Oracle VM - defining a static network

Question

Hi,
I'm not sure if I'm thinking about this right or not, but I'm trying to define an interface on a VM that uses a static ip address. I'm doing this through the web services API, but I would be happy to better understand how OVM does networking.
In any case, I'm calling the addNIC command which requires a VM and a NICconfig. The NICconfig has a place for IP address, netmask, etc. Here is an example set of args I provide:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<jbi:message xmlns:msgns="http://oracle.ovs.api/" type="msgns:LifecycleService_addNIC" version="1.0" xmlns:jbi="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/jbi/wsdl-11-wrapper">
<jbi:part>
<addNICElement xmlns="http://oracle.ovs.api/types/">
<virtualMachine xmlns:ns0="http://oracle.ovs.api/types/" xmlns:ns1="http://www.oracle.com/webservices/internal/literal" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:type="ns0:VirtualMachine">
<ns0:imgName>test-vm-2</ns0:imgName>
<ns0:comments xsi:nil="1"/>
<ns0:imgId>110</ns0:imgId>
<ns0:bootDevice>
<ns0:bootDevice>HDD</ns0:bootDevice>
</ns0:bootDevice>
<ns0:imgSize>6205</ns0:imgSize>
<ns0:vncPassword>XXXXXXXX</ns0:vncPassword>
<ns0:maximumMemory>1024</ns0:maximumMemory>
<ns0:publish xsi:nil="1"/>
<ns0:cpuNumber>1</ns0:cpuNumber>
<ns0:haEnable>false</ns0:haEnable>
<ns0:uuid>69949450-d3b9-4ffa-a0a2-8b0b7c4198c7</ns0:uuid>
<ns0:operatingSystemName>Oracle Enterprise Linux 5 64-bit</ns0:operatingSystemName>
<ns0:createTime>1257357624422</ns0:createTime>
<ns0:parentImg>90</ns0:parentImg>
<ns0:systemPassword xsi:nil="1"/>
<ns0:location>110_test-vm-2</ns0:location>
<ns0:memory>1024</ns0:memory>
<ns0:systemLogin xsi:nil="1"/>
<ns0:platform xsi:nil="1"/>
<ns0:deploy>Auto</ns0:deploy>
<ns0:status>
<ns0:code>2</ns0:code>
<ns0:status>Powered Off</ns0:status>
<ns0:vmId>0</ns0:vmId>
</ns0:status>
<ns0:vncPort xsi:nil="1"/>
<ns0:imgIp xsi:nil="1"/>
<ns0:poweronTime xsi:nil="1"/>
<ns0:architecture xsi:nil="1"/>
<ns0:virtualMachineType>
<ns0:vmType>Paravirtualized</ns0:vmType>
</ns0:virtualMachineType>
<ns0:keyboardLayout>en-us</ns0:keyboardLayout>
<ns0:pvdriver>false</ns0:pvdriver>
<ns0:cpuCap>100</ns0:cpuCap>
<ns0:cpuPriority>50</ns0:cpuPriority>
</virtualMachine>
<nicConfig>
<ipAddress>129.146.137.195</ipAddress>
<subnetMask>255.255.255.0</subnetMask>
<qosEnabled>false</qosEnabled>
<dnsServer/>
<frontEndName/>
<domainName/>
<defaultGateway/>
<hostName>vm-test2</hostName>
<rateLimit>0.0</rateLimit>
<bridge>xenbr0</bridge>
<networkConfType>
<type>STATIC</type>
</networkConfType>
<name>VIF0</name>
<networkType>
<networkType>NETFRONT</networkType>
</networkType>
<macAddress>00:16:3E:11:11:11</macAddress>
</nicConfig>
</addNICElement>
</jbi:part>
</jbi:message>
However, when I do an ifconfig -a on the VM, there are two main issues:
1. The eth0 interface looks to be preconfigured, but does not show up when I query the interfaces on the VM
2. The eth1 has the MAC address provided above, but does not have the IP address or netmask set
Some side questions:
* what are appropriate values for "frontEndName"?
* can Oracle VM generate a MAC address for me using the API? If so, how? I tried to leave it empty and got an error indicating that it must be provided.
Thanks in advance,
John

Answer 1

jxstanford wrote:
That makes sense (not that it's proper). I'm basically seeing what you described which is an initial interface that shows up in vm.cfg, but not in the OVM GUI. I'm still struggling to define a static interface with an IP address. When you mass create your VMs, are you using DHCP to assign addresses, or do you have a solution for setting up a static IP address?I have a solution: I use a source text file that contains data like server hostname, IP address, netmask, static routes, etc. I then cycle through each VM and loop-mount the system.img itself. Once mounted, I inject the configuration details into the appropriate files on the disk (like a ninja!). This is possible for both normally partitioned and LVM-based virtual disks, though the LVM stuff requires a little bit more work to enable/disable the volume groups each time. If you ping me at my [email protected], I can send you the (very dodgy) script I've been using so far.
Note however that this is something that Enterprise Manager's VM Management Pack can do in a GUI environment: You are able to mass create/configure guests using EM and it will use the same mechanism to inject IP configuration data into the guest prior to boot. It can also auto-configure EM agent as well.