Chapter 1 Using Oracle VM Manager

The Oracle VM Manager user interface is supported in the following Web browsers:

The Oracle VM Manager user interface is best used on client systems with a minimum screen resolution of at least 1024 x 768 pixels.

The Oracle VM Manager user interface is best used in an environment where no proxy server is configured between the client web-browser and the Oracle VM Manager host. Operations performed through the Oracle VM Manager user interface are synchronous and frequently depend on the completion of a previous operation. It is imperative that any environment that makes use of a proxy server between client web-browsers and the Oracle VM Manager host is configured in such a way that proxy timeouts take into account the length of time that it takes to perform some operations. Neglecting to configure a proxy server for this may cause unexpected behaviour within the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface. The length of time that an operation may take to complete is not fixed and is dependent on your own environment. For example, refreshing a large storage array takes longer than a smaller one.

To open the Login page of the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface, enter the following address in a Web browser:

https://hostname:port/ovm/console

Where, hostname refers to the host name or IP address of the Oracle VM Manager host, and port refers to the port number on which the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface is listening (which is 7002 by default).

To connect to Oracle VM Manager on a host named example.com, use:

https://example.com:7002/ovm/console

Enter your Oracle VM Manager administration username in the Username field. This is the administration username you create during the Oracle VM Manager install. Enter the password for the Oracle VM Manager administration username in the Password field.

Now you are logged in, you can add Oracle VM Servers, add storage, create storage repositories and import resources into them, create server pools, and create virtual machines.

The user interface displays context sensitive information, relevant to the selection in the navigator and content panes.

Oracle VM Manager is designed to store user preferences so that they are persistent for a user across successive sessions. The data for these preferences is stored within the Oracle VM Manager database and are related to the internal user ID associated with a particular set of login credentials. This design ensures that these preferences are persistent across sessions, regardless of the browser or client system used to acess the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface. Preferences that are stored in this way include accessibility preferences as described in Section 1.4, “Oracle VM Manager Accessibility Features”; and parameters that control the views presented on the Health tab, as described in Chapter 2, Health Tab. A summary of the preferences that are stored is presented in the following list:

These preferences are maintained transparently and are updated when a user modifies any of these options directly within the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface. There is no option to manually edit these preferences directly within the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface.

The Oracle VM Manager Web Interface loads these preference values at login and as components are created in the user interface. This means that if a user is logged in across multiple browsers, changes may not be reflected until a user logs out and back in. Furthermore, in the case that multiple clients make changes to the same preference, the last change made is the one that is persisted.

Preference settings are lost if Oracle VM Manager is reinstalled, even if the database is restored. This is because each preference is associated with an identifier for the associated user account and these identifiers are stored and managed by the underlying WebLogic server software. Preferences are unaffected by a database backup and restore operation.

As part of the effort to make Oracle products, services, and supporting documentation accessible and usable to the disabled community, Oracle VM Manager Web Interface allows you to configure the following accessibility features:

You can enable these features when logging in to the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface or you can set or change the accessibility options once you have logged in.

These settings are persistent across each user login, as described in Section 1.3, “User Preference Persistence”. To ensure that the same settings are applied on each subsequent login you should ensure that the Use saved accessibility options checkbox is checked on the login page when you login.

To access menus without using a mouse, you can use the HTML access keys. The shortcut key for a user interface item is shown as an underline of the shortcut key letter in the item name, for example, the shortcut key for the Servers and VMs tab is S, as that is the letter underlined in the tab text.

To access the shortcut key, enter the HTML access key for your browser, plus the access key letter. For example, to access a shortcut key on Microsoft Internet Explorer, press Alt + shortcut_key at the same time. See your web browser documentation to find the key combination to use for HTML access keys for your browser.

The Oracle VM Manager Web Interface provides a set of tabs, work areas (management panes), icons, and toolbars, for access to various functions and configuration screens. Figure 1.1, “The Oracle VM Manager Web Interface” shows the main components of the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface.

Figure 1.1 The Oracle VM Manager Web Interface

Click to view larger image ui_overview_web.png

The components of the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface are described in more detail in Table 1.1, “Oracle VM Manager Web Interface components”.

The sections that follow describe each set of controls and their relationship to one another, in more detail.

The global links are available on every page. The global links are as shown in Table 1.2, “Global Link Item Descriptions”:

1.7.1 Help Menu

Use the Help menu to display the Oracle VM Manager online help, the Getting Started chapter of the online help, the product release number, and to go to Oracle's home page. The Help menu options are as shown in Table 1.3, “Help Menu Options”.

Table 1.3 Help Menu Options

Help Menu Option	Icon	Description
Oracle VM Manager Help		Opens a new web browser window which contains the Oracle VM Manager online help system.
Getting Started		Opens a new web browser window which contains the Getting Started chapter of the online help system. Read this section to quickly get started using Oracle VM Manager.
Oracle.com		Opens a new web browser window which contains the Oracle home page.
About		Displays the About Oracle VM dialog box which contains the release number.

Click to display the Find dialog box. Depending on the location of this icon within the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface, different search options are available. Each Find dialog contains three fields, Type, Name and Result. The Type field contains options relevant to the context in which the dialog has been displayed. For example, when you click in the navigation pane of the Servers and VMs tab, the Type field contains options to search for:

The Name field allows you to filter the search results based on the name of objects. You can use special searching options such as * and %. See Section 1.16, “Name Filters” for more about using the Name field to filter search results.

Click to display context sensitive help about the tab, subtab, or dialog box. The help is displayed in a separate browser window.

Each tab defines different objects and functional areas of operations that can be performed in Oracle VM Manager. When you select a tab the default management pane for that tab is displayed. The management pane change depending on the selected object in the navigation tree and the Perspective selected in the drop-down list in the management pane toolbar. The tabs in the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface are:

A Getting Started tab is also available if the Getting Started panel is displayed. This tab is described in more detail in Section 1.10.1, “Getting Started Tab”.

The order of the tabs is largely determined by frequency of use once your environment is completely configured. It is not indicative of the order in which you should attempt to configure the different elements within your environment. For an insight into the typical order in which configuration tasks should be performed for a fresh installation please refer to the information provided in the Getting Started tab, or to the Oracle VM Manager Getting Started Guide.

1.10.1 Getting Started Tab

When you first log in to the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface the Getting Started tab is displayed on the right side of the management pane. The Getting Started tab contains a tutorial that describes how to get started with Oracle VM Manager, and walks you through discovering Oracle VM Servers, registering storage, setting up networking, setting up a storage repository and importing resources into it, creating a server pool and creating virtual machines. To show or hide the tutorial, click the arrow to the right of the management pane.

Figure 1.2, “Getting Started tab” shows the Getting Started tab.

Figure 1.2 Getting Started tab

Click to view larger image ui_getting_started_tab.png

The information displayed in this tab is based on the content provided in the Oracle VM Manager Getting Started Guide.

1.10.4 Perspectives

• 1.10.4.1 Info Perspective
• 1.10.4.2 Events Perspective

If the tab that you are viewing includes a navigation pane, it is more than likely that there are numerous perspectives associated with the item selected in the navigation tree. These perspectives are different views of information associated with each object stored within Oracle VM Manager. The perspectives are listed in a drop-down menu located in the toolbar at the top of the management pane. By selecting a particular perspective from the menu, the data in the management pane is updated to show the information relevant to the selected perspective. Furthermore, the perspective toolbar is updated to provide management and configuration options that are specific to the perspective that you are viewing.

1.10.4.1 Info Perspective

The Info perspective is common to many elements within the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface. This perspective always shows the individually configured parameters for an item that is currently selected in the navigation tree. Some of these configured parameters may be automatically populated through a discovery process, while others may have been configured manually during the creation of the object that is selected.

The Info perspective or dialog contains a perspective toolbar with the following options:

Table 1.4 Info Perspective Toolbar Icon Options

Toolbar Icon Option	Icon	Description
Help		Displays context sensitive help.

1.10.4.2 Events Perspective

The Events perspective is common to many elements within the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface. The Events perspective generally appears as an option within the Perspectives drop-down menu on the management pane of tabs that include a navigation tree. In this case, the Events perspective displays events specific to the item selected in the navigation tree and presents these in the management pane.

The Events perspective may also appear within a dialog that is triggered from a Display Selected Events... perspective toolbar option. In this case, the Events perspective dialog displays events specific to one or more elements selected in the management pane.

If an object has an error event associated with it you must acknowledge the event to clear the error and return the object to normal operations. For example, this can occur if an Oracle VM Server or virtual machine appear as Stopped (Error) in the status. The object in error is flagged with a red icon in the navigation tree. Oracle VM Servers, virtual machines, repositories and storage objects can have error events associated with them.

Since Oracle VM Manager attempts to resolve issues automatically as much as possible, not all events can be acknowledged by a user within the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface. Therefore, a flag is set for events that are user acknowledgeable. If an event does not have this flag set, you are unable to acknowledge it, since it is handled internally by Oracle VM Manager.

The Events perspective or dialog contains a table with the following columns of information for each event:

• Severity: The severity level assigned to the event.

• Timestamp: The date and time that the event occurred.

• Modify Time: The last recorded date and time that the event was modified.

• Type: The type of event according to Oracle VM Manager's event categorization model.

• Summary: A summary description of the event.

• Acknowledged: Whether an error event has been acknowledged.

• User Acknowledgeable: Whether or not an event can be acknowledged by the user.

Event Descriptions

An arrow displays next to each event in the table. Click the arrow to expand and view the Description section that provides additional details for the event.

The Events perspective or dialog contains a perspective toolbar with the following options:

Table 1.5 Events Perspective Toolbar Icon Options

Toolbar Icon Option	Icon	Description
Acknowledge		Acknowledge a selected error event to clear the error and return the object to normal operations. Note that this option is only available for user acknowledgeable events.
Acknowledge All		Acknowledge all error events associated with an object to clear the errors and return the object to normal operations. Note that only user acknowledgeable events are cleared. This button is always clickable, even if there are no user acknowledgeable events. Clicking it when there are no user acknowledgeable events results in an error dialog.
Display Count		A drop-down menu that allows you to select the number of events that should be displayed in the management pane, while you are currently in this perspective.

Acknowledging Events/Errors

If an object has an error event associated with it you must acknowledge the event to clear the error and return the object to normal operations. For example, this can occur if an Oracle VM Server or virtual machine appear as Stopped (Error) in the status. The object in error is flagged with a red icon in the navigation tree. Oracle VM Servers, virtual machines, repositories and storage objects can have error events associated with them. The following procedures show you how to clear errors and return the object to normal operations.

To acknowledge Oracle VM Server error events:

1. Click the Servers and VMs tab.

2. Select the Oracle VM Server in the navigation tree.

3. Select Events from the Perspective drop-down list in the management pane.

4. Select the user acknowledgeable error event and click Acknowledge , or click Acknowledge All to clear all user acknowledgeable errors.

To acknowledge virtual machine error events:

1. Click the Servers and VMs tab.

2. Select the server pool, or Oracle VM Server on which the virtual machine resides in the navigation tree.

3. Select Virtual Machines from the Perspective drop-down list in the management pane.

4. Select the virtual machine in the management pane table. Click Display Selected VM Events... .

5. The Events dialog box is displayed. Select the user acknowledgeable error event and click Acknowledge , or click Acknowledge All to clear all user acknowledgeable errors. Click Close.

To acknowledge storage repository error events:

1. Click the Repositories tab.

2. Select the repository in the navigation tree.

3. Select Events from the Perspective drop-down list in the management pane.

4. Select the error event and click Acknowledge , or click Acknowledge All to clear all errors.

To acknowledge storage error events:

1. Click the Storage tab.

2. Select File Servers, SAN Servers, or a storage server in the navigation tree.

3. Select Events from the Perspective drop-down list in the management pane.

4. Select the user acknowledgeable error event and click Acknowledge , or click Acknowledge All to clear all user acknowledgeable errors.

The icon for an object may be one of three colors: gray, yellow or red. These colors represent the status of the object and the color meanings are listed in table Table 1.6, “Object Icon Colors”.

Table 1.6 Object Icon Colors

Icon Color	Icon Example	Status
Gray		Normal. No warning or error events.
Yellow		The object has a warning event associated with it.
Red		The object has an error event associated with it.
Blue		The object is in an unknown state.

To see the events associated with an object, select the object in the navigation tree. Select Events in the management pane's Perspective drop-down list. All the events for that object is listed in the table.

Oracle VM Manager makes use of certain default values while performing particular operations or while presenting particular screens within the UI. The default values should be sufficient for the majority of environments, however there are particular cases where changing these default values may improve usability.

Default Oracle VM Manager parameters can be easily edited from within Oracle VM Manager Web Interface by clicking on the Tools and Resources tab and then clicking on the Preferences link in the toolbar.

The configuration parameters can be changed with instant effect. No restart of Oracle VM Manager is required.

See Section 7.4, “Preferences” for more information about the parameters available, their meaning and how to set them.

You can drag and drop one or more Oracle VM Servers (either from the table in the management pane, or from the navigation tree) to another server pool, or the Unassigned Servers folder in the navigation tree. Any virtual machines on an Oracle VM Server must be migrated or moved before moving an Oracle VM Server.

You can also drag and drop one or more virtual machines from the table in the management pane to a server pool, an Oracle VM Server or to the Unassigned Virtual Machines folder in the navigation tree. When you drag and drop multiple virtual machines to a server pool, the placement strategies for the virtual machines depend on the Oracle VM Server roles, and server pool policies such as Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) and Distributed Power Management (DPM). See What are Server Roles? in the Oracle VM Concepts Guide for information on Oracle VM Server roles, and What are Server Pool Policies? in the Oracle VM Concepts Guide for information on server pool policies. See Section 3.5.2.11, “Migrate or Move Virtual Machines” for more information on migrating virtual machines.

All drag and drop operations are performed serially, and not concurrently, so one job is submitted and performed at a time. For example, when migrating multiple virtual machines, one virtual machine is migrated, then the next, and so on.

You can right-click on many elements within in a tab's management pane and within the navigation tree to bring up the action menu. The right-click action menu options are context-sensitive, and change to display actions related to the selected element. For example, if you click the Servers and VMs tab and select a server pool in the navigation tree and then right-click on an Oracle VM Server in the management pane table, the action menu for the Oracle VM Server is displayed.

Many of the toolbar options are also available as right-click menu options. See Section 1.10.5, “Toolbars” for more information on the toolbar.

The Oracle VM Manager Web Interface allows you to select multiple objects from the management pane tables and perform actions on all selected objects at one time. Multi-select functionality supports all commonly used selection options and shortcuts. For instance, selecting the first object in the table, holding down the Shift key and selecting the last object in the table can be used to select all objects. Alternately, once you have selected any object within the table, you can use the Ctrl+A keyboard shortcut to select all remaining objects. To select individual objects, you can hold down the Ctrl key while clicking on the objects upon which you want to perform an action.

You can use the toolbar options or the right-click action menu options to perform an action on multiple selected objects. When an action affects multiple objects, the confirmation dialog for the action lists all of the objects that are affected.

All multi-select operations are performed serially, and not concurrently, so one job is submitted and performed at a time. For example, when starting multiple virtual machines, one virtual machine is started, then the next, and so on.

In many of the tab management panes and in some of the dialog boxes within the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface there is an option to provide a Name Filter. For large deployments where many items pertaining to the current view may be listed, it can be difficult to find and select the objects against which you want to perform an action. The Name Filter field is designed to make this process easier by allowing you to specify search criteria to filter the displayed results.

In tab management panes, the Name Filter field is positioned just below the tabs alongside the toolbar. In the Find dialog available on many tabs, this field is labelled Name.

The input field is case-insensitive and accepts wild card characters such as * (multiple character variations) and ? (single character variation). For example, a typical filter used in the Select File Systems dialog may look like this: nfs*vol?/repo*.

A submit button marked 'Go' is presented to the right of the Name Filter input field. Click on this button to trigger the filter action. Alternatively, while the Name Filter input field has focus, you are able to hit the Enter or Return key on your keyboard to trigger the filter action.

Oracle VM Manager provides the ability to create tags which can be used to identify and group together objects. This functionality makes it easier to quickly limit views of objects and to perform batch operations against objects sharing a common tag. Tags are managed within the Tags subtab on the Reports and Resources tab within the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface. Management of tags is discussed in more detail in Section 7.2, “Tags”.

Once tags have been created within Oracle VM Manager it is possible to assign them to various components or objects. This can be done by either editing existing objects and adding tags within the dialog that appears, or during the creation of a new object. For instance, to add a tag to an existing Oracle VM Server you should locate the Oracle VM Server on the Servers and VMs tab and select the option to edit the Oracle VM Server. In the dialog that appears, click on the Tags tab and assign the tags that you wish to use to identify the Oracle VM Server in future.

Tags can be reused across objects of different types. For instance, the same tag used to identify a particular set of Oracle VM Servers can also be used to group a set of virtual machines together. To see all objects that share the same tag, you can click on the Find Components icon on the Tags subtab on the Reports and Resources tab.

The Find Components feature supports multi-select functionality, allowing you to search for components that are tagged by a number of separate tag names. Furthermore, the Find Components dialog allows you to filter results by object type, by selecting a particular object type from the Show Types drop-down selector.

Many screens within the Oracle VM Manager Web Interface provide the option to use a Tag Filter. This feature takes the form of a drop-down box listing the available tags that can be used to form a filter. Selecting a tag limits the view in the current screen to objects sharing the same tag. On a screen that also provides the Name Filter option, it is possible to switch between the filter types by selecting the appropriate filter type from the drop-down menu.

When a view is limited using the Tag Filter function, batch operations can be performed on all items listed by using shortcut keys such as Ctrl + a to select all items before selecting the operation that you wish to execute.

In the Physical Disks view of a management pane there is an option to provide a VM Name Filter. The VM Name Filter field allows you to specify search criteria to filter the displayed results using virtual machine names.

In Physical Disk views, the VM Name Filter field is positioned just below the tabs alongside the Toolbar.

The input field is case-insensitive and accepts wild card characters such as * (multiple character variations) and ? (single character variation).

A submit button marked 'Go' is presented to the right of the VM Name Filter input field. Click on this button to trigger the filter action. Alternatively, while the VM Name Filter input field has focus, you are able to hit the Enter or Return key on your keyboard to trigger the filter action.

The values you enter in UI fields are case sensitive, unless explicitly stated in this Guide. For example, entering MyServer in a field is not the same as entering myserver. The UI treats these strings as case sensitive, and are considered different.