedule this workload with dedicated resources (guaranteed policy).
- Click Save.
7.14.11. Scheduling virtual machines
You can schedule a virtual machine (VM) on a node by ensuring that the VM’s CPU model and policy attribute are matched for compatibility with the CPU models and policy attributes supported by the node.
7.14.11.1. Policy attributes
You can schedule a virtual machine (VM) by specifying a policy attribute and a CPU feature that is matched for compatibility when the VM is scheduled on a node. A policy attribute specified for a VM determines how that VM is scheduled on a node.
Policy attribute | Description |
---|---|
force | The VM is forced to be scheduled on a node. This is true even if the host CPU does not support the VM’s CPU. |
require | Default policy that applies to a VM if the VM is not configured with a specific CPU model and feature specification. If a node is not configured to support CPU node discovery with this default policy attribute or any one of the other policy attributes, VMs are not scheduled on that node. Either the host CPU must support the VM’s CPU or the hypervisor must be able to emulate the supported CPU model. |
optional | The VM is added to a node if that VM is supported by the host’s physical machine CPU. |
disable | The VM cannot be scheduled with CPU node discovery. |
forbid | The VM is not scheduled even if the feature is supported by the host CPU and CPU node discovery is enabled. |
7.14.11.2. Setting a policy attribute and CPU feature
You can set a policy attribute and CPU feature for each virtual machine (VM) to ensure that it is scheduled on a node according to policy and feature. The CPU feature that you set is verified to ensure that it is supported by the host CPU or emulated by the hypervisor.
Procedure
Edit the
domain
spec of your VM configuration file. The following example sets the CPU feature and therequire
policy for a virtual machine (VM):apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: myvm spec: template: spec: domain: cpu: features: - name: apic 1 policy: require 2
7.14.11.3. Scheduling virtual machines with the supported CPU model
You can configure a CPU model for a virtual machine (VM) to schedule it on a node where its CPU model is supported.
Procedure
Edit the
domain
spec of your virtual machine configuration file. The following example shows a specific CPU model defined for a VM:apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: myvm spec: template: spec: domain: cpu: model: Conroe 1
- 1
- CPU model for the VM.
7.14.11.4. Scheduling virtual machines with the host model
When the CPU model for a virtual machine (VM) is set to host-model
, the VM inherits the CPU model of the node where it is scheduled.
Procedure
Edit the
domain
spec of your VM configuration file. The following example showshost-model
being specified for the virtual machine:apiVersion: kubevirt/v1alpha3 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: myvm spec: template: spec: domain: cpu: model: host-model 1
- 1
- The VM that inherits the CPU model of the node where it is scheduled.
7.14.11.5. Scheduling virtual machines with a custom scheduler
You can use a custom scheduler to schedule a virtual machine (VM) on a node.
Prerequisites
- A secondary scheduler is configured for your cluster.
Procedure
Add the custom scheduler to the VM configuration by editing the
VirtualMachine
manifest. For example:apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: vm-fedora spec: running: true template: spec: schedulerName: my-scheduler 1 domain: devices: disks: - name: containerdisk disk: bus: virtio # ...
- 1
- The name of the custom scheduler. If the
schedulerName
value does not match an existing scheduler, thevirt-launcher
pod stays in aPending
state until the specified scheduler is found.
Verification
Verify that the VM is using the custom scheduler specified in the
VirtualMachine
manifest by checking thevirt-launcher
pod events:View the list of pods in your cluster by entering the following command:
$ oc get pods
Example output
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE virt-launcher-vm-fedora-dpc87 2/2 Running 0 24m
Run the following command to display the pod events:
$ oc describe pod virt-launcher-vm-fedora-dpc87
The value of the
From
field in the output verifies that the scheduler name matches the custom scheduler specified in theVirtualMachine
manifest:Example output
[...] Events: Type Reason Age From Message ---- ------ ---- ---- ------- Normal Scheduled 21m my-scheduler Successfully assigned default/virt-launcher-vm-fedora-dpc87 to node01 [...]
Additional resources
7.14.12. Configuring PCI passthrough
The Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) passthrough feature enables you to access and manage hardware devices from a virtual machine (VM). When PCI passthrough is configured, the PCI devices function as if they were physically attached to the guest operating system.
Cluster administrators can expose and manage host devices that are permitted to be used in the cluster by using the oc
command-line interface (CLI).
7.14.12.1. Preparing nodes for GPU passthrough
You can prevent GPU operands from deploying on worker nodes that you designated for GPU passthrough.
7.14.12.1.1. Preventing NVIDIA GPU operands from deploying on nodes
If you use the NVIDIA GPU Operator in your cluster, you can apply the nvidia.com/gpu.deploy.operands=false
label to nodes that you do not want to configure for GPU or vGPU operands. This label prevents the creation of the pods that configure GPU or vGPU operands and terminates the pods if they already exist.
Prerequisites
-
The OpenShift CLI (
oc
) is installed.
Procedure
Label the node by running the following command:
$ oc label node <node_name> nvidia.com/gpu.deploy.operands=false 1
- 1
- Replace
<node_name>
with the name of a node where you do not want to install the NVIDIA GPU operands.
Verification
Verify that the label was added to the node by running the following command:
$ oc describe node <node_name>
Optional: If GPU operands were previously deployed on the node, verify their removal.
Check the status of the pods in the
nvidia-gpu-operator
namespace by running the following command:$ oc get pods -n nvidia-gpu-operator
Example output
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE gpu-operator-59469b8c5c-hw9wj 1/1 Running 0 8d nvidia-sandbox-validator-7hx98 1/1 Running 0 8d nvidia-sandbox-validator-hdb7p 1/1 Running 0 8d nvidia-sandbox-validator-kxwj7 1/1 Terminating 0 9d nvidia-vfio-manager-7w9fs 1/1 Running 0 8d nvidia-vfio-manager-866pz 1/1 Running 0 8d nvidia-vfio-manager-zqtck 1/1 Terminating 0 9d
Monitor the pod status until the pods with
Terminating
status are removed:$ oc get pods -n nvidia-gpu-operator
Example output
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE gpu-operator-59469b8c5c-hw9wj 1/1 Running 0 8d nvidia-sandbox-validator-7hx98 1/1 Running 0 8d nvidia-sandbox-validator-hdb7p 1/1 Running 0 8d nvidia-vfio-manager-7w9fs 1/1 Running 0 8d nvidia-vfio-manager-866pz 1/1 Running 0 8d
7.14.12.2. Preparing host devices for PCI passthrough
7.14.12.2.1. About preparing a host device for PCI passthrough
To prepare a host device for PCI passthrough by using the CLI, create a MachineConfig
object and add kernel arguments to enable the Input-Output Memory Management Unit (IOMMU). Bind the PCI device to the Virtual Function I/O (VFIO) driver and then expose it in the cluster by editing the permittedHostDevices
field of the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR). The permittedHostDevices
list is empty when you first install the OpenShift Virtualization Operator.
To remove a PCI host device from the cluster by using the CLI, delete the PCI device information from the HyperConverged
CR.
7.14.12.2.2. Adding kernel arguments to enable the IOMMU driver
To enable the IOMMU driver in the kernel, create the MachineConfig
object and add the kernel arguments.
Prerequisites
- You have cluster administrator permissions.
- Your CPU hardware is Intel or AMD.
- You enabled Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O extensions or AMD IOMMU in the BIOS.
Procedure
Create a
MachineConfig
object that identifies the kernel argument. The following example shows a kernel argument for an Intel CPU.apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1 kind: MachineConfig metadata: labels: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker 1 name: 100-worker-iommu 2 spec: config: ignition: version: 3.2.0 kernelArguments: - intel_iommu=on 3 # ...
Create the new
MachineConfig
object:$ oc create -f 100-worker-kernel-arg-iommu.yaml
Verification
Verify that the new
MachineConfig
object was added.$ oc get MachineConfig
7.14.12.2.3. Binding PCI devices to the VFIO driver
To bind PCI devices to the VFIO (Virtual Function I/O) driver, obtain the values for vendor-ID
and device-ID
from each device and create a list with the values. Add this list to the MachineConfig
object. The MachineConfig
Operator generates the /etc/modprobe.d/vfio.conf
on the nodes with the PCI devices, and binds the PCI devices to the VFIO driver.
Prerequisites
- You added kernel arguments to enable IOMMU for the CPU.
Procedure
Run the
lspci
command to obtain thevendor-ID
and thedevice-ID
for the PCI device.$ lspci -nnv | grep -i nvidia
Example output
02:01.0 3D controller [0302]: NVIDIA Corporation GV100GL [Tesla V100 PCIe 32GB] [10de:1eb8] (rev a1)
Create a Butane config file,
100-worker-vfiopci.bu
, binding the PCI device to the VFIO driver.NoteSee "Creating machine configs with Butane" for information about Butane.
Example
variant: openshift version: 4.17.0 metadata: name: 100-worker-vfiopci labels: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker 1 storage: files: - path: /etc/modprobe.d/vfio.conf mode: 0644 overwrite: true contents: inline: | options vfio-pci ids=10de:1eb8 2 - path: /etc/modules-load.d/vfio-pci.conf 3 mode: 0644 overwrite: true contents: inline: vfio-pci
- 1
- Applies the new kernel argument only to worker nodes.
- 2
- Specify the previously determined
vendor-ID
value (10de
) and thedevice-ID
value (1eb8
) to bind a single device to the VFIO driver. You can add a list of multiple devices with their vendor and device information. - 3
- The file that loads the vfio-pci kernel module on the worker nodes.
Use Butane to generate a
MachineConfig
object file,100-worker-vfiopci.yaml
, containing the configuration to be delivered to the worker nodes:$ butane 100-worker-vfiopci.bu -o 100-worker-vfiopci.yaml
Apply the
MachineConfig
object to the worker nodes:$ oc apply -f 100-worker-vfiopci.yaml
Verify that the
MachineConfig
object was added.$ oc get MachineConfig
Example output
NAME GENERATEDBYCONTROLLER IGNITIONVERSION AGE 00-master d3da910bfa9f4b599af4ed7f5ac270d55950a3a1 3.2.0 25h 00-worker d3da910bfa9f4b599af4ed7f5ac270d55950a3a1 3.2.0 25h 01-master-container-runtime d3da910bfa9f4b599af4ed7f5ac270d55950a3a1 3.2.0 25h 01-master-kubelet d3da910bfa9f4b599af4ed7f5ac270d55950a3a1 3.2.0 25h 01-worker-container-runtime d3da910bfa9f4b599af4ed7f5ac270d55950a3a1 3.2.0 25h 01-worker-kubelet d3da910bfa9f4b599af4ed7f5ac270d55950a3a1 3.2.0 25h 100-worker-iommu 3.2.0 30s 100-worker-vfiopci-configuration 3.2.0 30s
Verification
Verify that the VFIO driver is loaded.
$ lspci -nnk -d 10de:
The output confirms that the VFIO driver is being used.
Example output
04:00.0 3D controller [0302]: NVIDIA Corporation GP102GL [Tesla P40] [10de:1eb8] (rev a1) Subsystem: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:1eb8] Kernel driver in use: vfio-pci Kernel modules: nouveau
7.14.12.2.4. Exposing PCI host devices in the cluster using the CLI
To expose PCI host devices in the cluster, add details about the PCI devices to the spec.permittedHostDevices.pciHostDevices
array of the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR).
Procedure
Edit the
HyperConverged
CR in your default editor by running the following command:$ oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Add the PCI device information to the
spec.permittedHostDevices.pciHostDevices
array. For example:Example configuration file
apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged namespace: openshift-cnv spec: permittedHostDevices: 1 pciHostDevices: 2 - pciDeviceSelector: "10DE:1DB6" 3 resourceName: "nvidia.com/GV100GL_Tesla_V100" 4 - pciDeviceSelector: "10DE:1EB8" resourceName: "nvidia.com/TU104GL_Tesla_T4" - pciDeviceSelector: "8086:6F54" resourceName: "intel.com/qat" externalResourceProvider: true 5 # ...
- 1
- The host devices that are permitted to be used in the cluster.
- 2
- The list of PCI devices available on the node.
- 3
- The
vendor-ID
and thedevice-ID
required to identify the PCI device. - 4
- The name of a PCI host device.
- 5
- Optional: Setting this field to
true
indicates that the resource is provided by an external device plugin. OpenShift Virtualization allows the usage of this device in the cluster but leaves the allocation and monitoring to an external device plugin.
NoteThe above example snippet shows two PCI host devices that are named
nvidia.com/GV100GL_Tesla_V100
andnvidia.com/TU104GL_Tesla_T4
added to the list of permitted host devices in theHyperConverged
CR. These devices have been tested and verified to work with OpenShift Virtualization.- Save your changes and exit the editor.
Verification
Verify that the PCI host devices were added to the node by running the following command. The example output shows that there is one device each associated with the
nvidia.com/GV100GL_Tesla_V100
,nvidia.com/TU104GL_Tesla_T4
, andintel.com/qat
resource names.$ oc describe node <node_name>
Example output
Capacity: cpu: 64 devices.kubevirt.io/kvm: 110 devices.kubevirt.io/tun: 110 devices.kubevirt.io/vhost-net: 110 ephemeral-storage: 915128Mi hugepages-1Gi: 0 hugepages-2Mi: 0 memory: 131395264Ki nvidia.com/GV100GL_Tesla_V100 1 nvidia.com/TU104GL_Tesla_T4 1 intel.com/qat: 1 pods: 250 Allocatable: cpu: 63500m devices.kubevirt.io/kvm: 110 devices.kubevirt.io/tun: 110 devices.kubevirt.io/vhost-net: 110 ephemeral-storage: 863623130526 hugepages-1Gi: 0 hugepages-2Mi: 0 memory: 130244288Ki nvidia.com/GV100GL_Tesla_V100 1 nvidia.com/TU104GL_Tesla_T4 1 intel.com/qat: 1 pods: 250
7.14.12.2.5. Removing PCI host devices from the cluster using the CLI
To remove a PCI host device from the cluster, delete the information for that device from the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR).
Procedure
Edit the
HyperConverged
CR in your default editor by running the following command:$ oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Remove the PCI device information from the
spec.permittedHostDevices.pciHostDevices
array by deleting thepciDeviceSelector
,resourceName
andexternalResourceProvider
(if applicable) fields for the appropriate device. In this example, theintel.com/qat
resource has been deleted.Example configuration file
apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged namespace: openshift-cnv spec: permittedHostDevices: pciHostDevices: - pciDeviceSelector: "10DE:1DB6" resourceName: "nvidia.com/GV100GL_Tesla_V100" - pciDeviceSelector: "10DE:1EB8" resourceName: "nvidia.com/TU104GL_Tesla_T4" # ...
- Save your changes and exit the editor.
Verification
Verify that the PCI host device was removed from the node by running the following command. The example output shows that there are zero devices associated with the
intel.com/qat
resource name.$ oc describe node <node_name>
Example output
Capacity: cpu: 64 devices.kubevirt.io/kvm: 110 devices.kubevirt.io/tun: 110 devices.kubevirt.io/vhost-net: 110 ephemeral-storage: 915128Mi hugepages-1Gi: 0 hugepages-2Mi: 0 memory: 131395264Ki nvidia.com/GV100GL_Tesla_V100 1 nvidia.com/TU104GL_Tesla_T4 1 intel.com/qat: 0 pods: 250 Allocatable: cpu: 63500m devices.kubevirt.io/kvm: 110 devices.kubevirt.io/tun: 110 devices.kubevirt.io/vhost-net: 110 ephemeral-storage: 863623130526 hugepages-1Gi: 0 hugepages-2Mi: 0 memory: 130244288Ki nvidia.com/GV100GL_Tesla_V100 1 nvidia.com/TU104GL_Tesla_T4 1 intel.com/qat: 0 pods: 250
7.14.12.3. Configuring virtual machines for PCI passthrough
After the PCI devices have been added to the cluster, you can assign them to virtual machines. The PCI devices are now available as if they are physically connected to the virtual machines.
7.14.12.3.1. Assigning a PCI device to a virtual machine
When a PCI device is available in a cluster, you can assign it to a virtual machine and enable PCI passthrough.
Procedure
Assign the PCI device to a virtual machine as a host device.
Example
apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine spec: domain: devices: hostDevices: - deviceName: nvidia.com/TU104GL_Tesla_T4 1 name: hostdevices1
- 1
- The name of the PCI device that is permitted on the cluster as a host device. The virtual machine can access this host device.
Verification
Use the following command to verify that the host device is available from the virtual machine.
$ lspci -nnk | grep NVIDIA
Example output
$ 02:01.0 3D controller [0302]: NVIDIA Corporation GV100GL [Tesla V100 PCIe 32GB] [10de:1eb8] (rev a1)
7.14.12.4. Additional resources
7.14.13. Configuring virtual GPUs
If you have graphics processing unit (GPU) cards, OpenShift Virtualization can automatically create virtual GPUs (vGPUs) that you can assign to virtual machines (VMs).
7.14.13.1. About using virtual GPUs with OpenShift Virtualization
Some graphics processing unit (GPU) cards support the creation of virtual GPUs (vGPUs). OpenShift Virtualization can automatically create vGPUs and other mediated devices if an administrator provides configuration details in the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR). This automation is especially useful for large clusters.
Refer to your hardware vendor’s documentation for functionality and support details.
- Mediated device
- A physical device that is divided into one or more virtual devices. A vGPU is a type of mediated device (mdev); the performance of the physical GPU is divided among the virtual devices. You can assign mediated devices to one or more virtual machines (VMs), but the number of guests must be compatible with your GPU. Some GPUs do not support multiple guests.
7.14.13.2. Preparing hosts for mediated devices
You must enable the Input-Output Memory Management Unit (IOMMU) driver before you can configure mediated devices.
7.14.13.2.1. Adding kernel arguments to enable the IOMMU driver
To enable the IOMMU driver in the kernel, create the MachineConfig
object and add the kernel arguments.
Prerequisites
- You have cluster administrator permissions.
- Your CPU hardware is Intel or AMD.
- You enabled Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O extensions or AMD IOMMU in the BIOS.
Procedure
Create a
MachineConfig
object that identifies the kernel argument. The following example shows a kernel argument for an Intel CPU.apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1 kind: MachineConfig metadata: labels: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker 1 name: 100-worker-iommu 2 spec: config: ignition: version: 3.2.0 kernelArguments: - intel_iommu=on 3 # ...
Create the new
MachineConfig
object:$ oc create -f 100-worker-kernel-arg-iommu.yaml
Verification
Verify that the new
MachineConfig
object was added.$ oc get MachineConfig
7.14.13.3. Configuring the NVIDIA GPU Operator
You can use the NVIDIA GPU Operator to provision worker nodes for running GPU-accelerated virtual machines (VMs) in OpenShift Virtualization.
The NVIDIA GPU Operator is supported only by NVIDIA. For more information, see Obtaining Support from NVIDIA in the Red Hat Knowledgebase.
7.14.13.3.1. About using the NVIDIA GPU Operator
You can use the NVIDIA GPU Operator with OpenShift Virtualization to rapidly provision worker nodes for running GPU-enabled virtual machines (VMs). The NVIDIA GPU Operator manages NVIDIA GPU resources in an OpenShift Container Platform cluster and automates tasks that are required when preparing nodes for GPU workloads.
Before you can deploy application workloads to a GPU resource, you must install components such as the NVIDIA drivers that enable the compute unified device architecture (CUDA), Kubernetes device plugin, container runtime, and other features, such as automatic node labeling and monitoring. By automating these tasks, you can quickly scale the GPU capacity of your infrastructure. The NVIDIA GPU Operator can especially facilitate provisioning complex artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) workloads.
7.14.13.3.2. Options for configuring mediated devices
There are two available methods for configuring mediated devices when using the NVIDIA GPU Operator. The method that Red Hat tests uses OpenShift Virtualization features to schedule mediated devices, while the NVIDIA method only uses the GPU Operator.
- Using the NVIDIA GPU Operator to configure mediated devices
- This method exclusively uses the NVIDIA GPU Operator to configure mediated devices. To use this method, refer to NVIDIA GPU Operator with OpenShift Virtualization in the NVIDIA documentation.
- Using OpenShift Virtualization to configure mediated devices
This method, which is tested by Red Hat, uses OpenShift Virtualization’s capabilities to configure mediated devices. In this case, the NVIDIA GPU Operator is only used for installing drivers with the NVIDIA vGPU Manager. The GPU Operator does not configure mediated devices.
When using the OpenShift Virtualization method, you still configure the GPU Operator by following the NVIDIA documentation. However, this method differs from the NVIDIA documentation in the following ways:
You must not overwrite the default
disableMDEVConfiguration: false
setting in theHyperConverged
custom resource (CR).ImportantSetting this feature gate as described in the NVIDIA documentation prevents OpenShift Virtualization from configuring mediated devices.
You must configure your
ClusterPolicy
manifest so that it matches the following example:Example manifest
kind: ClusterPolicy apiVersion: nvidia.com/v1 metadata: name: gpu-cluster-policy spec: operator: defaultRuntime: crio use_ocp_driver_toolkit: true initContainer: {} sandboxWorkloads: enabled: true defaultWorkload: vm-vgpu driver: enabled: false 1 dcgmExporter: {} dcgm: enabled: true daemonsets: {} devicePlugin: {} gfd: {} migManager: enabled: true nodeStatusExporter: enabled: true mig: strategy: single toolkit: enabled: true validator: plugin: env: - name: WITH_WORKLOAD value: "true" vgpuManager: enabled: true 2 repository: <vgpu_container_registry> 3 image: <vgpu_image_name> version: nvidia-vgpu-manager vgpuDeviceManager: enabled: false 4 config: name: vgpu-devices-config default: default sandboxDevicePlugin: enabled: false 5 vfioManager: enabled: false 6
- 1
- Set this value to
false
. Not required for VMs. - 2
- Set this value to
true
. Required for using vGPUs with VMs. - 3
- Substitute
<vgpu_container_registry>
with your registry value. - 4
- Set this value to
false
to allow OpenShift Virtualization to configure mediated devices instead of the NVIDIA GPU Operator. - 5
- Set this value to
false
to prevent discovery and advertising of the vGPU devices to the kubelet. - 6
- Set this value to
false
to prevent loading thevfio-pci
driver. Instead, follow the OpenShift Virtualization documentation to configure PCI passthrough.
Additional resources
7.14.13.4. How vGPUs are assigned to nodes
For each physical device, OpenShift Virtualization configures the following values:
- A single mdev type.
-
The maximum number of instances of the selected
mdev
type.
The cluster architecture affects how devices are created and assigned to nodes.
- Large cluster with multiple cards per node
On nodes with multiple cards that can support similar vGPU types, the relevant device types are created in a round-robin manner. For example:
# ... mediatedDevicesConfiguration: mediatedDeviceTypes: - nvidia-222 - nvidia-228 - nvidia-105 - nvidia-108 # ...
In this scenario, each node has two cards, both of which support the following vGPU types:
nvidia-105 # ... nvidia-108 nvidia-217 nvidia-299 # ...
On each node, OpenShift Virtualization creates the following vGPUs:
- 16 vGPUs of type nvidia-105 on the first card.
- 2 vGPUs of type nvidia-108 on the second card.
- One node has a single card that supports more than one requested vGPU type
OpenShift Virtualization uses the supported type that comes first on the
mediatedDeviceTypes
list.For example, the card on a node card supports
nvidia-223
andnvidia-224
. The followingmediatedDeviceTypes
list is configured:# ... mediatedDevicesConfiguration: mediatedDeviceTypes: - nvidia-22 - nvidia-223 - nvidia-224 # ...
In this example, OpenShift Virtualization uses the
nvidia-223
type.
7.14.13.5. Managing mediated devices
Before you can assign mediated devices to virtual machines, you must create the devices and expose them to the cluster. You can also reconfigure and remove mediated devices.
7.14.13.5.1. Creating and exposing mediated devices
As an administrator, you can create mediated devices and expose them to the cluster by editing the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR).
Prerequisites
- You enabled the Input-Output Memory Management Unit (IOMMU) driver.
If your hardware vendor provides drivers, you installed them on the nodes where you want to create mediated devices.
- If you use NVIDIA cards, you installed the NVIDIA GRID driver.
Procedure
Open the
HyperConverged
CR in your default editor by running the following command:$ oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Example 7.1. Example configuration file with mediated devices configured
apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged namespace: openshift-cnv spec: mediatedDevicesConfiguration: mediatedDeviceTypes: - nvidia-231 nodeMediatedDeviceTypes: - mediatedDeviceTypes: - nvidia-233 nodeSelector: kubernetes.io/hostname: node-11.redhat.com permittedHostDevices: mediatedDevices: - mdevNameSelector: GRID T4-2Q resourceName: nvidia.com/GRID_T4-2Q - mdevNameSelector: GRID T4-8Q resourceName: nvidia.com/GRID_T4-8Q # ...
Create mediated devices by adding them to the
spec.mediatedDevicesConfiguration
stanza:Example YAML snippet
# ... spec: mediatedDevicesConfiguration: mediatedDeviceTypes: 1 - <device_type> nodeMediatedDeviceTypes: 2 - mediatedDeviceTypes: 3 - <device_type> nodeSelector: 4 <node_selector_key>: <node_selector_value> # ...
- 1
- Required: Configures global settings for the cluster.
- 2
- Optional: Overrides the global configuration for a specific node or group of nodes. Must be used with the global
mediatedDeviceTypes
configuration. - 3
- Required if you use
nodeMediatedDeviceTypes
. Overrides the globalmediatedDeviceTypes
configuration for the specified nodes. - 4
- Required if you use
nodeMediatedDeviceTypes
. Must include akey:value
pair.
ImportantBefore OpenShift Virtualization 4.14, the
mediatedDeviceTypes
field was namedmediatedDevicesTypes
. Ensure that you use the correct field name when configuring mediated devices.Identify the name selector and resource name values for the devices that you want to expose to the cluster. You will add these values to the
HyperConverged
CR in the next step.Find the
resourceName
value by running the following command:$ oc get $NODE -o json \ | jq '.status.allocatable \ | with_entries(select(.key | startswith("nvidia.com/"))) \ | with_entries(select(.value != "0"))'
Find the
mdevNameSelector
value by viewing the contents of/sys/bus/pci/devices/<slot>:<bus>:<domain>.<function>/mdev_supported_types/<type>/name
, substituting the correct values for your system.For example, the name file for the
nvidia-231
type contains the selector stringGRID T4-2Q
. UsingGRID T4-2Q
as themdevNameSelector
value allows nodes to use thenvidia-231
type.
Expose the mediated devices to the cluster by adding the
mdevNameSelector
andresourceName
values to thespec.permittedHostDevices.mediatedDevices
stanza of theHyperConverged
CR:Example YAML snippet
# ... permittedHostDevices: mediatedDevices: - mdevNameSelector: GRID T4-2Q 1 resourceName: nvidia.com/GRID_T4-2Q 2 # ...
- Save your changes and exit the editor.
Verification
Optional: Confirm that a device was added to a specific node by running the following command:
$ oc describe node <node_name>
7.14.13.5.2. About changing and removing mediated devices
You can reconfigure or remove mediated devices in several ways:
-
Edit the
HyperConverged
CR and change the contents of themediatedDeviceTypes
stanza. -
Change the node labels that match the
nodeMediatedDeviceTypes
node selector. Remove the device information from the
spec.mediatedDevicesConfiguration
andspec.permittedHostDevices
stanzas of theHyperConverged
CR.NoteIf you remove the device information from the
spec.permittedHostDevices
stanza without also removing it from thespec.mediatedDevicesConfiguration
stanza, you cannot create a new mediated device type on the same node. To properly remove mediated devices, remove the device information from both stanzas.
7.14.13.5.3. Removing mediated devices from the cluster
To remove a mediated device from the cluster, delete the information for that device from the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR).
Procedure
Edit the
HyperConverged
CR in your default editor by running the following command:$ oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Remove the device information from the
spec.mediatedDevicesConfiguration
andspec.permittedHostDevices
stanzas of theHyperConverged
CR. Removing both entries ensures that you can later create a new mediated device type on the same node. For example:Example configuration file
apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged namespace: openshift-cnv spec: mediatedDevicesConfiguration: mediatedDeviceTypes: 1 - nvidia-231 permittedHostDevices: mediatedDevices: 2 - mdevNameSelector: GRID T4-2Q resourceName: nvidia.com/GRID_T4-2Q
- Save your changes and exit the editor.
7.14.13.6. Using mediated devices
You can assign mediated devices to one or more virtual machines.
7.14.13.6.1. Assigning a vGPU to a VM by using the CLI
Assign mediated devices such as virtual GPUs (vGPUs) to virtual machines (VMs).
Prerequisites
-
The mediated device is configured in the
HyperConverged
custom resource. - The VM is stopped.
Procedure
Assign the mediated device to a virtual machine (VM) by editing the
spec.domain.devices.gpus
stanza of theVirtualMachine
manifest:Example virtual machine manifest
apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine spec: domain: devices: gpus: - deviceName: nvidia.com/TU104GL_Tesla_T4 1 name: gpu1 2 - deviceName: nvidia.com/GRID_T4-2Q name: gpu2
Verification
To verify that the device is available from the virtual machine, run the following command, substituting
<device_name>
with thedeviceName
value from theVirtualMachine
manifest:$ lspci -nnk | grep <device_name>
7.14.13.6.2. Assigning a vGPU to a VM by using the web console
You can assign virtual GPUs to virtual machines by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
You can add hardware devices to virtual machines created from customized templates or a YAML file. You cannot add devices to pre-supplied boot source templates for specific operating systems.
Prerequisites
The vGPU is configured as a mediated device in your cluster.
- To view the devices that are connected to your cluster, click Compute → Hardware Devices from the side menu.
- The VM is stopped.
Procedure
- In the OpenShift Container Platform web console, click Virtualization → VirtualMachines from the side menu.
- Select the VM that you want to assign the device to.
- On the Details tab, click GPU devices.
- Click Add GPU device.
- Enter an identifying value in the Name field.
- From the Device name list, select the device that you want to add to the VM.
- Click Save.
Verification
-
To confirm that the devices were added to the VM, click the YAML tab and review the
VirtualMachine
configuration. Mediated devices are added to thespec.domain.devices
stanza.
7.14.13.7. Additional resources
7.14.14. Configuring USB host passthrough
As a cluster administrator, you can expose USB devices in a cluster, making them available for virtual machine (VM) owners to assign to VMs. Enabling this passthrough of USB devices allows a guest to connect to actual USB hardware that is attached to an OpenShift Container Platform node, as if the hardware and the VM are physically connected.
You can expose a USB device by first enabling host passthrough and then configuring the VM to use the USB device.
7.14.14.1. Enabling USB host passthrough
You can enable USB host passthrough at the cluster level.
You specify a resource name and USB device name for each device you want first to add and then assign to a virtual machine (VM). You can allocate more than one device, each of which is known as a selector
in the HyperConverged (HCO) custom resource (CR), to a single resource name. If you have multiple, identical USB devices on the cluster, you can choose to allocate a VM to a specific device.
Prerequisites
-
You have access to an OpenShift Container Platform cluster as a user who has the
cluster-admin
role.
Procedure
Identify the USB device vendor and product by running the following command:
$ lsusb
Open the HCO CR by running the following commmand:
$ oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Add a USB device to the
permittedHostDevices
stanza, as shown in the following example:Example YAML snippet
apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged namespace: {CNVNamespace} spec: configuration: permittedHostDevices: 1 usbHostDevices: 2 - resourceName: kubevirt.io/peripherals 3 selectors: - vendor: "045e" product: "07a5" - vendor: "062a" product: "4102" - vendor: "072f" product: "b100"
- 1
- Lists the host devices that have permission to be used in the cluster.
- 2
- Lists the available USB devices.
- 3
- Uses
resourceName: deviceName
for each device you want to add and assign to the VM. In this example, the resource is bound to three devices, each of which is identified byvendor
andproduct
and is known as aselector
.
7.14.14.2. Configuring a virtual machine connection to a USB device
You can configure virtual machine (VM) access to a USB device. This configuration allows a guest to connect to actual USB hardware that is attached to an OpenShift Container Platform node, as if the hardware and the VM are physically connected.
Procedure
Locate the USB device by running the following command:
$ oc /dev/serial/by-id/usb-VENDOR_device_name
Open the virtual machine instance custom resource (CR) by running the following commmand:
$ oc edit vmi vmi-usb
Edit the CR by adding a USB device, as shown in the following example:
Example configuration
apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachineInstance metadata: labels: special: vmi-usb name: vmi-usb 1 spec: domain: devices: hostDevices: - deviceName: kubevirt.io/peripherals name: local-peripherals # ...
- 1
- The name of the USB device.
7.14.15. Enabling descheduler evictions on virtual machines
You can use the descheduler to evict pods so that the pods can be rescheduled onto more appropriate nodes. If the pod is a virtual machine, the pod eviction causes the virtual machine to be live migrated to another node.
7.14.15.1. Descheduler profiles
Use the LongLifecycle
profile to enable the descheduler on a virtual machine. This is the only descheduler profile currently available for OpenShift Virtualization. To ensure proper scheduling, create VMs with CPU and memory requests for the expected load.
LongLifecycle
This profile balances resource usage between nodes and enables the following strategies:
-
RemovePodsHavingTooManyRestarts
: removes pods whose containers have been restarted too many times and pods where the sum of restarts over all containers (including Init Containers) is more than 100. Restarting the VM guest operating system does not increase this count. LowNodeUtilization
: evicts pods from overutilized nodes when there are any underutilized nodes. The destination node for the evicted pod will be determined by the scheduler.- A node is considered underutilized if its usage is below 20% for all thresholds (CPU, memory, and number of pods).
- A node is considered overutilized if its usage is above 50% for any of the thresholds (CPU, memory, and number of pods).
-
7.14.15.2. Installing the descheduler
The descheduler is not available by default. To enable the descheduler, you must install the Kube Descheduler Operator from OperatorHub and enable one or more descheduler profiles.
By default, the descheduler runs in predictive mode, which means that it only simulates pod evictions. You must change the mode to automatic for the descheduler to perform the pod evictions.
If you have enabled hosted control planes in your cluster, set a custom priority threshold to lower the chance that pods in the hosted control plane namespaces are evicted. Set the priority threshold class name to hypershift-control-plane
, because it has the lowest priority value (100000000
) of the hosted control plane priority classes.
Prerequisites
-
You are logged in to OpenShift Container Platform as a user with the
cluster-admin
role. - Access to the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Procedure
- Log in to the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Create the required namespace for the Kube Descheduler Operator.
- Navigate to Administration → Namespaces and click Create Namespace.
-
Enter
openshift-kube-descheduler-operator
in the Name field, enteropenshift.io/cluster-monitoring=true
in the Labels field to enable descheduler metrics, and click Create.
Install the Kube Descheduler Operator.
- Navigate to Operators → OperatorHub.
- Type Kube Descheduler Operator into the filter box.
- Select the Kube Descheduler Operator and click Install.
- On the Install Operator page, select A specific namespace on the cluster. Select openshift-kube-descheduler-operator from the drop-down menu.
- Adjust the values for the Update Channel and Approval Strategy to the desired values.
- Click Install.
Create a descheduler instance.
- From the Operators → Installed Operators page, click the Kube Descheduler Operator.
- Select the Kube Descheduler tab and click Create KubeDescheduler.
Edit the settings as necessary.
- To evict pods instead of simulating the evictions, change the Mode field to Automatic.
Expand the Profiles section and select
LongLifecycle
. TheAffinityAndTaints
profile is enabled by default.ImportantThe only profile currently available for OpenShift Virtualization is
LongLifecycle
.
You can also configure the profiles and settings for the descheduler later using the OpenShift CLI (oc
).
7.14.15.3. Enabling descheduler evictions on a virtual machine (VM)
After the descheduler is installed, you can enable descheduler evictions on your VM by adding an annotation to the VirtualMachine
custom resource (CR).
Prerequisites
-
Install the descheduler in the OpenShift Container Platform web console or OpenShift CLI (
oc
). - Ensure that the VM is not running.
Procedure
Before starting the VM, add the
descheduler.alpha.kubernetes.io/evict
annotation to theVirtualMachine
CR:apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine spec: template: metadata: annotations: descheduler.alpha.kubernetes.io/evict: "true"
Configure the
KubeDescheduler
object with theLongLifecycle
profile and enable background evictions for improved VM eviction stability during live migration:apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1 kind: KubeDescheduler metadata: name: cluster namespace: openshift-kube-descheduler-operator spec: deschedulingIntervalSeconds: 3600 profiles: - LongLifecycle 1 mode: Predictive 2 profileCustomizations: devEnableEvictionsInBackground: true 3
- 1
- You can only set the
LongLifecycle
profile. This profile balances resource usage between nodes. - 2
- By default, the descheduler does not evict pods. To evict pods, set
mode
toAutomatic
. - 3
- Enabling
devEnableEvictionsInBackground
allows evictions to occur in the background, improving stability and mitigating oscillatory behavior during live migrations.
The descheduler is now enabled on the VM.
7.14.15.4. Additional resources
7.14.16. About high availability for virtual machines
You can enable high availability for virtual machines (VMs) by manually deleting a failed node to trigger VM failover or by configuring remediating nodes.
Manually deleting a failed node
If a node fails and machine health checks are not deployed on your cluster, virtual machines with runStrategy: Always
configured are not automatically relocated to healthy nodes. To trigger VM failover, you must manually delete the Node
object.
See Deleting a failed node to trigger virtual machine failover.
Configuring remediating nodes
You can configure remediating nodes by installing the Self Node Remediation Operator or the Fence Agents Remediation Operator from the OperatorHub and enabling machine health checks or node remediation checks.
For more information on remediation, fencing, and maintaining nodes, see the Workload Availability for Red Hat OpenShift documentation.
7.14.17. Virtual machine control plane tuning
OpenShift Virtualization offers the following tuning options at the control-plane level:
-
The
highBurst
profile, which uses fixedQPS
andburst
rates, to create hundreds of virtual machines (VMs) in one batch - Migration setting adjustment based on workload type
7.14.17.1. Configuring a highBurst profile
Use the highBurst
profile to create and maintain a large number of virtual machines (VMs) in one cluster.
Procedure
Apply the following patch to enable the
highBurst
tuning policy profile:$ oc patch hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv \ --type=json -p='[{"op": "add", "path": "/spec/tuningPolicy", \ "value": "highBurst"}]'
Verification
Run the following command to verify the
highBurst
tuning policy profile is enabled:$ oc get kubevirt.kubevirt.io/kubevirt-kubevirt-hyperconverged \ -n openshift-cnv -o go-template --template='{{range $config, \ $value := .spec.configuration}} {{if eq $config "apiConfiguration" \ "webhookConfiguration" "controllerConfiguration" "handlerConfiguration"}} \ {{"\n"}} {{$config}} = {{$value}} {{end}} {{end}} {{"\n"}}
7.14.18. Assigning compute resources
In OpenShift Virtualization, compute resources assigned to virtual machines (VMs) are backed by either guaranteed CPUs or time-sliced CPU shares.
Guaranteed CPUs, also known as CPU reservation, dedicate CPU cores or threads to a specific workload, which makes them unavailable to any other workload. Assigning guaranteed CPUs to a VM ensures that the VM will have sole access to a reserved physical CPU. Enable dedicated resources for VMs to use a guaranteed CPU.
Time-sliced CPUs dedicate a slice of time on a shared physical CPU to each workload. You can specify the size of the slice during VM creation, or when the VM is offline. By default, each vCPU receives 100 milliseconds, or 1/10 of a second, of physical CPU time.
The type of CPU reservation depends on the instance type or VM configuration.
7.14.18.1. Overcommitting CPU resources
Time-slicing allows multiple virtual CPUs (vCPUs) to share a single physical CPU. This is known as CPU overcommitment. Guaranteed VMs can not be overcommitted.
Configure CPU overcommitment to prioritize VM density over performance when assigning CPUs to VMs. With a higher CPU over-commitment of vCPUs, more VMs fit onto a given node.
7.14.18.2. Setting the CPU allocation ratio
The CPU Allocation Ratio specifies the degree of overcommitment by mapping vCPUs to time slices of physical CPUs.
For example, a mapping or ratio of 10:1 maps 10 virtual CPUs to 1 physical CPU by using time slices.
To change the default number of vCPUs mapped to each physical CPU, set the vmiCPUAllocationRatio
value in the HyperConverged
CR. The pod CPU request is calculated by multiplying the number of vCPUs by the reciprocal of the CPU allocation ratio. For example, if vmiCPUAllocationRatio
is set to 10, OpenShift Virtualization will request 10 times fewer CPUs on the pod for that VM.
Procedure
Set the vmiCPUAllocationRatio
value in the HyperConverged
CR to define a node CPU allocation ratio.
Open the
HyperConverged
CR in your default editor by running the following command:$ oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Set the
vmiCPUAllocationRatio
:... spec: resourceRequirements: vmiCPUAllocationRatio: 1 1 # ...
- 1
- When
vmiCPUAllocationRatio
is set to1
, the maximum amount of vCPUs are requested for the pod.
7.14.18.3. Additional resources
7.14.19. About multi-queue functionality
Use multi-queue functionality to scale network throughput and performance on virtual machines (VMs) with multiple vCPUs.
By default, the queueCount
value, which is derived from the domain XML, is determined by the number of vCPUs allocated to a VM. Network performance does not scale as the number of vCPUs increases. Additionally, because virtio-net has only one Tx and Rx queue, guests cannot transmit or retrieve packs in parallel.
Enabling virtio-net multiqueue does not offer significant improvements when the number of vNICs in a guest instance is proportional to the number of vCPUs.
7.14.19.1. Known limitations
- MSI vectors are still consumed if virtio-net multiqueue is enabled in the host but not enabled in the guest operating system by the administrator.
- Each virtio-net queue consumes 64 KiB of kernel memory for the vhost driver.
-
Starting a VM with more than 16 CPUs results in no connectivity if
networkInterfaceMultiqueue
is set to 'true' (CNV-16107).
7.14.19.2. Enabling multi-queue functionality
Enable multi-queue functionality for interfaces configured with a VirtIO model.
Procedure
Set the
networkInterfaceMultiqueue
value totrue
in theVirtualMachine
manifest file of your VM to enable multi-queue functionality:apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VM spec: domain: devices: networkInterfaceMultiqueue: true
-
Save the
VirtualMachine
manifest file to apply your changes.
7.15. VM disks
7.15.1. Hot-plugging VM disks
You can add or remove virtual disks without stopping your virtual machine (VM) or virtual machine instance (VMI).
Only data volumes and persistent volume claims (PVCs) can be hot plugged and hot-unplugged. You cannot hot plug or hot-unplug container disks.
A hot plugged disk remains attached to the VM even after reboot. You must detach the disk to remove it from the VM.
You can make a hot plugged disk persistent so that it is permanently mounted on the VM.
Each VM has a virtio-scsi
controller so that hot plugged disks can use the scsi
bus. The virtio-scsi
controller overcomes the limitations of virtio
while retaining its performance advantages. It is highly scalable and supports hot plugging over 4 million disks.
Regular virtio
is not available for hot plugged disks because it is not scalable. Each virtio
disk uses one of the limited PCI Express (PCIe) slots in the VM. PCIe slots are also used by other devices and must be reserved in advance. Therefore, slots might not be available on demand.
7.15.1.1. Hot plugging and hot unplugging a disk by using the web console
You can hot plug a disk by attaching it to a virtual machine (VM) while the VM is running by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
The hot plugged disk remains attached to the VM until you unplug it.
You can make a hot plugged disk persistent so that it is permanently mounted on the VM.
Prerequisites
- You must have a data volume or persistent volume claim (PVC) available for hot plugging.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → VirtualMachines in the web console.
- Select a running VM to view its details.
- On the VirtualMachine details page, click Configuration → Disks.
Add a hot plugged disk:
- Click Add disk.
- In the Add disk (hot plugged) window, select the disk from the Source list and click Save.
Optional: Unplug a hot plugged disk:
- Click the options menu beside the disk and select Detach.
- Click Detach.
Optional: Make a hot plugged disk persistent:
- Click the options menu beside the disk and select Make persistent.
- Reboot the VM to apply the change.
7.15.1.2. Hot plugging and hot unplugging a disk by using the command line
You can hot plug and hot unplug a disk while a virtual machine (VM) is running by using the command line.
You can make a hot plugged disk persistent so that it is permanently mounted on the VM.
Prerequisites
- You must have at least one data volume or persistent volume claim (PVC) available for hot plugging.
Procedure
Hot plug a disk by running the following command:
$ virtctl addvolume <virtual-machine|virtual-machine-instance> \ --volume-name=<datavolume|PVC> \ [--persist] [--serial=<label-name>]
-
Use the optional
--persist
flag to add the hot plugged disk to the virtual machine specification as a permanently mounted virtual disk. Stop, restart, or reboot the virtual machine to permanently mount the virtual disk. After specifying the--persist
flag, you can no longer hot plug or hot unplug the virtual disk. The--persist
flag applies to virtual machines, not virtual machine instances. -
The optional
--serial
flag allows you to add an alphanumeric string label of your choice. This helps you to identify the hot plugged disk in a guest virtual machine. If you do not specify this option, the label defaults to the name of the hot plugged data volume or PVC.
-
Use the optional
Hot unplug a disk by running the following command:
$ virtctl removevolume <virtual-machine|virtual-machine-instance> \ --volume-name=<datavolume|PVC>
7.15.2. Expanding virtual machine disks
You can increase the size of a virtual machine (VM) disk by expanding the persistent volume claim (PVC) of the disk.
If your storage provider does not support volume expansion, you can expand the available virtual storage of a VM by adding blank data volumes.
You cannot reduce the size of a VM disk.
7.15.2.1. Expanding a VM disk PVC
You can increase the size of a virtual machine (VM) disk by expanding the persistent volume claim (PVC) of the disk.
If the PVC uses the file system volume mode, the disk image file expands to the available size while reserving some space for file system overhead.
Procedure
Edit the
PersistentVolumeClaim
manifest of the VM disk that you want to expand:$ oc edit pvc <pvc_name>
Update the disk size:
apiVersion: v1 kind: PersistentVolumeClaim metadata: name: vm-disk-expand spec: accessModes: - ReadWriteMany resources: requests: storage: 3Gi 1 # ...
- 1
- Specify the new disk size.
7.15.2.2. Expanding available virtual storage by adding blank data volumes
You can expand the available storage of a virtual machine (VM) by adding blank data volumes.
Prerequisites
- You must have at least one persistent volume.
Procedure
Create a
DataVolume
manifest as shown in the following example:Example
DataVolume
manifestapiVersion: cdi.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: DataVolume metadata: name: blank-image-datavolume spec: source: blank: {} storage: resources: requests: storage: <2Gi> 1 storageClassName: "<storage_class>" 2
Create the data volume by running the following command:
$ oc create -f <blank-image-datavolume>.yaml
Additional resources for data volumes
Chapter 8. Networking
8.1. Networking overview
OpenShift Virtualization provides advanced networking functionality by using custom resources and plugins. Virtual machines (VMs) are integrated with OpenShift Container Platform networking and its ecosystem.
You cannot run OpenShift Virtualization on a single-stack IPv6 cluster.
The following figure illustrates the typical network setup of OpenShift Virtualization. Other configurations are also possible.
Figure 8.1. OpenShift Virtualization networking overview
Pods and VMs run on the same network infrastructure which allows you to easily connect your containerized and virtualized workloads.
You can connect VMs to the default pod network and to any number of secondary networks.
The default pod network provides connectivity between all its members, service abstraction, IP management, micro segmentation, and other functionality.
Multus is a "meta" CNI plugin that enables a pod or virtual machine to connect to additional network interfaces by using other compatible CNI plugins.
The default pod network is overlay-based, tunneled through the underlying machine network.
The machine network can be defined over a selected set of network interface controllers (NICs).
Secondary VM networks are typically bridged directly to a physical network, with or without VLAN encapsulation. It is also possible to create virtual overlay networks for secondary networks.
Connecting VMs directly to the underlay network is not supported on Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS.
Secondary VM networks can be defined on dedicated set of NICs, as shown in Figure 1, or they can use the machine network.
8.1.1. OpenShift Virtualization networking glossary
The following terms are used throughout OpenShift Virtualization documentation:
- Container Network Interface (CNI)
- A Cloud Native Computing Foundation project, focused on container network connectivity. OpenShift Virtualization uses CNI plugins to build upon the basic Kubernetes networking functionality.
- Multus
- A "meta" CNI plugin that allows multiple CNIs to exist so that a pod or virtual machine can use the interfaces it needs.
- Custom resource definition (CRD)
- A Kubernetes API resource that allows you to define custom resources, or an object defined by using the CRD API resource.
- Network attachment definition (NAD)
- A CRD introduced by the Multus project that allows you to attach pods, virtual machines, and virtual machine instances to one or more networks.
- Node network configuration policy (NNCP)
-
A CRD introduced by the nmstate project, describing the requested network configuration on nodes. You update the node network configuration, including adding and removing interfaces, by applying a
NodeNetworkConfigurationPolicy
manifest to the cluster.
8.1.2. Using the default pod network
- Connecting a virtual machine to the default pod network
- Each VM is connected by default to the default internal pod network. You can add or remove network interfaces by editing the VM specification.
- Exposing a virtual machine as a service
-
You can expose a VM within the cluster or outside the cluster by creating a
Service
object. For on-premise clusters, you can configure a load balancing service by using the MetalLB Operator. You can install the MetalLB Operator by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console or the CLI.
8.1.3. Configuring VM secondary network interfaces
You can connect a virtual machine to a secondary network by using Linux bridge, SR-IOV and OVN-Kubernetes CNI plugins. You can list multiple secondary networks and interfaces in the VM specification. It is not required to specify the primary pod network in the VM specification when connecting to a secondary network interface.
- Connecting a virtual machine to an OVN-Kubernetes secondary network
You can connect a VM to an OVN-Kubernetes secondary network. OpenShift Virtualization supports the
layer2
andlocalnet
topologies for OVN-Kubernetes. Thelocalnet
topology is the recommended way of exposing VMs to the underlying physical network, with or without VLAN encapsulation.-
A
layer2
topology connects workloads by a cluster-wide logical switch. The OVN-Kubernetes CNI plugin uses the Geneve (Generic Network Virtualization Encapsulation) protocol to create an overlay network between nodes. You can use this overlay network to connect VMs on different nodes, without having to configure any additional physical networking infrastructure. -
A
localnet
topology connects the secondary network to the physical underlay. This enables both east-west cluster traffic and access to services running outside the cluster, but it requires additional configuration of the underlying Open vSwitch (OVS) system on cluster nodes.
-
A
To configure an OVN-Kubernetes secondary network and attach a VM to that network, perform the following steps:
Configure an OVN-Kubernetes secondary network by creating a network attachment definition (NAD).
NoteFor
localnet
topology, you must configure an OVS bridge by creating aNodeNetworkConfigurationPolicy
object before creating the NAD.- Connect the VM to the OVN-Kubernetes secondary network by adding the network details to the VM specification.
- Connecting a virtual machine to an SR-IOV network
You can use Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) network devices with additional networks on your OpenShift Container Platform cluster installed on bare metal or Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) infrastructure for applications that require high bandwidth or low latency.
You must install the SR-IOV Network Operator on your cluster to manage SR-IOV network devices and network attachments.
You can connect a VM to an SR-IOV network by performing the following steps:
-
Configure an SR-IOV network device by creating a
SriovNetworkNodePolicy
CRD. -
Configure an SR-IOV network by creating an
SriovNetwork
object. - Connect the VM to the SR-IOV network by including the network details in the VM configuration.
-
Configure an SR-IOV network device by creating a
- Connecting a virtual machine to a Linux bridge network
Install the Kubernetes NMState Operator to configure Linux bridges, VLANs, and bonding for your secondary networks. The OVN-Kubernetes
localnet
topology is the recommended way of connecting a VM to the underlying physical network, but OpenShift Virtualization also supports Linux bridge networks.NoteYou cannot directly attach to the default machine network when using Linux bridge networks.
You can create a Linux bridge network and attach a VM to the network by performing the following steps:
-
Configure a Linux bridge network device by creating a
NodeNetworkConfigurationPolicy
custom resource definition (CRD). -
Configure a Linux bridge network by creating a
NetworkAttachmentDefinition
CRD. - Connect the VM to the Linux bridge network by including the network details in the VM configuration.
-
Configure a Linux bridge network device by creating a
- Hot plugging secondary network interfaces
- You can add or remove secondary network interfaces without stopping your VM. OpenShift Virtualization supports hot plugging and hot unplugging for secondary interfaces that use bridge binding and the VirtIO device driver. OpenShift Virtualization also supports hot plugging secondary interfaces that use the SR-IOV binding.
- Using DPDK with SR-IOV
- The Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) provides a set of libraries and drivers for fast packet processing. You can configure clusters and VMs to run DPDK workloads over SR-IOV networks.
- Configuring a dedicated network for live migration
- You can configure a dedicated Multus network for live migration. A dedicated network minimizes the effects of network saturation on tenant workloads during live migration.
- Accessing a virtual machine by using the cluster FQDN
- You can access a VM that is attached to a secondary network interface from outside the cluster by using its fully qualified domain name (FQDN).
- Configuring and viewing IP addresses
- You can configure an IP address of a secondary network interface when you create a VM. The IP address is provisioned with cloud-init. You can view the IP address of a VM by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console or the command line. The network information is collected by the QEMU guest agent.
8.1.3.1. Comparing Linux bridge CNI and OVN-Kubernetes localnet topology
The following table provides a comparison of features available when using the Linux bridge CNI compared to the localnet
topology for an OVN-Kubernetes plugin:
Feature | Available on Linux bridge CNI | Available on OVN-Kubernetes localnet |
---|---|---|
Layer 2 access to the underlay native network | Only on secondary network interface controllers (NICs) | Yes |
Layer 2 access to underlay VLANs | Yes | Yes |
Network policies | No | Yes |
Managed IP pools | No | Yes |
MAC spoof filtering | Yes | Yes |
8.1.4. Integrating with OpenShift Service Mesh
- Connecting a virtual machine to a service mesh
- OpenShift Virtualization is integrated with OpenShift Service Mesh. You can monitor, visualize, and control traffic between pods and virtual machines.
8.1.5. Managing MAC address pools
- Managing MAC address pools for network interfaces
- The KubeMacPool component allocates MAC addresses for VM network interfaces from a shared MAC address pool. This ensures that each network interface is assigned a unique MAC address. A virtual machine instance created from that VM retains the assigned MAC address across reboots.
8.1.6. Configuring SSH access
- Configuring SSH access to virtual machines
You can configure SSH access to VMs by using the following methods:
You create an SSH key pair, add the public key to a VM, and connect to the VM by running the
virtctl ssh
command with the private key.You can add public SSH keys to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9 VMs at runtime or at first boot to VMs with guest operating systems that can be configured by using a cloud-init data source.
You add the
virtctl port-foward
command to your.ssh/config
file and connect to the VM by using OpenSSH.You create a service, associate the service with the VM, and connect to the IP address and port exposed by the service.
You configure a secondary network, attach a VM to the secondary network interface, and connect to its allocated IP address.
8.2. Connecting a virtual machine to the default pod network
You can connect a virtual machine to the default internal pod network by configuring its network interface to use the masquerade
binding mode.
Traffic passing through network interfaces to the default pod network is interrupted during live migration.
8.2.1. Configuring masquerade mode from the command line
You can use masquerade mode to hide a virtual machine’s outgoing traffic behind the pod IP address. Masquerade mode uses Network Address Translation (NAT) to connect virtual machines to the pod network backend through a Linux bridge.
Enable masquerade mode and allow traffic to enter the virtual machine by editing your virtual machine configuration file.
Prerequisites
- The virtual machine must be configured to use DHCP to acquire IPv4 addresses.
Procedure
Edit the
interfaces
spec of your virtual machine configuration file:apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: example-vm spec: template: spec: domain: devices: interfaces: - name: default masquerade: {} 1 ports: 2 - port: 80 # ... networks: - name: default pod: {}
- 1
- Connect using masquerade mode.
- 2
- Optional: List the ports that you want to expose from the virtual machine, each specified by the
port
field. Theport
value must be a number between 0 and 65536. When theports
array is not used, all ports in the valid range are open to incoming traffic. In this example, incoming traffic is allowed on port80
.
NotePorts 49152 and 49153 are reserved for use by the libvirt platform and all other incoming traffic to these ports is dropped.
Create the virtual machine:
$ oc create -f <vm-name>.yaml
8.2.2. Configuring masquerade mode with dual-stack (IPv4 and IPv6)
You can configure a new virtual machine (VM) to use both IPv6 and IPv4 on the default pod network by using cloud-init.
The Network.pod.vmIPv6NetworkCIDR
field in the virtual machine instance configuration determines the static IPv6 address of the VM and the gateway IP address. These are used by the virt-launcher pod to route IPv6 traffic to the virtual machine and are not used externally. The Network.pod.vmIPv6NetworkCIDR
field specifies an IPv6 address block in Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) notation. The default value is fd10:0:2::2/120
. You can edit this value based on your network requirements.
When the virtual machine is running, incoming and outgoing traffic for the virtual machine is routed to both the IPv4 address and the unique IPv6 address of the virt-launcher pod. The virt-launcher pod then routes the IPv4 traffic to the DHCP address of the virtual machine, and the IPv6 traffic to the statically set IPv6 address of the virtual machine.
Prerequisites
- The OpenShift Container Platform cluster must use the OVN-Kubernetes Container Network Interface (CNI) network plugin configured for dual-stack.
Procedure
In a new virtual machine configuration, include an interface with
masquerade
and configure the IPv6 address and default gateway by using cloud-init.apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: example-vm-ipv6 spec: template: spec: domain: devices: interfaces: - name: default masquerade: {} 1 ports: - port: 80 2 # ... networks: - name: default pod: {} volumes: - cloudInitNoCloud: networkData: | version: 2 ethernets: eth0: dhcp4: true addresses: [ fd10:0:2::2/120 ] 3 gateway6: fd10:0:2::1 4
- 1
- Connect using masquerade mode.
- 2
- Allows incoming traffic on port 80 to the virtual machine.
- 3
- The static IPv6 address as determined by the
Network.pod.vmIPv6NetworkCIDR
field in the virtual machine instance configuration. The default value isfd10:0:2::2/120
. - 4
- The gateway IP address as determined by the
Network.pod.vmIPv6NetworkCIDR
field in the virtual machine instance configuration. The default value isfd10:0:2::1
.
Create the virtual machine in the namespace:
$ oc create -f example-vm-ipv6.yaml
Verification
- To verify that IPv6 has been configured, start the virtual machine and view the interface status of the virtual machine instance to ensure it has an IPv6 address:
$ oc get vmi <vmi-name> -o jsonpath="{.status.interfaces[*].ipAddresses}"
8.2.3. About jumbo frames support
When using the OVN-Kubernetes CNI plugin, you can send unfragmented jumbo frame packets between two virtual machines (VMs) that are connected on the default pod network. Jumbo frames have a maximum transmission unit (MTU) value greater than 1500 bytes.
The VM automatically gets the MTU value of the cluster network, set by the cluster administrator, in one of the following ways:
-
libvirt
: If the guest OS has the latest version of the VirtIO driver that can interpret incoming data via a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) config register in the emulated device. - DHCP: If the guest DHCP client can read the MTU value from the DHCP server response.
For Windows VMs that do not have a VirtIO driver, you must set the MTU manually by using netsh
or a similar tool. This is because the Windows DHCP client does not read the MTU value.
8.2.4. Additional resources
8.3. Exposing a virtual machine by using a service
You can expose a virtual machine within the cluster or outside the cluster by creating a Service
object.
8.3.1. About services
A Kubernetes service exposes network access for clients to an application running on a set of pods. Services offer abstraction, load balancing, and, in the case of the NodePort
and LoadBalancer
types, exposure to the outside world.
- ClusterIP
-
Exposes the service on an internal IP address and as a DNS name to other applications within the cluster. A single service can map to multiple virtual machines. When a client tries to connect to the service, the client’s request is load balanced among available backends.
ClusterIP
is the default service type. - NodePort
-
Exposes the service on the same port of each selected node in the cluster.
NodePort
makes a port accessible from outside the cluster, as long as the node itself is externally accessible to the client. - LoadBalancer
- Creates an external load balancer in the current cloud (if supported) and assigns a fixed, external IP address to the service.
For on-premise clusters, you can configure a load-balancing service by deploying the MetalLB Operator.
Additional resources
8.3.2. Dual-stack support
If IPv4 and IPv6 dual-stack networking is enabled for your cluster, you can create a service that uses IPv4, IPv6, or both, by defining the spec.ipFamilyPolicy
and the spec.ipFamilies
fields in the Service
object.
The spec.ipFamilyPolicy
field can be set to one of the following values:
- SingleStack
- The control plane assigns a cluster IP address for the service based on the first configured service cluster IP range.
- PreferDualStack
- The control plane assigns both IPv4 and IPv6 cluster IP addresses for the service on clusters that have dual-stack configured.
- RequireDualStack
-
This option fails for clusters that do not have dual-stack networking enabled. For clusters that have dual-stack configured, the behavior is the same as when the value is set to
PreferDualStack
. The control plane allocates cluster IP addresses from both IPv4 and IPv6 address ranges.
You can define which IP family to use for single-stack or define the order of IP families for dual-stack by setting the spec.ipFamilies
field to one of the following array values:
-
[IPv4]
-
[IPv6]
-
[IPv4, IPv6]
-
[IPv6, IPv4]
8.3.3. Creating a service by using the command line
You can create a service and associate it with a virtual machine (VM) by using the command line.
Prerequisites
- You configured the cluster network to support the service.
Procedure
Edit the
VirtualMachine
manifest to add the label for service creation:apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: example-vm namespace: example-namespace spec: running: false template: metadata: labels: special: key 1 # ...
- 1
- Add
special: key
to thespec.template.metadata.labels
stanza.
NoteLabels on a virtual machine are passed through to the pod. The
special: key
label must match the label in thespec.selector
attribute of theService
manifest.-
Save the
VirtualMachine
manifest file to apply your changes. Create a
Service
manifest to expose the VM:apiVersion: v1 kind: Service metadata: name: example-service namespace: example-namespace spec: # ... selector: special: key 1 type: NodePort 2 ports: 3 protocol: TCP port: 80 targetPort: 9376 nodePort: 30000
-
Save the
Service
manifest file. Create the service by running the following command:
$ oc create -f example-service.yaml
- Restart the VM to apply the changes.
Verification
Query the
Service
object to verify that it is available:$ oc get service -n example-namespace
8.3.4. Additional resources
8.4. Accessing a virtual machine by using its internal FQDN
You can access a virtual machine (VM) that is connected to the default internal pod network on a stable fully qualified domain name (FQDN) by using headless services.
A Kubernetes headless service is a form of service that does not allocate a cluster IP address to represent a set of pods. Instead of providing a single virtual IP address for the service, a headless service creates a DNS record for each pod associated with the service. You can expose a VM through its FQDN without having to expose a specific TCP or UDP port.
If you created a VM by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console, you can find its internal FQDN listed in the Network tile on the Overview tab of the VirtualMachine details page. For more information about connecting to the VM, see Connecting to a virtual machine by using its internal FQDN.
8.4.1. Creating a headless service in a project by using the CLI
To create a headless service in a namespace, add the clusterIP: None
parameter to the service YAML definition.
Prerequisites
-
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
).
Procedure
Create a
Service
manifest to expose the VM, such as the following example:apiVersion: v1 kind: Service metadata: name: mysubdomain 1 spec: selector: expose: me 2 clusterIP: None 3 ports: 4 - protocol: TCP port: 1234 targetPort: 1234
- 1
- The name of the service. This must match the
spec.subdomain
attribute in theVirtualMachine
manifest file. - 2
- This service selector must match the
expose:me
label in theVirtualMachine
manifest file. - 3
- Specifies a headless service.
- 4
- The list of ports that are exposed by the service. You must define at least one port. This can be any arbitrary value as it does not affect the headless service.
-
Save the
Service
manifest file. Create the service by running the following command:
$ oc create -f headless_service.yaml
8.4.2. Mapping a virtual machine to a headless service by using the CLI
To connect to a virtual machine (VM) from within the cluster by using its internal fully qualified domain name (FQDN), you must first map the VM to a headless service. Set the spec.hostname
and spec.subdomain
parameters in the VM configuration file.
If a headless service exists with a name that matches the subdomain, a unique DNS A record is created for the VM in the form of <vm.spec.hostname>.<vm.spec.subdomain>.<vm.metadata.namespace>.svc.cluster.local
.
Procedure
Edit the
VirtualMachine
manifest to add the service selector label and subdomain by running the following command:$ oc edit vm <vm_name>
Example
VirtualMachine
manifest fileapiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: vm-fedora spec: template: metadata: labels: expose: me 1 spec: hostname: "myvm" 2 subdomain: "mysubdomain" 3 # ...
- 1
- The
expose:me
label must match thespec.selector
attribute of theService
manifest that you previously created. - 2
- If this attribute is not specified, the resulting DNS A record takes the form of
<vm.metadata.name>.<vm.spec.subdomain>.<vm.metadata.namespace>.svc.cluster.local
. - 3
- The
spec.subdomain
attribute must match themetadata.name
value of theService
object.
- Save your changes and exit the editor.
- Restart the VM to apply the changes.
8.4.3. Connecting to a virtual machine by using its internal FQDN
You can connect to a virtual machine (VM) by using its internal fully qualified domain name (FQDN).
Prerequisites
-
You have installed the
virtctl
tool. -
You have identified the internal FQDN of the VM from the web console or by mapping the VM to a headless service. The internal FQDN has the format
<vm.spec.hostname>.<vm.spec.subdomain>.<vm.metadata.namespace>.svc.cluster.local
.
Procedure
Connect to the VM console by entering the following command:
$ virtctl console vm-fedora
To connect to the VM by using the requested FQDN, run the following command:
$ ping myvm.mysubdomain.<namespace>.svc.cluster.local
Example output
PING myvm.mysubdomain.default.svc.cluster.local (10.244.0.57) 56(84) bytes of data. 64 bytes from myvm.mysubdomain.default.svc.cluster.local (10.244.0.57): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.029 ms
In the preceding example, the DNS entry for
myvm.mysubdomain.default.svc.cluster.local
points to10.244.0.57
, which is the cluster IP address that is currently assigned to the VM.
8.4.4. Additional resources
8.5. Connecting a virtual machine to a Linux bridge network
By default, OpenShift Virtualization is installed with a single, internal pod network.
You can create a Linux bridge network and attach a virtual machine (VM) to the network by performing the following steps:
- Create a Linux bridge node network configuration policy (NNCP).
- Create a Linux bridge network attachment definition (NAD) by using the web console or the command line.
- Configure the VM to recognize the NAD by using the web console or the command line.
8.5.1. Creating a Linux bridge NNCP
You can create a NodeNetworkConfigurationPolicy
(NNCP) manifest for a Linux bridge network.
Prerequisites
- You have installed the Kubernetes NMState Operator.
Procedure
Create the
NodeNetworkConfigurationPolicy
manifest. This example includes sample values that you must replace with your own information.apiVersion: nmstate.io/v1 kind: NodeNetworkConfigurationPolicy metadata: name: br1-eth1-policy 1 spec: desiredState: interfaces: - name: br1 2 description: Linux bridge with eth1 as a port 3 type: linux-bridge 4 state: up 5 ipv4: enabled: false 6 bridge: options: stp: enabled: false 7 port: - name: eth1 8
- 1
- Name of the policy.
- 2
- Name of the interface.
- 3
- Optional: Human-readable description of the interface.
- 4
- The type of interface. This example creates a bridge.
- 5
- The requested state for the interface after creation.
- 6
- Disables IPv4 in this example.
- 7
- Disables STP in this example.
- 8
- The node NIC to which the bridge is attached.
8.5.2. Creating a Linux bridge NAD
You can create a Linux bridge network attachment definition (NAD) by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console or command line.
8.5.2.1. Creating a Linux bridge NAD by using the web console
You can create a network attachment definition (NAD) to provide layer-2 networking to pods and virtual machines by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
A Linux bridge network attachment definition is the most efficient method for connecting a virtual machine to a VLAN.
Configuring IP address management (IPAM) in a network attachment definition for virtual machines is not supported.
Procedure
- In the web console, click Networking → NetworkAttachmentDefinitions.
Click Create Network Attachment Definition.
NoteThe network attachment definition must be in the same namespace as the pod or virtual machine.
- Enter a unique Name and optional Description.
- Select CNV Linux bridge from the Network Type list.
- Enter the name of the bridge in the Bridge Name field.
- Optional: If the resource has VLAN IDs configured, enter the ID numbers in the VLAN Tag Number field.
- Optional: Select MAC Spoof Check to enable MAC spoof filtering. This feature provides security against a MAC spoofing attack by allowing only a single MAC address to exit the pod.
- Click Create.
8.5.2.2. Creating a Linux bridge NAD by using the command line
You can create a network attachment definition (NAD) to provide layer-2 networking to pods and virtual machines (VMs) by using the command line.
The NAD and the VM must be in the same namespace.
Configuring IP address management (IPAM) in a network attachment definition for virtual machines is not supported.
Prerequisites
-
The node must support nftables and the
nft
binary must be deployed to enable MAC spoof check.
Procedure
Add the VM to the
NetworkAttachmentDefinition
configuration, as in the following example:apiVersion: "k8s.cni.cncf.io/v1" kind: NetworkAttachmentDefinition metadata: name: bridge-network 1 annotations: k8s.v1.cni.cncf.io/resourceName: bridge.network.kubevirt.io/bridge-interface 2 spec: config: | { "cniVersion": "0.3.1", "name": "bridge-network", 3 "type": "bridge", 4 "bridge": "bridge-interface", 5 "macspoofchk": false, 6 "vlan": 100, 7 "disableContainerInterface": true, "preserveDefaultVlan": false 8 }
- 1
- The name for the
NetworkAttachmentDefinition
object. - 2
- Optional: Annotation key-value pair for node selection, where
bridge-interface
must match the name of a bridge configured on some nodes. If you add this annotation to your network attachment definition, your virtual machine instances will only run on the nodes that have thebridge-interface
bridge connected. - 3
- The name for the configuration. It is recommended to match the configuration name to the
name
value of the network attachment definition. - 4
- The actual name of the Container Network Interface (CNI) plugin that provides the network for this network attachment definition. Do not change this field unless you want to use a different CNI.
- 5
- The name of the Linux bridge configured on the node.
- 6
- Optional: A flag to enable the MAC spoof check. When set to
true
, you cannot change the MAC address of the pod or guest interface. This attribute allows only a single MAC address to exit the pod, which provides security against a MAC spoofing attack. - 7
- Optional: The VLAN tag. No additional VLAN configuration is required on the node network configuration policy.
- 8
- Optional: Indicates whether the VM connects to the bridge through the default VLAN. The default value is
true
.
NoteA Linux bridge network attachment definition is the most efficient method for connecting a virtual machine to a VLAN.
Create the network attachment definition:
$ oc create -f network-attachment-definition.yaml 1
- 1
- Where
network-attachment-definition.yaml
is the file name of the network attachment definition manifest.
Verification
Verify that the network attachment definition was created by running the following command:
$ oc get network-attachment-definition bridge-network
8.5.3. Configuring a VM network interface
You can configure a virtual machine (VM) network interface by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console or command line.
8.5.3.1. Configuring a VM network interface by using the web console
You can configure a network interface for a virtual machine (VM) by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Prerequisites
- You created a network attachment definition for the network.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → VirtualMachines.
- Click a VM to view the VirtualMachine details page.
- On the Configuration tab, click the Network interfaces tab.
- Click Add network interface.
- Enter the interface name and select the network attachment definition from the Network list.
- Click Save.
- Restart the VM to apply the changes.
Networking fields
Name | Description |
---|---|
Name | Name for the network interface controller. |
Model | Indicates the model of the network interface controller. Supported values are e1000e and virtio. |
Network | List of available network attachment definitions. |
Type | List of available binding methods. Select the binding method suitable for the network interface:
|
MAC Address | MAC address for the network interface controller. If a MAC address is not specified, one is assigned automatically. |
8.5.3.2. Configuring a VM network interface by using the command line
You can configure a virtual machine (VM) network interface for a bridge network by using the command line.
Prerequisites
- Shut down the virtual machine before editing the configuration. If you edit a running virtual machine, you must restart the virtual machine for the changes to take effect.
Procedure
Add the bridge interface and the network attachment definition to the VM configuration as in the following example:
apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: example-vm spec: template: spec: domain: devices: interfaces: - bridge: {} name: bridge-net 1 # ... networks: - name: bridge-net 2 multus: networkName: a-bridge-network 3
Apply the configuration:
$ oc apply -f example-vm.yaml
- Optional: If you edited a running virtual machine, you must restart it for the changes to take effect.
8.6. Connecting a virtual machine to an SR-IOV network
You can connect a virtual machine (VM) to a Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) network by performing the following steps:
8.6.1. Configuring SR-IOV network devices
The SR-IOV Network Operator adds the SriovNetworkNodePolicy.sriovnetwork.openshift.io
CustomResourceDefinition to OpenShift Container Platform. You can configure an SR-IOV network device by creating a SriovNetworkNodePolicy custom resource (CR).
When applying the configuration specified in a SriovNetworkNodePolicy
object, the SR-IOV Operator might drain the nodes, and in some cases, reboot nodes. Reboot only happens in the following cases:
-
With Mellanox NICs (
mlx5
driver) a node reboot happens every time the number of virtual functions (VFs) increase on a physical function (PF). -
With Intel NICs, a reboot only happens if the kernel parameters do not include
intel_iommu=on
andiommu=pt
.
It might take several minutes for a configuration change to apply.
Prerequisites
-
You installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
). -
You have access to the cluster as a user with the
cluster-admin
role. - You have installed the SR-IOV Network Operator.
- You have enough available nodes in your cluster to handle the evicted workload from drained nodes.
- You have not selected any control plane nodes for SR-IOV network device configuration.
Procedure
Create an
SriovNetworkNodePolicy
object, and then save the YAML in the<name>-sriov-node-network.yaml
file. Replace<name>
with the name for this configuration.apiVersion: sriovnetwork.openshift.io/v1 kind: SriovNetworkNodePolicy metadata: name: <name> 1 namespace: openshift-sriov-network-operator 2 spec: resourceName: <sriov_resource_name> 3 nodeSelector: feature.node.kubernetes.io/network-sriov.capable: "true" 4 priority: <priority> 5 mtu: <mtu> 6 numVfs: <num> 7 nicSelector: 8 vendor: "<vendor_code>" 9 deviceID: "<device_id>" 10 pfNames: ["<pf_name>", ...] 11 rootDevices: ["<pci_bus_id>", "..."] 12 deviceType: vfio-pci 13 isRdma: false 14
- 1
- Specify a name for the CR object.
- 2
- Specify the namespace where the SR-IOV Operator is installed.
- 3
- Specify the resource name of the SR-IOV device plugin. You can create multiple
SriovNetworkNodePolicy
objects for a resource name. - 4
- Specify the node selector to select which nodes are configured. Only SR-IOV network devices on selected nodes are configured. The SR-IOV Container Network Interface (CNI) plugin and device plugin are deployed only on selected nodes.
- 5
- Optional: Specify an integer value between
0
and99
. A smaller number gets higher priority, so a priority of10
is higher than a priority of99
. The default value is99
. - 6
- Optional: Specify a value for the maximum transmission unit (MTU) of the virtual function. The maximum MTU value can vary for different NIC models.
- 7
- Specify the number of the virtual functions (VF) to create for the SR-IOV physical network device. For an Intel network interface controller (NIC), the number of VFs cannot be larger than the total VFs supported by the device. For a Mellanox NIC, the number of VFs cannot be larger than
127
. - 8
- The
nicSelector
mapping selects the Ethernet device for the Operator to configure. You do not need to specify values for all the parameters. It is recommended to identify the Ethernet adapter with enough precision to minimize the possibility of selecting an Ethernet device unintentionally. If you specifyrootDevices
, you must also specify a value forvendor
,deviceID
, orpfNames
. If you specify bothpfNames
androotDevices
at the same time, ensure that they point to an identical device. - 9
- Optional: Specify the vendor hex code of the SR-IOV network device. The only allowed values are either
8086
or15b3
. - 10
- Optional: Specify the device hex code of SR-IOV network device. The only allowed values are
158b
,1015
,1017
. - 11
- Optional: The parameter accepts an array of one or more physical function (PF) names for the Ethernet device.
- 12
- The parameter accepts an array of one or more PCI bus addresses for the physical function of the Ethernet device. Provide the address in the following format:
0000:02:00.1
. - 13
- The
vfio-pci
driver type is required for virtual functions in OpenShift Virtualization. - 14
- Optional: Specify whether to enable remote direct memory access (RDMA) mode. For a Mellanox card, set
isRdma
tofalse
. The default value isfalse
.
NoteIf
isRDMA
flag is set totrue
, you can continue to use the RDMA enabled VF as a normal network device. A device can be used in either mode.-
Optional: Label the SR-IOV capable cluster nodes with
SriovNetworkNodePolicy.Spec.NodeSelector
if they are not already labeled. For more information about labeling nodes, see "Understanding how to update labels on nodes". Create the
SriovNetworkNodePolicy
object:$ oc create -f <name>-sriov-node-network.yaml
where
<name>
specifies the name for this configuration.After applying the configuration update, all the pods in
sriov-network-operator
namespace transition to theRunning
status.To verify that the SR-IOV network device is configured, enter the following command. Replace
<node_name>
with the name of a node with the SR-IOV network device that you just configured.$ oc get sriovnetworknodestates -n openshift-sriov-network-operator <node_name> -o jsonpath='{.status.syncStatus}'
8.6.2. Configuring SR-IOV additional network
You can configure an additional network that uses SR-IOV hardware by creating an SriovNetwork
object.
When you create an SriovNetwork
object, the SR-IOV Network Operator automatically creates a NetworkAttachmentDefinition
object.
Do not modify or delete an SriovNetwork
object if it is attached to pods or virtual machines in a running
state.
Prerequisites
-
Install the OpenShift CLI (
oc
). -
Log in as a user with
cluster-admin
privileges.
Procedure
-
Create the following
SriovNetwork
object, and then save the YAML in the<name>-sriov-network.yaml
file. Replace<name>
with a name for this additional network.
apiVersion: sriovnetwork.openshift.io/v1 kind: SriovNetwork metadata: name: <name> 1 namespace: openshift-sriov-network-operator 2 spec: resourceName: <sriov_resource_name> 3 networkNamespace: <target_namespace> 4 vlan: <vlan> 5 spoofChk: "<spoof_check>" 6 linkState: <link_state> 7 maxTxRate: <max_tx_rate> 8 minTxRate: <min_rx_rate> 9 vlanQoS: <vlan_qos> 10 trust: "<trust_vf>" 11 capabilities: <capabilities> 12
- 1
- Replace
<name>
with a name for the object. The SR-IOV Network Operator creates aNetworkAttachmentDefinition
object with same name. - 2
- Specify the namespace where the SR-IOV Network Operator is installed.
- 3
- Replace
<sriov_resource_name>
with the value for the.spec.resourceName
parameter from theSriovNetworkNodePolicy
object that defines the SR-IOV hardware for this additional network. - 4
- Replace
<target_namespace>
with the target namespace for the SriovNetwork. Only pods or virtual machines in the target namespace can attach to the SriovNetwork. - 5
- Optional: Replace
<vlan>
with a Virtual LAN (VLAN) ID for the additional network. The integer value must be from0
to4095
. The default value is0
. - 6
- Optional: Replace
<spoof_check>
with the spoof check mode of the VF. The allowed values are the strings"on"
and"off"
.ImportantYou must enclose the value you specify in quotes or the CR is rejected by the SR-IOV Network Operator.
- 7
- Optional: Replace
<link_state>
with the link state of virtual function (VF). Allowed value areenable
,disable
andauto
. - 8
- Optional: Replace
<max_tx_rate>
with a maximum transmission rate, in Mbps, for the VF. - 9
- Optional: Replace
<min_tx_rate>
with a minimum transmission rate, in Mbps, for the VF. This value should always be less than or equal to Maximum transmission rate.NoteIntel NICs do not support the
minTxRate
parameter. For more information, see BZ#1772847. - 10
- Optional: Replace
<vlan_qos>
with an IEEE 802.1p priority level for the VF. The default value is0
. - 11
- Optional: Replace
<trust_vf>
with the trust mode of the VF. The allowed values are the strings"on"
and"off"
.ImportantYou must enclose the value you specify in quotes or the CR is rejected by the SR-IOV Network Operator.
- 12
- Optional: Replace
<capabilities>
with the capabilities to configure for this network.
To create the object, enter the following command. Replace
<name>
with a name for this additional network.$ oc create -f <name>-sriov-network.yaml
Optional: To confirm that the
NetworkAttachmentDefinition
object associated with theSriovNetwork
object that you created in the previous step exists, enter the following command. Replace<namespace>
with the namespace you specified in theSriovNetwork
object.$ oc get net-attach-def -n <namespace>
8.6.3. Connecting a virtual machine to an SR-IOV network by using the command line
You can connect the virtual machine (VM) to the SR-IOV network by including the network details in the VM configuration.
Procedure
Add the SR-IOV network details to the
spec.domain.devices.interfaces
andspec.networks
stanzas of the VM configuration as in the following example:apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: example-vm spec: domain: devices: interfaces: - name: nic1 1 sriov: {} networks: - name: nic1 2 multus: networkName: sriov-network 3 # ...
Apply the virtual machine configuration:
$ oc apply -f <vm_sriov>.yaml 1
- 1
- The name of the virtual machine YAML file.
8.6.4. Connecting a VM to an SR-IOV network by using the web console
You can connect a VM to the SR-IOV network by including the network details in the VM configuration.
Prerequisites
- You must create a network attachment definition for the network.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → VirtualMachines.
- Click a VM to view the VirtualMachine details page.
- On the Configuration tab, click the Network interfaces tab.
- Click Add network interface.
- Enter the interface name.
- Select an SR-IOV network attachment definition from the Network list.
-
Select
SR-IOV
from the Type list. - Optional: Add a network Model or Mac address.
- Click Save.
- Restart or live-migrate the VM to apply the changes.
8.6.5. Additional resources
8.7. Using DPDK with SR-IOV
The Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) provides a set of libraries and drivers for fast packet processing.
You can configure clusters and virtual machines (VMs) to run DPDK workloads over SR-IOV networks.
8.7.1. Configuring a cluster for DPDK workloads
You can configure an OpenShift Container Platform cluster to run Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) workloads for improved network performance.
Prerequisites
-
You have access to the cluster as a user with
cluster-admin
permissions. -
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
). - You have installed the SR-IOV Network Operator.
- You have installed the Node Tuning Operator.
Procedure
- Map your compute nodes topology to determine which Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) CPUs are isolated for DPDK applications and which ones are reserved for the operating system (OS).
If your OpenShift Container Platform cluster uses separate control plane and compute nodes for high-availability:
Label a subset of the compute nodes with a custom role; for example,
worker-dpdk
:$ oc label node <node_name> node-role.kubernetes.io/worker-dpdk=""
Create a new
MachineConfigPool
manifest that contains theworker-dpdk
label in thespec.machineConfigSelector
object:Example
MachineConfigPool
manifestapiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1 kind: MachineConfigPool metadata: name: worker-dpdk labels: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker-dpdk spec: machineConfigSelector: matchExpressions: - key: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role operator: In values: - worker - worker-dpdk nodeSelector: matchLabels: node-role.kubernetes.io/worker-dpdk: ""
Create a
PerformanceProfile
manifest that applies to the labeled nodes and the machine config pool that you created in the previous steps. The performance profile specifies the CPUs that are isolated for DPDK applications and the CPUs that are reserved for house keeping.Example
PerformanceProfile
manifestapiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2 kind: PerformanceProfile metadata: name: profile-1 spec: cpu: isolated: 4-39,44-79 reserved: 0-3,40-43 globallyDisableIrqLoadBalancing: true hugepages: defaultHugepagesSize: 1G pages: - count: 8 node: 0 size: 1G net: userLevelNetworking: true nodeSelector: node-role.kubernetes.io/worker-dpdk: "" numa: topologyPolicy: single-numa-node
NoteThe compute nodes automatically restart after you apply the
MachineConfigPool
andPerformanceProfile
manifests.Retrieve the name of the generated
RuntimeClass
resource from thestatus.runtimeClass
field of thePerformanceProfile
object:$ oc get performanceprofiles.performance.openshift.io profile-1 -o=jsonpath='{.status.runtimeClass}{"\n"}'
Set the previously obtained
RuntimeClass
name as the default container runtime class for thevirt-launcher
pods by editing theHyperConverged
custom resource (CR):$ oc patch hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv \ --type='json' -p='[{"op": "add", "path": "/spec/defaultRuntimeClass", "value":"<runtimeclass-name>"}]'
NoteEditing the
HyperConverged
CR changes a global setting that affects all VMs that are created after the change is applied.If your DPDK-enabled compute nodes use Simultaneous multithreading (SMT), enable the
AlignCPUs
enabler by editing theHyperConverged
CR:$ oc patch hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv \ --type='json' -p='[{"op": "replace", "path": "/spec/featureGates/alignCPUs", "value": true}]'
NoteEnabling
AlignCPUs
allows OpenShift Virtualization to request up to two additional dedicated CPUs to bring the total CPU count to an even parity when using emulator thread isolation.Create an
SriovNetworkNodePolicy
object with thespec.deviceType
field set tovfio-pci
:Example
SriovNetworkNodePolicy
manifestapiVersion: sriovnetwork.openshift.io/v1 kind: SriovNetworkNodePolicy metadata: name: policy-1 namespace: openshift-sriov-network-operator spec: resourceName: intel_nics_dpdk deviceType: vfio-pci mtu: 9000 numVfs: 4 priority: 99 nicSelector: vendor: "8086" deviceID: "1572" pfNames: - eno3 rootDevices: - "0000:19:00.2" nodeSelector: feature.node.kubernetes.io/network-sriov.capable: "true"
Additional resources
8.7.1.1. Removing a custom machine config pool for high-availability clusters
You can delete a custom machine config pool that you previously created for your high-availability cluster.
Prerequisites
-
You have access to the cluster as a user with
cluster-admin
permissions. -
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
). -
You have created a custom machine config pool by labeling a subset of the compute nodes with a custom role and creating a
MachineConfigPool
manifest with that label.
Procedure
Remove the
worker-dpdk
label from the compute nodes by running the following command:$ oc label node <node_name> node-role.kubernetes.io/worker-dpdk-
Delete the
MachineConfigPool
manifest that contains theworker-dpdk
label by entering the following command:$ oc delete mcp worker-dpdk
8.7.2. Configuring a project for DPDK workloads
You can configure the project to run DPDK workloads on SR-IOV hardware.
Prerequisites
- Your cluster is configured to run DPDK workloads.
Procedure
Create a namespace for your DPDK applications:
$ oc create ns dpdk-checkup-ns
Create an
SriovNetwork
object that references theSriovNetworkNodePolicy
object. When you create anSriovNetwork
object, the SR-IOV Network Operator automatically creates aNetworkAttachmentDefinition
object.Example
SriovNetwork
manifestapiVersion: sriovnetwork.openshift.io/v1 kind: SriovNetwork metadata: name: dpdk-sriovnetwork namespace: openshift-sriov-network-operator spec: ipam: | { "type": "host-local", "subnet": "10.56.217.0/24", "rangeStart": "10.56.217.171", "rangeEnd": "10.56.217.181", "routes": [{ "dst": "0.0.0.0/0" }], "gateway": "10.56.217.1" } networkNamespace: dpdk-checkup-ns 1 resourceName: intel_nics_dpdk 2 spoofChk: "off" trust: "on" vlan: 1019
- Optional: Run the virtual machine latency checkup to verify that the network is properly configured.
- Optional: Run the DPDK checkup to verify that the namespace is ready for DPDK workloads.
Additional resources
8.7.3. Configuring a virtual machine for DPDK workloads
You can run Data Packet Development Kit (DPDK) workloads on virtual machines (VMs) to achieve lower latency and higher throughput for faster packet processing in the user space. DPDK uses the SR-IOV network for hardware-based I/O sharing.
Prerequisites
- Your cluster is configured to run DPDK workloads.
- You have created and configured the project in which the VM will run.
Procedure
Edit the
VirtualMachine
manifest to include information about the SR-IOV network interface, CPU topology, CRI-O annotations, and huge pages:Example
VirtualMachine
manifestapiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: rhel-dpdk-vm spec: running: true template: metadata: annotations: cpu-load-balancing.crio.io: disable 1 cpu-quota.crio.io: disable 2 irq-load-balancing.crio.io: disable 3 spec: domain: cpu: sockets: 1 4 cores: 5 5 threads: 2 dedicatedCpuPlacement: true isolateEmulatorThread: true interfaces: - masquerade: {} name: default - model: virtio name: nic-east pciAddress: '0000:07:00.0' sriov: {} networkInterfaceMultiqueue: true rng: {} memory: hugepages: pageSize: 1Gi 6 guest: 8Gi networks: - name: default pod: {} - multus: networkName: dpdk-net 7 name: nic-east # ...
- 1
- This annotation specifies that load balancing is disabled for CPUs that are used by the container.
- 2
- This annotation specifies that the CPU quota is disabled for CPUs that are used by the container.
- 3
- This annotation specifies that Interrupt Request (IRQ) load balancing is disabled for CPUs that are used by the container.
- 4
- The number of sockets inside the VM. This field must be set to
1
for the CPUs to be scheduled from the same Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) node. - 5
- The number of cores inside the VM. This must be a value greater than or equal to
1
. In this example, the VM is scheduled with 5 hyper-threads or 10 CPUs. - 6
- The size of the huge pages. The possible values for x86-64 architecture are 1Gi and 2Mi. In this example, the request is for 8 huge pages of size 1Gi.
- 7
- The name of the SR-IOV
NetworkAttachmentDefinition
object.
- Save and exit the editor.
Apply the
VirtualMachine
manifest:$ oc apply -f <file_name>.yaml
Configure the guest operating system. The following example shows the configuration steps for RHEL 9 operating system:
Configure huge pages by using the GRUB bootloader command-line interface. In the following example, 8 1G huge pages are specified.
$ grubby --update-kernel=ALL --args="default_hugepagesz=1GB hugepagesz=1G hugepages=8"
To achieve low-latency tuning by using the
cpu-partitioning
profile in the TuneD application, run the following commands:$ dnf install -y tuned-profiles-cpu-partitioning
$ echo isolated_cores=2-9 > /etc/tuned/cpu-partitioning-variables.conf
The first two CPUs (0 and 1) are set aside for house keeping tasks and the rest are isolated for the DPDK application.
$ tuned-adm profile cpu-partitioning
Override the SR-IOV NIC driver by using the
driverctl
device driver control utility:$ dnf install -y driverctl
$ driverctl set-override 0000:07:00.0 vfio-pci
- Restart the VM to apply the changes.
8.8. Connecting a virtual machine to an OVN-Kubernetes secondary network
You can connect a virtual machine (VM) to an OVN-Kubernetes secondary network. OpenShift Virtualization supports the layer2
and localnet
topologies for OVN-Kubernetes.
-
A
layer2
topology connects workloads by a cluster-wide logical switch. The OVN-Kubernetes Container Network Interface (CNI) plugin uses the Geneve (Generic Network Virtualization Encapsulation) protocol to create an overlay network between nodes. You can use this overlay network to connect VMs on different nodes, without having to configure any additional physical networking infrastructure. -
A
localnet
topology connects the secondary network to the physical underlay. This enables both east-west cluster traffic and access to services running outside the cluster, but it requires additional configuration of the underlying Open vSwitch (OVS) system on cluster nodes.
An OVN-Kubernetes secondary network is compatible with the multi-network policy API which provides the MultiNetworkPolicy
custom resource definition (CRD) to control traffic flow to and from VMs. You can use the ipBlock
attribute to define network policy ingress and egress rules for specific CIDR blocks.
To configure an OVN-Kubernetes secondary network and attach a VM to that network, perform the following steps:
Configure an OVN-Kubernetes secondary network by creating a network attachment definition (NAD).
NoteFor
localnet
topology, you must configure an OVS bridge by creating aNodeNetworkConfigurationPolicy
object before creating the NAD.- Connect the VM to the OVN-Kubernetes secondary network by adding the network details to the VM specification.
8.8.1. Creating an OVN-Kubernetes NAD
You can create an OVN-Kubernetes network attachment definition (NAD) by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console or the CLI.
Configuring IP address management (IPAM) in a network attachment definition for virtual machines is not supported.
8.8.1.1. Creating a NAD for layer 2 topology using the CLI
You can create a network attachment definition (NAD) which describes how to attach a pod to the layer 2 overlay network.
Prerequisites
-
You have access to the cluster as a user with
cluster-admin
privileges. -
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
).
Procedure
Create a
NetworkAttachmentDefinition
object:apiVersion: k8s.cni.cncf.io/v1 kind: NetworkAttachmentDefinition metadata: name: l2-network namespace: my-namespace spec: config: |- { "cniVersion": "0.3.1", 1 "name": "my-namespace-l2-network", 2 "type": "ovn-k8s-cni-overlay", 3 "topology":"layer2", 4 "mtu": 1300, 5 "netAttachDefName": "my-namespace/l2-network" 6 }
- 1
- The CNI specification version. The required value is
0.3.1
. - 2
- The name of the network. This attribute is not namespaced. For example, you can have a network named
l2-network
referenced from two differentNetworkAttachmentDefinition
objects that exist in two different namespaces. This feature is useful to connect VMs in different namespaces. - 3
- The name of the CNI plug-in to be configured. The required value is
ovn-k8s-cni-overlay
. - 4
- The topological configuration for the network. The required value is
layer2
. - 5
- Optional: The maximum transmission unit (MTU) value. The default value is automatically set by the kernel.
- 6
- The value of the
namespace
andname
fields in themetadata
stanza of theNetworkAttachmentDefinition
object.
NoteThe above example configures a cluster-wide overlay without a subnet defined. This means that the logical switch implementing the network only provides layer 2 communication. You must configure an IP address when you create the virtual machine by either setting a static IP address or by deploying a DHCP server on the network for a dynamic IP address.
Apply the manifest:
$ oc apply -f <filename>.yaml
8.8.1.2. Creating a NAD for localnet topology using the CLI
You can create a network attachment definition (NAD) which describes how to attach a pod to the underlying physical network.
Prerequisites
-
You have access to the cluster as a user with
cluster-admin
privileges. -
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
). - You have installed the Kubernetes NMState Operator.
Procedure
Create a
NodeNetworkConfigurationPolicy
object to map the OVN-Kubernetes secondary network to an Open vSwitch (OVS) bridge:apiVersion: nmstate.io/v1 kind: NodeNetworkConfigurationPolicy metadata: name: mapping 1 spec: nodeSelector: node-role.kubernetes.io/worker: '' 2 desiredState: ovn: bridge-mappings: - localnet: localnet-network 3 bridge: br-ex 4 state: present 5
- 1
- The name of the configuration object.
- 2
- Specifies the nodes to which the node network configuration policy is to be applied. The recommended node selector value is
node-role.kubernetes.io/worker: ''
. - 3
- The name of the additional network from which traffic is forwarded to the OVS bridge. This attribute must match the value of the
spec.config.name
field of theNetworkAttachmentDefinition
object that defines the OVN-Kubernetes additional network. - 4
- The name of the OVS bridge on the node. This value is required if the
state
attribute ispresent
. - 5
- The state of the mapping. Must be either
present
to add the mapping orabsent
to remove the mapping. The default value ispresent
.
Create a
NetworkAttachmentDefinition
object:apiVersion: k8s.cni.cncf.io/v1 kind: NetworkAttachmentDefinition metadata: name: localnet-network namespace: default spec: config: |- { "cniVersion": "0.3.1", 1 "name": "localnet-network", 2 "type": "ovn-k8s-cni-overlay", 3 "topology": "localnet", 4 "netAttachDefName": "default/localnet-network" 5 }
- 1
- The CNI specification version. The required value is
0.3.1
. - 2
- The name of the network. This attribute must match the value of the
spec.desiredState.ovn.bridge-mappings.localnet
field of theNodeNetworkConfigurationPolicy
object that defines the OVS bridge mapping. - 3
- The name of the CNI plug-in to be configured. The required value is
ovn-k8s-cni-overlay
. - 4
- The topological configuration for the network. The required value is
localnet
. - 5
- The value of the
namespace
andname
fields in themetadata
stanza of theNetworkAttachmentDefinition
object.
Apply the manifest:
$ oc apply -f <filename>.yaml
8.8.1.3. Creating a NAD for layer 2 topology by using the web console
You can create a network attachment definition (NAD) that describes how to attach a pod to the layer 2 overlay network.
Prerequisites
-
You have access to the cluster as a user with
cluster-admin
privileges.
Procedure
- Go to Networking → NetworkAttachmentDefinitions in the web console.
- Click Create Network Attachment Definition. The network attachment definition must be in the same namespace as the pod or virtual machine using it.
- Enter a unique Name and optional Description.
- Select OVN Kubernetes L2 overlay network from the Network Type list.
- Click Create.
8.8.1.4. Creating a NAD for localnet topology using the web console
You can create a network attachment definition (NAD) to connect workloads to a physical network by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Prerequisites
-
You have access to the cluster as a user with
cluster-admin
privileges. -
Use
nmstate
to configure the localnet to OVS bridge mappings.
Procedure
- Navigate to Networking → NetworkAttachmentDefinitions in the web console.
- Click Create Network Attachment Definition. The network attachment definition must be in the same namespace as the pod or virtual machine using it.
- Enter a unique Name and optional Description.
- Select OVN Kubernetes secondary localnet network from the Network Type list.
- Enter the name of your pre-configured localnet identifier in the Bridge mapping field.
- Optional: You can explicitly set MTU to the specified value. The default value is chosen by the kernel.
- Optional: Encapsulate the traffic in a VLAN. The default value is none.
- Click Create.
8.8.2. Attaching a virtual machine to the OVN-Kubernetes secondary network
You can attach a virtual machine (VM) to the OVN-Kubernetes secondary network interface by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console or the CLI.
8.8.2.1. Attaching a virtual machine to an OVN-Kubernetes secondary network using the CLI
You can connect a virtual machine (VM) to the OVN-Kubernetes secondary network by including the network details in the VM configuration.
Prerequisites
-
You have access to the cluster as a user with
cluster-admin
privileges. -
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
).
Procedure
Edit the
VirtualMachine
manifest to add the OVN-Kubernetes secondary network interface details, as in the following example:apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: vm-server spec: running: true template: spec: domain: devices: interfaces: - name: secondary 1 bridge: {} resources: requests: memory: 1024Mi networks: - name: secondary 2 multus: networkName: <nad_name> 3 nodeSelector: node-role.kubernetes.io/worker: '' 4 # ...
- 1
- The name of the OVN-Kubernetes secondary interface.
- 2
- The name of the network. This must match the value of the
spec.template.spec.domain.devices.interfaces.name
field. - 3
- The name of the
NetworkAttachmentDefinition
object. - 4
- Specifies the nodes on which the VM can be scheduled. The recommended node selector value is
node-role.kubernetes.io/worker: ''
.
Apply the
VirtualMachine
manifest:$ oc apply -f <filename>.yaml
- Optional: If you edited a running virtual machine, you must restart it for the changes to take effect.
8.8.3. Additional resources
8.9. Hot plugging secondary network interfaces
You can add or remove secondary network interfaces without stopping your virtual machine (VM). OpenShift Virtualization supports hot plugging and hot unplugging for secondary interfaces that use bridge binding and the VirtIO device driver. OpenShift Virtualization also supports hot plugging secondary interfaces that use SR-IOV binding.
Hot unplugging is not supported for Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) interfaces.
8.9.1. VirtIO limitations
Each VirtIO interface uses one of the limited Peripheral Connect Interface (PCI) slots in the VM. There are a total of 32 slots available. The PCI slots are also used by other devices and must be reserved in advance, therefore slots might not be available on demand. OpenShift Virtualization reserves up to four slots for hot plugging interfaces. This includes any existing plugged network interfaces. For example, if your VM has two existing plugged interfaces, you can hot plug two more network interfaces.
The actual number of slots available for hot plugging also depends on the machine type. For example, the default PCI topology for the q35 machine type supports hot plugging one additional PCIe device. For more information on PCI topology and hot plug support, see the libvirt documentation.
If you restart the VM after hot plugging an interface, that interface becomes part of the standard network interfaces.
8.9.2. Hot plugging a secondary network interface by using the CLI
Hot plug a secondary network interface to a virtual machine (VM) while the VM is running.
Prerequisites
- A network attachment definition is configured in the same namespace as your VM.
-
You have installed the
virtctl
tool. -
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
).
Procedure
If the VM to which you want to hot plug the network interface is not running, start it by using the following command:
$ virtctl start <vm_name> -n <namespace>
Use the following command to add the new network interface to the running VM. Editing the VM specification adds the new network interface to the VM and virtual machine instance (VMI) configuration but does not attach it to the running VM.
$ oc edit vm <vm_name>
Example VM configuration
apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: vm-fedora template: spec: domain: devices: interfaces: - name: defaultnetwork masquerade: {} # new interface - name: <secondary_nic> 1 bridge: {} networks: - name: defaultnetwork pod: {} # new network - name: <secondary_nic> 2 multus: networkName: <nad_name> 3 # ...
To attach the network interface to the running VM, live migrate the VM by running the following command:
$ virtctl migrate <vm_name>
Verification
Verify that the VM live migration is successful by using the following command:
$ oc get VirtualMachineInstanceMigration -w
Example output
NAME PHASE VMI kubevirt-migrate-vm-lj62q Scheduling vm-fedora kubevirt-migrate-vm-lj62q Scheduled vm-fedora kubevirt-migrate-vm-lj62q PreparingTarget vm-fedora kubevirt-migrate-vm-lj62q TargetReady vm-fedora kubevirt-migrate-vm-lj62q Running vm-fedora kubevirt-migrate-vm-lj62q Succeeded vm-fedora
Verify that the new interface is added to the VM by checking the VMI status:
$ oc get vmi vm-fedora -ojsonpath="{ @.status.interfaces }"
Example output
[ { "infoSource": "domain, guest-agent", "interfaceName": "eth0", "ipAddress": "10.130.0.195", "ipAddresses": [ "10.130.0.195", "fd02:0:0:3::43c" ], "mac": "52:54:00:0e:ab:25", "name": "default", "queueCount": 1 }, { "infoSource": "domain, guest-agent, multus-status", "interfaceName": "eth1", "mac": "02:d8:b8:00:00:2a", "name": "bridge-interface", 1 "queueCount": 1 } ]
- 1
- The hot plugged interface appears in the VMI status.
8.9.3. Hot unplugging a secondary network interface by using the CLI
You can remove a secondary network interface from a running virtual machine (VM).
Hot unplugging is not supported for Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) interfaces.
Prerequisites
- Your VM must be running.
- The VM must be created on a cluster running OpenShift Virtualization 4.14 or later.
- The VM must have a bridge network interface attached.
Procedure
Edit the VM specification to hot unplug a secondary network interface. Setting the interface state to
absent
detaches the network interface from the guest, but the interface still exists in the pod.$ oc edit vm <vm_name>
Example VM configuration
apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: vm-fedora template: spec: domain: devices: interfaces: - name: defaultnetwork masquerade: {} # set the interface state to absent - name: <secondary_nic> state: absent 1 bridge: {} networks: - name: defaultnetwork pod: {} - name: <secondary_nic> multus: networkName: <nad_name> # ...
- 1
- Set the interface state to
absent
to detach it from the running VM. Removing the interface details from the VM specification does not hot unplug the secondary network interface.
Remove the interface from the pod by migrating the VM:
$ virtctl migrate <vm_name>
8.9.4. Additional resources
8.10. Connecting a virtual machine to a service mesh
OpenShift Virtualization is now integrated with OpenShift Service Mesh. You can monitor, visualize, and control traffic between pods that run virtual machine workloads on the default pod network with IPv4.
8.10.1. Adding a virtual machine to a service mesh
To add a virtual machine (VM) workload to a service mesh, enable automatic sidecar injection in the VM configuration file by setting the sidecar.istio.io/inject
annotation to true
. Then expose your VM as a service to view your application in the mesh.
To avoid port conflicts, do not use ports used by the Istio sidecar proxy. These include ports 15000, 15001, 15006, 15008, 15020, 15021, and 15090.
Prerequisites
- You installed the Service Mesh Operators.
- You created the Service Mesh control plane.
- You added the VM project to the Service Mesh member roll.
Procedure
Edit the VM configuration file to add the
sidecar.istio.io/inject: "true"
annotation:Example configuration file
apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: labels: kubevirt.io/vm: vm-istio name: vm-istio spec: runStrategy: Always template: metadata: labels: kubevirt.io/vm: vm-istio app: vm-istio 1 annotations: sidecar.istio.io/inject: "true" 2 spec: domain: devices: interfaces: - name: default masquerade: {} 3 disks: - disk: bus: virtio name: containerdisk - disk: bus: virtio name: cloudinitdisk resources: requests: memory: 1024M networks: - name: default pod: {} terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 180 volumes: - containerDisk: image: registry:5000/kubevirt/fedora-cloud-container-disk-demo:devel name: containerdisk
Apply the VM configuration:
$ oc apply -f <vm_name>.yaml 1
- 1
- The name of the virtual machine YAML file.
Create a
Service
object to expose your VM to the service mesh.apiVersion: v1 kind: Service metadata: name: vm-istio spec: selector: app: vm-istio 1 ports: - port: 8080 name: http protocol: TCP
- 1
- The service selector that determines the set of pods targeted by a service. This attribute corresponds to the
spec.metadata.labels
field in the VM configuration file. In the above example, theService
object namedvm-istio
targets TCP port 8080 on any pod with the labelapp=vm-istio
.
Create the service:
$ oc create -f <service_name>.yaml 1
- 1
- The name of the service YAML file.
8.10.2. Additional resources
8.11. Configuring a dedicated network for live migration
You can configure a dedicated Multus network for live migration. A dedicated network minimizes the effects of network saturation on tenant workloads during live migration.
8.11.1. Configuring a dedicated secondary network for live migration
To configure a dedicated secondary network for live migration, you must first create a bridge network attachment definition (NAD) by using the CLI. Then, you add the name of the NetworkAttachmentDefinition
object to the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR).
Prerequisites
-
You installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
). -
You logged in to the cluster as a user with the
cluster-admin
role. - Each node has at least two Network Interface Cards (NICs).
- The NICs for live migration are connected to the same VLAN.
Procedure
Create a
NetworkAttachmentDefinition
manifest according to the following example:Example configuration file
apiVersion: "k8s.cni.cncf.io/v1" kind: NetworkAttachmentDefinition metadata: name: my-secondary-network 1 namespace: openshift-cnv spec: config: '{ "cniVersion": "0.3.1", "name": "migration-bridge", "type": "macvlan", "master": "eth1", 2 "mode": "bridge", "ipam": { "type": "whereabouts", 3 "range": "10.200.5.0/24" 4 } }'
- 1
- Specify the name of the
NetworkAttachmentDefinition
object. - 2
- Specify the name of the NIC to be used for live migration.
- 3
- Specify the name of the CNI plugin that provides the network for the NAD.
- 4
- Specify an IP address range for the secondary network. This range must not overlap the IP addresses of the main network.
Open the
HyperConverged
CR in your default editor by running the following command:oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Add the name of the
NetworkAttachmentDefinition
object to thespec.liveMigrationConfig
stanza of theHyperConverged
CR:Example
HyperConverged
manifestapiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged spec: liveMigrationConfig: completionTimeoutPerGiB: 800 network: <network> 1 parallelMigrationsPerCluster: 5 parallelOutboundMigrationsPerNode: 2 progressTimeout: 150 # ...
- 1
- Specify the name of the Multus
NetworkAttachmentDefinition
object to be used for live migrations.
-
Save your changes and exit the editor. The
virt-handler
pods restart and connect to the secondary network.
Verification
When the node that the virtual machine runs on is placed into maintenance mode, the VM automatically migrates to another node in the cluster. You can verify that the migration occurred over the secondary network and not the default pod network by checking the target IP address in the virtual machine instance (VMI) metadata.
$ oc get vmi <vmi_name> -o jsonpath='{.status.migrationState.targetNodeAddress}'
8.11.2. Selecting a dedicated network by using the web console
You can select a dedicated network for live migration by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Prerequisites
- You configured a Multus network for live migration.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization > Overview in the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
- Click the Settings tab and then click Live migration.
- Select the network from the Live migration network list.
8.11.3. Additional resources
8.12. Configuring and viewing IP addresses
You can configure an IP address when you create a virtual machine (VM). The IP address is provisioned with cloud-init.
You can view the IP address of a VM by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console or the command line. The network information is collected by the QEMU guest agent.
8.12.1. Configuring IP addresses for virtual machines
You can configure a static IP address when you create a virtual machine (VM) by using the web console or the command line.
You can configure a dynamic IP address when you create a VM by using the command line.
The IP address is provisioned with cloud-init.
8.12.1.1. Configuring an IP address when creating a virtual machine by using the command line
You can configure a static or dynamic IP address when you create a virtual machine (VM). The IP address is provisioned with cloud-init.
If the VM is connected to the pod network, the pod network interface is the default route unless you update it.
Prerequisites
- The virtual machine is connected to a secondary network.
- You have a DHCP server available on the secondary network to configure a dynamic IP for the virtual machine.
Procedure
Edit the
spec.template.spec.volumes.cloudInitNoCloud.networkData
stanza of the virtual machine configuration:To configure a dynamic IP address, specify the interface name and enable DHCP:
kind: VirtualMachine spec: # ... template: # ... spec: volumes: - cloudInitNoCloud: networkData: | version: 2 ethernets: eth1: 1 dhcp4: true
- 1
- Specify the interface name.
To configure a static IP, specify the interface name and the IP address:
kind: VirtualMachine spec: # ... template: # ... spec: volumes: - cloudInitNoCloud: networkData: | version: 2 ethernets: eth1: 1 addresses: - 10.10.10.14/24 2
8.12.2. Viewing IP addresses of virtual machines
You can view the IP address of a VM by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console or the command line.
The network information is collected by the QEMU guest agent.
8.12.2.1. Viewing the IP address of a virtual machine by using the web console
You can view the IP address of a virtual machine (VM) by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
You must install the QEMU guest agent on a VM to view the IP address of a secondary network interface. A pod network interface does not require the QEMU guest agent.
Procedure
- In the OpenShift Container Platform console, click Virtualization → VirtualMachines from the side menu.
- Select a VM to open the VirtualMachine details page.
- Click the Details tab to view the IP address.
8.12.2.2. Viewing the IP address of a virtual machine by using the command line
You can view the IP address of a virtual machine (VM) by using the command line.
You must install the QEMU guest agent on a VM to view the IP address of a secondary network interface. A pod network interface does not require the QEMU guest agent.
Procedure
Obtain the virtual machine instance configuration by running the following command:
$ oc describe vmi <vmi_name>
Example output
# ... Interfaces: Interface Name: eth0 Ip Address: 10.244.0.37/24 Ip Addresses: 10.244.0.37/24 fe80::858:aff:fef4:25/64 Mac: 0a:58:0a:f4:00:25 Name: default Interface Name: v2 Ip Address: 1.1.1.7/24 Ip Addresses: 1.1.1.7/24 fe80::f4d9:70ff:fe13:9089/64 Mac: f6:d9:70:13:90:89 Interface Name: v1 Ip Address: 1.1.1.1/24 Ip Addresses: 1.1.1.1/24 1.1.1.2/24 1.1.1.4/24 2001:de7:0:f101::1/64 2001:db8:0:f101::1/64 fe80::1420:84ff:fe10:17aa/64 Mac: 16:20:84:10:17:aa
8.12.3. Additional resources
8.13. Accessing a virtual machine by using its external FQDN
You can access a virtual machine (VM) that is attached to a secondary network interface from outside the cluster by using its fully qualified domain name (FQDN).
Accessing a VM from outside the cluster by using its FQDN is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.
For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.
8.13.1. Configuring a DNS server for secondary networks
The Cluster Network Addons Operator (CNAO) deploys a Domain Name Server (DNS) server and monitoring components when you enable the deployKubeSecondaryDNS
feature gate in the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR).
Prerequisites
-
You installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
). - You configured a load balancer for the cluster.
-
You logged in to the cluster with
cluster-admin
permissions.
Procedure
Edit the
HyperConverged
CR in your default editor by running the following command:$ oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Enable the DNS server and monitoring components according to the following example:
apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged namespace: openshift-cnv spec: featureGates: deployKubeSecondaryDNS: true 1 # ...
- 1
- Enables the DNS server
- Save the file and exit the editor.
Create a load balancer service to expose the DNS server outside the cluster by running the
oc expose
command according to the following example:$ oc expose -n openshift-cnv deployment/secondary-dns --name=dns-lb \ --type=LoadBalancer --port=53 --target-port=5353 --protocol='UDP'
Retrieve the external IP address by running the following command:
$ oc get service -n openshift-cnv
Example output
NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP EXTERNAL-IP PORT(S) AGE dns-lb LoadBalancer 172.30.27.5 10.46.41.94 53:31829/TCP 5s
Edit the
HyperConverged
CR again:$ oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Add the external IP address that you previously retrieved to the
kubeSecondaryDNSNameServerIP
field in the enterprise DNS server records. For example:apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged namespace: openshift-cnv spec: featureGates: deployKubeSecondaryDNS: true kubeSecondaryDNSNameServerIP: "10.46.41.94" 1 # ...
- 1
- Specify the external IP address exposed by the load balancer service.
- Save the file and exit the editor.
Retrieve the cluster FQDN by running the following command:
$ oc get dnses.config.openshift.io cluster -o jsonpath='{.spec.baseDomain}'
Example output
openshift.example.com
Point to the DNS server. To do so, add the
kubeSecondaryDNSNameServerIP
value and the cluster FQDN to the enterprise DNS server records. For example:vm.<FQDN>. IN NS ns.vm.<FQDN>.
ns.vm.<FQDN>. IN A <kubeSecondaryDNSNameServerIP>
8.13.2. Connecting to a VM on a secondary network by using the cluster FQDN
You can access a running virtual machine (VM) attached to a secondary network interface by using the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the cluster.
Prerequisites
- You installed the QEMU guest agent on the VM.
- The IP address of the VM is public.
- You configured the DNS server for secondary networks.
You retrieved the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the cluster.
To obtain the FQDN, use the
oc get
command as follows:$ oc get dnses.config.openshift.io cluster -o json | jq .spec.baseDomain
Procedure
Retrieve the network interface name from the VM configuration by running the following command:
$ oc get vm -n <namespace> <vm_name> -o yaml
Example output
apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: example-vm namespace: example-namespace spec: running: true template: spec: domain: devices: interfaces: - bridge: {} name: example-nic # ... networks: - multus: networkName: bridge-conf name: example-nic 1
- 1
- Note the name of the network interface.
Connect to the VM by using the
ssh
command:$ ssh <user_name>@<interface_name>.<vm_name>.<namespace>.vm.<cluster_fqdn>
8.13.3. Additional resources
8.14. Managing MAC address pools for network interfaces
The KubeMacPool component allocates MAC addresses for virtual machine (VM) network interfaces from a shared MAC address pool. This ensures that each network interface is assigned a unique MAC address.
A virtual machine instance created from that VM retains the assigned MAC address across reboots.
KubeMacPool does not handle virtual machine instances created independently from a virtual machine.
8.14.1. Managing KubeMacPool by using the command line
You can disable and re-enable KubeMacPool by using the command line.
KubeMacPool is enabled by default.
Procedure
To disable KubeMacPool in two namespaces, run the following command:
$ oc label namespace <namespace1> <namespace2> mutatevirtualmachines.kubemacpool.io=ignore
To re-enable KubeMacPool in two namespaces, run the following command:
$ oc label namespace <namespace1> <namespace2> mutatevirtualmachines.kubemacpool.io-
Chapter 9. Storage
9.1. Storage configuration overview
You can configure a default storage class, storage profiles, Containerized Data Importer (CDI), data volumes, and automatic boot source updates.
9.1.1. Storage
The following storage configuration tasks are mandatory:
- Configure a default storage class
- You must configure a default storage class for your cluster. Otherwise, the cluster cannot receive automated boot source updates.
- Configure storage profiles
- You must configure storage profiles if your storage provider is not recognized by CDI. A storage profile provides recommended storage settings based on the associated storage class.
The following storage configuration tasks are optional:
- Reserve additional PVC space for file system overhead
- By default, 5.5% of a file system PVC is reserved for overhead, reducing the space available for VM disks by that amount. You can configure a different overhead value.
- Configure local storage by using the hostpath provisioner
- You can configure local storage for virtual machines by using the hostpath provisioner (HPP). When you install the OpenShift Virtualization Operator, the HPP Operator is automatically installed.
- Configure user permissions to clone data volumes between namespaces
- You can configure RBAC roles to enable users to clone data volumes between namespaces.
9.1.2. Containerized Data Importer
You can perform the following Containerized Data Importer (CDI) configuration tasks:
- Override the resource request limits of a namespace
- You can configure CDI to import, upload, and clone VM disks into namespaces that are subject to CPU and memory resource restrictions.
- Configure CDI scratch space
- CDI requires scratch space (temporary storage) to complete some operations, such as importing and uploading VM images. During this process, CDI provisions a scratch space PVC equal to the size of the PVC backing the destination data volume (DV).
9.1.3. Data volumes
You can perform the following data volume configuration tasks:
- Enable preallocation for data volumes
- CDI can preallocate disk space to improve write performance when creating data volumes. You can enable preallocation for specific data volumes.
- Manage data volume annotations
- Data volume annotations allow you to manage pod behavior. You can add one or more annotations to a data volume, which then propagates to the created importer pods.
9.1.4. Boot source updates
You can perform the following boot source update configuration task:
- Manage automatic boot source updates
- Boot sources can make virtual machine (VM) creation more accessible and efficient for users. If automatic boot source updates are enabled, CDI imports, polls, and updates the images so that they are ready to be cloned for new VMs. By default, CDI automatically updates Red Hat boot sources. You can enable automatic updates for custom boot sources.
9.2. Configuring storage profiles
A storage profile provides recommended storage settings based on the associated storage class. A storage profile is allocated for each storage class.
The Containerized Data Importer (CDI) recognizes a storage provider if it has been configured to identify and interact with the storage provider’s capabilities.
For recognized storage types, the CDI provides values that optimize the creation of PVCs. You can also configure automatic settings for the storage class by customizing the storage profile. If the CDI does not recognize your storage provider, you must configure storage profiles.
When using OpenShift Virtualization with Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation, specify RBD block mode persistent volume claims (PVCs) when creating virtual machine disks. RBD block mode volumes are more efficient and provide better performance than Ceph FS or RBD filesystem-mode PVCs.
To specify RBD block mode PVCs, use the 'ocs-storagecluster-ceph-rbd' storage class and VolumeMode: Block
.
9.2.1. Customizing the storage profile
You can specify default parameters by editing the StorageProfile
object for the provisioner’s storage class. These default parameters only apply to the persistent volume claim (PVC) if they are not configured in the DataVolume
object.
You cannot modify storage class parameters. To make changes, delete and re-create the storage class. You must then reapply any customizations that were previously made to the storage profile.
An empty status
section in a storage profile indicates that a storage provisioner is not recognized by the Containerized Data Interface (CDI). Customizing a storage profile is necessary if you have a storage provisioner that is not recognized by CDI. In this case, the administrator sets appropriate values in the storage profile to ensure successful allocations.
If you create a data volume and omit YAML attributes and these attributes are not defined in the storage profile, then the requested storage will not be allocated and the underlying persistent volume claim (PVC) will not be created.
Prerequisites
- Ensure that your planned configuration is supported by the storage class and its provider. Specifying an incompatible configuration in a storage profile causes volume provisioning to fail.
Procedure
Edit the storage profile. In this example, the provisioner is not recognized by CDI.
$ oc edit storageprofile <storage_class>
Example storage profile
apiVersion: cdi.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: StorageProfile metadata: name: <unknown_provisioner_class> # ... spec: {} status: provisioner: <unknown_provisioner> storageClass: <unknown_provisioner_class>
Provide the needed attribute values in the storage profile:
Example storage profile
apiVersion: cdi.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: StorageProfile metadata: name: <unknown_provisioner_class> # ... spec: claimPropertySets: - accessModes: - ReadWriteOnce 1 volumeMode: Filesystem 2 status: provisioner: <unknown_provisioner> storageClass: <unknown_provisioner_class>
After you save your changes, the selected values appear in the storage profile
status
element.
9.2.1.1. Setting a default cloning strategy using a storage profile
You can use storage profiles to set a default cloning method for a storage class, creating a cloning strategy. Setting cloning strategies can be helpful, for example, if your storage vendor only supports certain cloning methods. It also allows you to select a method that limits resource usage or maximizes performance.
Cloning strategies can be specified by setting the cloneStrategy
attribute in a storage profile to one of these values:
-
snapshot
is used by default when snapshots are configured. The CDI will use the snapshot method if it recognizes the storage provider and the provider supports Container Storage Interface (CSI) snapshots. This cloning strategy uses a temporary volume snapshot to clone the volume. -
copy
uses a source pod and a target pod to copy data from the source volume to the target volume. Host-assisted cloning is the least efficient method of cloning. -
csi-clone
uses the CSI clone API to efficiently clone an existing volume without using an interim volume snapshot. Unlikesnapshot
orcopy
, which are used by default if no storage profile is defined, CSI volume cloning is only used when you specify it in theStorageProfile
object for the provisioner’s storage class.
You can also set clone strategies using the CLI without modifying the default claimPropertySets
in your YAML spec
section.
Example storage profile
apiVersion: cdi.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: StorageProfile metadata: name: <provisioner_class> # ... spec: claimPropertySets: - accessModes: - ReadWriteOnce 1 volumeMode: Filesystem 2 cloneStrategy: csi-clone 3 status: provisioner: <provisioner> storageClass: <provisioner_class>
Storage provider | Default behavior |
---|---|
rook-ceph.rbd.csi.ceph.com | Snapshot |
openshift-storage.rbd.csi.ceph.com | Snapshot |
csi-vxflexos.dellemc.com | CSI Clone |
csi-isilon.dellemc.com | CSI Clone |
csi-powermax.dellemc.com | CSI Clone |
csi-powerstore.dellemc.com | CSI Clone |
hspc.csi.hitachi.com | CSI Clone |
csi.hpe.com | CSI Clone |
spectrumscale.csi.ibm.com | CSI Clone |
rook-ceph.rbd.csi.ceph.com | CSI Clone |
openshift-storage.rbd.csi.ceph.com | CSI Clone |
cephfs.csi.ceph.com | CSI Clone |
openshift-storage.cephfs.csi.ceph.com | CSI Clone |
9.3. Managing automatic boot source updates
You can manage automatic updates for the following boot sources:
Boot sources can make virtual machine (VM) creation more accessible and efficient for users. If automatic boot source updates are enabled, the Containerized Data Importer (CDI) imports, polls, and updates the images so that they are ready to be cloned for new VMs. By default, CDI automatically updates Red Hat boot sources.
9.3.1. Managing Red Hat boot source updates
You can opt out of automatic updates for all system-defined boot sources by disabling the enableCommonBootImageImport
feature gate. If you disable this feature gate, all DataImportCron
objects are deleted. This does not remove previously imported boot source objects that store operating system images, though administrators can delete them manually.
When the enableCommonBootImageImport
feature gate is disabled, DataSource
objects are reset so that they no longer point to the original boot source. An administrator can manually provide a boot source by creating a new persistent volume claim (PVC) or volume snapshot for the DataSource
object, then populating it with an operating system image.
9.3.1.1. Managing automatic updates for all system-defined boot sources
Disabling automatic boot source imports and updates can lower resource usage. In disconnected environments, disabling automatic boot source updates prevents CDIDataImportCronOutdated
alerts from filling up logs.
To disable automatic updates for all system-defined boot sources, turn off the enableCommonBootImageImport
feature gate by setting the value to false
. Setting this value to true
re-enables the feature gate and turns automatic updates back on.
Custom boot sources are not affected by this setting.
Procedure
Toggle the feature gate for automatic boot source updates by editing the
HyperConverged
custom resource (CR).To disable automatic boot source updates, set the
spec.featureGates.enableCommonBootImageImport
field in theHyperConverged
CR tofalse
. For example:$ oc patch hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv \ --type json -p '[{"op": "replace", "path": \ "/spec/featureGates/enableCommonBootImageImport", \ "value": false}]'
To re-enable automatic boot source updates, set the
spec.featureGates.enableCommonBootImageImport
field in theHyperConverged
CR totrue
. For example:$ oc patch hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv \ --type json -p '[{"op": "replace", "path": \ "/spec/featureGates/enableCommonBootImageImport", \ "value": true}]'
9.3.2. Managing custom boot source updates
Custom boot sources that are not provided by OpenShift Virtualization are not controlled by the feature gate. You must manage them individually by editing the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR).
You must configure a storage class. Otherwise, the cluster cannot receive automated updates for custom boot sources. See Defining a storage class for details.
9.3.2.1. Configuring a storage class for custom boot source updates
You can override the default storage class by editing the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR).
Boot sources are created from storage using the default storage class. If your cluster does not have a default storage class, you must define one before configuring automatic updates for custom boot sources.
Procedure
Open the
HyperConverged
CR in your default editor by running the following command:$ oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Define a new storage class by entering a value in the
storageClassName
field:apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged spec: dataImportCronTemplates: - metadata: name: rhel8-image-cron spec: template: spec: storageClassName: <new_storage_class> 1 schedule: "0 */12 * * *" 2 managedDataSource: <data_source> 3 # ...
For the custom image to be detected as an available boot source, the value of the `spec.dataVolumeTemplates.spec.sourceRef.name` parameter in the VM template must match this value.
Remove the
storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class
annotation from the current default storage class.Retrieve the name of the current default storage class by running the following command:
$ oc get storageclass
Example output
NAME PROVISIONER RECLAIMPOLICY VOLUMEBINDINGMODE ALLOWVOLUMEEXPANSION AGE csi-manila-ceph manila.csi.openstack.org Delete Immediate false 11d hostpath-csi-basic (default) kubevirt.io.hostpath-provisioner Delete WaitForFirstConsumer false 11d 1
- 1
- In this example, the current default storage class is named
hostpath-csi-basic
.
Remove the annotation from the current default storage class by running the following command:
$ oc patch storageclass <current_default_storage_class> -p '{"metadata": {"annotations":{"storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class":"false"}}}' 1
- 1
- Replace
<current_default_storage_class>
with thestorageClassName
value of the default storage class.
Set the new storage class as the default by running the following command:
$ oc patch storageclass <new_storage_class> -p '{"metadata":{"annotations":{"storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class":"true"}}}' 1
- 1
- Replace
<new_storage_class>
with thestorageClassName
value that you added to theHyperConverged
CR.
9.3.2.2. Enabling automatic updates for custom boot sources
OpenShift Virtualization automatically updates system-defined boot sources by default, but does not automatically update custom boot sources. You must manually enable automatic updates by editing the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR).
Prerequisites
- The cluster has a default storage class.
Procedure
Open the
HyperConverged
CR in your default editor by running the following command:$ oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Edit the
HyperConverged
CR, adding the appropriate template and boot source in thedataImportCronTemplates
section. For example:Example custom resource
apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged spec: dataImportCronTemplates: - metadata: name: centos7-image-cron annotations: cdi.kubevirt.io/storage.bind.immediate.requested: "true" 1 labels: instancetype.kubevirt.io/default-preference: centos.7 instancetype.kubevirt.io/default-instancetype: u1.medium spec: schedule: "0 */12 * * *" 2 template: spec: source: registry: 3 url: docker://quay.io/containerdisks/centos:7-2009 storage: resources: requests: storage: 30Gi garbageCollect: Outdated managedDataSource: centos7 4
- 1
- This annotation is required for storage classes with
volumeBindingMode
set toWaitForFirstConsumer
. - 2
- Schedule for the job specified in cron format.
- 3
- Use to create a data volume from a registry source. Use the default
pod
pullMethod
and notnode
pullMethod
, which is based on thenode
docker cache. Thenode
docker cache is useful when a registry image is available viaContainer.Image
, but the CDI importer is not authorized to access it. - 4
- For the custom image to be detected as an available boot source, the name of the image’s
managedDataSource
must match the name of the template’sDataSource
, which is found underspec.dataVolumeTemplates.spec.sourceRef.name
in the VM template YAML file.
- Save the file.
9.3.2.3. Enabling volume snapshot boot sources
Enable volume snapshot boot sources by setting the parameter in the StorageProfile
associated with the storage class that stores operating system base images. Although DataImportCron
was originally designed to maintain only PVC sources, VolumeSnapshot
sources scale better than PVC sources for certain storage types.
Use volume snapshots on a storage profile that is proven to scale better when cloning from a single snapshot.
Prerequisites
- You must have access to a volume snapshot with the operating system image.
- The storage must support snapshotting.
Procedure
Open the storage profile object that corresponds to the storage class used to provision boot sources by running the following command:
$ oc edit storageprofile <storage_class>
-
Review the
dataImportCronSourceFormat
specification of theStorageProfile
to confirm whether or not the VM is using PVC or volume snapshot by default. Edit the storage profile, if needed, by updating the
dataImportCronSourceFormat
specification tosnapshot
.Example storage profile
apiVersion: cdi.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: StorageProfile metadata: # ... spec: dataImportCronSourceFormat: snapshot
Verification
Open the storage profile object that corresponds to the storage class used to provision boot sources.
$ oc get storageprofile <storage_class> -oyaml
-
Confirm that the
dataImportCronSourceFormat
specification of theStorageProfile
is set to 'snapshot', and that anyDataSource
objects that theDataImportCron
points to now reference volume snapshots.
You can now use these boot sources to create virtual machines.
9.3.3. Disabling automatic updates for a single boot source
You can disable automatic updates for an individual boot source, whether it is custom or system-defined, by editing the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR).
Procedure
Open the
HyperConverged
CR in your default editor by running the following command:$ oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Disable automatic updates for an individual boot source by editing the
spec.dataImportCronTemplates
field.- Custom boot source
-
Remove the boot source from the
spec.dataImportCronTemplates
field. Automatic updates are disabled for custom boot sources by default.
-
Remove the boot source from the
- System-defined boot source
Add the boot source to
spec.dataImportCronTemplates
.NoteAutomatic updates are enabled by default for system-defined boot sources, but these boot sources are not listed in the CR unless you add them.
Set the value of the
dataimportcrontemplate.kubevirt.io/enable
annotation to'false'
.For example:
apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged spec: dataImportCronTemplates: - metadata: annotations: dataimportcrontemplate.kubevirt.io/enable: 'false' name: rhel8-image-cron # ...
- Save the file.
9.3.4. Verifying the status of a boot source
You can determine if a boot source is system-defined or custom by viewing the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR).
Procedure
View the contents of the
HyperConverged
CR by running the following command:$ oc get hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv -o yaml
Example output
apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged spec: # ... status: # ... dataImportCronTemplates: - metadata: annotations: cdi.kubevirt.io/storage.bind.immediate.requested: "true" name: centos-7-image-cron spec: garbageCollect: Outdated managedDataSource: centos7 schedule: 55 8/12 * * * template: metadata: {} spec: source: registry: url: docker://quay.io/containerdisks/centos:7-2009 storage: resources: requests: storage: 30Gi status: {} status: commonTemplate: true 1 # ... - metadata: annotations: cdi.kubevirt.io/storage.bind.immediate.requested: "true" name: user-defined-dic spec: garbageCollect: Outdated managedDataSource: user-defined-centos-stream8 schedule: 55 8/12 * * * template: metadata: {} spec: source: registry: pullMethod: node url: docker://quay.io/containerdisks/centos-stream:8 storage: resources: requests: storage: 30Gi status: {} status: {} 2 # ...
Verify the status of the boot source by reviewing the
status.dataImportCronTemplates.status
field.-
If the field contains
commonTemplate: true
, it is a system-defined boot source. -
If the
status.dataImportCronTemplates.status
field has the value{}
, it is a custom boot source.
-
If the field contains
9.4. Reserving PVC space for file system overhead
When you add a virtual machine disk to a persistent volume claim (PVC) that uses the Filesystem
volume mode, you must ensure that there is enough space on the PVC for the VM disk and for file system overhead, such as metadata.
By default, OpenShift Virtualization reserves 5.5% of the PVC space for overhead, reducing the space available for virtual machine disks by that amount.
You can configure a different overhead value by editing the HCO
object. You can change the value globally and you can specify values for specific storage classes.
9.4.1. Overriding the default file system overhead value
Change the amount of persistent volume claim (PVC) space that the OpenShift Virtualization reserves for file system overhead by editing the spec.filesystemOverhead
attribute of the HCO
object.
Prerequisites
-
Install the OpenShift CLI (
oc
).
Procedure
Open the
HCO
object for editing by running the following command:$ oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Edit the
spec.filesystemOverhead
fields, populating them with your chosen values:# ... spec: filesystemOverhead: global: "<new_global_value>" 1 storageClass: <storage_class_name>: "<new_value_for_this_storage_class>" 2
- 1
- The default file system overhead percentage used for any storage classes that do not already have a set value. For example,
global: "0.07"
reserves 7% of the PVC for file system overhead. - 2
- The file system overhead percentage for the specified storage class. For example,
mystorageclass: "0.04"
changes the default overhead value for PVCs in themystorageclass
storage class to 4%.
-
Save and exit the editor to update the
HCO
object.
Verification
View the
CDIConfig
status and verify your changes by running one of the following commands:To generally verify changes to
CDIConfig
:$ oc get cdiconfig -o yaml
To view your specific changes to
CDIConfig
:$ oc get cdiconfig -o jsonpath='{.items..status.filesystemOverhead}'
9.5. Configuring local storage by using the hostpath provisioner
You can configure local storage for virtual machines by using the hostpath provisioner (HPP).
When you install the OpenShift Virtualization Operator, the Hostpath Provisioner Operator is automatically installed. HPP is a local storage provisioner designed for OpenShift Virtualization that is created by the Hostpath Provisioner Operator. To use HPP, you create an HPP custom resource (CR) with a basic storage pool.
9.5.1. Creating a hostpath provisioner with a basic storage pool
You configure a hostpath provisioner (HPP) with a basic storage pool by creating an HPP custom resource (CR) with a storagePools
stanza. The storage pool specifies the name and path used by the CSI driver.
Do not create storage pools in the same partition as the operating system. Otherwise, the operating system partition might become filled to capacity, which will impact performance or cause the node to become unstable or unusable.
Prerequisites
-
The directories specified in
spec.storagePools.path
must have read/write access.
Procedure
Create an
hpp_cr.yaml
file with astoragePools
stanza as in the following example:apiVersion: hostpathprovisioner.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HostPathProvisioner metadata: name: hostpath-provisioner spec: imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent storagePools: 1 - name: any_name path: "/var/myvolumes" 2 workload: nodeSelector: kubernetes.io/os: linux
- Save the file and exit.
Create the HPP by running the following command:
$ oc create -f hpp_cr.yaml
9.5.1.1. About creating storage classes
When you create a storage class, you set parameters that affect the dynamic provisioning of persistent volumes (PVs) that belong to that storage class. You cannot update a StorageClass
object’s parameters after you create it.
In order to use the hostpath provisioner (HPP) you must create an associated storage class for the CSI driver with the storagePools
stanza.
Virtual machines use data volumes that are based on local PVs. Local PVs are bound to specific nodes. While the disk image is prepared for consumption by the virtual machine, it is possible that the virtual machine cannot be scheduled to the node where the local storage PV was previously pinned.
To solve this problem, use the Kubernetes pod scheduler to bind the persistent volume claim (PVC) to a PV on the correct node. By using the StorageClass
value with volumeBindingMode
parameter set to WaitForFirstConsumer
, the binding and provisioning of the PV is delayed until a pod is created using the PVC.
9.5.1.2. Creating a storage class for the CSI driver with the storagePools stanza
To use the hostpath provisioner (HPP) you must create an associated storage class for the Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver.
When you create a storage class, you set parameters that affect the dynamic provisioning of persistent volumes (PVs) that belong to that storage class. You cannot update a StorageClass
object’s parameters after you create it.
Virtual machines use data volumes that are based on local PVs. Local PVs are bound to specific nodes. While a disk image is prepared for consumption by the virtual machine, it is possible that the virtual machine cannot be scheduled to the node where the local storage PV was previously pinned.
To solve this problem, use the Kubernetes pod scheduler to bind the persistent volume claim (PVC) to a PV on the correct node. By using the StorageClass
value with volumeBindingMode
parameter set to WaitForFirstConsumer
, the binding and provisioning of the PV is delayed until a pod is created using the PVC.
Procedure
Create a
storageclass_csi.yaml
file to define the storage class:apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1 kind: StorageClass metadata: name: hostpath-csi provisioner: kubevirt.io.hostpath-provisioner reclaimPolicy: Delete 1 volumeBindingMode: WaitForFirstConsumer 2 parameters: storagePool: my-storage-pool 3
- 1
- The two possible
reclaimPolicy
values areDelete
andRetain
. If you do not specify a value, the default value isDelete
. - 2
- The
volumeBindingMode
parameter determines when dynamic provisioning and volume binding occur. SpecifyWaitForFirstConsumer
to delay the binding and provisioning of a persistent volume (PV) until after a pod that uses the persistent volume claim (PVC) is created. This ensures that the PV meets the pod’s scheduling requirements. - 3
- Specify the name of the storage pool defined in the HPP CR.
- Save the file and exit.
Create the
StorageClass
object by running the following command:$ oc create -f storageclass_csi.yaml
9.5.2. About storage pools created with PVC templates
If you have a single, large persistent volume (PV), you can create a storage pool by defining a PVC template in the hostpath provisioner (HPP) custom resource (CR).
A storage pool created with a PVC template can contain multiple HPP volumes. Splitting a PV into smaller volumes provides greater flexibility for data allocation.
The PVC template is based on the spec
stanza of the PersistentVolumeClaim
object:
Example PersistentVolumeClaim
object
apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
name: iso-pvc
spec:
volumeMode: Block 1
storageClassName: my-storage-class
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce
resources:
requests:
storage: 5Gi
- 1
- This value is only required for block volume mode PVs.
You define a storage pool using a pvcTemplate
specification in the HPP CR. The Operator creates a PVC from the pvcTemplate
specification for each node containing the HPP CSI driver. The PVC created from the PVC template consumes the single large PV, allowing the HPP to create smaller dynamic volumes.
You can combine basic storage pools with storage pools created from PVC templates.
9.5.2.1. Creating a storage pool with a PVC template
You can create a storage pool for multiple hostpath provisioner (HPP) volumes by specifying a PVC template in the HPP custom resource (CR).
Do not create storage pools in the same partition as the operating system. Otherwise, the operating system partition might become filled to capacity, which will impact performance or cause the node to become unstable or unusable.
Prerequisites
-
The directories specified in
spec.storagePools.path
must have read/write access.
Procedure
Create an
hpp_pvc_template_pool.yaml
file for the HPP CR that specifies a persistent volume (PVC) template in thestoragePools
stanza according to the following example:apiVersion: hostpathprovisioner.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HostPathProvisioner metadata: name: hostpath-provisioner spec: imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent storagePools: 1 - name: my-storage-pool path: "/var/myvolumes" 2 pvcTemplate: volumeMode: Block 3 storageClassName: my-storage-class 4 accessModes: - ReadWriteOnce resources: requests: storage: 5Gi 5 workload: nodeSelector: kubernetes.io/os: linux
- 1
- The
storagePools
stanza is an array that can contain both basic and PVC template storage pools. - 2
- Specify the storage pool directories under this node path.
- 3
- Optional: The
volumeMode
parameter can be eitherBlock
orFilesystem
as long as it matches the provisioned volume format. If no value is specified, the default isFilesystem
. If thevolumeMode
isBlock
, the mounting pod creates an XFS file system on the block volume before mounting it. - 4
- If the
storageClassName
parameter is omitted, the default storage class is used to create PVCs. If you omitstorageClassName
, ensure that the HPP storage class is not the default storage class. - 5
- You can specify statically or dynamically provisioned storage. In either case, ensure the requested storage size is appropriate for the volume you want to virtually divide or the PVC cannot be bound to the large PV. If the storage class you are using uses dynamically provisioned storage, pick an allocation size that matches the size of a typical request.
- Save the file and exit.
Create the HPP with a storage pool by running the following command:
$ oc create -f hpp_pvc_template_pool.yaml
9.6. Enabling user permissions to clone data volumes across namespaces
The isolating nature of namespaces means that users cannot by default clone resources between namespaces.
To enable a user to clone a virtual machine to another namespace, a user with the cluster-admin
role must create a new cluster role. Bind this cluster role to a user to enable them to clone virtual machines to the destination namespace.
9.6.1. Creating RBAC resources for cloning data volumes
Create a new cluster role that enables permissions for all actions for the datavolumes
resource.
Prerequisites
- You must have cluster admin privileges.
Procedure
Create a
ClusterRole
manifest:apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1 kind: ClusterRole metadata: name: <datavolume-cloner> 1 rules: - apiGroups: ["cdi.kubevirt.io"] resources: ["datavolumes/source"] verbs: ["*"]
- 1
- Unique name for the cluster role.
Create the cluster role in the cluster:
$ oc create -f <datavolume-cloner.yaml> 1
- 1
- The file name of the
ClusterRole
manifest created in the previous step.
Create a
RoleBinding
manifest that applies to both the source and destination namespaces and references the cluster role created in the previous step.apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1 kind: RoleBinding metadata: name: <allow-clone-to-user> 1 namespace: <Source namespace> 2 subjects: - kind: ServiceAccount name: default namespace: <Destination namespace> 3 roleRef: kind: ClusterRole name: datavolume-cloner 4 apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
Create the role binding in the cluster:
$ oc create -f <datavolume-cloner.yaml> 1
- 1
- The file name of the
RoleBinding
manifest created in the previous step.
9.7. Configuring CDI to override CPU and memory quotas
You can configure the Containerized Data Importer (CDI) to import, upload, and clone virtual machine disks into namespaces that are subject to CPU and memory resource restrictions.
9.7.1. About CPU and memory quotas in a namespace
A resource quota, defined by the ResourceQuota
object, imposes restrictions on a namespace that limit the total amount of compute resources that can be consumed by resources within that namespace.
The HyperConverged
custom resource (CR) defines the user configuration for the Containerized Data Importer (CDI). The CPU and memory request and limit values are set to a default value of 0
. This ensures that pods created by CDI that do not specify compute resource requirements are given the default values and are allowed to run in a namespace that is restricted with a quota.
When the AutoResourceLimits
feature gate is enabled, OpenShift Virtualization automatically manages CPU and memory limits. If a namespace has both CPU and memory quotas, the memory limit is set to double the base allocation and the CPU limit is one per vCPU.
9.7.2. Overriding CPU and memory defaults
Modify the default settings for CPU and memory requests and limits for your use case by adding the spec.resourceRequirements.storageWorkloads
stanza to the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR).
Prerequisites
-
Install the OpenShift CLI (
oc
).
Procedure
Edit the
HyperConverged
CR by running the following command:$ oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Add the
spec.resourceRequirements.storageWorkloads
stanza to the CR, setting the values based on your use case. For example:apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged spec: resourceRequirements: storageWorkloads: limits: cpu: "500m" memory: "2Gi" requests: cpu: "250m" memory: "1Gi"
-
Save and exit the editor to update the
HyperConverged
CR.
9.7.3. Additional resources
9.8. Preparing CDI scratch space
9.8.1. About scratch space
The Containerized Data Importer (CDI) requires scratch space (temporary storage) to complete some operations, such as importing and uploading virtual machine images. During this process, CDI provisions a scratch space PVC equal to the size of the PVC backing the destination data volume (DV). The scratch space PVC is deleted after the operation completes or aborts.
You can define the storage class that is used to bind the scratch space PVC in the spec.scratchSpaceStorageClass
field of the HyperConverged
custom resource.
If the defined storage class does not match a storage class in the cluster, then the default storage class defined for the cluster is used. If there is no default storage class defined in the cluster, the storage class used to provision the original DV or PVC is used.
CDI requires requesting scratch space with a file
volume mode, regardless of the PVC backing the origin data volume. If the origin PVC is backed by block
volume mode, you must define a storage class capable of provisioning file
volume mode PVCs.
Manual provisioning
If there are no storage classes, CDI uses any PVCs in the project that match the size requirements for the image. If there are no PVCs that match these requirements, the CDI import pod remains in a Pending state until an appropriate PVC is made available or until a timeout function kills the pod.
9.8.2. CDI operations that require scratch space
Type | Reason |
---|---|
Registry imports | CDI must download the image to a scratch space and extract the layers to find the image file. The image file is then passed to QEMU-IMG for conversion to a raw disk. |
Upload image | QEMU-IMG does not accept input from STDIN. Instead, the image to upload is saved in scratch space before it can be passed to QEMU-IMG for conversion. |
HTTP imports of archived images | QEMU-IMG does not know how to handle the archive formats CDI supports. Instead, the image is unarchived and saved into scratch space before it is passed to QEMU-IMG. |
HTTP imports of authenticated images | QEMU-IMG inadequately handles authentication. Instead, the image is saved to scratch space and authenticated before it is passed to QEMU-IMG. |
HTTP imports of custom certificates | QEMU-IMG inadequately handles custom certificates of HTTPS endpoints. Instead, CDI downloads the image to scratch space before passing the file to QEMU-IMG. |
9.8.3. Defining a storage class
You can define the storage class that the Containerized Data Importer (CDI) uses when allocating scratch space by adding the spec.scratchSpaceStorageClass
field to the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR).
Prerequisites
-
Install the OpenShift CLI (
oc
).
Procedure
Edit the
HyperConverged
CR by running the following command:$ oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Add the
spec.scratchSpaceStorageClass
field to the CR, setting the value to the name of a storage class that exists in the cluster:apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged spec: scratchSpaceStorageClass: "<storage_class>" 1
- 1
- If you do not specify a storage class, CDI uses the storage class of the persistent volume claim that is being populated.
-
Save and exit your default editor to update the
HyperConverged
CR.
9.8.4. CDI supported operations matrix
This matrix shows the supported CDI operations for content types against endpoints, and which of these operations requires scratch space.
Content types | HTTP | HTTPS | HTTP basic auth | Registry | Upload |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
KubeVirt (QCOW2) |
✓ QCOW2 |
✓ QCOW2** |
✓ QCOW2 |
✓ QCOW2* |
✓ QCOW2* |
KubeVirt (RAW) |
✓ RAW |
✓ RAW |
✓ RAW |
✓ RAW* |
✓ RAW* |
✓ Supported operation
□ Unsupported operation
* Requires scratch space
** Requires scratch space if a custom certificate authority is required
9.8.5. Additional resources
9.9. Using preallocation for data volumes
The Containerized Data Importer can preallocate disk space to improve write performance when creating data volumes.
You can enable preallocation for specific data volumes.
9.9.1. About preallocation
The Containerized Data Importer (CDI) can use the QEMU preallocate mode for data volumes to improve write performance. You can use preallocation mode for importing and uploading operations and when creating blank data volumes.
If preallocation is enabled, CDI uses the better preallocation method depending on the underlying file system and device type:
fallocate
-
If the file system supports it, CDI uses the operating system’s
fallocate
call to preallocate space by using theposix_fallocate
function, which allocates blocks and marks them as uninitialized. full
-
If
fallocate
mode cannot be used,full
mode allocates space for the image by writing data to the underlying storage. Depending on the storage location, all the empty allocated space might be zeroed.
9.9.2. Enabling preallocation for a data volume
You can enable preallocation for specific data volumes by including the spec.preallocation
field in the data volume manifest. You can enable preallocation mode in either the web console or by using the OpenShift CLI (oc
).
Preallocation mode is supported for all CDI source types.
Procedure
Specify the
spec.preallocation
field in the data volume manifest:apiVersion: cdi.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: DataVolume metadata: name: preallocated-datavolume spec: source: 1 registry: url: <image_url> 2 storage: resources: requests: storage: 1Gi preallocation: true # ...
9.10. Managing data volume annotations
Data volume (DV) annotations allow you to manage pod behavior. You can add one or more annotations to a data volume, which then propagates to the created importer pods.
9.10.1. Example: Data volume annotations
This example shows how you can configure data volume (DV) annotations to control which network the importer pod uses. The v1.multus-cni.io/default-network: bridge-network
annotation causes the pod to use the multus network named bridge-network
as its default network. If you want the importer pod to use both the default network from the cluster and the secondary multus network, use the k8s.v1.cni.cncf.io/networks: <network_name>
annotation.
Multus network annotation example
apiVersion: cdi.kubevirt.io/v1beta1
kind: DataVolume
metadata:
name: datavolume-example
annotations:
v1.multus-cni.io/default-network: bridge-network 1
# ...
- 1
- Multus network annotation
Chapter 10. Live migration
10.1. About live migration
Live migration is the process of moving a running virtual machine (VM) to another node in the cluster without interrupting the virtual workload. Live migration enables smooth transitions during cluster upgrades or any time a node needs to be drained for maintenance or configuration changes.
By default, live migration traffic is encrypted using Transport Layer Security (TLS).
10.1.1. Live migration requirements
Live migration has the following requirements:
-
The cluster must have shared storage with
ReadWriteMany
(RWX) access mode. The cluster must have sufficient RAM and network bandwidth.
NoteYou must ensure that there is enough memory request capacity in the cluster to support node drains that result in live migrations. You can determine the approximate required spare memory by using the following calculation:
Product of (Maximum number of nodes that can drain in parallel) and (Highest total VM memory request allocations across nodes)
The default number of migrations that can run in parallel in the cluster is 5.
- If a VM uses a host model CPU, the nodes must support the CPU.
- Configuring a dedicated Multus network for live migration is highly recommended. A dedicated network minimizes the effects of network saturation on tenant workloads during migration.
10.1.2. VM migration tuning
You can adjust your cluster-wide live migration settings based on the type of workload and migration scenario. This enables you to control how many VMs migrate at the same time, the network bandwidth you want to use for each migration, and how long OpenShift Virtualization attempts to complete the migration before canceling the process. Configure these settings in the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR).
If you are migrating multiple VMs per node at the same time, set a bandwidthPerMigration
limit to prevent a large or busy VM from using a large portion of the node’s network bandwidth. By default, the bandwidthPerMigration
value is 0
, which means unlimited.
A large VM running a heavy workload (for example, database processing), with higher memory dirty rates, requires a higher bandwidth to complete the migration.
Post copy mode, when enabled, triggers if the initial pre-copy phase does not complete within the defined timeout. During post copy, the VM CPUs pause on the source host while transferring the minimum required memory pages. Then the VM CPUs activate on the destination host, and the remaining memory pages transfer into the destination node at runtime. This can impact performance during the transfer.
Post copy mode should not be used for critical data, or with unstable networks.
10.1.3. Common live migration tasks
You can perform the following live migration tasks:
- Configure live migration settings
- Configure live migration for heavy workloads
- Initiate and cancel live migration
- Monitor the progress of all live migrations in the Migration tab of the OpenShift Virtualization web console.
- View VM migration metrics in the Metrics tab of the web console.
10.1.4. Additional resources
10.2. Configuring live migration
You can configure live migration settings to ensure that the migration processes do not overwhelm the cluster.
You can configure live migration policies to apply different migration configurations to groups of virtual machines (VMs).
10.2.1. Configuring live migration limits and timeouts
Configure live migration limits and timeouts for the cluster by updating the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR), which is located in the openshift-cnv
namespace.
Procedure
Edit the
HyperConverged
CR and add the necessary live migration parameters:$ oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Example configuration file
apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged namespace: openshift-cnv spec: liveMigrationConfig: bandwidthPerMigration: 64Mi 1 completionTimeoutPerGiB: 800 2 parallelMigrationsPerCluster: 5 3 parallelOutboundMigrationsPerNode: 2 4 progressTimeout: 150 5 allowPostCopy: false 6
- 1
- Bandwidth limit of each migration, where the value is the quantity of bytes per second. For example, a value of
2048Mi
means 2048 MiB/s. Default:0
, which is unlimited. - 2
- The migration is canceled if it has not completed in this time, in seconds per GiB of memory. For example, a VM with 6GiB memory times out if it has not completed migration in 4800 seconds. If the
Migration Method
isBlockMigration
, the size of the migrating disks is included in the calculation. - 3
- Number of migrations running in parallel in the cluster. Default:
5
. - 4
- Maximum number of outbound migrations per node. Default:
2
. - 5
- The migration is canceled if memory copy fails to make progress in this time, in seconds. Default:
150
. - 6
- If a VM is running a heavy workload and the memory dirty rate is too high, this can prevent the migration from one node to another from converging. To prevent this, you can enable post copy mode. By default,
allowPostCopy
is set tofalse
.
You can restore the default value for any spec.liveMigrationConfig
field by deleting that key/value pair and saving the file. For example, delete progressTimeout: <value>
to restore the default progressTimeout: 150
.
10.2.2. Configure live migration for heavy workloads
When migrating a VM running a heavy workload (for example, database processing) with higher memory dirty rates, you need a higher bandwidth to complete the migration.
If the dirty rate is too high, the migration from one node to another does not converge. To prevent this, enable post copy mode.
Post copy mode triggers if the initial pre-copy phase does not complete within the defined timeout. During post copy, the VM CPUs pause on the source host while transferring the minimum required memory pages. Then the VM CPUs activate on the destination host, and the remaining memory pages transfer into the destination node at runtime.
Configure live migration for heavy workloads by updating the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR), which is located in the openshift-cnv
namespace.
Procedure
Edit the
HyperConverged
CR and add the necessary parameters for migrating heavy workloads:$ oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Example configuration file
apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged namespace: openshift-cnv spec: liveMigrationConfig: bandwidthPerMigration: 0Mi 1 completionTimeoutPerGiB: 150 2 parallelMigrationsPerCluster: 5 3 parallelOutboundMigrationsPerNode: 1 4 progressTimeout: 150 5 allowPostCopy: true 6
- 1
- Bandwidth limit of each migration, where the value is the quantity of bytes per second. The default is
0
, which is unlimited. - 2
- The migration is canceled if it is not completed in this time, and triggers post copy mode, when post copy is enabled. This value is measured in seconds per GiB of memory. You can lower
completionTimeoutPerGiB
to trigger post copy mode earlier in the migration process, or raise thecompletionTimeoutPerGiB
to trigger post copy mode later in the migration process. - 3
- Number of migrations running in parallel in the cluster. The default is
5
. Keeping theparallelMigrationsPerCluster
setting low is better when migrating heavy workloads. - 4
- Maximum number of outbound migrations per node. Configure a single VM per node for heavy workloads.
- 5
- The migration is canceled if memory copy fails to make progress in this time. This value is measured in seconds. Increase this parameter for large memory sizes running heavy workloads.
- 6
- Use post copy mode when memory dirty rates are high to ensure the migration converges. Set
allowPostCopy
totrue
to enable post copy mode.
- Optional: If your main network is too busy for the migration, configure a secondary, dedicated migration network.
Post copy mode can impact performance during the transfer, and should not be used for critical data, or with unstable networks.
10.2.3. Additional resources
10.2.4. Live migration policies
You can create live migration policies to apply different migration configurations to groups of VMs that are defined by VM or project labels.
You can create live migration policies by using the OpenShift Virtualization web console.
10.2.4.1. Creating a live migration policy by using the command line
You can create a live migration policy by using the command line. KubeVirt applies the live migration policy to selected virtual machines (VMs) by using any combination of labels:
-
VM labels such as
size
,os
, orgpu
-
Project labels such as
priority
,bandwidth
, orhpc-workload
For the policy to apply to a specific group of VMs, all labels on the group of VMs must match the labels of the policy.
If multiple live migration policies apply to a VM, the policy with the greatest number of matching labels takes precedence.
If multiple policies meet this criteria, the policies are sorted by alphabetical order of the matching label keys, and the first one in that order takes precedence.
Procedure
Edit the VM object to which you want to apply a live migration policy, and add the corresponding VM labels.
Open the YAML configuration of the resource:
$ oc edit vm <vm_name>
Adjust the required label values in the
.spec.template.metadata.labels
section of the configuration. For example, to mark the VM as aproduction
VM for the purposes of migration policies, add thekubevirt.io/environment: production
line:apiVersion: migrations.kubevirt.io/v1alpha1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: <vm_name> namespace: default labels: app: my-app environment: production spec: template: metadata: labels: kubevirt.io/domain: <vm_name> kubevirt.io/size: large kubevirt.io/environment: production # ...
- Save and exit the configuration.
Configure a
MigrationPolicy
object with the corresponding labels. The following example configures a policy that applies to all VMs that are labeled asproduction
:apiVersion: migrations.kubevirt.io/v1alpha1 kind: MigrationPolicy metadata: name: <migration_policy> spec: selectors: namespaceSelector: 1 hpc-workloads: "True" xyz-workloads-type: "" virtualMachineInstanceSelector: 2 kubevirt.io/environment: "production"
Create the migration policy by running the following command:
$ oc create migrationpolicy -f <migration_policy>.yaml
10.2.5. Additional resources
10.3. Initiating and canceling live migration
You can initiate the live migration of a virtual machine (VM) to another node by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console or the command line.
You can cancel a live migration by using the web console or the command line. The VM remains on its original node.
You can also initiate and cancel live migration by using the virtctl migrate <vm_name>
and virtctl migrate-cancel <vm_name>
commands.
10.3.1. Initiating live migration
10.3.1.1. Initiating live migration by using the web console
You can live migrate a running virtual machine (VM) to a different node in the cluster by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
The Migrate action is visible to all users but only cluster administrators can initiate a live migration.
Prerequisites
- The VM must be migratable.
- If the VM is configured with a host model CPU, the cluster must have an available node that supports the CPU model.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → VirtualMachines in the web console.
- Select Migrate from the Options menu beside a VM.
- Click Migrate.
10.3.1.2. Initiating live migration by using the command line
You can initiate the live migration of a running virtual machine (VM) by using the command line to create a VirtualMachineInstanceMigration
object for the VM.
Procedure
Create a
VirtualMachineInstanceMigration
manifest for the VM that you want to migrate:apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachineInstanceMigration metadata: name: <migration_name> spec: vmiName: <vm_name>
Create the object by running the following command:
$ oc create -f <migration_name>.yaml
The
VirtualMachineInstanceMigration
object triggers a live migration of the VM. This object exists in the cluster for as long as the virtual machine instance is running, unless manually deleted.
Verification
Obtain the VM status by running the following command:
$ oc describe vmi <vm_name> -n <namespace>
Example output
# ... Status: Conditions: Last Probe Time: <nil> Last Transition Time: <nil> Status: True Type: LiveMigratable Migration Method: LiveMigration Migration State: Completed: true End Timestamp: 2018-12-24T06:19:42Z Migration UID: d78c8962-0743-11e9-a540-fa163e0c69f1 Source Node: node2.example.com Start Timestamp: 2018-12-24T06:19:35Z Target Node: node1.example.com Target Node Address: 10.9.0.18:43891 Target Node Domain Detected: true
10.3.2. Canceling live migration
10.3.2.1. Canceling live migration by using the web console
You can cancel the live migration of a virtual machine (VM) by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → VirtualMachines in the web console.
- Select Cancel Migration on the Options menu beside a VM.
10.3.2.2. Canceling live migration by using the command line
Cancel the live migration of a virtual machine by deleting the VirtualMachineInstanceMigration
object associated with the migration.
Procedure
Delete the
VirtualMachineInstanceMigration
object that triggered the live migration,migration-job
in this example:$ oc delete vmim migration-job
Chapter 11. Nodes
11.1. Node maintenance
Nodes can be placed into maintenance mode by using the oc adm
utility or NodeMaintenance
custom resources (CRs).
The node-maintenance-operator
(NMO) is no longer shipped with OpenShift Virtualization. It is deployed as a standalone Operator from the OperatorHub in the OpenShift Container Platform web console or by using the OpenShift CLI (oc
).
For more information on remediation, fencing, and maintaining nodes, see the Workload Availability for Red Hat OpenShift documentation.
Virtual machines (VMs) must have a persistent volume claim (PVC) with a shared ReadWriteMany
(RWX) access mode to be live migrated.
The Node Maintenance Operator watches for new or deleted NodeMaintenance
CRs. When a new NodeMaintenance
CR is detected, no new workloads are scheduled and the node is cordoned off from the rest of the cluster. All pods that can be evicted are evicted from the node. When a NodeMaintenance
CR is deleted, the node that is referenced in the CR is made available for new workloads.
Using a NodeMaintenance
CR for node maintenance tasks achieves the same results as the oc adm cordon
and oc adm drain
commands using standard OpenShift Container Platform custom resource processing.
11.1.1. Eviction strategies
Placing a node into maintenance marks the node as unschedulable and drains all the VMs and pods from it.
You can configure eviction strategies for virtual machines (VMs) or for the cluster.
- VM eviction strategy
The VM
LiveMigrate
eviction strategy ensures that a virtual machine instance (VMI) is not interrupted if the node is placed into maintenance or drained. VMIs with this eviction strategy will be live migrated to another node.You can configure eviction strategies for virtual machines (VMs) by using the OpenShift Virtualization web console or the command line.
ImportantThe default eviction strategy is
LiveMigrate
. A non-migratable VM with aLiveMigrate
eviction strategy might prevent nodes from draining or block an infrastructure upgrade because the VM is not evicted from the node. This situation causes a migration to remain in aPending
orScheduling
state unless you shut down the VM manually.You must set the eviction strategy of non-migratable VMs to
LiveMigrateIfPossible
, which does not block an upgrade, or toNone
, for VMs that should not be migrated.
- Cluster eviction strategy
- You can configure an eviction strategy for the cluster to prioritize workload continuity or infrastructure upgrade.
Eviction strategy | Description | Interrupts workflow | Blocks upgrades |
---|---|---|---|
| Prioritizes workload continuity over upgrades. | No | Yes 2 |
| Prioritizes upgrades over workload continuity to ensure that the environment is updated. | Yes | No |
| Shuts down VMs with no eviction strategy. | Yes | No |
- Default eviction strategy for multi-node clusters.
- If a VM blocks an upgrade, you must shut down the VM manually.
- Default eviction strategy for single-node OpenShift.
11.1.1.1. Configuring a VM eviction strategy using the command line
You can configure an eviction strategy for a virtual machine (VM) by using the command line.
The default eviction strategy is LiveMigrate
. A non-migratable VM with a LiveMigrate
eviction strategy might prevent nodes from draining or block an infrastructure upgrade because the VM is not evicted from the node. This situation causes a migration to remain in a Pending
or Scheduling
state unless you shut down the VM manually.
You must set the eviction strategy of non-migratable VMs to LiveMigrateIfPossible
, which does not block an upgrade, or to None
, for VMs that should not be migrated.
Procedure
Edit the
VirtualMachine
resource by running the following command:$ oc edit vm <vm_name> -n <namespace>
Example eviction strategy
apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: <vm_name> spec: template: spec: evictionStrategy: LiveMigrateIfPossible 1 # ...
- 1
- Specify the eviction strategy. The default value is
LiveMigrate
.
Restart the VM to apply the changes:
$ virtctl restart <vm_name> -n <namespace>
11.1.1.2. Configuring a cluster eviction strategy by using the command line
You can configure an eviction strategy for a cluster by using the command line.
Procedure
Edit the
hyperconverged
resource by running the following command:$ oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Set the cluster eviction strategy as shown in the following example:
Example cluster eviction strategy
apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged spec: evictionStrategy: LiveMigrate # ...
11.1.2. Run strategies
A virtual machine (VM) configured with spec.running: true
is immediately restarted. The spec.runStrategy
key provides greater flexibility for determining how a VM behaves under certain conditions.
The spec.runStrategy
and spec.running
keys are mutually exclusive. Only one of them can be used.
A VM configuration with both keys is invalid.
11.1.2.1. Run strategies
The spec.runStrategy
key has four possible values:
Always
-
The virtual machine instance (VMI) is always present when a virtual machine (VM) is created on another node. A new VMI is created if the original stops for any reason. This is the same behavior as
running: true
. RerunOnFailure
- The VMI is re-created on another node if the previous instance fails. The instance is not re-created if the VM stops successfully, such as when it is shut down.
Manual
-
You control the VMI state manually with the
start
,stop
, andrestart
virtctl client commands. The VM is not automatically restarted. Halted
-
No VMI is present when a VM is created. This is the same behavior as
running: false
.
Different combinations of the virtctl start
, stop
and restart
commands affect the run strategy.
The following table describes a VM’s transition between states. The first column shows the VM’s initial run strategy. The remaining columns show a virtctl command and the new run strategy after that command is run.
Initial run strategy | Start | Stop | Restart |
---|---|---|---|
Always | - | Halted | Always |
RerunOnFailure | - | Halted | RerunOnFailure |
Manual | Manual | Manual | Manual |
Halted | Always | - | - |
If a node in a cluster installed by using installer-provisioned infrastructure fails the machine health check and is unavailable, VMs with runStrategy: Always
or runStrategy: RerunOnFailure
are rescheduled on a new node.
11.1.2.2. Configuring a VM run strategy by using the command line
You can configure a run strategy for a virtual machine (VM) by using the command line.
The spec.runStrategy
and spec.running
keys are mutually exclusive. A VM configuration that contains values for both keys is invalid.
Procedure
Edit the
VirtualMachine
resource by running the following command:$ oc edit vm <vm_name> -n <namespace>
Example run strategy
apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine spec: runStrategy: Always # ...
11.1.3. Maintaining bare metal nodes
When you deploy OpenShift Container Platform on bare metal infrastructure, there are additional considerations that must be taken into account compared to deploying on cloud infrastructure. Unlike in cloud environments where the cluster nodes are considered ephemeral, re-provisioning a bare metal node requires significantly more time and effort for maintenance tasks.
When a bare metal node fails, for example, if a fatal kernel error happens or a NIC card hardware failure occurs, workloads on the failed node need to be restarted elsewhere else on the cluster while the problem node is repaired or replaced. Node maintenance mode allows cluster administrators to gracefully power down nodes, moving workloads to other parts of the cluster and ensuring workloads do not get interrupted. Detailed progress and node status details are provided during maintenance.
11.1.4. Additional resources
11.2. Managing node labeling for obsolete CPU models
You can schedule a virtual machine (VM) on a node as long as the VM CPU model and policy are supported by the node.
11.2.1. About node labeling for obsolete CPU models
The OpenShift Virtualization Operator uses a predefined list of obsolete CPU models to ensure that a node supports only valid CPU models for scheduled VMs.
By default, the following CPU models are eliminated from the list of labels generated for the node:
Example 11.1. Obsolete CPU models
"486" Conroe athlon core2duo coreduo kvm32 kvm64 n270 pentium pentium2 pentium3 pentiumpro phenom qemu32 qemu64
This predefined list is not visible in the HyperConverged
CR. You cannot remove CPU models from this list, but you can add to the list by editing the spec.obsoleteCPUs.cpuModels
field of the HyperConverged
CR.
11.2.2. About node labeling for CPU features
Through the process of iteration, the base CPU features in the minimum CPU model are eliminated from the list of labels generated for the node.
For example:
-
An environment might have two supported CPU models:
Penryn
andHaswell
. If
Penryn
is specified as the CPU model forminCPU
, each base CPU feature forPenryn
is compared to the list of CPU features supported byHaswell
.Example 11.2. CPU features supported by
Penryn
apic clflush cmov cx16 cx8 de fpu fxsr lahf_lm lm mca mce mmx msr mtrr nx pae pat pge pni pse pse36 sep sse sse2 sse4.1 ssse3 syscall tsc
Example 11.3. CPU features supported by
Haswell
aes apic avx avx2 bmi1 bmi2 clflush cmov cx16 cx8 de erms fma fpu fsgsbase fxsr hle invpcid lahf_lm lm mca mce mmx movbe msr mtrr nx pae pat pcid pclmuldq pge pni popcnt pse pse36 rdtscp rtm sep smep sse sse2 sse4.1 sse4.2 ssse3 syscall tsc tsc-deadline x2apic xsave
If both
Penryn
andHaswell
support a specific CPU feature, a label is not created for that feature. Labels are generated for CPU features that are supported only byHaswell
and not byPenryn
.Example 11.4. Node labels created for CPU features after iteration
aes avx avx2 bmi1 bmi2 erms fma fsgsbase hle invpcid movbe pcid pclmuldq popcnt rdtscp rtm sse4.2 tsc-deadline x2apic xsave
11.2.3. Configuring obsolete CPU models
You can configure a list of obsolete CPU models by editing the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR).
Procedure
Edit the
HyperConverged
custom resource, specifying the obsolete CPU models in theobsoleteCPUs
array. For example:apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged namespace: openshift-cnv spec: obsoleteCPUs: cpuModels: 1 - "<obsolete_cpu_1>" - "<obsolete_cpu_2>" minCPUModel: "<minimum_cpu_model>" 2
- 1
- Replace the example values in the
cpuModels
array with obsolete CPU models. Any value that you specify is added to a predefined list of obsolete CPU models. The predefined list is not visible in the CR. - 2
- Replace this value with the minimum CPU model that you want to use for basic CPU features. If you do not specify a value,
Penryn
is used by default.
11.3. Preventing node reconciliation
Use skip-node
annotation to prevent the node-labeller
from reconciling a node.
11.3.1. Using skip-node annotation
If you want the node-labeller
to skip a node, annotate that node by using the oc
CLI.
Prerequisites
-
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
).
Procedure
Annotate the node that you want to skip by running the following command:
$ oc annotate node <node_name> node-labeller.kubevirt.io/skip-node=true 1
- 1
- Replace
<node_name>
with the name of the relevant node to skip.
Reconciliation resumes on the next cycle after the node annotation is removed or set to false.
11.3.2. Additional resources
11.4. Deleting a failed node to trigger virtual machine failover
If a node fails and node health checks are not deployed on your cluster, virtual machines (VMs) with runStrategy: Always
configured are not automatically relocated to healthy nodes.
11.4.1. Prerequisites
-
A node where a virtual machine was running has the
NotReady
condition. -
The virtual machine that was running on the failed node has
runStrategy
set toAlways
. -
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
).
11.4.2. Deleting nodes from a bare metal cluster
When you delete a node using the CLI, the node object is deleted in Kubernetes, but the pods that exist on the node are not deleted. Any bare pods not backed by a replication controller become inaccessible to OpenShift Container Platform. Pods backed by replication controllers are rescheduled to other available nodes. You must delete local manifest pods.
Procedure
Delete a node from an OpenShift Container Platform cluster running on bare metal by completing the following steps:
Mark the node as unschedulable:
$ oc adm cordon <node_name>
Drain all pods on the node:
$ oc adm drain <node_name> --force=true
This step might fail if the node is offline or unresponsive. Even if the node does not respond, it might still be running a workload that writes to shared storage. To avoid data corruption, power down the physical hardware before you proceed.
Delete the node from the cluster:
$ oc delete node <node_name>
Although the node object is now deleted from the cluster, it can still rejoin the cluster after reboot or if the kubelet service is restarted. To permanently delete the node and all its data, you must decommission the node.
- If you powered down the physical hardware, turn it back on so that the node can rejoin the cluster.
11.4.3. Verifying virtual machine failover
After all resources are terminated on the unhealthy node, a new virtual machine instance (VMI) is automatically created on a healthy node for each relocated VM. To confirm that the VMI was created, view all VMIs by using the oc
CLI.
11.4.3.1. Listing all virtual machine instances using the CLI
You can list all virtual machine instances (VMIs) in your cluster, including standalone VMIs and those owned by virtual machines, by using the oc
command-line interface (CLI).
Procedure
List all VMIs by running the following command:
$ oc get vmis -A
Chapter 12. Monitoring
12.1. Monitoring overview
You can monitor the health of your cluster and virtual machines (VMs) with the following tools:
- Monitoring OpenShift Virtualization VM health status
- View the overall health of your OpenShift Virtualization environment in the web console by navigating to the Home → Overview page in the OpenShift Container Platform web console. The Status card displays the overall health of OpenShift Virtualization based on the alerts and conditions.
- OpenShift Container Platform cluster checkup framework
Run automated tests on your cluster with the OpenShift Container Platform cluster checkup framework to check the following conditions:
- Network connectivity and latency between two VMs attached to a secondary network interface
- VM running a Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) workload with zero packet loss
- Cluster storage is optimally configured for OpenShift Virtualization
- Prometheus queries for virtual resources
- Query vCPU, network, storage, and guest memory swapping usage and live migration progress.
- VM custom metrics
-
Configure the
node-exporter
service to expose internal VM metrics and processes. - VM health checks
- Configure readiness, liveness, and guest agent ping probes and a watchdog for VMs.
- Runbooks
- Diagnose and resolve issues that trigger OpenShift Virtualization alerts in the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
12.2. OpenShift Virtualization cluster checkup framework
OpenShift Virtualization includes the following predefined checkups that can be used for cluster maintenance and troubleshooting:
Latency checkup, which verifies network connectivity and measures latency between two virtual machines (VMs) that are attached to a secondary network interface.
ImportantBefore you run a latency checkup, you must first create a bridge interface on the cluster nodes to connect the VM’s secondary interface to any interface on the node. If you do not create a bridge interface, the VMs do not start and the job fails.
- Storage checkup, which verifies if the cluster storage is optimally configured for OpenShift Virtualization.
- DPDK checkup, which verifies that a node can run a VM with a Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) workload with zero packet loss.
The OpenShift Virtualization cluster checkup framework is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.
For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.
12.2.1. About the OpenShift Virtualization cluster checkup framework
A checkup is an automated test workload that allows you to verify if a specific cluster functionality works as expected. The cluster checkup framework uses native Kubernetes resources to configure and execute the checkup.
By using predefined checkups, cluster administrators and developers can improve cluster maintainability, troubleshoot unexpected behavior, minimize errors, and save time. They can also review the results of the checkup and share them with experts for further analysis. Vendors can write and publish checkups for features or services that they provide and verify that their customer environments are configured correctly.
Running a predefined checkup in an existing namespace involves setting up a service account for the checkup, creating the Role
and RoleBinding
objects for the service account, enabling permissions for the checkup, and creating the input config map and the checkup job. You can run a checkup multiple times.
You must always:
- Verify that the checkup image is from a trustworthy source before applying it.
-
Review the checkup permissions before creating the
Role
andRoleBinding
objects.
12.2.2. Running checkups by using the web console
Use the following procedures the first time you run checkups by using the web console. For additional checkups, click Run checkup on either checkup tab, and select the appropriate checkup from the drop down menu.
12.2.2.1. Running a latency checkup by using the web console
Run a latency checkup to verify network connectivity and measure the latency between two virtual machines attached to a secondary network interface.
Prerequisites
-
You must add a
NetworkAttachmentDefinition
to the namespace.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → Checkups in the web console.
- Click the Network latency tab.
- Click Install permissions.
- Click Run checkup.
- Enter a name for the checkup in the Name field.
- Select a NetworkAttachmentDefinition from the drop-down menu.
- Optional: Set a duration for the latency sample in the Sample duration (seconds) field.
- Optional: Define a maximum latency time interval by enabling Set maximum desired latency (milliseconds) and defining the time interval.
- Optional: Target specific nodes by enabling Select nodes and specifying the Source node and Target node.
- Click Run.
You can view the status of the latency checkup in the Checkups list on the Latency checkup tab. Click on the name of the checkup for more details.
12.2.2.2. Running a storage checkup by using the web console
Run a storage checkup to validate that storage is working correctly for virtual machines.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → Checkups in the web console.
- Click the Storage tab.
- Click Install permissions.
- Click Run checkup.
- Enter a name for the checkup in the Name field.
- Enter a timeout value for the checkup in the Timeout (minutes) fields.
- Click Run.
You can view the status of the storage checkup in the Checkups list on the Storage tab. Click on the name of the checkup for more details.
12.2.3. Running checkups by using the command line
Use the following procedures the first time you run checkups by using the command line.
12.2.3.1. Running a latency checkup by using the command line
You use a predefined checkup to verify network connectivity and measure latency between two virtual machines (VMs) that are attached to a secondary network interface. The latency checkup uses the ping utility.
You run a latency checkup by performing the following steps:
- Create a service account, roles, and rolebindings to provide cluster access permissions to the latency checkup.
- Create a config map to provide the input to run the checkup and to store the results.
- Create a job to run the checkup.
- Review the results in the config map.
- Optional: To rerun the checkup, delete the existing config map and job and then create a new config map and job.
- When you are finished, delete the latency checkup resources.
Prerequisites
-
You installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
). - The cluster has at least two worker nodes.
- You configured a network attachment definition for a namespace.
Procedure
Create a
ServiceAccount
,Role
, andRoleBinding
manifest for the latency checkup:Example 12.1. Example role manifest file
--- apiVersion: v1 kind: ServiceAccount metadata: name: vm-latency-checkup-sa --- apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1 kind: Role metadata: name: kubevirt-vm-latency-checker rules: - apiGroups: ["kubevirt.io"] resources: ["virtualmachineinstances"] verbs: ["get", "create", "delete"] - apiGroups: ["subresources.kubevirt.io"] resources: ["virtualmachineinstances/console"] verbs: ["get"] - apiGroups: ["k8s.cni.cncf.io"] resources: ["network-attachment-definitions"] verbs: ["get"] --- apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1 kind: RoleBinding metadata: name: kubevirt-vm-latency-checker subjects: - kind: ServiceAccount name: vm-latency-checkup-sa roleRef: kind: Role name: kubevirt-vm-latency-checker apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io --- apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1 kind: Role metadata: name: kiagnose-configmap-access rules: - apiGroups: [ "" ] resources: [ "configmaps" ] verbs: ["get", "update"] --- apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1 kind: RoleBinding metadata: name: kiagnose-configmap-access subjects: - kind: ServiceAccount name: vm-latency-checkup-sa roleRef: kind: Role name: kiagnose-configmap-access apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
Apply the
ServiceAccount
,Role
, andRoleBinding
manifest:$ oc apply -n <target_namespace> -f <latency_sa_roles_rolebinding>.yaml 1
- 1
<target_namespace>
is the namespace where the checkup is to be run. This must be an existing namespace where theNetworkAttachmentDefinition
object resides.
Create a
ConfigMap
manifest that contains the input parameters for the checkup:Example input config map
apiVersion: v1 kind: ConfigMap metadata: name: kubevirt-vm-latency-checkup-config labels: kiagnose/checkup-type: kubevirt-vm-latency data: spec.timeout: 5m spec.param.networkAttachmentDefinitionNamespace: <target_namespace> spec.param.networkAttachmentDefinitionName: "blue-network" 1 spec.param.maxDesiredLatencyMilliseconds: "10" 2 spec.param.sampleDurationSeconds: "5" 3 spec.param.sourceNode: "worker1" 4 spec.param.targetNode: "worker2" 5
- 1
- The name of the
NetworkAttachmentDefinition
object. - 2
- Optional: The maximum desired latency, in milliseconds, between the virtual machines. If the measured latency exceeds this value, the checkup fails.
- 3
- Optional: The duration of the latency check, in seconds.
- 4
- Optional: When specified, latency is measured from this node to the target node. If the source node is specified, the
spec.param.targetNode
field cannot be empty. - 5
- Optional: When specified, latency is measured from the source node to this node.
Apply the config map manifest in the target namespace:
$ oc apply -n <target_namespace> -f <latency_config_map>.yaml
Create a
Job
manifest to run the checkup:Example job manifest
apiVersion: batch/v1 kind: Job metadata: name: kubevirt-vm-latency-checkup labels: kiagnose/checkup-type: kubevirt-vm-latency spec: backoffLimit: 0 template: spec: serviceAccountName: vm-latency-checkup-sa restartPolicy: Never containers: - name: vm-latency-checkup image: registry.redhat.io/container-native-virtualization/vm-network-latency-checkup-rhel9:v4.17.0 securityContext: allowPrivilegeEscalation: false capabilities: drop: ["ALL"] runAsNonRoot: true seccompProfile: type: "RuntimeDefault" env: - name: CONFIGMAP_NAMESPACE value: <target_namespace> - name: CONFIGMAP_NAME value: kubevirt-vm-latency-checkup-config - name: POD_UID valueFrom: fieldRef: fieldPath: metadata.uid
Apply the
Job
manifest:$ oc apply -n <target_namespace> -f <latency_job>.yaml
Wait for the job to complete:
$ oc wait job kubevirt-vm-latency-checkup -n <target_namespace> --for condition=complete --timeout 6m
Review the results of the latency checkup by running the following command. If the maximum measured latency is greater than the value of the
spec.param.maxDesiredLatencyMilliseconds
attribute, the checkup fails and returns an error.$ oc get configmap kubevirt-vm-latency-checkup-config -n <target_namespace> -o yaml
Example output config map (success)
apiVersion: v1 kind: ConfigMap metadata: name: kubevirt-vm-latency-checkup-config namespace: <target_namespace> labels: kiagnose/checkup-type: kubevirt-vm-latency data: spec.timeout: 5m spec.param.networkAttachmentDefinitionNamespace: <target_namespace> spec.param.networkAttachmentDefinitionName: "blue-network" spec.param.maxDesiredLatencyMilliseconds: "10" spec.param.sampleDurationSeconds: "5" spec.param.sourceNode: "worker1" spec.param.targetNode: "worker2" status.succeeded: "true" status.failureReason: "" status.completionTimestamp: "2022-01-01T09:00:00Z" status.startTimestamp: "2022-01-01T09:00:07Z" status.result.avgLatencyNanoSec: "177000" status.result.maxLatencyNanoSec: "244000" 1 status.result.measurementDurationSec: "5" status.result.minLatencyNanoSec: "135000" status.result.sourceNode: "worker1" status.result.targetNode: "worker2"
- 1
- The maximum measured latency in nanoseconds.
Optional: To view the detailed job log in case of checkup failure, use the following command:
$ oc logs job.batch/kubevirt-vm-latency-checkup -n <target_namespace>
Delete the job and config map that you previously created by running the following commands:
$ oc delete job -n <target_namespace> kubevirt-vm-latency-checkup
$ oc delete config-map -n <target_namespace> kubevirt-vm-latency-checkup-config
Optional: If you do not plan to run another checkup, delete the roles manifest:
$ oc delete -f <latency_sa_roles_rolebinding>.yaml
12.2.3.2. Running a storage checkup by using the command line
Use a predefined checkup to verify that the OpenShift Container Platform cluster storage is configured optimally to run OpenShift Virtualization workloads.
Prerequisites
-
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
). The cluster administrator has created the required
cluster-reader
permissions for the storage checkup service account and namespace, such as in the following example:apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1 kind: ClusterRoleBinding metadata: name: kubevirt-storage-checkup-clustereader roleRef: apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io kind: ClusterRole name: cluster-reader subjects: - kind: ServiceAccount name: storage-checkup-sa namespace: <target_namespace> 1
- 1
- The namespace where the checkup is to be run.
Procedure
Create a
ServiceAccount
,Role
, andRoleBinding
manifest file for the storage checkup:Example 12.2. Example service account, role, and rolebinding manifest
--- apiVersion: v1 kind: ServiceAccount metadata: name: storage-checkup-sa --- apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1 kind: Role metadata: name: storage-checkup-role rules: - apiGroups: [ "" ] resources: [ "configmaps" ] verbs: ["get", "update"] - apiGroups: [ "kubevirt.io" ] resources: [ "virtualmachines" ] verbs: [ "create", "delete" ] - apiGroups: [ "kubevirt.io" ] resources: [ "virtualmachineinstances" ] verbs: [ "get" ] - apiGroups: [ "subresources.kubevirt.io" ] resources: [ "virtualmachineinstances/addvolume", "virtualmachineinstances/removevolume" ] verbs: [ "update" ] - apiGroups: [ "kubevirt.io" ] resources: [ "virtualmachineinstancemigrations" ] verbs: [ "create" ] - apiGroups: [ "cdi.kubevirt.io" ] resources: [ "datavolumes" ] verbs: [ "create", "delete" ] - apiGroups: [ "" ] resources: [ "persistentvolumeclaims" ] verbs: [ "delete" ] --- apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1 kind: RoleBinding metadata: name: storage-checkup-role subjects: - kind: ServiceAccount name: storage-checkup-sa roleRef: apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io kind: Role name: storage-checkup-role
Apply the
ServiceAccount
,Role
, andRoleBinding
manifest in the target namespace:$ oc apply -n <target_namespace> -f <storage_sa_roles_rolebinding>.yaml
Create a
ConfigMap
andJob
manifest file. The config map contains the input parameters for the checkup job.Example input config map and job manifest
--- apiVersion: v1 kind: ConfigMap metadata: name: storage-checkup-config namespace: $CHECKUP_NAMESPACE data: spec.timeout: 10m spec.param.storageClass: ocs-storagecluster-ceph-rbd-virtualization spec.param.vmiTimeout: 3m --- apiVersion: batch/v1 kind: Job metadata: name: storage-checkup namespace: $CHECKUP_NAMESPACE spec: backoffLimit: 0 template: spec: serviceAccount: storage-checkup-sa restartPolicy: Never containers: - name: storage-checkup image: quay.io/kiagnose/kubevirt-storage-checkup:main imagePullPolicy: Always env: - name: CONFIGMAP_NAMESPACE value: $CHECKUP_NAMESPACE - name: CONFIGMAP_NAME value: storage-checkup-config
Apply the
ConfigMap
andJob
manifest file in the target namespace to run the checkup:$ oc apply -n <target_namespace> -f <storage_configmap_job>.yaml
Wait for the job to complete:
$ oc wait job storage-checkup -n <target_namespace> --for condition=complete --timeout 10m
Review the results of the checkup by running the following command:
$ oc get configmap storage-checkup-config -n <target_namespace> -o yaml
Example output config map (success)
apiVersion: v1 kind: ConfigMap metadata: name: storage-checkup-config labels: kiagnose/checkup-type: kubevirt-storage data: spec.timeout: 10m status.succeeded: "true" 1 status.failureReason: "" 2 status.startTimestamp: "2023-07-31T13:14:38Z" 3 status.completionTimestamp: "2023-07-31T13:19:41Z" 4 status.result.cnvVersion: 4.17.2 5 status.result.defaultStorageClass: trident-nfs 6 status.result.goldenImagesNoDataSource: <data_import_cron_list> 7 status.result.goldenImagesNotUpToDate: <data_import_cron_list> 8 status.result.ocpVersion: 4.17.0 9 status.result.pvcBound: "true" 10 status.result.storageProfileMissingVolumeSnapshotClass: <storage_class_list> 11 status.result.storageProfilesWithEmptyClaimPropertySets: <storage_profile_list> 12 status.result.storageProfilesWithSmartClone: <storage_profile_list> 13 status.result.storageProfilesWithSpecClaimPropertySets: <storage_profile_list> 14 status.result.storageProfilesWithRWX: |- ocs-storagecluster-ceph-rbd ocs-storagecluster-ceph-rbd-virtualization ocs-storagecluster-cephfs trident-iscsi trident-minio trident-nfs windows-vms status.result.vmBootFromGoldenImage: VMI "vmi-under-test-dhkb8" successfully booted status.result.vmHotplugVolume: |- VMI "vmi-under-test-dhkb8" hotplug volume ready VMI "vmi-under-test-dhkb8" hotplug volume removed status.result.vmLiveMigration: VMI "vmi-under-test-dhkb8" migration completed status.result.vmVolumeClone: 'DV cloneType: "csi-clone"' status.result.vmsWithNonVirtRbdStorageClass: <vm_list> 15 status.result.vmsWithUnsetEfsStorageClass: <vm_list> 16
- 1
- Specifies if the checkup is successful (
true
) or not (false
). - 2
- The reason for failure if the checkup fails.
- 3
- The time when the checkup started, in RFC 3339 time format.
- 4
- The time when the checkup has completed, in RFC 3339 time format.
- 5
- The OpenShift Virtualization version.
- 6
- Specifies if there is a default storage class.
- 7
- The list of golden images whose data source is not ready.
- 8
- The list of golden images whose data import cron is not up-to-date.
- 9
- The OpenShift Container Platform version.
- 10
- Specifies if a PVC of 10Mi has been created and bound by the provisioner.
- 11
- The list of storage profiles using snapshot-based clone but missing VolumeSnapshotClass.
- 12
- The list of storage profiles with unknown provisioners.
- 13
- The list of storage profiles with smart clone support (CSI/snapshot).
- 14
- The list of storage profiles spec-overriden claimPropertySets.
- 15
- The list of virtual machines that use the Ceph RBD storage class when the virtualization storage class exists.
- 16
- The list of virtual machines that use an Elastic File Store (EFS) storage class where the GID and UID are not set in the storage class.
Delete the job and config map that you previously created by running the following commands:
$ oc delete job -n <target_namespace> storage-checkup
$ oc delete config-map -n <target_namespace> storage-checkup-config
Optional: If you do not plan to run another checkup, delete the
ServiceAccount
,Role
, andRoleBinding
manifest:$ oc delete -f <storage_sa_roles_rolebinding>.yaml
12.2.3.3. Running a DPDK checkup by using the command line
Use a predefined checkup to verify that your OpenShift Container Platform cluster node can run a virtual machine (VM) with a Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) workload with zero packet loss. The DPDK checkup runs traffic between a traffic generator and a VM running a test DPDK application.
You run a DPDK checkup by performing the following steps:
- Create a service account, role, and role bindings for the DPDK checkup.
- Create a config map to provide the input to run the checkup and to store the results.
- Create a job to run the checkup.
- Review the results in the config map.
- Optional: To rerun the checkup, delete the existing config map and job and then create a new config map and job.
- When you are finished, delete the DPDK checkup resources.
Prerequisites
-
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
). - The cluster is configured to run DPDK applications.
- The project is configured to run DPDK applications.
Procedure
Create a
ServiceAccount
,Role
, andRoleBinding
manifest for the DPDK checkup:Example 12.3. Example service account, role, and rolebinding manifest file
--- apiVersion: v1 kind: ServiceAccount metadata: name: dpdk-checkup-sa --- apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1 kind: Role metadata: name: kiagnose-configmap-access rules: - apiGroups: [ "" ] resources: [ "configmaps" ] verbs: [ "get", "update" ] --- apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1 kind: RoleBinding metadata: name: kiagnose-configmap-access subjects: - kind: ServiceAccount name: dpdk-checkup-sa roleRef: apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io kind: Role name: kiagnose-configmap-access --- apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1 kind: Role metadata: name: kubevirt-dpdk-checker rules: - apiGroups: [ "kubevirt.io" ] resources: [ "virtualmachineinstances" ] verbs: [ "create", "get", "delete" ] - apiGroups: [ "subresources.kubevirt.io" ] resources: [ "virtualmachineinstances/console" ] verbs: [ "get" ] - apiGroups: [ "" ] resources: [ "configmaps" ] verbs: [ "create", "delete" ] --- apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1 kind: RoleBinding metadata: name: kubevirt-dpdk-checker subjects: - kind: ServiceAccount name: dpdk-checkup-sa roleRef: apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io kind: Role name: kubevirt-dpdk-checker
Apply the
ServiceAccount
,Role
, andRoleBinding
manifest:$ oc apply -n <target_namespace> -f <dpdk_sa_roles_rolebinding>.yaml
Create a
ConfigMap
manifest that contains the input parameters for the checkup:Example input config map
apiVersion: v1 kind: ConfigMap metadata: name: dpdk-checkup-config labels: kiagnose/checkup-type: kubevirt-dpdk data: spec.timeout: 10m spec.param.networkAttachmentDefinitionName: <network_name> 1 spec.param.trafficGenContainerDiskImage: "quay.io/kiagnose/kubevirt-dpdk-checkup-traffic-gen:v0.4.0 2 spec.param.vmUnderTestContainerDiskImage: "quay.io/kiagnose/kubevirt-dpdk-checkup-vm:v0.4.0" 3
- 1
- The name of the
NetworkAttachmentDefinition
object. - 2
- The container disk image for the traffic generator. In this example, the image is pulled from the upstream Project Quay Container Registry.
- 3
- The container disk image for the VM under test. In this example, the image is pulled from the upstream Project Quay Container Registry.
Apply the
ConfigMap
manifest in the target namespace:$ oc apply -n <target_namespace> -f <dpdk_config_map>.yaml
Create a
Job
manifest to run the checkup:Example job manifest
apiVersion: batch/v1 kind: Job metadata: name: dpdk-checkup labels: kiagnose/checkup-type: kubevirt-dpdk spec: backoffLimit: 0 template: spec: serviceAccountName: dpdk-checkup-sa restartPolicy: Never containers: - name: dpdk-checkup image: registry.redhat.io/container-native-virtualization/kubevirt-dpdk-checkup-rhel9:v4.17.0 imagePullPolicy: Always securityContext: allowPrivilegeEscalation: false capabilities: drop: ["ALL"] runAsNonRoot: true seccompProfile: type: "RuntimeDefault" env: - name: CONFIGMAP_NAMESPACE value: <target-namespace> - name: CONFIGMAP_NAME value: dpdk-checkup-config - name: POD_UID valueFrom: fieldRef: fieldPath: metadata.uid
Apply the
Job
manifest:$ oc apply -n <target_namespace> -f <dpdk_job>.yaml
Wait for the job to complete:
$ oc wait job dpdk-checkup -n <target_namespace> --for condition=complete --timeout 10m
Review the results of the checkup by running the following command:
$ oc get configmap dpdk-checkup-config -n <target_namespace> -o yaml
Example output config map (success)
apiVersion: v1 kind: ConfigMap metadata: name: dpdk-checkup-config labels: kiagnose/checkup-type: kubevirt-dpdk data: spec.timeout: 10m spec.param.NetworkAttachmentDefinitionName: "dpdk-network-1" spec.param.trafficGenContainerDiskImage: "quay.io/kiagnose/kubevirt-dpdk-checkup-traffic-gen:v0.4.0" spec.param.vmUnderTestContainerDiskImage: "quay.io/kiagnose/kubevirt-dpdk-checkup-vm:v0.4.0" status.succeeded: "true" 1 status.failureReason: "" 2 status.startTimestamp: "2023-07-31T13:14:38Z" 3 status.completionTimestamp: "2023-07-31T13:19:41Z" 4 status.result.trafficGenSentPackets: "480000000" 5 status.result.trafficGenOutputErrorPackets: "0" 6 status.result.trafficGenInputErrorPackets: "0" 7 status.result.trafficGenActualNodeName: worker-dpdk1 8 status.result.vmUnderTestActualNodeName: worker-dpdk2 9 status.result.vmUnderTestReceivedPackets: "480000000" 10 status.result.vmUnderTestRxDroppedPackets: "0" 11 status.result.vmUnderTestTxDroppedPackets: "0" 12
- 1
- Specifies if the checkup is successful (
true
) or not (false
). - 2
- The reason for failure if the checkup fails.
- 3
- The time when the checkup started, in RFC 3339 time format.
- 4
- The time when the checkup has completed, in RFC 3339 time format.
- 5
- The number of packets sent from the traffic generator.
- 6
- The number of error packets sent from the traffic generator.
- 7
- The number of error packets received by the traffic generator.
- 8
- The node on which the traffic generator VM was scheduled.
- 9
- The node on which the VM under test was scheduled.
- 10
- The number of packets received on the VM under test.
- 11
- The ingress traffic packets that were dropped by the DPDK application.
- 12
- The egress traffic packets that were dropped from the DPDK application.
Delete the job and config map that you previously created by running the following commands:
$ oc delete job -n <target_namespace> dpdk-checkup
$ oc delete config-map -n <target_namespace> dpdk-checkup-config
Optional: If you do not plan to run another checkup, delete the
ServiceAccount
,Role
, andRoleBinding
manifest:$ oc delete -f <dpdk_sa_roles_rolebinding>.yaml
12.2.3.3.1. DPDK checkup config map parameters
The following table shows the mandatory and optional parameters that you can set in the data
stanza of the input ConfigMap
manifest when you run a cluster DPDK readiness checkup:
Parameter | Description | Is Mandatory |
---|---|---|
| The time, in minutes, before the checkup fails. | True |
|
The name of the | True |
| The container disk image for the traffic generator. | True |
| The node on which the traffic generator VM is to be scheduled. The node should be configured to allow DPDK traffic. | False |
| The number of packets per second, in kilo (k) or million(m). The default value is 8m. | False |
| The container disk image for the VM under test. | True |
| The node on which the VM under test is to be scheduled. The node should be configured to allow DPDK traffic. | False |
| The duration, in minutes, for which the traffic generator runs. The default value is 5 minutes. | False |
| The maximum bandwidth of the SR-IOV NIC. The default value is 10Gbps. | False |
|
When set to | False |
12.2.3.3.2. Building a container disk image for RHEL virtual machines
You can build a custom Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9 OS image in qcow2
format and use it to create a container disk image. You can store the container disk image in a registry that is accessible from your cluster and specify the image location in the spec.param.vmContainerDiskImage
attribute of the DPDK checkup config map.
To build a container disk image, you must create an image builder virtual machine (VM). The image builder VM is a RHEL 9 VM that can be used to build custom RHEL images.
Prerequisites
-
The image builder VM must run RHEL 9.4 and must have a minimum of 2 CPU cores, 4 GiB RAM, and 20 GB of free space in the
/var
directory. -
You have installed the image builder tool and its CLI (
composer-cli
) on the VM. For more information, see "Additional resources". You have installed the
virt-customize
tool:# dnf install guestfs-tools
-
You have installed the Podman CLI tool (
podman
).
Procedure
Verify that you can build a RHEL 9.4 image:
# composer-cli distros list
NoteTo run the
composer-cli
commands as non-root, add your user to theweldr
orroot
groups:# usermod -a -G weldr <user>
$ newgrp weldr
Enter the following command to create an image blueprint file in TOML format that contains the packages to be installed, kernel customizations, and the services to be disabled during boot time:
$ cat << EOF > dpdk-vm.toml name = "dpdk_image" description = "Image to use with the DPDK checkup" version = "0.0.1" distro = "rhel-9.4" [[customizations.user]] name = "root" password = "redhat" [[packages]] name = "dpdk" [[packages]] name = "dpdk-tools" [[packages]] name = "driverctl" [[packages]] name = "tuned-profiles-cpu-partitioning" [customizations.kernel] append = "default_hugepagesz=1GB hugepagesz=1G hugepages=1" [customizations.services] disabled = ["NetworkManager-wait-online", "sshd"] EOF
Push the blueprint file to the image builder tool by running the following command:
# composer-cli blueprints push dpdk-vm.toml
Generate the system image by specifying the blueprint name and output file format. The Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) of the image is displayed when you start the compose process.
# composer-cli compose start dpdk_image qcow2
Wait for the compose process to complete. The compose status must show
FINISHED
before you can continue to the next step.# composer-cli compose status
Enter the following command to download the
qcow2
image file by specifying its UUID:# composer-cli compose image <UUID>
Create the customization scripts by running the following commands:
$ cat <<EOF >customize-vm #!/bin/bash # Setup hugepages mount mkdir -p /mnt/huge echo "hugetlbfs /mnt/huge hugetlbfs defaults,pagesize=1GB 0 0" >> /etc/fstab # Create vfio-noiommu.conf echo "options vfio enable_unsafe_noiommu_mode=1" > /etc/modprobe.d/vfio-noiommu.conf # Enable guest-exec,guest-exec-status on the qemu-guest-agent configuration sed -i 's/\(--allow-rpcs=[^"]*\)/\1,guest-exec-status,guest-exec/' /etc/sysconfig/qemu-ga # Disable Bracketed-paste mode echo "set enable-bracketed-paste off" >> /root/.inputrc EOF
Use the
virt-customize
tool to customize the image generated by the image builder tool:$ virt-customize -a <UUID>-disk.qcow2 --run=customize-vm --selinux-relabel
To create a Dockerfile that contains all the commands to build the container disk image, enter the following command:
$ cat << EOF > Dockerfile FROM scratch COPY --chown=107:107 <UUID>-disk.qcow2 /disk/ EOF
where:
- <UUID>-disk.qcow2
-
Specifies the name of the custom image in
qcow2
format.
Build and tag the container by running the following command:
$ podman build . -t dpdk-rhel:latest
Push the container disk image to a registry that is accessible from your cluster by running the following command:
$ podman push dpdk-rhel:latest
-
Provide a link to the container disk image in the
spec.param.vmUnderTestContainerDiskImage
attribute in the DPDK checkup config map.
12.2.4. Additional resources
- Attaching a virtual machine to multiple networks
- Using a virtual function in DPDK mode with an Intel NIC
- Using SR-IOV and the Node Tuning Operator to achieve a DPDK line rate
- Installing image builder
- How to register and subscribe a RHEL system to the Red Hat Customer Portal using Red Hat Subscription Manager
12.3. Prometheus queries for virtual resources
OpenShift Virtualization provides metrics that you can use to monitor the consumption of cluster infrastructure resources, including vCPU, network, storage, and guest memory swapping. You can also use metrics to query live migration status.
12.3.1. Prerequisites
-
To use the vCPU metric, the
schedstats=enable
kernel argument must be applied to theMachineConfig
object. This kernel argument enables scheduler statistics used for debugging and performance tuning and adds a minor additional load to the scheduler. For more information, see Adding kernel arguments to nodes. - For guest memory swapping queries to return data, memory swapping must be enabled on the virtual guests.
12.3.2. Querying metrics
The OpenShift Container Platform monitoring dashboard enables you to run Prometheus Query Language (PromQL) queries to examine metrics visualized on a plot. This functionality provides information about the state of a cluster and any user-defined workloads that you are monitoring.
As a cluster administrator, you can query metrics for all core OpenShift Container Platform and user-defined projects.
As a developer, you must specify a project name when querying metrics. You must have the required privileges to view metrics for the selected project.
12.3.2.1. Querying metrics for all projects as a cluster administrator
As a cluster administrator or as a user with view permissions for all projects, you can access metrics for all default OpenShift Container Platform and user-defined projects in the Metrics UI.
Prerequisites
-
You have access to the cluster as a user with the
cluster-admin
cluster role or with view permissions for all projects. -
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
).
Procedure
- From the Administrator perspective in the OpenShift Container Platform web console, select Observe → Metrics.
To add one or more queries, do any of the following:
Option Description Create a custom query.
Add your Prometheus Query Language (PromQL) query to the Expression field.
As you type a PromQL expression, autocomplete suggestions appear in a drop-down list. These suggestions include functions, metrics, labels, and time tokens. You can use the keyboard arrows to select one of these suggested items and then press Enter to add the item to your expression. You can also move your mouse pointer over a suggested item to view a brief description of that item.
Add multiple queries.
Select Add query.
Duplicate an existing query.
Select the Options menu next to the query, then choose Duplicate query.
Disable a query from being run.
Select the Options menu next to the query and choose Disable query.
To run queries that you created, select Run queries. The metrics from the queries are visualized on the plot. If a query is invalid, the UI shows an error message.
NoteQueries that operate on large amounts of data might time out or overload the browser when drawing time series graphs. To avoid this, select Hide graph and calibrate your query using only the metrics table. Then, after finding a feasible query, enable the plot to draw the graphs.
NoteBy default, the query table shows an expanded view that lists every metric and its current value. You can select ˅ to minimize the expanded view for a query.
- Optional: The page URL now contains the queries you ran. To use this set of queries again in the future, save this URL.
Explore the visualized metrics. Initially, all metrics from all enabled queries are shown on the plot. You can select which metrics are shown by doing any of the following:
Option Description Hide all metrics from a query.
Click the Options menu for the query and click Hide all series.
Hide a specific metric.
Go to the query table and click the colored square near the metric name.
Zoom into the plot and change the time range.
Either:
- Visually select the time range by clicking and dragging on the plot horizontally.
- Use the menu in the left upper corner to select the time range.
Reset the time range.
Select Reset zoom.
Display outputs for all queries at a specific point in time.
Hold the mouse cursor on the plot at that point. The query outputs will appear in a pop-up box.
Hide the plot.
Select Hide graph.
12.3.2.2. Querying metrics for user-defined projects as a developer
You can access metrics for a user-defined project as a developer or as a user with view permissions for the project.
In the Developer perspective, the Metrics UI includes some predefined CPU, memory, bandwidth, and network packet queries for the selected project. You can also run custom Prometheus Query Language (PromQL) queries for CPU, memory, bandwidth, network packet and application metrics for the project.
Developers can only use the Developer perspective and not the Administrator perspective. As a developer, you can only query metrics for one project at a time.
Prerequisites
- You have access to the cluster as a developer or as a user with view permissions for the project that you are viewing metrics for.
- You have enabled monitoring for user-defined projects.
- You have deployed a service in a user-defined project.
-
You have created a
ServiceMonitor
custom resource definition (CRD) for the service to define how the service is monitored.
Procedure
- From the Developer perspective in the OpenShift Container Platform web console, select Observe → Metrics.
- Select the project that you want to view metrics for in the Project: list.
Select a query from the Select query list, or create a custom PromQL query based on the selected query by selecting Show PromQL. The metrics from the queries are visualized on the plot.
NoteIn the Developer perspective, you can only run one query at a time.
Explore the visualized metrics by doing any of the following:
Option Description Zoom into the plot and change the time range.
Either:
- Visually select the time range by clicking and dragging on the plot horizontally.
- Use the menu in the left upper corner to select the time range.
Reset the time range.
Select Reset zoom.
Display outputs for all queries at a specific point in time.
Hold the mouse cursor on the plot at that point. The query outputs appear in a pop-up box.
12.3.3. Virtualization metrics
The following metric descriptions include example Prometheus Query Language (PromQL) queries. These metrics are not an API and might change between versions. For a complete list of virtualization metrics, see KubeVirt components metrics.
The following examples use topk
queries that specify a time period. If virtual machines are deleted during that time period, they can still appear in the query output.
12.3.3.1. vCPU metrics
The following query can identify virtual machines that are waiting for Input/Output (I/O):
kubevirt_vmi_vcpu_wait_seconds_total
- Returns the wait time (in seconds) for a virtual machine’s vCPU. Type: Counter.
A value above '0' means that the vCPU wants to run, but the host scheduler cannot run it yet. This inability to run indicates that there is an issue with I/O.
To query the vCPU metric, the schedstats=enable
kernel argument must first be applied to the MachineConfig
object. This kernel argument enables scheduler statistics used for debugging and performance tuning and adds a minor additional load to the scheduler.
Example vCPU wait time query
topk(3, sum by (name, namespace) (rate(kubevirt_vmi_vcpu_wait_seconds_total[6m]))) > 0 1
- 1
- This query returns the top 3 VMs waiting for I/O at every given moment over a six-minute time period.
12.3.3.2. Network metrics
The following queries can identify virtual machines that are saturating the network:
kubevirt_vmi_network_receive_bytes_total
- Returns the total amount of traffic received (in bytes) on the virtual machine’s network. Type: Counter.
kubevirt_vmi_network_transmit_bytes_total
- Returns the total amount of traffic transmitted (in bytes) on the virtual machine’s network. Type: Counter.
Example network traffic query
topk(3, sum by (name, namespace) (rate(kubevirt_vmi_network_receive_bytes_total[6m])) + sum by (name, namespace) (rate(kubevirt_vmi_network_transmit_bytes_total[6m]))) > 0 1
- 1
- This query returns the top 3 VMs transmitting the most network traffic at every given moment over a six-minute time period.
12.3.3.3. Storage metrics
12.3.3.3.1. Storage-related traffic
The following queries can identify VMs that are writing large amounts of data:
kubevirt_vmi_storage_read_traffic_bytes_total
- Returns the total amount (in bytes) of the virtual machine’s storage-related traffic. Type: Counter.
kubevirt_vmi_storage_write_traffic_bytes_total
- Returns the total amount of storage writes (in bytes) of the virtual machine’s storage-related traffic. Type: Counter.
Example storage-related traffic query
topk(3, sum by (name, namespace) (rate(kubevirt_vmi_storage_read_traffic_bytes_total[6m])) + sum by (name, namespace) (rate(kubevirt_vmi_storage_write_traffic_bytes_total[6m]))) > 0 1
- 1
- This query returns the top 3 VMs performing the most storage traffic at every given moment over a six-minute time period.
12.3.3.3.2. Storage snapshot data
kubevirt_vmsnapshot_disks_restored_from_source
- Returns the total number of virtual machine disks restored from the source virtual machine. Type: Gauge.
kubevirt_vmsnapshot_disks_restored_from_source_bytes
- Returns the amount of space in bytes restored from the source virtual machine. Type: Gauge.
Examples of storage snapshot data queries
kubevirt_vmsnapshot_disks_restored_from_source{vm_name="simple-vm", vm_namespace="default"} 1
- 1
- This query returns the total number of virtual machine disks restored from the source virtual machine.
kubevirt_vmsnapshot_disks_restored_from_source_bytes{vm_name="simple-vm", vm_namespace="default"} 1
- 1
- This query returns the amount of space in bytes restored from the source virtual machine.
12.3.3.3.3. I/O performance
The following queries can determine the I/O performance of storage devices:
kubevirt_vmi_storage_iops_read_total
- Returns the amount of write I/O operations the virtual machine is performing per second. Type: Counter.
kubevirt_vmi_storage_iops_write_total
- Returns the amount of read I/O operations the virtual machine is performing per second. Type: Counter.
Example I/O performance query
topk(3, sum by (name, namespace) (rate(kubevirt_vmi_storage_iops_read_total[6m])) + sum by (name, namespace) (rate(kubevirt_vmi_storage_iops_write_total[6m]))) > 0 1
- 1
- This query returns the top 3 VMs performing the most I/O operations per second at every given moment over a six-minute time period.
12.3.3.4. Guest memory swapping metrics
The following queries can identify which swap-enabled guests are performing the most memory swapping:
kubevirt_vmi_memory_swap_in_traffic_bytes
- Returns the total amount (in bytes) of memory the virtual guest is swapping in. Type: Gauge.
kubevirt_vmi_memory_swap_out_traffic_bytes
- Returns the total amount (in bytes) of memory the virtual guest is swapping out. Type: Gauge.
Example memory swapping query
topk(3, sum by (name, namespace) (rate(kubevirt_vmi_memory_swap_in_traffic_bytes[6m])) + sum by (name, namespace) (rate(kubevirt_vmi_memory_swap_out_traffic_bytes[6m]))) > 0 1
- 1
- This query returns the top 3 VMs where the guest is performing the most memory swapping at every given moment over a six-minute time period.
Memory swapping indicates that the virtual machine is under memory pressure. Increasing the memory allocation of the virtual machine can mitigate this issue.
12.3.3.5. Live migration metrics
The following metrics can be queried to show live migration status:
kubevirt_vmi_migration_data_processed_bytes
- The amount of guest operating system data that has migrated to the new virtual machine (VM). Type: Gauge.
kubevirt_vmi_migration_data_remaining_bytes
- The amount of guest operating system data that remains to be migrated. Type: Gauge.
kubevirt_vmi_migration_memory_transfer_rate_bytes
- The rate at which memory is becoming dirty in the guest operating system. Dirty memory is data that has been changed but not yet written to disk. Type: Gauge.
kubevirt_vmi_migrations_in_pending_phase
- The number of pending migrations. Type: Gauge.
kubevirt_vmi_migrations_in_scheduling_phase
- The number of scheduling migrations. Type: Gauge.
kubevirt_vmi_migrations_in_running_phase
- The number of running migrations. Type: Gauge.
kubevirt_vmi_migration_succeeded
- The number of successfully completed migrations. Type: Gauge.
kubevirt_vmi_migration_failed
- The number of failed migrations. Type: Gauge.
12.3.4. Additional resources
12.4. Exposing custom metrics for virtual machines
OpenShift Container Platform includes a preconfigured, preinstalled, and self-updating monitoring stack that provides monitoring for core platform components. This monitoring stack is based on the Prometheus monitoring system. Prometheus is a time-series database and a rule evaluation engine for metrics.
In addition to using the OpenShift Container Platform monitoring stack, you can enable monitoring for user-defined projects by using the CLI and query custom metrics that are exposed for virtual machines through the node-exporter
service.
12.4.1. Configuring the node exporter service
The node-exporter agent is deployed on every virtual machine in the cluster from which you want to collect metrics. Configure the node-exporter agent as a service to expose internal metrics and processes that are associated with virtual machines.
Prerequisites
-
Install the OpenShift Container Platform CLI
oc
. -
Log in to the cluster as a user with
cluster-admin
privileges. -
Create the
cluster-monitoring-config
ConfigMap
object in theopenshift-monitoring
project. -
Configure the
user-workload-monitoring-config
ConfigMap
object in theopenshift-user-workload-monitoring
project by settingenableUserWorkload
totrue
.
Procedure
Create the
Service
YAML file. In the following example, the file is callednode-exporter-service.yaml
.kind: Service apiVersion: v1 metadata: name: node-exporter-service 1 namespace: dynamation 2 labels: servicetype: metrics 3 spec: ports: - name: exmet 4 protocol: TCP port: 9100 5 targetPort: 9100 6 type: ClusterIP selector: monitor: metrics 7
- 1
- The node-exporter service that exposes the metrics from the virtual machines.
- 2
- The namespace where the service is created.
- 3
- The label for the service. The
ServiceMonitor
uses this label to match this service. - 4
- The name given to the port that exposes metrics on port 9100 for the
ClusterIP
service. - 5
- The target port used by
node-exporter-service
to listen for requests. - 6
- The TCP port number of the virtual machine that is configured with the
monitor
label. - 7
- The label used to match the virtual machine’s pods. In this example, any virtual machine’s pod with the label
monitor
and a value ofmetrics
will be matched.
Create the node-exporter service:
$ oc create -f node-exporter-service.yaml
12.4.2. Configuring a virtual machine with the node exporter service
Download the node-exporter
file on to the virtual machine. Then, create a systemd
service that runs the node-exporter service when the virtual machine boots.
Prerequisites
-
The pods for the component are running in the
openshift-user-workload-monitoring
project. -
Grant the
monitoring-edit
role to users who need to monitor this user-defined project.
Procedure
- Log on to the virtual machine.
Download the
node-exporter
file on to the virtual machine by using the directory path that applies to the version ofnode-exporter
file.$ wget https://github.com/prometheus/node_exporter/releases/download/v1.3.1/node_exporter-1.3.1.linux-amd64.tar.gz
Extract the executable and place it in the
/usr/bin
directory.$ sudo tar xvf node_exporter-1.3.1.linux-amd64.tar.gz \ --directory /usr/bin --strip 1 "*/node_exporter"
Create a
node_exporter.service
file in this directory path:/etc/systemd/system
. Thissystemd
service file runs the node-exporter service when the virtual machine reboots.[Unit] Description=Prometheus Metrics Exporter After=network.target StartLimitIntervalSec=0 [Service] Type=simple Restart=always RestartSec=1 User=root ExecStart=/usr/bin/node_exporter [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target
Enable and start the
systemd
service.$ sudo systemctl enable node_exporter.service $ sudo systemctl start node_exporter.service
Verification
Verify that the node-exporter agent is reporting metrics from the virtual machine.
$ curl http://localhost:9100/metrics
Example output
go_gc_duration_seconds{quantile="0"} 1.5244e-05 go_gc_duration_seconds{quantile="0.25"} 3.0449e-05 go_gc_duration_seconds{quantile="0.5"} 3.7913e-05
12.4.3. Creating a custom monitoring label for virtual machines
To enable queries to multiple virtual machines from a single service, add a custom label in the virtual machine’s YAML file.
Prerequisites
-
Install the OpenShift Container Platform CLI
oc
. -
Log in as a user with
cluster-admin
privileges. - Access to the web console for stop and restart a virtual machine.
Procedure
Edit the
template
spec of your virtual machine configuration file. In this example, the labelmonitor
has the valuemetrics
.spec: template: metadata: labels: monitor: metrics
-
Stop and restart the virtual machine to create a new pod with the label name given to the
monitor
label.
12.4.3.1. Querying the node-exporter service for metrics
Metrics are exposed for virtual machines through an HTTP service endpoint under the /metrics
canonical name. When you query for metrics, Prometheus directly scrapes the metrics from the metrics endpoint exposed by the virtual machines and presents these metrics for viewing.
Prerequisites
-
You have access to the cluster as a user with
cluster-admin
privileges or themonitoring-edit
role. - You have enabled monitoring for the user-defined project by configuring the node-exporter service.
Procedure
Obtain the HTTP service endpoint by specifying the namespace for the service:
$ oc get service -n <namespace> <node-exporter-service>
To list all available metrics for the node-exporter service, query the
metrics
resource.$ curl http://<172.30.226.162:9100>/metrics | grep -vE "^#|^$"
Example output
node_arp_entries{device="eth0"} 1 node_boot_time_seconds 1.643153218e+09 node_context_switches_total 4.4938158e+07 node_cooling_device_cur_state{name="0",type="Processor"} 0 node_cooling_device_max_state{name="0",type="Processor"} 0 node_cpu_guest_seconds_total{cpu="0",mode="nice"} 0 node_cpu_guest_seconds_total{cpu="0",mode="user"} 0 node_cpu_seconds_total{cpu="0",mode="idle"} 1.10586485e+06 node_cpu_seconds_total{cpu="0",mode="iowait"} 37.61 node_cpu_seconds_total{cpu="0",mode="irq"} 233.91 node_cpu_seconds_total{cpu="0",mode="nice"} 551.47 node_cpu_seconds_total{cpu="0",mode="softirq"} 87.3 node_cpu_seconds_total{cpu="0",mode="steal"} 86.12 node_cpu_seconds_total{cpu="0",mode="system"} 464.15 node_cpu_seconds_total{cpu="0",mode="user"} 1075.2 node_disk_discard_time_seconds_total{device="vda"} 0 node_disk_discard_time_seconds_total{device="vdb"} 0 node_disk_discarded_sectors_total{device="vda"} 0 node_disk_discarded_sectors_total{device="vdb"} 0 node_disk_discards_completed_total{device="vda"} 0 node_disk_discards_completed_total{device="vdb"} 0 node_disk_discards_merged_total{device="vda"} 0 node_disk_discards_merged_total{device="vdb"} 0 node_disk_info{device="vda",major="252",minor="0"} 1 node_disk_info{device="vdb",major="252",minor="16"} 1 node_disk_io_now{device="vda"} 0 node_disk_io_now{device="vdb"} 0 node_disk_io_time_seconds_total{device="vda"} 174 node_disk_io_time_seconds_total{device="vdb"} 0.054 node_disk_io_time_weighted_seconds_total{device="vda"} 259.79200000000003 node_disk_io_time_weighted_seconds_total{device="vdb"} 0.039 node_disk_read_bytes_total{device="vda"} 3.71867136e+08 node_disk_read_bytes_total{device="vdb"} 366592 node_disk_read_time_seconds_total{device="vda"} 19.128 node_disk_read_time_seconds_total{device="vdb"} 0.039 node_disk_reads_completed_total{device="vda"} 5619 node_disk_reads_completed_total{device="vdb"} 96 node_disk_reads_merged_total{device="vda"} 5 node_disk_reads_merged_total{device="vdb"} 0 node_disk_write_time_seconds_total{device="vda"} 240.66400000000002 node_disk_write_time_seconds_total{device="vdb"} 0 node_disk_writes_completed_total{device="vda"} 71584 node_disk_writes_completed_total{device="vdb"} 0 node_disk_writes_merged_total{device="vda"} 19761 node_disk_writes_merged_total{device="vdb"} 0 node_disk_written_bytes_total{device="vda"} 2.007924224e+09 node_disk_written_bytes_total{device="vdb"} 0
12.4.4. Creating a ServiceMonitor resource for the node exporter service
You can use a Prometheus client library and scrape metrics from the /metrics
endpoint to access and view the metrics exposed by the node-exporter service. Use a ServiceMonitor
custom resource definition (CRD) to monitor the node exporter service.
Prerequisites
-
You have access to the cluster as a user with
cluster-admin
privileges or themonitoring-edit
role. - You have enabled monitoring for the user-defined project by configuring the node-exporter service.
Procedure
Create a YAML file for the
ServiceMonitor
resource configuration. In this example, the service monitor matches any service with the labelmetrics
and queries theexmet
port every 30 seconds.apiVersion: monitoring.coreos.com/v1 kind: ServiceMonitor metadata: labels: k8s-app: node-exporter-metrics-monitor name: node-exporter-metrics-monitor 1 namespace: dynamation 2 spec: endpoints: - interval: 30s 3 port: exmet 4 scheme: http selector: matchLabels: servicetype: metrics
Create the
ServiceMonitor
configuration for the node-exporter service.$ oc create -f node-exporter-metrics-monitor.yaml
12.4.4.1. Accessing the node exporter service outside the cluster
You can access the node-exporter service outside the cluster and view the exposed metrics.
Prerequisites
-
You have access to the cluster as a user with
cluster-admin
privileges or themonitoring-edit
role. - You have enabled monitoring for the user-defined project by configuring the node-exporter service.
Procedure
Expose the node-exporter service.
$ oc expose service -n <namespace> <node_exporter_service_name>
Obtain the FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) for the route.
$ oc get route -o=custom-columns=NAME:.metadata.name,DNS:.spec.host
Example output
NAME DNS node-exporter-service node-exporter-service-dynamation.apps.cluster.example.org
Use the
curl
command to display metrics for the node-exporter service.$ curl -s http://node-exporter-service-dynamation.apps.cluster.example.org/metrics
Example output
go_gc_duration_seconds{quantile="0"} 1.5382e-05 go_gc_duration_seconds{quantile="0.25"} 3.1163e-05 go_gc_duration_seconds{quantile="0.5"} 3.8546e-05 go_gc_duration_seconds{quantile="0.75"} 4.9139e-05 go_gc_duration_seconds{quantile="1"} 0.000189423
12.4.5. Additional resources
12.5. Exposing downward metrics for virtual machines
As an administrator, you can expose a limited set of host and virtual machine (VM) metrics to a guest VM by first enabling a downwardMetrics
feature gate and then configuring a downwardMetrics
device.
Users can view the metrics results by using the command line or the vm-dump-metrics tool
.
On Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9, use the command line to view downward metrics. See Viewing downward metrics by using the command line.
The vm-dump-metrics tool is not supported on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9 platform.
12.5.1. Enabling or disabling the downwardMetrics feature gate
You can enable or disable the downwardMetrics
feature gate by performing either of the following actions:
- Editing the HyperConverged custom resource (CR) in your default editor
- Using the command line
12.5.1.1. Enabling or disabling the downward metrics feature gate in a YAML file
To expose downward metrics for a host virtual machine, you can enable the downwardMetrics
feature gate by editing a YAML file.
Prerequisites
- You must have administrator privileges to enable the feature gate.
Procedure
Open the HyperConverged custom resource (CR) in your default editor by running the following command:
$ oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Choose to enable or disable the downwardMetrics feature gate as follows:
To enable the
downwardMetrics
feature gate, add and then setspec.featureGates.downwardMetrics
totrue
. For example:apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged namespace: openshift-cnv spec: featureGates: downwardMetrics: true # ...
To disable the
downwardMetrics
feature gate, setspec.featureGates.downwardMetrics
tofalse
. For example:apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged namespace: openshift-cnv spec: featureGates: downwardMetrics: false # ...
12.5.1.2. Enabling or disabling the downward metrics feature gate from the command line
To expose downward metrics for a host virtual machine, you can enable the downwardMetrics
feature gate by using the command line.
Prerequisites
- You must have administrator privileges to enable the feature gate.
Procedure
Choose to enable or disable the
downwardMetrics
feature gate as follows:Enable the
downwardMetrics
feature gate by running the command shown in the following example:$ oc patch hco kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv \ --type json -p '[{"op": "replace", "path": \ "/spec/featureGates/downwardMetrics" \ "value": true}]'
Disable the
downwardMetrics
feature gate by running the command shown in the following example:$ oc patch hco kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv \ --type json -p '[{"op": "replace", "path": \ "/spec/featureGates/downwardMetrics" \ "value": false}]'
12.5.2. Configuring a downward metrics device
You enable the capturing of downward metrics for a host VM by creating a configuration file that includes a downwardMetrics
device. Adding this device establishes that the metrics are exposed through a virtio-serial
port.
Prerequisites
-
You must first enable the
downwardMetrics
feature gate.
Procedure
Edit or create a YAML file that includes a
downwardMetrics
device, as shown in the following example:Example downwardMetrics configuration file
apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: fedora namespace: default spec: dataVolumeTemplates: - metadata: name: fedora-volume spec: sourceRef: kind: DataSource name: fedora namespace: openshift-virtualization-os-images storage: resources: {} storageClassName: hostpath-csi-basic instancetype: name: u1.medium preference: name: fedora running: true template: metadata: labels: app.kubernetes.io/name: headless spec: domain: devices: downwardMetrics: {} 1 subdomain: headless volumes: - dataVolume: name: fedora-volume name: rootdisk - cloudInitNoCloud: userData: | #cloud-config chpasswd: expire: false password: '<password>' 2 user: fedora name: cloudinitdisk
12.5.3. Viewing downward metrics
You can view downward metrics by using either of the following options:
- The command line interface (CLI)
-
The
vm-dump-metrics
tool
On Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9, use the command line to view downward metrics. The vm-dump-metrics tool is not supported on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9 platform.
12.5.3.1. Viewing downward metrics by using the command line
You can view downward metrics by entering a command from inside a guest virtual machine (VM).
Procedure
Run the following commands:
$ sudo sh -c 'printf "GET /metrics/XML\n\n" > /dev/virtio-ports/org.github.vhostmd.1'
$ sudo cat /dev/virtio-ports/org.github.vhostmd.1
12.5.3.2. Viewing downward metrics by using the vm-dump-metrics tool
To view downward metrics, install the vm-dump-metrics
tool and then use the tool to expose the metrics results.
On Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9, use the command line to view downward metrics. The vm-dump-metrics tool is not supported on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9 platform.
Procedure
Install the
vm-dump-metrics
tool by running the following command:$ sudo dnf install -y vm-dump-metrics
Retrieve the metrics results by running the following command:
$ sudo vm-dump-metrics
Example output
<metrics> <metric type="string" context="host"> <name>HostName</name> <value>node01</value> [...] <metric type="int64" context="host" unit="s"> <name>Time</name> <value>1619008605</value> </metric> <metric type="string" context="host"> <name>VirtualizationVendor</name> <value>kubevirt.io</value> </metric> </metrics>
12.6. Virtual machine health checks
You can configure virtual machine (VM) health checks by defining readiness and liveness probes in the VirtualMachine
resource.
12.6.1. About readiness and liveness probes
Use readiness and liveness probes to detect and handle unhealthy virtual machines (VMs). You can include one or more probes in the specification of the VM to ensure that traffic does not reach a VM that is not ready for it and that a new VM is created when a VM becomes unresponsive.
A readiness probe determines whether a VM is ready to accept service requests. If the probe fails, the VM is removed from the list of available endpoints until the VM is ready.
A liveness probe determines whether a VM is responsive. If the probe fails, the VM is deleted and a new VM is created to restore responsiveness.
You can configure readiness and liveness probes by setting the spec.readinessProbe
and the spec.livenessProbe
fields of the VirtualMachine
object. These fields support the following tests:
- HTTP GET
- The probe determines the health of the VM by using a web hook. The test is successful if the HTTP response code is between 200 and 399. You can use an HTTP GET test with applications that return HTTP status codes when they are completely initialized.
- TCP socket
- The probe attempts to open a socket to the VM. The VM is only considered healthy if the probe can establish a connection. You can use a TCP socket test with applications that do not start listening until initialization is complete.
- Guest agent ping
-
The probe uses the
guest-ping
command to determine if the QEMU guest agent is running on the virtual machine.
12.6.1.1. Defining an HTTP readiness probe
Define an HTTP readiness probe by setting the spec.readinessProbe.httpGet
field of the virtual machine (VM) configuration.
Procedure
Include details of the readiness probe in the VM configuration file.
Sample readiness probe with an HTTP GET test
apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: annotations: name: fedora-vm namespace: example-namespace # ... spec: template: spec: readinessProbe: httpGet: 1 port: 1500 2 path: /healthz 3 httpHeaders: - name: Custom-Header value: Awesome initialDelaySeconds: 120 4 periodSeconds: 20 5 timeoutSeconds: 10 6 failureThreshold: 3 7 successThreshold: 3 8 # ...
- 1
- The HTTP GET request to perform to connect to the VM.
- 2
- The port of the VM that the probe queries. In the above example, the probe queries port 1500.
- 3
- The path to access on the HTTP server. In the above example, if the handler for the server’s /healthz path returns a success code, the VM is considered to be healthy. If the handler returns a failure code, the VM is removed from the list of available endpoints.
- 4
- The time, in seconds, after the VM starts before the readiness probe is initiated.
- 5
- The delay, in seconds, between performing probes. The default delay is 10 seconds. This value must be greater than
timeoutSeconds
. - 6
- The number of seconds of inactivity after which the probe times out and the VM is assumed to have failed. The default value is 1. This value must be lower than
periodSeconds
. - 7
- The number of times that the probe is allowed to fail. The default is 3. After the specified number of attempts, the pod is marked
Unready
. - 8
- The number of times that the probe must report success, after a failure, to be considered successful. The default is 1.
Create the VM by running the following command:
$ oc create -f <file_name>.yaml
12.6.1.2. Defining a TCP readiness probe
Define a TCP readiness probe by setting the spec.readinessProbe.tcpSocket
field of the virtual machine (VM) configuration.
Procedure
Include details of the TCP readiness probe in the VM configuration file.
Sample readiness probe with a TCP socket test
apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: annotations: name: fedora-vm namespace: example-namespace # ... spec: template: spec: readinessProbe: initialDelaySeconds: 120 1 periodSeconds: 20 2 tcpSocket: 3 port: 1500 4 timeoutSeconds: 10 5 # ...
- 1
- The time, in seconds, after the VM starts before the readiness probe is initiated.
- 2
- The delay, in seconds, between performing probes. The default delay is 10 seconds. This value must be greater than
timeoutSeconds
. - 3
- The TCP action to perform.
- 4
- The port of the VM that the probe queries.
- 5
- The number of seconds of inactivity after which the probe times out and the VM is assumed to have failed. The default value is 1. This value must be lower than
periodSeconds
.
Create the VM by running the following command:
$ oc create -f <file_name>.yaml
12.6.1.3. Defining an HTTP liveness probe
Define an HTTP liveness probe by setting the spec.livenessProbe.httpGet
field of the virtual machine (VM) configuration. You can define both HTTP and TCP tests for liveness probes in the same way as readiness probes. This procedure configures a sample liveness probe with an HTTP GET test.
Procedure
Include details of the HTTP liveness probe in the VM configuration file.
Sample liveness probe with an HTTP GET test
apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: annotations: name: fedora-vm namespace: example-namespace # ... spec: template: spec: livenessProbe: initialDelaySeconds: 120 1 periodSeconds: 20 2 httpGet: 3 port: 1500 4 path: /healthz 5 httpHeaders: - name: Custom-Header value: Awesome timeoutSeconds: 10 6 # ...
- 1
- The time, in seconds, after the VM starts before the liveness probe is initiated.
- 2
- The delay, in seconds, between performing probes. The default delay is 10 seconds. This value must be greater than
timeoutSeconds
. - 3
- The HTTP GET request to perform to connect to the VM.
- 4
- The port of the VM that the probe queries. In the above example, the probe queries port 1500. The VM installs and runs a minimal HTTP server on port 1500 via cloud-init.
- 5
- The path to access on the HTTP server. In the above example, if the handler for the server’s
/healthz
path returns a success code, the VM is considered to be healthy. If the handler returns a failure code, the VM is deleted and a new VM is created. - 6
- The number of seconds of inactivity after which the probe times out and the VM is assumed to have failed. The default value is 1. This value must be lower than
periodSeconds
.
Create the VM by running the following command:
$ oc create -f <file_name>.yaml
12.6.2. Defining a watchdog
You can define a watchdog to monitor the health of the guest operating system by performing the following steps:
- Configure a watchdog device for the virtual machine (VM).
- Install the watchdog agent on the guest.
The watchdog device monitors the agent and performs one of the following actions if the guest operating system is unresponsive:
-
poweroff
: The VM powers down immediately. Ifspec.running
is set totrue
orspec.runStrategy
is not set tomanual
, then the VM reboots. reset
: The VM reboots in place and the guest operating system cannot react.NoteThe reboot time might cause liveness probes to time out. If cluster-level protections detect a failed liveness probe, the VM might be forcibly rescheduled, increasing the reboot time.
-
shutdown
: The VM gracefully powers down by stopping all services.
Watchdog is not available for Windows VMs.
12.6.2.1. Configuring a watchdog device for the virtual machine
You configure a watchdog device for the virtual machine (VM).
Prerequisites
-
The VM must have kernel support for an
i6300esb
watchdog device. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) images supporti6300esb
.
Procedure
Create a
YAML
file with the following contents:apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: labels: kubevirt.io/vm: vm2-rhel84-watchdog name: <vm-name> spec: running: false template: metadata: labels: kubevirt.io/vm: vm2-rhel84-watchdog spec: domain: devices: watchdog: name: <watchdog> i6300esb: action: "poweroff" 1 # ...
- 1
- Specify
poweroff
,reset
, orshutdown
.
The example above configures the
i6300esb
watchdog device on a RHEL8 VM with the poweroff action and exposes the device as/dev/watchdog
.This device can now be used by the watchdog binary.
Apply the YAML file to your cluster by running the following command:
$ oc apply -f <file_name>.yaml
This procedure is provided for testing watchdog functionality only and must not be run on production machines.
Run the following command to verify that the VM is connected to the watchdog device:
$ lspci | grep watchdog -i
Run one of the following commands to confirm the watchdog is active:
Trigger a kernel panic:
# echo c > /proc/sysrq-trigger
Stop the watchdog service:
# pkill -9 watchdog
12.6.2.2. Installing the watchdog agent on the guest
You install the watchdog agent on the guest and start the watchdog
service.
Procedure
- Log in to the virtual machine as root user.
Install the
watchdog
package and its dependencies:# yum install watchdog
Uncomment the following line in the
/etc/watchdog.conf
file and save the changes:#watchdog-device = /dev/watchdog
Enable the
watchdog
service to start on boot:# systemctl enable --now watchdog.service
12.6.3. Defining a guest agent ping probe
Define a guest agent ping probe by setting the spec.readinessProbe.guestAgentPing
field of the virtual machine (VM) configuration.
The guest agent ping probe is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.
For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.
Prerequisites
- The QEMU guest agent must be installed and enabled on the virtual machine.
Procedure
Include details of the guest agent ping probe in the VM configuration file. For example:
Sample guest agent ping probe
apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: annotations: name: fedora-vm namespace: example-namespace # ... spec: template: spec: readinessProbe: guestAgentPing: {} 1 initialDelaySeconds: 120 2 periodSeconds: 20 3 timeoutSeconds: 10 4 failureThreshold: 3 5 successThreshold: 3 6 # ...
- 1
- The guest agent ping probe to connect to the VM.
- 2
- Optional: The time, in seconds, after the VM starts before the guest agent probe is initiated.
- 3
- Optional: The delay, in seconds, between performing probes. The default delay is 10 seconds. This value must be greater than
timeoutSeconds
. - 4
- Optional: The number of seconds of inactivity after which the probe times out and the VM is assumed to have failed. The default value is 1. This value must be lower than
periodSeconds
. - 5
- Optional: The number of times that the probe is allowed to fail. The default is 3. After the specified number of attempts, the pod is marked
Unready
. - 6
- Optional: The number of times that the probe must report success, after a failure, to be considered successful. The default is 1.
Create the VM by running the following command:
$ oc create -f <file_name>.yaml
12.6.4. Additional resources
12.7. OpenShift Virtualization runbooks
To diagnose and resolve issues that trigger OpenShift Virtualization alerts, follow the procedures in the runbooks for the OpenShift Virtualization Operator. Triggered OpenShift Virtualization alerts can be viewed in the main Observe → Alerts tab in the web console, and also in the Virtualization → Overview tab.
Runbooks for the OpenShift Virtualization Operator are maintained in the openshift/runbooks Git repository, and you can view them on GitHub.
12.7.1. CDIDataImportCronOutdated
-
View the runbook for the
CDIDataImportCronOutdated
alert.
12.7.2. CDIDataVolumeUnusualRestartCount
-
View the runbook for the
CDIDataVolumeUnusualRestartCount
alert.
12.7.3. CDIDefaultStorageClassDegraded
-
View the runbook for the
CDIDefaultStorageClassDegraded
alert.
12.7.4. CDIMultipleDefaultVirtStorageClasses
-
View the runbook for the
CDIMultipleDefaultVirtStorageClasses
alert.
12.7.5. CDINoDefaultStorageClass
-
View the runbook for the
CDINoDefaultStorageClass
alert.
12.7.6. CDINotReady
-
View the runbook for the
CDINotReady
alert.
12.7.7. CDIOperatorDown
-
View the runbook for the
CDIOperatorDown
alert.
12.7.8. CDIStorageProfilesIncomplete
-
View the runbook for the
CDIStorageProfilesIncomplete
alert.
12.7.9. CnaoDown
-
View the runbook for the
CnaoDown
alert.
12.7.10. CnaoNMstateMigration
-
View the runbook for the
CnaoNMstateMigration
alert.
12.7.11. HCOInstallationIncomplete
-
View the runbook for the
HCOInstallationIncomplete
alert.
12.7.12. HPPNotReady
-
View the runbook for the
HPPNotReady
alert.
12.7.13. HPPOperatorDown
-
View the runbook for the
HPPOperatorDown
alert.
12.7.14. HPPSharingPoolPathWithOS
-
View the runbook for the
HPPSharingPoolPathWithOS
alert.
12.7.15. KubemacpoolDown
-
View the runbook for the
KubemacpoolDown
alert.
12.7.16. KubeMacPoolDuplicateMacsFound
-
View the runbook for the
KubeMacPoolDuplicateMacsFound
alert.
12.7.17. KubeVirtComponentExceedsRequestedCPU
-
The
KubeVirtComponentExceedsRequestedCPU
alert is deprecated.
12.7.18. KubeVirtComponentExceedsRequestedMemory
-
The
KubeVirtComponentExceedsRequestedMemory
alert is deprecated.
12.7.19. KubeVirtCRModified
-
View the runbook for the
KubeVirtCRModified
alert.
12.7.20. KubeVirtDeprecatedAPIRequested
-
View the runbook for the
KubeVirtDeprecatedAPIRequested
alert.
12.7.21. KubeVirtNoAvailableNodesToRunVMs
-
View the runbook for the
KubeVirtNoAvailableNodesToRunVMs
alert.
12.7.22. KubevirtVmHighMemoryUsage
-
View the runbook for the
KubevirtVmHighMemoryUsage
alert.
12.7.23. KubeVirtVMIExcessiveMigrations
-
View the runbook for the
KubeVirtVMIExcessiveMigrations
alert.
12.7.24. LowKVMNodesCount
-
View the runbook for the
LowKVMNodesCount
alert.
12.7.25. LowReadyVirtControllersCount
-
View the runbook for the
LowReadyVirtControllersCount
alert.
12.7.26. LowReadyVirtOperatorsCount
-
View the runbook for the
LowReadyVirtOperatorsCount
alert.
12.7.27. LowVirtAPICount
-
View the runbook for the
LowVirtAPICount
alert.
12.7.28. LowVirtControllersCount
-
View the runbook for the
LowVirtControllersCount
alert.
12.7.29. LowVirtOperatorCount
-
View the runbook for the
LowVirtOperatorCount
alert.
12.7.30. NetworkAddonsConfigNotReady
-
View the runbook for the
NetworkAddonsConfigNotReady
alert.
12.7.31. NoLeadingVirtOperator
-
View the runbook for the
NoLeadingVirtOperator
alert.
12.7.32. NoReadyVirtController
-
View the runbook for the
NoReadyVirtController
alert.
12.7.33. NoReadyVirtOperator
-
View the runbook for the
NoReadyVirtOperator
alert.
12.7.34. OrphanedVirtualMachineInstances
-
View the runbook for the
OrphanedVirtualMachineInstances
alert.
12.7.35. OutdatedVirtualMachineInstanceWorkloads
-
View the runbook for the
OutdatedVirtualMachineInstanceWorkloads
alert.
12.7.36. SingleStackIPv6Unsupported
-
View the runbook for the
SingleStackIPv6Unsupported
alert.
12.7.37. SSPCommonTemplatesModificationReverted
-
View the runbook for the
SSPCommonTemplatesModificationReverted
alert.
12.7.38. SSPDown
-
View the runbook for the
SSPDown
alert.
12.7.39. SSPFailingToReconcile
-
View the runbook for the
SSPFailingToReconcile
alert.
12.7.40. SSPHighRateRejectedVms
-
View the runbook for the
SSPHighRateRejectedVms
alert.
12.7.41. SSPTemplateValidatorDown
-
View the runbook for the
SSPTemplateValidatorDown
alert.
12.7.42. SSPOperatorDown
-
View the runbook for the
SSPOperatorDown
alert.
12.7.43. UnsupportedHCOModification
-
View the runbook for the
UnsupportedHCOModification
alert.
12.7.44. VirtAPIDown
-
View the runbook for the
VirtAPIDown
alert.
12.7.45. VirtApiRESTErrorsBurst
-
View the runbook for the
VirtApiRESTErrorsBurst
alert.
12.7.46. VirtApiRESTErrorsHigh
-
View the runbook for the
VirtApiRESTErrorsHigh
alert.
12.7.47. VirtControllerDown
-
View the runbook for the
VirtControllerDown
alert.
12.7.48. VirtControllerRESTErrorsBurst
-
View the runbook for the
VirtControllerRESTErrorsBurst
alert.
12.7.49. VirtControllerRESTErrorsHigh
-
View the runbook for the
VirtControllerRESTErrorsHigh
alert.
12.7.50. VirtHandlerDaemonSetRolloutFailing
-
View the runbook for the
VirtHandlerDaemonSetRolloutFailing
alert.
12.7.51. VirtHandlerRESTErrorsBurst
-
View the runbook for the
VirtHandlerRESTErrorsBurst
alert.
12.7.52. VirtHandlerRESTErrorsHigh
-
View the runbook for the
VirtHandlerRESTErrorsHigh
alert.
12.7.53. VirtOperatorDown
-
View the runbook for the
VirtOperatorDown
alert.
12.7.54. VirtOperatorRESTErrorsBurst
-
View the runbook for the
VirtOperatorRESTErrorsBurst
alert.
12.7.55. VirtOperatorRESTErrorsHigh
-
View the runbook for the
VirtOperatorRESTErrorsHigh
alert.
12.7.56. VirtualMachineCRCErrors
The runbook for the
VirtualMachineCRCErrors
alert is deprecated because the alert was renamed toVMStorageClassWarning
.-
View the runbook for the
VMStorageClassWarning
alert.
-
View the runbook for the
12.7.57. VMCannotBeEvicted
-
View the runbook for the
VMCannotBeEvicted
alert.
12.7.58. VMStorageClassWarning
-
View the runbook for the
VMStorageClassWarning
alert.
Chapter 13. Support
13.1. Support overview
You can request assistance from Red Hat Support, report bugs, collect data about your environment, and monitor the health of your cluster and virtual machines (VMs) with the following tools.
13.1.1. Opening support tickets
If you have encountered an issue that requires immediate assistance from Red Hat Support, you can submit a support case.
To report a bug, you can create a Jira issue directly.
13.1.1.1. Submitting a support case
To request support from Red Hat Support, follow the instructions for submitting a support case.
It is helpful to collect debugging data to include with your support request.
13.1.1.1.1. Collecting data for Red Hat Support
You can gather debugging information by performing the following steps:
- Collecting data about your environment
-
Configure Prometheus and Alertmanager and collect
must-gather
data for OpenShift Container Platform and OpenShift Virtualization.
must-gather
tool for OpenShift Virtualization-
Configure and use the
must-gather
tool. - Collecting data about VMs
-
Collect
must-gather
data and memory dumps from VMs.
13.1.1.2. Creating a Jira issue
To report a bug, you can create a Jira issue directly by filling out the form on the Create Issue page.
13.1.2. Web console monitoring
You can monitor the health of your cluster and VMs by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console. The web console displays resource usage, alerts, events, and trends for your cluster and for OpenShift Virtualization components and resources.
Page | Description |
---|---|
Overview page | Cluster details, status, alerts, inventory, and resource usage |
Virtualization → Overview tab | OpenShift Virtualization resources, usage, alerts, and status |
Virtualization → Top consumers tab | Top consumers of CPU, memory, and storage |
Virtualization → Migrations tab | Progress of live migrations |
VirtualMachines → VirtualMachine → VirtualMachine details → Metrics tab | VM resource usage, storage, network, and migration |
VirtualMachines → VirtualMachine → VirtualMachine details → Events tab | List of VM events |
VirtualMachines → VirtualMachine → VirtualMachine details → Diagnostics tab | VM status conditions and volume snapshot status |
13.2. Collecting data for Red Hat Support
When you submit a support case to Red Hat Support, it is helpful to provide debugging information for OpenShift Container Platform and OpenShift Virtualization by using the following tools:
- must-gather tool
-
The
must-gather
tool collects diagnostic information, including resource definitions and service logs. - Prometheus
- Prometheus is a time-series database and a rule evaluation engine for metrics. Prometheus sends alerts to Alertmanager for processing.
- Alertmanager
- The Alertmanager service handles alerts received from Prometheus. The Alertmanager is also responsible for sending the alerts to external notification systems.
For information about the OpenShift Container Platform monitoring stack, see About OpenShift Container Platform monitoring.
13.2.1. Collecting data about your environment
Collecting data about your environment minimizes the time required to analyze and determine the root cause.
Prerequisites
- Set the retention time for Prometheus metrics data to a minimum of seven days.
- Configure the Alertmanager to capture relevant alerts and to send alert notifications to a dedicated mailbox so that they can be viewed and persisted outside the cluster.
- Record the exact number of affected nodes and virtual machines.
13.2.2. Collecting data about virtual machines
Collecting data about malfunctioning virtual machines (VMs) minimizes the time required to analyze and determine the root cause.
Prerequisites
- Linux VMs: Install the latest QEMU guest agent.
Windows VMs:
- Record the Windows patch update details.
- Install the latest VirtIO drivers.
- Install the latest QEMU guest agent.
- If Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is enabled, connect by using the desktop viewer to determine whether there is a problem with the connection software.
Procedure
-
Collect must-gather data for the VMs using the
/usr/bin/gather
script. - Collect screenshots of VMs that have crashed before you restart them.
- Collect memory dumps from VMs before remediation attempts.
- Record factors that the malfunctioning VMs have in common. For example, the VMs have the same host or network.
13.2.3. Using the must-gather tool for OpenShift Virtualization
You can collect data about OpenShift Virtualization resources by running the must-gather
command with the OpenShift Virtualization image.
The default data collection includes information about the following resources:
- OpenShift Virtualization Operator namespaces, including child objects
- OpenShift Virtualization custom resource definitions
- Namespaces that contain virtual machines
- Basic virtual machine definitions
Instance types information is not currently collected by default; you can, however, run a command to optionally collect it.
Procedure
Run the following command to collect data about OpenShift Virtualization:
$ oc adm must-gather \ --image=registry.redhat.io/container-native-virtualization/cnv-must-gather-rhel9:v4.17.0 \ -- /usr/bin/gather
13.2.3.1. must-gather tool options
You can run the oc adm must-gather
command to collect must gather
images for all the Operators and products deployed on your cluster without the need to explicitly specify the required images. Alternatively, you can specify a combination of scripts and environment variables for the following options:
- Collecting detailed virtual machine (VM) information from a namespace
- Collecting detailed information about specified VMs
- Collecting image, image-stream, and image-stream-tags information
-
Limiting the maximum number of parallel processes used by the
must-gather
tool
13.2.3.1.1. Parameters
Environment variables
You can specify environment variables for a compatible script.
NS=<namespace_name>
-
Collect virtual machine information, including
virt-launcher
pod details, from the namespace that you specify. TheVirtualMachine
andVirtualMachineInstance
CR data is collected for all namespaces. VM=<vm_name>
-
Collect details about a particular virtual machine. To use this option, you must also specify a namespace by using the
NS
environment variable. PROS=<number_of_processes>
Modify the maximum number of parallel processes that the
must-gather
tool uses. The default value is5
.ImportantUsing too many parallel processes can cause performance issues. Increasing the maximum number of parallel processes is not recommended.
Scripts
Each script is compatible only with certain environment variable combinations.
/usr/bin/gather
-
Use the default
must-gather
script, which collects cluster data from all namespaces and includes only basic VM information. This script is compatible only with thePROS
variable. /usr/bin/gather --vms_details
-
Collect VM log files, VM definitions, control-plane logs, and namespaces that belong to OpenShift Virtualization resources. Specifying namespaces includes their child objects. If you use this parameter without specifying a namespace or VM, the
must-gather
tool collects this data for all VMs in the cluster. This script is compatible with all environment variables, but you must specify a namespace if you use theVM
variable. /usr/bin/gather --images
-
Collect image, image-stream, and image-stream-tags custom resource information. This script is compatible only with the
PROS
variable. /usr/bin/gather --instancetypes
- Collect instance types information. This information is not currently collected by default; you can, however, optionally collect it.
13.2.3.1.2. Usage and examples
Environment variables are optional. You can run a script by itself or with one or more compatible environment variables.
Script | Compatible environment variable |
---|---|
|
* |
|
* For a namespace:
* For a VM:
* |
|
* |
Syntax
To collect must-gather
logs for all Operators and products on your cluster in a single pass, run the following command:
$ oc adm must-gather --all-images
If you need to pass additional parameters to individual must-gather
images, use the following command:
$ oc adm must-gather \ --image=registry.redhat.io/container-native-virtualization/cnv-must-gather-rhel9:v4.17.0 \ -- <environment_variable_1> <environment_variable_2> <script_name>
Default data collection parallel processes
By default, five processes run in parallel.
$ oc adm must-gather \
--image=registry.redhat.io/container-native-virtualization/cnv-must-gather-rhel9:v4.17.0 \
-- PROS=5 /usr/bin/gather 1
- 1
- You can modify the number of parallel processes by changing the default.
Detailed VM information
The following command collects detailed VM information for the my-vm
VM in the mynamespace
namespace:
$ oc adm must-gather \
--image=registry.redhat.io/container-native-virtualization/cnv-must-gather-rhel9:v4.17.0 \
-- NS=mynamespace VM=my-vm /usr/bin/gather --vms_details 1
- 1
- The
NS
environment variable is mandatory if you use theVM
environment variable.
Image, image-stream, and image-stream-tags information
The following command collects image, image-stream, and image-stream-tags information from the cluster:
$ oc adm must-gather \ --image=registry.redhat.io/container-native-virtualization/cnv-must-gather-rhel9:v4.17.0 \ /usr/bin/gather --images
Instance types information
The following command collects instance types information from the cluster:
$ oc adm must-gather \ --image=registry.redhat.io/container-native-virtualization/cnv-must-gather-rhel9:v4.17.0 \ /usr/bin/gather --instancetypes
13.3. Troubleshooting
OpenShift Virtualization provides tools and logs for troubleshooting virtual machines (VMs) and virtualization components.
You can troubleshoot OpenShift Virtualization components by using the tools provided in the web console or by using the oc
CLI tool.
13.3.1. Events
OpenShift Container Platform events are records of important life-cycle information and are useful for monitoring and troubleshooting virtual machine, namespace, and resource issues.
VM events: Navigate to the Events tab of the VirtualMachine details page in the web console.
- Namespace events
You can view namespace events by running the following command:
$ oc get events -n <namespace>
See the list of events for details about specific events.
- Resource events
You can view resource events by running the following command:
$ oc describe <resource> <resource_name>
13.3.2. Pod logs
You can view logs for OpenShift Virtualization pods by using the web console or the CLI. You can also view aggregated logs by using the LokiStack in the web console.
13.3.2.1. Configuring OpenShift Virtualization pod log verbosity
You can configure the verbosity level of OpenShift Virtualization pod logs by editing the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR).
Procedure
To set log verbosity for specific components, open the
HyperConverged
CR in your default text editor by running the following command:$ oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Set the log level for one or more components by editing the
spec.logVerbosityConfig
stanza. For example:apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged spec: logVerbosityConfig: kubevirt: virtAPI: 5 1 virtController: 4 virtHandler: 3 virtLauncher: 2 virtOperator: 6
- 1
- The log verbosity value must be an integer in the range
1–9
, where a higher number indicates a more detailed log. In this example, thevirtAPI
component logs are exposed if their priority level is5
or higher.
- Apply your changes by saving and exiting the editor.
13.3.2.2. Viewing virt-launcher pod logs with the web console
You can view the virt-launcher
pod logs for a virtual machine by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → VirtualMachines.
- Select a virtual machine to open the VirtualMachine details page.
- On the General tile, click the pod name to open the Pod details page.
- Click the Logs tab to view the logs.
13.3.2.3. Viewing OpenShift Virtualization pod logs with the CLI
You can view logs for the OpenShift Virtualization pods by using the oc
CLI tool.
Procedure
View a list of pods in the OpenShift Virtualization namespace by running the following command:
$ oc get pods -n openshift-cnv
Example 13.1. Example output
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE disks-images-provider-7gqbc 1/1 Running 0 32m disks-images-provider-vg4kx 1/1 Running 0 32m virt-api-57fcc4497b-7qfmc 1/1 Running 0 31m virt-api-57fcc4497b-tx9nc 1/1 Running 0 31m virt-controller-76c784655f-7fp6m 1/1 Running 0 30m virt-controller-76c784655f-f4pbd 1/1 Running 0 30m virt-handler-2m86x 1/1 Running 0 30m virt-handler-9qs6z 1/1 Running 0 30m virt-operator-7ccfdbf65f-q5snk 1/1 Running 0 32m virt-operator-7ccfdbf65f-vllz8 1/1 Running 0 32m
View the pod log by running the following command:
$ oc logs -n openshift-cnv <pod_name>
NoteIf a pod fails to start, you can use the
--previous
option to view logs from the last attempt.To monitor log output in real time, use the
-f
option.Example 13.2. Example output
{"component":"virt-handler","level":"info","msg":"set verbosity to 2","pos":"virt-handler.go:453","timestamp":"2022-04-17T08:58:37.373695Z"} {"component":"virt-handler","level":"info","msg":"set verbosity to 2","pos":"virt-handler.go:453","timestamp":"2022-04-17T08:58:37.373726Z"} {"component":"virt-handler","level":"info","msg":"setting rate limiter to 5 QPS and 10 Burst","pos":"virt-handler.go:462","timestamp":"2022-04-17T08:58:37.373782Z"} {"component":"virt-handler","level":"info","msg":"CPU features of a minimum baseline CPU model: map[apic:true clflush:true cmov:true cx16:true cx8:true de:true fpu:true fxsr:true lahf_lm:true lm:true mca:true mce:true mmx:true msr:true mtrr:true nx:true pae:true pat:true pge:true pni:true pse:true pse36:true sep:true sse:true sse2:true sse4.1:true ssse3:true syscall:true tsc:true]","pos":"cpu_plugin.go:96","timestamp":"2022-04-17T08:58:37.390221Z"} {"component":"virt-handler","level":"warning","msg":"host model mode is expected to contain only one model","pos":"cpu_plugin.go:103","timestamp":"2022-04-17T08:58:37.390263Z"} {"component":"virt-handler","level":"info","msg":"node-labeller is running","pos":"node_labeller.go:94","timestamp":"2022-04-17T08:58:37.391011Z"}
13.3.3. Guest system logs
Viewing the boot logs of VM guests can help diagnose issues. You can configure access to guests' logs and view them by using either the OpenShift Container Platform web console or the oc
CLI.
This feature is disabled by default. If a VM does not explicitly have this setting enabled or disabled, it inherits the cluster-wide default setting.
If sensitive information such as credentials or other personally identifiable information (PII) is written to the serial console, it is logged with all other visible text. Red Hat recommends using SSH to send sensitive data instead of the serial console.
13.3.3.1. Enabling default access to VM guest system logs with the web console
You can enable default access to VM guest system logs by using the web console.
Procedure
- From the side menu, click Virtualization → Overview.
- Click the Settings tab.
- Click Cluster → Guest management.
- Set Enable guest system log access to on.
13.3.3.2. Enabling default access to VM guest system logs with the CLI
You can enable default access to VM guest system logs by editing the HyperConverged
custom resource (CR).
Procedure
Open the
HyperConverged
CR in your default editor by running the following command:$ oc edit hyperconverged kubevirt-hyperconverged -n openshift-cnv
Update the
disableSerialConsoleLog
value. For example:kind: HyperConverged metadata: name: kubevirt-hyperconverged spec: virtualMachineOptions: disableSerialConsoleLog: true 1 #...
- 1
- Set the value of
disableSerialConsoleLog
tofalse
if you want serial console access to be enabled on VMs by default.
13.3.3.3. Setting guest system log access for a single VM with the web console
You can configure access to VM guest system logs for a single VM by using the web console. This setting takes precedence over the cluster-wide default configuration.
Procedure
- Click Virtualization → VirtualMachines from the side menu.
- Select a virtual machine to open the VirtualMachine details page.
- Click the Configuration tab.
- Set Guest system log access to on or off.
13.3.3.4. Setting guest system log access for a single VM with the CLI
You can configure access to VM guest system logs for a single VM by editing the VirtualMachine
CR. This setting takes precedence over the cluster-wide default configuration.
Procedure
Edit the virtual machine manifest by running the following command:
$ oc edit vm <vm_name>
Update the value of the
logSerialConsole
field. For example:apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: example-vm spec: template: spec: domain: devices: logSerialConsole: true 1 #...
- 1
- To enable access to the guest’s serial console log, set the
logSerialConsole
value totrue
.
Apply the new configuration to the VM by running the following command:
$ oc apply vm <vm_name>
Optional: If you edited a running VM, restart the VM to apply the new configuration. For example:
$ virtctl restart <vm_name> -n <namespace>
13.3.3.5. Viewing guest system logs with the web console
You can view the serial console logs of a virtual machine (VM) guest by using the web console.
Prerequisites
- Guest system log access is enabled.
Procedure
- Click Virtualization → VirtualMachines from the side menu.
- Select a virtual machine to open the VirtualMachine details page.
- Click the Diagnostics tab.
- Click Guest system logs to load the serial console.
13.3.3.6. Viewing guest system logs with the CLI
You can view the serial console logs of a VM guest by running the oc logs
command.
Prerequisites
- Guest system log access is enabled.
Procedure
View the logs by running the following command, substituting your own values for
<namespace>
and<vm_name>
:$ oc logs -n <namespace> -l kubevirt.io/domain=<vm_name> --tail=-1 -c guest-console-log
13.3.4. Log aggregation
You can facilitate troubleshooting by aggregating and filtering logs.
13.3.4.1. Viewing aggregated OpenShift Virtualization logs with the LokiStack
You can view aggregated logs for OpenShift Virtualization pods and containers by using the LokiStack in the web console.
Prerequisites
- You deployed the LokiStack.
Procedure
- Navigate to Observe → Logs in the web console.
-
Select application, for
virt-launcher
pod logs, or infrastructure, for OpenShift Virtualization control plane pods and containers, from the log type list. - Click Show Query to display the query field.
- Enter the LogQL query in the query field and click Run Query to display the filtered logs.
13.3.4.2. OpenShift Virtualization LogQL queries
You can view and filter aggregated logs for OpenShift Virtualization components by running Loki Query Language (LogQL) queries on the Observe → Logs page in the web console.
The default log type is infrastructure. The virt-launcher
log type is application.
Optional: You can include or exclude strings or regular expressions by using line filter expressions.
If the query matches a large number of logs, the query might time out.
Component | LogQL query |
---|---|
All |
{log_type=~".+"}|json |kubernetes_labels_app_kubernetes_io_part_of="hyperconverged-cluster" |
|
{log_type=~".+"}|json |kubernetes_labels_app_kubernetes_io_part_of="hyperconverged-cluster" |kubernetes_labels_app_kubernetes_io_component="storage" |
|
{log_type=~".+"}|json |kubernetes_labels_app_kubernetes_io_part_of="hyperconverged-cluster" |kubernetes_labels_app_kubernetes_io_component="deployment" |
|
{log_type=~".+"}|json |kubernetes_labels_app_kubernetes_io_part_of="hyperconverged-cluster" |kubernetes_labels_app_kubernetes_io_component="network" |
|
{log_type=~".+"}|json |kubernetes_labels_app_kubernetes_io_part_of="hyperconverged-cluster" |kubernetes_labels_app_kubernetes_io_component="compute" |
|
{log_type=~".+"}|json |kubernetes_labels_app_kubernetes_io_part_of="hyperconverged-cluster" |kubernetes_labels_app_kubernetes_io_component="schedule" |
Container |
{log_type=~".+",kubernetes_container_name=~"<container>|<container>"} 1
|json|kubernetes_labels_app_kubernetes_io_part_of="hyperconverged-cluster"
|
| You must select application from the log type list before running this query. {log_type=~".+", kubernetes_container_name="compute"}|json
|!= "custom-ga-command" 1
|
You can filter log lines to include or exclude strings or regular expressions by using line filter expressions.
Line filter expression | Description |
---|---|
| Log line contains string |
| Log line does not contain string |
| Log line contains regular expression |
| Log line does not contain regular expression |
Example line filter expression
{log_type=~".+"}|json |kubernetes_labels_app_kubernetes_io_part_of="hyperconverged-cluster" |= "error" != "timeout"
Additional resources for LokiStack and LogQL
- xref :../../observability/logging/log_storage/about-log-storage.adoc#about-log-storage[About log storage]
- LogQL log queries in the Grafana documentation
13.3.5. Common error messages
The following error messages might appear in OpenShift Virtualization logs:
ErrImagePull
orImagePullBackOff
- Indicates an incorrect deployment configuration or problems with the images that are referenced.
13.3.6. Troubleshooting data volumes
You can check the Conditions
and Events
sections of the DataVolume
object to analyze and resolve issues.
13.3.6.1. About data volume conditions and events
You can diagnose data volume issues by examining the output of the Conditions
and Events
sections generated by the command:
$ oc describe dv <DataVolume>
The Conditions
section displays the following Types
:
-
Bound
-
Running
-
Ready
The Events
section provides the following additional information:
-
Type
of event -
Reason
for logging -
Source
of the event -
Message
containing additional diagnostic information.
The output from oc describe
does not always contains Events
.
An event is generated when the Status
, Reason
, or Message
changes. Both conditions and events react to changes in the state of the data volume.
For example, if you misspell the URL during an import operation, the import generates a 404 message. That message change generates an event with a reason. The output in the Conditions
section is updated as well.
13.3.6.2. Analyzing data volume conditions and events
By inspecting the Conditions
and Events
sections generated by the describe
command, you determine the state of the data volume in relation to persistent volume claims (PVCs), and whether or not an operation is actively running or completed. You might also receive messages that offer specific details about the status of the data volume, and how it came to be in its current state.
There are many different combinations of conditions. Each must be evaluated in its unique context.
Examples of various combinations follow.
Bound
- A successfully bound PVC displays in this example.Note that the
Type
isBound
, so theStatus
isTrue
. If the PVC is not bound, theStatus
isFalse
.When the PVC is bound, an event is generated stating that the PVC is bound. In this case, the
Reason
isBound
andStatus
isTrue
. TheMessage
indicates which PVC owns the data volume.Message
, in theEvents
section, provides further details including how long the PVC has been bound (Age
) and by what resource (From
), in this casedatavolume-controller
:Example output
Status: Conditions: Last Heart Beat Time: 2020-07-15T03:58:24Z Last Transition Time: 2020-07-15T03:58:24Z Message: PVC win10-rootdisk Bound Reason: Bound Status: True Type: Bound ... Events: Type Reason Age From Message ---- ------ ---- ---- ------- Normal Bound 24s datavolume-controller PVC example-dv Bound
Running
- In this case, note thatType
isRunning
andStatus
isFalse
, indicating that an event has occurred that caused an attempted operation to fail, changing the Status fromTrue
toFalse
.However, note that
Reason
isCompleted
and theMessage
field indicatesImport Complete
.In the
Events
section, theReason
andMessage
contain additional troubleshooting information about the failed operation. In this example, theMessage
displays an inability to connect due to a404
, listed in theEvents
section’s firstWarning
.From this information, you conclude that an import operation was running, creating contention for other operations that are attempting to access the data volume:
Example output
Status: Conditions: Last Heart Beat Time: 2020-07-15T04:31:39Z Last Transition Time: 2020-07-15T04:31:39Z Message: Import Complete Reason: Completed Status: False Type: Running ... Events: Type Reason Age From Message ---- ------ ---- ---- ------- Warning Error 12s (x2 over 14s) datavolume-controller Unable to connect to http data source: expected status code 200, got 404. Status: 404 Not Found
Ready
– IfType
isReady
andStatus
isTrue
, then the data volume is ready to be used, as in the following example. If the data volume is not ready to be used, theStatus
isFalse
:Example output
Status: Conditions: Last Heart Beat Time: 2020-07-15T04:31:39Z Last Transition Time: 2020-07-15T04:31:39Z Status: True Type: Ready
Chapter 14. Backup and restore
14.1. Backup and restore by using VM snapshots
You can back up and restore virtual machines (VMs) by using snapshots. Snapshots are supported by the following storage providers:
- Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation
- Any other cloud storage provider with the Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver that supports the Kubernetes Volume Snapshot API
Online snapshots have a default time deadline of five minutes (5m
) that can be changed, if needed.
Online snapshots are supported for virtual machines that have hot plugged virtual disks. However, hot plugged disks that are not in the virtual machine specification are not included in the snapshot.
To create snapshots of an online (Running state) VM with the highest integrity, install the QEMU guest agent if it is not included with your operating system. The QEMU guest agent is included with the default Red Hat templates.
The QEMU guest agent takes a consistent snapshot by attempting to quiesce the VM file system as much as possible, depending on the system workload. This ensures that in-flight I/O is written to the disk before the snapshot is taken. If the guest agent is not present, quiescing is not possible and a best-effort snapshot is taken. The conditions under which the snapshot was taken are reflected in the snapshot indications that are displayed in the web console or CLI.
14.1.1. About snapshots
A snapshot represents the state and data of a virtual machine (VM) at a specific point in time. You can use a snapshot to restore an existing VM to a previous state (represented by the snapshot) for backup and disaster recovery or to rapidly roll back to a previous development version.
A VM snapshot is created from a VM that is powered off (Stopped state) or powered on (Running state).
When taking a snapshot of a running VM, the controller checks that the QEMU guest agent is installed and running. If so, it freezes the VM file system before taking the snapshot, and thaws the file system after the snapshot is taken.
The snapshot stores a copy of each Container Storage Interface (CSI) volume attached to the VM and a copy of the VM specification and metadata. Snapshots cannot be changed after creation.
You can perform the following snapshot actions:
- Create a new snapshot
- Create a copy of a virtual machine from a snapshot
- List all snapshots attached to a specific VM
- Restore a VM from a snapshot
- Delete an existing VM snapshot
VM snapshot controller and custom resources
The VM snapshot feature introduces three new API objects defined as custom resource definitions (CRDs) for managing snapshots:
-
VirtualMachineSnapshot
: Represents a user request to create a snapshot. It contains information about the current state of the VM. -
VirtualMachineSnapshotContent
: Represents a provisioned resource on the cluster (a snapshot). It is created by the VM snapshot controller and contains references to all resources required to restore the VM. -
VirtualMachineRestore
: Represents a user request to restore a VM from a snapshot.
The VM snapshot controller binds a VirtualMachineSnapshotContent
object with the VirtualMachineSnapshot
object for which it was created, with a one-to-one mapping.
14.1.2. About application-consistent snapshots and backups
You can configure application-consistent snapshots and backups for Linux or Windows virtual machines (VMs) through a cycle of freezing and thawing. For any application, you can either configure a script on a Linux VM or register on a Windows VM to be notified when a snapshot or backup is due to begin.
On a Linux VM, freeze and thaw processes trigger automatically when a snapshot is taken or a backup is started by using, for example, a plugin from Velero or another backup vendor. The freeze process, performed by QEMU Guest Agent (QEMU GA) freeze hooks, ensures that before the snapshot or backup of a VM occurs, all of the VM’s filesystems are frozen and each appropriately configured application is informed that a snapshot or backup is about to start. This notification affords each application the opportunity to quiesce its state. Depending on the application, quiescing might involve temporarily refusing new requests, finishing in-progress operations, and flushing data to disk. The operating system is then directed to quiesce the filesystems by flushing outstanding writes to disk and freezing new write activity. All new connection requests are refused. When all applications have become inactive, the QEMU GA freezes the filesystems, and a snapshot is taken or a backup initiated. After the taking of the snapshot or start of the backup, the thawing process begins. Filesystems writing is reactivated and applications receive notification to resume normal operations.
The same cycle of freezing and thawing is available on a Windows VM. Applications register with the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to receive notifications that they should flush out their data because a backup or snapshot is imminent. Thawing of the applications after the backup or snapshot is complete returns them to an active state. For more details, see the Windows Server documentation about the Volume Shadow Copy Service.
14.1.3. Creating snapshots
You can create snapshots of virtual machines (VMs) by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console or the command line.
14.1.3.1. Creating a snapshot by using the web console
You can create a snapshot of a virtual machine (VM) by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
The VM snapshot includes disks that meet the following requirements:
- Either a data volume or a persistent volume claim
- Belong to a storage class that supports Container Storage Interface (CSI) volume snapshots
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → VirtualMachines in the web console.
- Select a VM to open the VirtualMachine details page.
- Click the Snapshots tab and then click Take Snapshot.
- Enter the snapshot name.
- Expand Disks included in this Snapshot to see the storage volumes to be included in the snapshot.
- If your VM has disks that cannot be included in the snapshot and you wish to proceed, select I am aware of this warning and wish to proceed.
- Click Save.
14.1.3.2. Creating a snapshot by using the command line
You can create a virtual machine (VM) snapshot for an offline or online VM by creating a VirtualMachineSnapshot
object.
Prerequisites
- Ensure that the persistent volume claims (PVCs) are in a storage class that supports Container Storage Interface (CSI) volume snapshots.
-
Install the OpenShift CLI (
oc
). - Optional: Power down the VM for which you want to create a snapshot.
Procedure
Create a YAML file to define a
VirtualMachineSnapshot
object that specifies the name of the newVirtualMachineSnapshot
and the name of the source VM as in the following example:apiVersion: snapshot.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: VirtualMachineSnapshot metadata: name: <snapshot_name> spec: source: apiGroup: kubevirt.io kind: VirtualMachine name: <vm_name>
Create the
VirtualMachineSnapshot
object:$ oc create -f <snapshot_name>.yaml
The snapshot controller creates a
VirtualMachineSnapshotContent
object, binds it to theVirtualMachineSnapshot
, and updates thestatus
andreadyToUse
fields of theVirtualMachineSnapshot
object.Optional: If you are taking an online snapshot, you can use the
wait
command and monitor the status of the snapshot:Enter the following command:
$ oc wait <vm_name> <snapshot_name> --for condition=Ready
Verify the status of the snapshot:
-
InProgress
- The online snapshot operation is still in progress. -
Succeeded
- The online snapshot operation completed successfully. Failed
- The online snapshot operaton failed.NoteOnline snapshots have a default time deadline of five minutes (
5m
). If the snapshot does not complete successfully in five minutes, the status is set tofailed
. Afterwards, the file system will be thawed and the VM unfrozen but the status remainsfailed
until you delete the failed snapshot image.To change the default time deadline, add the
FailureDeadline
attribute to the VM snapshot spec with the time designated in minutes (m
) or in seconds (s
) that you want to specify before the snapshot operation times out.To set no deadline, you can specify
0
, though this is generally not recommended, as it can result in an unresponsive VM.If you do not specify a unit of time such as
m
ors
, the default is seconds (s
).
-
Verification
Verify that the
VirtualMachineSnapshot
object is created and bound withVirtualMachineSnapshotContent
and that thereadyToUse
flag is set totrue
:$ oc describe vmsnapshot <snapshot_name>
Example output
apiVersion: snapshot.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: VirtualMachineSnapshot metadata: creationTimestamp: "2020-09-30T14:41:51Z" finalizers: - snapshot.kubevirt.io/vmsnapshot-protection generation: 5 name: mysnap namespace: default resourceVersion: "3897" selfLink: /apis/snapshot.kubevirt.io/v1beta1/namespaces/default/virtualmachinesnapshots/my-vmsnapshot uid: 28eedf08-5d6a-42c1-969c-2eda58e2a78d spec: source: apiGroup: kubevirt.io kind: VirtualMachine name: my-vm status: conditions: - lastProbeTime: null lastTransitionTime: "2020-09-30T14:42:03Z" reason: Operation complete status: "False" 1 type: Progressing - lastProbeTime: null lastTransitionTime: "2020-09-30T14:42:03Z" reason: Operation complete status: "True" 2 type: Ready creationTime: "2020-09-30T14:42:03Z" readyToUse: true 3 sourceUID: 355897f3-73a0-4ec4-83d3-3c2df9486f4f virtualMachineSnapshotContentName: vmsnapshot-content-28eedf08-5d6a-42c1-969c-2eda58e2a78d 4
- 1
- The
status
field of theProgressing
condition specifies if the snapshot is still being created. - 2
- The
status
field of theReady
condition specifies if the snapshot creation process is complete. - 3
- Specifies if the snapshot is ready to be used.
- 4
- Specifies that the snapshot is bound to a
VirtualMachineSnapshotContent
object created by the snapshot controller.
-
Check the
spec:volumeBackups
property of theVirtualMachineSnapshotContent
resource to verify that the expected PVCs are included in the snapshot.
14.1.4. Verifying online snapshots by using snapshot indications
Snapshot indications are contextual information about online virtual machine (VM) snapshot operations. Indications are not available for offline virtual machine (VM) snapshot operations. Indications are helpful in describing details about the online snapshot creation.
Prerequisites
- You must have attempted to create an online VM snapshot.
Procedure
Display the output from the snapshot indications by performing one of the following actions:
-
Use the command line to view indicator output in the
status
stanza of theVirtualMachineSnapshot
object YAML. - In the web console, click VirtualMachineSnapshot → Status in the Snapshot details screen.
-
Use the command line to view indicator output in the
Verify the status of your online VM snapshot by viewing the values of the
status.indications
parameter:-
Online
indicates that the VM was running during online snapshot creation. -
GuestAgent
indicates that the QEMU guest agent was running during online snapshot creation. -
NoGuestAgent
indicates that the QEMU guest agent was not running during online snapshot creation. The QEMU guest agent could not be used to freeze and thaw the file system, either because the QEMU guest agent was not installed or running or due to another error.
-
14.1.5. Restoring virtual machines from snapshots
You can restore virtual machines (VMs) from snapshots by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console or the command line.
14.1.5.1. Restoring a VM from a snapshot by using the web console
You can restore a virtual machine (VM) to a previous configuration represented by a snapshot in the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → VirtualMachines in the web console.
- Select a VM to open the VirtualMachine details page.
- If the VM is running, click the options menu and select Stop to power it down.
- Click the Snapshots tab to view a list of snapshots associated with the VM.
- Select a snapshot to open the Snapshot Details screen.
- Click the options menu and select Restore VirtualMachine from snapshot.
- Click Restore.
14.1.5.2. Restoring a VM from a snapshot by using the command line
You can restore an existing virtual machine (VM) to a previous configuration by using the command line. You can only restore from an offline VM snapshot.
Prerequisites
- Power down the VM you want to restore.
Procedure
Create a YAML file to define a
VirtualMachineRestore
object that specifies the name of the VM you want to restore and the name of the snapshot to be used as the source as in the following example:apiVersion: snapshot.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: VirtualMachineRestore metadata: name: <vm_restore> spec: target: apiGroup: kubevirt.io kind: VirtualMachine name: <vm_name> virtualMachineSnapshotName: <snapshot_name>
Create the
VirtualMachineRestore
object:$ oc create -f <vm_restore>.yaml
The snapshot controller updates the status fields of the
VirtualMachineRestore
object and replaces the existing VM configuration with the snapshot content.
Verification
Verify that the VM is restored to the previous state represented by the snapshot and that the
complete
flag is set totrue
:$ oc get vmrestore <vm_restore>
Example output
apiVersion: snapshot.kubevirt.io/v1beta1 kind: VirtualMachineRestore metadata: creationTimestamp: "2020-09-30T14:46:27Z" generation: 5 name: my-vmrestore namespace: default ownerReferences: - apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 blockOwnerDeletion: true controller: true kind: VirtualMachine name: my-vm uid: 355897f3-73a0-4ec4-83d3-3c2df9486f4f resourceVersion: "5512" selfLink: /apis/snapshot.kubevirt.io/v1beta1/namespaces/default/virtualmachinerestores/my-vmrestore uid: 71c679a8-136e-46b0-b9b5-f57175a6a041 spec: target: apiGroup: kubevirt.io kind: VirtualMachine name: my-vm virtualMachineSnapshotName: my-vmsnapshot status: complete: true 1 conditions: - lastProbeTime: null lastTransitionTime: "2020-09-30T14:46:28Z" reason: Operation complete status: "False" 2 type: Progressing - lastProbeTime: null lastTransitionTime: "2020-09-30T14:46:28Z" reason: Operation complete status: "True" 3 type: Ready deletedDataVolumes: - test-dv1 restoreTime: "2020-09-30T14:46:28Z" restores: - dataVolumeName: restore-71c679a8-136e-46b0-b9b5-f57175a6a041-datavolumedisk1 persistentVolumeClaim: restore-71c679a8-136e-46b0-b9b5-f57175a6a041-datavolumedisk1 volumeName: datavolumedisk1 volumeSnapshotName: vmsnapshot-28eedf08-5d6a-42c1-969c-2eda58e2a78d-volume-datavolumedisk1
14.1.6. Deleting snapshots
You can delete snapshots of virtual machines (VMs) by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console or the command line.
14.1.6.1. Deleting a snapshot by using the web console
You can delete an existing virtual machine (VM) snapshot by using the web console.
Procedure
- Navigate to Virtualization → VirtualMachines in the web console.
- Select a VM to open the VirtualMachine details page.
- Click the Snapshots tab to view a list of snapshots associated with the VM.
- Click the options menu beside a snapshot and select Delete snapshot.
- Click Delete.
14.1.6.2. Deleting a virtual machine snapshot in the CLI
You can delete an existing virtual machine (VM) snapshot by deleting the appropriate VirtualMachineSnapshot
object.
Prerequisites
-
Install the OpenShift CLI (
oc
).
Procedure
Delete the
VirtualMachineSnapshot
object:$ oc delete vmsnapshot <snapshot_name>
The snapshot controller deletes the
VirtualMachineSnapshot
along with the associatedVirtualMachineSnapshotContent
object.
Verification
Verify that the snapshot is deleted and no longer attached to this VM:
$ oc get vmsnapshot
14.1.7. Additional resources
14.2. Backing up and restoring virtual machines
Red Hat supports using OpenShift Virtualization 4.14 or later with OADP 1.3.x or later.
OADP versions earlier than 1.3.0 are not supported for back up and restore of OpenShift Virtualization.
Back up and restore virtual machines by using the OpenShift API for Data Protection.
You can install the OpenShift API for Data Protection (OADP) with OpenShift Virtualization by installing the OADP Operator and configuring a backup location. You can then install the Data Protection Application.
OpenShift API for Data Protection with OpenShift Virtualization supports the following backup and restore storage options:
- Container Storage Interface (CSI) backups
- Container Storage Interface (CSI) backups with DataMover
The following storage options are excluded:
- File system backup and restore
- Volume snapshot backup and restore
For more information, see Backing up applications with File System Backup: Kopia or Restic.
To install the OADP Operator in a restricted network environment, you must first disable the default OperatorHub sources and mirror the Operator catalog.
See Using Operator Lifecycle Manager in disconnected environments for details.
14.2.1. Installing and configuring OADP with OpenShift Virtualization
As a cluster administrator, you install OADP by installing the OADP Operator.
The latest version of the OADP Operator installs Velero 1.14.
Prerequisites
-
Access to the cluster as a user with the
cluster-admin
role.
Procedure
- Install the OADP Operator according to the instructions for your storage provider.
-
Install the Data Protection Application (DPA) with the
kubevirt
andopenshift
OADP plugins. Back up virtual machines by creating a
Backup
custom resource (CR).WarningRed Hat support is limited to only the following options:
- CSI backups
- CSI backups with DataMover.
You restore the Backup
CR by creating a Restore
CR.
14.2.2. Installing the Data Protection Application
You install the Data Protection Application (DPA) by creating an instance of the DataProtectionApplication
API.
Prerequisites
- You must install the OADP Operator.
- You must configure object storage as a backup location.
- If you use snapshots to back up PVs, your cloud provider must support either a native snapshot API or Container Storage Interface (CSI) snapshots.
If the backup and snapshot locations use the same credentials, you must create a
Secret
with the default name,cloud-credentials
.NoteIf you do not want to specify backup or snapshot locations during the installation, you can create a default
Secret
with an emptycredentials-velero
file. If there is no defaultSecret
, the installation will fail.
Procedure
- Click Operators → Installed Operators and select the OADP Operator.
- Under Provided APIs, click Create instance in the DataProtectionApplication box.
Click YAML View and update the parameters of the
DataProtectionApplication
manifest:apiVersion: oadp.openshift.io/v1alpha1 kind: DataProtectionApplication metadata: name: <dpa_sample> namespace: openshift-adp 1 spec: configuration: velero: defaultPlugins: - kubevirt 2 - gcp 3 - csi 4 - openshift 5 resourceTimeout: 10m 6 nodeAgent: 7 enable: true 8 uploaderType: kopia 9 podConfig: nodeSelector: <node_selector> 10 backupLocations: - velero: provider: gcp 11 default: true credential: key: cloud name: <default_secret> 12 objectStorage: bucket: <bucket_name> 13 prefix: <prefix> 14
- 1
- The default namespace for OADP is
openshift-adp
. The namespace is a variable and is configurable. - 2
- The
kubevirt
plugin is mandatory for OpenShift Virtualization. - 3
- Specify the plugin for the backup provider, for example,
gcp
, if it exists. - 4
- The
csi
plugin is mandatory for backing up PVs with CSI snapshots. Thecsi
plugin uses the Velero CSI beta snapshot APIs. You do not need to configure a snapshot location. - 5
- The
openshift
plugin is mandatory. - 6
- Specify how many minutes to wait for several Velero resources before timeout occurs, such as Velero CRD availability, volumeSnapshot deletion, and backup repository availability. The default is 10m.
- 7
- The administrative agent that routes the administrative requests to servers.
- 8
- Set this value to
true
if you want to enablenodeAgent
and perform File System Backup. - 9
- Enter
kopia
as your uploader to use the Built-in DataMover. ThenodeAgent
deploys a daemon set, which means that thenodeAgent
pods run on each working node. You can configure File System Backup by addingspec.defaultVolumesToFsBackup: true
to theBackup
CR. - 10
- Specify the nodes on which Kopia are available. By default, Kopia runs on all nodes.
- 11
- Specify the backup provider.
- 12
- Specify the correct default name for the
Secret
, for example,cloud-credentials-gcp
, if you use a default plugin for the backup provider. If specifying a custom name, then the custom name is used for the backup location. If you do not specify aSecret
name, the default name is used. - 13
- Specify a bucket as the backup storage location. If the bucket is not a dedicated bucket for Velero backups, you must specify a prefix.
- 14
- Specify a prefix for Velero backups, for example,
velero
, if the bucket is used for multiple purposes.
- Click Create.
Verification
Verify the installation by viewing the OpenShift API for Data Protection (OADP) resources by running the following command:
$ oc get all -n openshift-adp
Example output
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE pod/oadp-operator-controller-manager-67d9494d47-6l8z8 2/2 Running 0 2m8s pod/node-agent-9cq4q 1/1 Running 0 94s pod/node-agent-m4lts 1/1 Running 0 94s pod/node-agent-pv4kr 1/1 Running 0 95s pod/velero-588db7f655-n842v 1/1 Running 0 95s NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP EXTERNAL-IP PORT(S) AGE service/oadp-operator-controller-manager-metrics-service ClusterIP 172.30.70.140 <none> 8443/TCP 2m8s service/openshift-adp-velero-metrics-svc ClusterIP 172.30.10.0 <none> 8085/TCP 8h NAME DESIRED CURRENT READY UP-TO-DATE AVAILABLE NODE SELECTOR AGE daemonset.apps/node-agent 3 3 3 3 3 <none> 96s NAME READY UP-TO-DATE AVAILABLE AGE deployment.apps/oadp-operator-controller-manager 1/1 1 1 2m9s deployment.apps/velero 1/1 1 1 96s NAME DESIRED CURRENT READY AGE replicaset.apps/oadp-operator-controller-manager-67d9494d47 1 1 1 2m9s replicaset.apps/velero-588db7f655 1 1 1 96s
Verify that the
DataProtectionApplication
(DPA) is reconciled by running the following command:$ oc get dpa dpa-sample -n openshift-adp -o jsonpath='{.status}'
Example output
{"conditions":[{"lastTransitionTime":"2023-10-27T01:23:57Z","message":"Reconcile complete","reason":"Complete","status":"True","type":"Reconciled"}]}
-
Verify the
type
is set toReconciled
. Verify the backup storage location and confirm that the
PHASE
isAvailable
by running the following command:$ oc get backupStorageLocation -n openshift-adp
Example output
NAME PHASE LAST VALIDATED AGE DEFAULT dpa-sample-1 Available 1s 3d16h true
14.3. Disaster recovery
OpenShift Virtualization supports using disaster recovery (DR) solutions to ensure that your environment can recover after a site outage. To use these methods, you must plan your OpenShift Virtualization deployment in advance.
14.3.1. About disaster recovery methods
For an overview of disaster recovery (DR) concepts, architecture, and planning considerations, see the Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization disaster recovery guide in the Red Hat Knowledgebase.
The two primary DR methods for OpenShift Virtualization are Metropolitan Disaster Recovery (Metro-DR) and Regional-DR.
14.3.1.1. Metro-DR
Metro-DR uses synchronous replication. It writes to storage at both the primary and secondary sites so that the data is always synchronized between sites. Because the storage provider is responsible for ensuring that the synchronization succeeds, the environment must meet the throughput and latency requirements of the storage provider.
14.3.1.2. Regional-DR
Regional-DR uses asynchronous replication. The data in the primary site is synchronized with the secondary site at regular intervals. For this type of replication, you can have a higher latency connection between the primary and secondary sites.
Regional-DR is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.
For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.
14.3.2. Defining applications for disaster recovery
Define applications for disaster recovery by using VMs that Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management (RHACM) manages or discovers.
14.3.2.1. Best practices when defining an RHACM-managed VM
An RHACM-managed application that includes a VM must be created by using a GitOps workflow and by creating an RHACM application or ApplicationSet
.
There are several actions you can take to improve your experience and chance of success when defining an RHACM-managed VM.
Use a PVC and populator to define storage for the VM
Because data volumes create persistent volume claims (PVCs) implicitly, data volumes and VMs with data volume templates do not fit as neatly into the GitOps model.
Use the import method when choosing a population source for your VM disk
Use the import method to work around limitations in Regional-DR that prevent you from protecting VMs that use cloned PVCs.
Select a RHEL image from the software catalog to use the import method. Red Hat recommends using a specific version of the image rather than a floating tag for consistent results. The KubeVirt community maintains container disks for other operating systems in a Quay repository.
Use pullMethod: node
Use the pod pullMethod: node
when creating a data volume from a registry source to take advantage of the OpenShift Container Platform pull secret, which is required to pull container images from the Red Hat registry.
14.3.2.2. Best practices when defining an RHACM-discovered virtual machine
You can configure any VM in the cluster that is not an RHACM-managed application as an RHACM-discovered application. This includes VMs imported by using the Migration Toolkit for Virtualization (MTV), VMs created by using the OpenShift Virtualization web console, or VMs created by any other means, such as the CLI.
There are several actions you can take to improve your experience and chance of success when defining an RHACM-discovered VM.
Protect the VM when using MTV, the OpenShift Virtualization web console, or a custom VM
Because automatic labeling is not currently available, the application owner must manually label the components of the VM application when using MTV, the OpenShift Virtualization web console, or a custom VM.
After creating the VM, apply a common label to the following resources associated with the VM: VirtualMachine
, DataVolume
, PersistentVolumeClaim
, Service
, Route
, Secret
, and ConfigMap
. Do not label virtual machine instances (VMIs) or pods since OpenShift Virtualization creates and manages these automatically.
Include more than the VirtualMachine
object in the VM
Working VMs typically also contain data volumes, persistent volume claims (PVCs), services, routes, secrets, ConfigMap
objects, and VirtualMachineSnapshot
objects.
Include the VM as part of a larger logical application
This includes other pod-based workloads and VMs.
14.3.3. VM behavior during disaster recovery scenarios
VMs typically act similarly to pod-based workloads during both relocate and failover disaster recovery flows.
Relocate
Use relocate to move an application from the primary environment to the secondary environment when the primary environment is still accessible. During relocate, the VM is gracefully terminated, any unreplicated data is synchronized to the secondary environment, and the VM starts in the secondary environment.
Becauase the terminates gracefully, there is no data loss in this scenario. Therefore, the VM operating system does not need to perform crash recovery.
Failover
Use failover when there is a critical failure in the primary environment that makes it impractical or impossible to use relocation to move the workload to a secondary environment. When failover is executed, the storage is fenced from the primary environment, the I/O to the VM disks is abruptly halted, and the VM restarts in the secondary environment using the replicated data.
You should expect data loss due to failover. The extent of loss depends on whether you use Metro-DR, which uses synchronous replication, or Regional-DR, which uses asynchronous replication. Because Regional-DR uses snapshot-based replication intervals, the window of data loss is proportional to the replication interval length. When the VM restarts, the operating system might perform crash recovery.
14.3.4. Metro-DR for Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation
OpenShift Virtualization supports the Metro-DR solution for OpenShift Data Foundation, which provides two-way synchronous data replication between managed OpenShift Virtualization clusters installed on primary and secondary sites. This solution combines Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management (RHACM), Red Hat Ceph Storage, and OpenShift Data Foundation components.
Use this solution during a site disaster to failover applications from the primary to the secondary site, and relocate the applications back to the primary site after restoring the disaster site.
This synchronous solution is only available to metropolitan distance data centers with a 10-millisecond latency or less.
For more information about using the Metro-DR solution for OpenShift Data Foundation with OpenShift Virtualization, see the Red Hat Knowledgebase or IBM’s OpenShift Data Foundation Metro-DR documentation.
Additional resources
Additional resources
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