4/30/2016 libvirt:Terminologyandgoals

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Home Terminologyandgoals
News Toavoidambiguityaboutthetermsused,herearethedefinitionsfor
someofthespecificconceptsusedinlibvirtdocumentation:
Applications
anodeisasinglephysicalmachine
Downloads anhypervisorisalayerofsoftwareallowingtovirtualizeanode
Documentation inasetofvirtualmachineswithpossiblydifferentconfigurations
thanthenodeitself
Compiling adomainisaninstanceofanoperatingsystem(orsubsystemin
thecaseofcontainervirtualization)runningonavirtualized
Deployment machineprovidedbythehypervisor
Architecture

Goals

APIconcepts

Domains

Network

Storage

NodeDevices Nowwecandefinethegoaloflibvirt:toprovideacommonand
stablelayersufficienttosecurelymanagedomainsonanode,
Secureusage possiblyremote.

XMLformat Asaresult,libvirtshouldprovideallAPIsneededtodothe
management,suchas:provision,create,modify,monitor,control,
Drivers
migrateandstopthedomainswithinthelimitsofthesupportofthe
APIreference hypervisorforthoseoperations.Notallhypervisorsprovidethesame
operationsbutifanoperationisusefulfordomainmanagementof
Languagebindings evenonespecifichypervisoritisworthprovidinginlibvirt.Multiple
nodesmaybeaccessedwithlibvirtsimultaneously,buttheAPIsare
Internals
limitedtosinglenodeoperations.Noderesourceoperationswhichare
DevelopmentGuide neededforthemanagementandprovisioningofdomainsarealsoin
thescopeofthelibvirtAPI,suchasinterfacesetup,firewallrules,
VirshCommands storagemanagementandgeneralprovisioningAPIs.Libvirtwillalso
providethestatemonitoringAPIsneededtoimplementmanagement
Governance
policies,obviouslycheckingdomainstatebutalsoexposinglocalnode
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4/30/2016 libvirt:Terminologyandgoals

Wiki resourceconsumption.

FAQ Thisimpliesthefollowingsubgoals:

Bugreports AllAPIcanbecarriedremotelythoughsecureAPIs
WhilemostAPIwillbegenericintermofhypervisororHostOS,
Contact someAPImaybetargetedtoasinglevirtualizationenvironment
aslongasthesemanticfortheoperationsfromadomain
Testsuites
managementperspectiveisclear
RelatedLinks theAPIshouldallowtodoefficientlyandcleanlyalltheoperations
neededtomanagedomainsonanode,includingresource
Sitemap provisioningandsetup
theAPIwillnottrytoprovidehighlevelvirtualizationpoliciesor
multinodesmanagementfeatureslikeloadbalancing,buttheAPI
shouldbesufficientsotheycanbeimplementedontopoflibvirt
stabilityoftheAPIisabigconcern,libvirtshouldisolate
applicationsfromthefrequentchangesexpectedatthelower
levelofthevirtualizationframework
thenodebeingmanagedmaybeonadifferentphysicalmachine
thanthemanagementprogramusinglibvirt,tothiseffectlibvirt
supportsremoteaccess,butshouldonlydosobyusingsecure
protocols.
libvirtwillprovideAPIstoenumerate,monitorandusethe
resourcesavailableonthemanagednode,includingCPUs,
memory,storage,networking,andNUMApartitions.

Solibvirtisintendedtobeabuildingblockforhigherlevel
managementtoolsandforapplicationsfocusingonvirtualizationofa
singlenode(theonlyexceptionbeingdomainmigrationbetweennode
capabilitieswhichinvolvesmorethanonenode).

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