Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Platform
  1. Cloud Computing - Introduction
  2. Virtualization
  3. Current Virtualization market players
  4. Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Platform

 General description

Fig. 4.6.5/1: Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Platform Overview.
Fig. 4.6.5/1: Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Platform Overview.
Three components of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization platform
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization platform consists of three components:
  1. Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor - based on Kernel Virtual Machine (KVM), is a thin virtualization layer deployed across the server's infrastructure. Because it is a core part of the Linux kernel, KVM is a highly efficient means of providing virtualization.
  2. Agents and tools include VDSM which runs in the hypervisor or host. These provide local management for virtual machines, networks and storage.
  3. Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization platform management infrastructure allows users to view and manage all the system components, machines and images from a single, powerful interface. The management system GUI provides a comprehensive range of features, including powerful search capabilities, resource management, live migrations, and provisioning.
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization platform enables you to create virtual machines that perform the same functions as physical machines. Using a standard Web browser, users can run virtual machines that behave like physical desktops. Multiple levels of permissions allow users with different roles to manage virtual machines to meet the requirements of the enterprise. The SPICE protocol, which is installed on the client machine and runs on the client machine, allows you to experience PC-like graphics performance while connected to your virtual machine's computing desktop environment. It supplies video at more than 30 frames per second, bi-directional audio (for soft-phones/IP phones), bi-directional video (for video telephony/video conferencing) and USB redirection from the client’s USB port into the virtual machine. SPICE also supports connection to multiple monitors with a single virtual machine. SPICE Client is installed on the client machine by ActiveX when the virtual machine is accessed through a browser from the Admin Portal or the User Portal. After you have successfully logged into Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, the Administration Portal displays. The graphical interface consists of a number of contextual panes and menus, and can be used in two modes, tree mode and flat mode. Tree mode allows you to browse the object hierarchy of a data center, and is the recommended manner of operation.
Fig. 4.6.5/2: User Interface Elements of the Administration Portal.
Fig. 4.6.5/2: User Interface Elements of the Administration Portal.

 Two modes for managing your resources

The Administration Portal provides two different modes for managing your resources, tree mode and flat mode.
Tree mode
Tree mode displays resources in a hierarchical view per data center, from the highest level of the data center, down to the individual virtual machine. Tree mode provides a visual representation of the virtualization system. Working in tree mode is highly recommended for most operations.
Flat mode
Flat mode offers powerful search functionality and allows you to customize how you manage your system. It gives you access to any resource, regardless of its position in the enterprise. In this mode the full power of the search feature can be used. Flat mode does not limit you to viewing the resources of a single hierarchy, but allows you to search across data centers, or storage domains.
There are several virtual machine managers available including:
  • Univention Virtual Manager.
  • qemu/KVM: You can run directly from the command line in a KVM machine.
  • Virsh: A minimal shell for managing VMs.
  • Virtual Machine Manager: Also known as virt-manager, a desktop user interface for managing VMs.

 What are the pros/cons of Red Hat Enterprise?

 Exercise

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