HP Integrity Virtual Machines 4.3: Installation, Configuration, Administration

NOTE: The following situation might occur when you are using Insight Dynamics — VSE to
manage distributed guests (guests that are configured as Serviceguard packages):
• There is a guest configuration file for each guest on each VM Host. Therefore, when you
modify a distributed guest you must modify the guest on each VM Host that is a cluster
node.
10.3.9 Online VM Migration
Online VM Migration (OVMM) is an optional feature of Integrity VM that enables a running
virtual machine and its applications to be moved from one VM Host to another without service
interruption. Integrity VM supports OVMM of virtual machines and VMs as Serviceguard
packages for HP-UX guests.
Throughout the migration, all virtual machine I/O connections to storage and networks remain
active. The primary benefits of online migration include:
• Minimizing downtime for planned maintenance activities on VM Hosts
• Balancing static workload between VM Hosts
You can also migrate virtual machines encapsulated within Serviceguard packages, providing
the additional benefits of protection against unplanned VM Host hardware and software failures
at any time other than during an online migration. The type of migration also protects planned
movement of workloads that cannot be migrated online due to VM Host hardware or software
differences.
To perform an online migration of a VM as a Serviceguard Package, execute the hpvmsg_move
command that performs the following operations:
1. Disables Serviceguard VM package switching (that is, monitoring and failover functions are
not available); however, the VM continues to run on the source VM Host.
2. Migrates the VM to the target VM Host online using the hpvmmigrate command,
automatically invoked by the hpvmsg_move command.
3. Now that the migration is complete, re-enables VM packaging switching (that is, Serviceguard
monitors and can failover the VM.
The hpvmsg_move command performs online migration of virtual machines protected by
Serviceguard with the benefit of minimizing both the virtual machine planned and unplanned
downtime. In this case, virtual machines can be migrated online with minimal interruption
during planned events while Serviceguard protects the virtual machines from unplanned failures
during normal operation.
NOTE: Serviceguard does not monitor or protect the virtual machine during the online migration
process; however, the virtual machine and its applications are fully available except during
migration process freeze time.
Online VM Migration does not support migrating guests that are Serviceguard cluster nodes. If
a Serviceguard node is migrated while online, it might lose connection to other cluster members
and be automatically removed from the cluster. The Integrity VM software does not know whether
you have installed Serviceguard in a guest, so it cannot automatically restrict online migration
of your Serviceguard node. Therefore, you should disable online migration for all Serviceguard
nodes.
For example, to disable Online VM Migration for the guest sgnode, run the hpvmmodify
command as follows:
# hpvmmodify -P sgnode -x online_migration=disabled
Disabling online migration for the guest ensures that you do not accidentally attempt to migrate
a Serviceguard node.
214 Using HP Serviceguard with Integrity VM