Autosave Oracle VM configuration

The main aim of the autosave feature within Oracle VM for SPARC is to ensure that a copy of the current configuration is automatically saved on the control domain whenever the Logical Domains configuration is changed. More importantly, it occurs even when the new configuration is not explicitly saved on the SP.

Note: The autosave feature doesn't replace the classic LDOMs configuration backup which consists of saving the constraints information for each domain into an XML file (ldm list-constraints -x ...).

Scenario

We have an Oracle SPARC T4 system with 6 LDOMs configured. During the build process we received an unexpected hardware issue which caused a fatal outage and as yet we have not save our LDOM configuration on the SP.

For example, prior to the outage, we had this configuration:

primary# ldm ls-spconfig
factory-default
initial [next poweron]
peimary# ldm ls-spconfig
NAME             STATE      FLAGS   CONS    VCPU  MEMORY   UTIL  UPTIME
primary          active     -n-cv-  UART    16    16G      6.9%  12h 21m
webdev01         active     -n----  5000    16    8G       0.0%  10h 17m
webtest01        active     -n----  5001    16    8G       1.0%  10h 52m
websvr01         active     -n----  5002    16    16G      0.1%  10h 52m
websvr02         active     -n----  5003    16    16G      0.1%  10h 52m
webproxy01       active     -n----  5004     4    8G       9.9%  10h 51m
webproxy02       active     -n----  5005     4    8G       9.2%  10h 50m

After the outage, I only see:

# ldm ls-spconfig
factory-default
initial [next poweron]
primary# ldm ls-spconfig
NAME             STATE      FLAGS   CONS    VCPU  MEMORY   UTIL  UPTIME
primary          active     -n-cv-  UART    16    32G      4.3%  10m

In the above we see that all our configured domains are missing and the configuration for the primary domain is also not as it was prior to the fatal outage.

Resolution

As a precaution, take a backup of the actual configuration and another one of the /var/opt/SUNWldm^*

^* The /var/opt/SUNWldm folder contains the autosave directories

primary# ldm list-constraints -x > /share/config/T4ldoms.xml
primary# tar cf /share/config/T4sunwldom.tar /var/opt/SUNWldm

Confirm the current autosave configuration; It should show as being newer than the current configuration.

primary# ldm ls-config -r
initial [newer]

As the autosaved configuration is showing a newer, recover the initial autosave configuration:

primary# ldm add-spconfig -r initial

Perform a full power-cycle using the shutdown command:

primary# shutdown -y -g0 -i5

-> start /SYS
Are you sure you want to start /SYS (y/n)? y
Starting /SYS

Check the LDOM configuration

primary# ldm ls-spconfig
factory-default
initial [next poweron]
peimary# ldm ls
NAME             STATE      FLAGS   CONS    VCPU  MEMORY   UTIL  UPTIME
primary          active     -n-cv-  UART    16    16G      6.9%  12h 21m
webdev01         active     -n----  5000    16    8G      0.0%  10h 17m
webtest01        active     -n----  5001    16    8G      1.0%  10h 52m
websvr01         active     -n----  5002    16    16G      0.1%  10h 52m
websvr02         active     -n----  5003    16    16G      0.1%  10h 52m
webproxy01       active     -n----  5004     4    8G      9.9%  10h 51m
webproxy02       active     -n----  5005     4    8G      9.2% 10h 50m