Vnx-console-mgmt

VNX Console Management

To be completed soon...

VNX Console Definition

Consoles available depending on type of virtual machine:

• libvirt virtual machines:
  • con0: the graphical console
  • con1: the textual console
• Dynamips:
  • con1: the main console
  • con2: aux console (only available for C7200 routers)
• Olive:
  • con1: the textual console

  <global>

      <vm_defaults>
	    <console id="0" display="no"/>
	    <console id="1" display="yes"/>
      </vm_defaults>
  </global>

...
<vm name="h1" type="libvirt" subtype="kvm" os="linux">
    ...
    <console id="0" display="yes"/>
    <console id="1" display="no"/>
    ...
</vm>

<vm name="h2" type="libvirt" subtype="kvm" os="linux">

</vm>

VNX Console Commands

Two commands are provided in VNX to manage virtual machine consoles:

• "--console", to open the consoles;
• "--console-info" to show information about them.

--console option can be optionally followed by a comma separated list of of console names (eg. "--console con0,con1"). Besides, the -M option can be used to specify a virtual machine or a list of virtual machines the command applies to.

For example:

• Show information about the consoles of an scenario:

sudo vnx -f scenario.xml -v --console-info

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Scenario "tutorial_ubuntu" started

 VM_NAME     | TYPE                | CONSOLE ACCESS COMMAND
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 h1          | libvirt-kvm-linux   | con0:  'virt-viewer -c qemu:///system h1' or 'vncviewer :0'
             |                     | con1:  'virsh -c qemu:///system console h1' or 'screen /dev/pts/0'
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 h2          | libvirt-kvm-linux   | con0:  'virt-viewer -c qemu:///system h2' or 'vncviewer :6'
             |                     | con1:  'virsh -c qemu:///system console h2' or 'screen /dev/pts/12'
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 r1          | libvirt-kvm-linux   | con0:  'virt-viewer -c qemu:///system r1' or 'vncviewer :7'
             |                     | con1:  'virsh -c qemu:///system console r1' or 'screen /dev/pts/13'
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 r2          | libvirt-kvm-linux   | con0:  'virt-viewer -c qemu:///system r2' or 'vncviewer :8'
             |                     | con1:  'virsh -c qemu:///system console r2' or 'screen /dev/pts/14'
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 h3          | libvirt-kvm-linux   | con0:  'virt-viewer -c qemu:///system h3' or 'vncviewer :9'
             |                     | con1:  'virsh -c qemu:///system console h3' or 'screen /dev/pts/22'
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 h4          | libvirt-kvm-linux   | con0:  'virt-viewer -c qemu:///system h4' or 'vncviewer :10'
             |                     | con1:  'virsh -c qemu:///system console h4' or 'screen /dev/pts/23'
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• Open all the consoles enabled in an scenario:

sudo vnx -f scenario.xml -v --console

only the consoles with the 'display' attribute set to 'yes' are opened.

• Open the first console of every virtual machine of an scenario:

sudo vnx -f scenario.xml -v --console con1

When specifing the console name after the "--console" option, the consoles are opened independently of the value of the 'display' attribute.

• Open the first console of a specific virtual machine of an scenario:

sudo vnx -f scenario.xml -v --console con1 -M h1

Opening Consoles Manually

For libvirt virtual machines, you can use libvirt "virsh list" commands to get the names and identifiers of each virtual machine:

# sudo virsh list
 Id Nombre               Estado
----------------------------------
 31 ubuntu-gui           running

And start the consoles manually using "virt-viewer" command for the graphical consoles and "virsh console" for the textual ones.

For example:

# virt-viewer 31 &                       # To open the graphical console
# xterm -e "sudo virsh console 31" &     # To open the text console

Beware that only one textual console can be used at a time. If you open a second one, you will experiment a strange behaviour as both consoles will compete for the pts terminal. On the contrary, you can open several graphical console simultaneously.