Language:
Format:

Red Hat Training

A Red Hat training course is available for RHEL 8

Chapter 10. Managing virtual devices

One of the most effective ways to manage the functionality, features, and performance of a virtual machine (VM) is to adjust its virtual devices.

The following sections provide a general overview of what virtual devices are, and instructions on how to manage them using the CLI or the web console.

10.1. How virtual devices work

Just like physical machines, virtual machines (VMs) require specialized devices to provide functions to the system, such as processing power, memory, storage, networking, or graphics. Physical systems usually use hardware devices for these purposes. However, because VMs work as software implements, they need to use software abstractions of such devices instead, referred to as virtual devices.

The basics

Virtual devices attached to a VM can be configured when creating the VM, and can also be managed on an existing VM. Generally, virtual devices can be attached or detached from a VM only when the VM is shut off, but some can be added or removed when the VM is running. This feature is referred to as device hot plug and hot unplug.

When creating a new VM, libvirt automatically creates and configures a default set of essential virtual devices, unless specified otherwise by the user. These are based on the host system architecture and machine type, and usually include:

the CPU
memory
a keyboard
a network interface controller (NIC)
various device controllers
a video card
a sound card

To manage virtual devices after the VM is created, use the command-line interface (CLI). However, to manage virtual storage devices and NICs, you can also use the RHEL 8 web console.

Performance or flexibility

For some types of devices, RHEL 8 supports multiple implementations, often with a trade-off between performance and flexibility.

For example, the physical storage used for virtual disks can be represented by files in various formats, such as qcow2 or raw, and presented to the VM using a variety of controllers:

an emulated controller
virtio-scsi
virtio-blk

An emulated controller is slower than a virtio controller, because virtio devices are designed specifically for virtualization purposes. On the other hand, emulated controllers make it possible to run operating systems that have no drivers for virtio devices. Similarly, virtio-scsi offers a more complete support for SCSI commands, and makes it possible to attach a larger number of disks to the VM. Finally, virtio-blk provides better performance than both virtio-scsi and emulated controllers, but a more limited range of use-cases. For example, attaching a physical disk as a LUN device to a VM is not possible when using virtio-blk.

For more information on types of virtual devices, see Types of virtual devices.

Additional resources

10.2. Types of virtual devices

Virtualization in RHEL 8 can present several distinct types of virtual devices that you can attach to virtual machines (VMs):

Emulated devices

Emulated devices are software implementations of widely used physical devices. Drivers designed for physical devices are also compatible with emulated devices. Therefore, emulated devices can be used very flexibly.

However, since they need to faithfully emulate a particular type of hardware, emulated devices may suffer a significant performance loss compared with the corresponding physical devices or more optimized virtual devices.

The following types of emulated devices are supported:

Virtual CPUs (vCPUs), with a large choice of CPU models available. The performance impact of emulation depends significantly on the differences between the host CPU and the emulated vCPU.
Emulated system components, such as PCI bus controllers.
Emulated storage controllers, such as SATA, SCSI or even IDE.
Emulated sound devices, such as ICH9, ICH6 or AC97.
Emulated graphics cards, such as VGA or QXL cards.
Emulated network devices, such as rtl8139.

Paravirtualized devices

Paravirtualization provides a fast and efficient method for exposing virtual devices to VMs. Paravirtualized devices expose interfaces that are designed specifically for use in VMs, and thus significantly increase device performance. RHEL 8 provides paravirtualized devices to VMs using the virtio API as a layer between the hypervisor and the VM. The drawback of this approach is that it requires a specific device driver in the guest operating system.

It is recommended to use paravirtualized devices instead of emulated devices for VM whenever possible, notably if they are running I/O intensive applications. Paravirtualized devices decrease I/O latency and increase I/O throughput, in some cases bringing them very close to bare-metal performance. Other paravirtualized devices also add functionality to VMs that is not otherwise available.

The following types of paravirtualized devices are supported:

The paravirtualized network device (virtio-net).
Paravirtualized storage controllers:
- virtio-blk - provides block device emulation.
- virtio-scsi - provides more complete SCSI emulation.
The paravirtualized clock.
The paravirtualized serial device (virtio-serial).
The balloon device (virtio-balloon), used to dynamically distribute memory between a VM and its host.
The paravirtualized random number generator (virtio-rng).
The paravirtualized graphics card (QXL).

Physically shared devices

Certain hardware platforms enable VMs to directly access various hardware devices and components. This process is known as device assignment or passthrough.

When attached in this way, some aspects of the physical device are directly available to the VM as they would be to a physical machine. This provides superior performance for the device when used in the VM. However, devices physically attached to a VM become unavailable to the host, and also cannot be migrated.

Nevertheless, some devices can be shared across multiple VMs. For example, a single physical device can in certain cases provide multiple mediated devices, which can then be assigned to distinct VMs.

The following types of passthrough devices are supported:

USB, PCI, and SCSI passthrough - expose common industry standard buses directly to VMs in order to make their specific features available to guest software.
Single-root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) - a specification that enables hardware-enforced isolation of PCI Express resources. This makes it safe and efficient to partition a single physical PCI resource into virtual PCI functions. It is commonly used for network interface cards (NICs).
N_Port ID virtualization (NPIV) - a Fibre Channel technology to share a single physical host bus adapter (HBA) with multiple virtual ports.
GPUs and vGPUs - accelerators for specific kinds of graphic or compute workloads. Some GPUs can be attached directly to a VM, while certain types also offer the ability to create virtual GPUs (vGPUs) that share the underlying physical hardware.

10.3. Managing devices attached to virtual machines using the CLI

To modify the functionality of your virtual machine (VM), you can manage the devices attached to your VM using the command-line interface (CLI).

You can use the CLI to:

10.3.1. Attaching devices to virtual machines

You can add a specific functionality to your virtual machines (VMs) by attaching a new virtual device.

The following procedure demostrates how to create and attach virtual devices to your virtual machines (VMs) using the command-line interface (CLI). Some devices can also be attached to VMs using the RHEL web console.

For example, you can increase the storage capacity of a VM by attaching a new virtual disk device to it. This is also referred to as memory hot plug.

Warning

Removing a memory device from a VM, also known as memory hot unplug, is not supported in RHEL 8, and Red Hat highly discourages its use.

Prerequisites

Obtain the required options for the device you intend to attach to a VM. To see the available options for a specific device, use the virt-xml --device=? command. For example:
```
# virt-xml --network=?
--network options:
[...]
address.unit
boot_order
clearxml
driver_name
[...]
```

Procedure

To attach a device to a VM, use the virt-xml --add-device command, including the definition of the device and the required options:
- For example, the following command creates a 20GB newdisk qcow2 disk image in the /var/lib/libvirt/images/ directory, and attaches it as a virtual disk to the running testguest VM on the next start-up of the VM:
```
# virt-xml testguest --add-device --disk /var/lib/libvirt/images/newdisk.qcow2,format=qcow2,size=20
Domain 'testguest' defined successfully.
Changes will take effect after the domain is fully powered off.
```
- The following attaches a USB flash drive, attached as device 004 on bus 002 on the host, to the testguest2 VM while the VM is running:
```
# virt-xml testguest2 --add-device --update --hostdev 002.004
Device hotplug successful.
Domain 'testguest2' defined successfully.
```
  The bus-device combination for defining the USB can be obtained using the lsusb command.

Verification

To verify the device has been added, do any of the following:

Use the virsh dumpxml command and see if the device’s XML definition has been added to the <devices> section in the VM’s XML configuration.
For example, the following output shows the configuration of the testguest VM and confirms that the 002.004 USB flash disk device has been added.
```
# virsh dumpxml testguest
[...]
<hostdev mode='subsystem' type='usb' managed='yes'>
  <source>
    <vendor id='0x4146'/>
    <product id='0x902e'/>
    <address bus='2' device='4'/>
  </source>
  <alias name='hostdev0'/>
  <address type='usb' bus='0' port='3'/>
</hostdev>
[...]
```
Run the VM and test if the device is present and works properly.

Additional resources

The man virt-xml command

10.3.2. Modifying devices attached to virtual machines

You can change the functionality of your virtual machines (VMs) by editing a configuration of the attached virtual devices. For example, if you want to optimize the performance of your VMs, you can change their virtual CPU models to better match the CPUs of the hosts.

The following procedure provides general instructions for modifying virtual devices using the command-line interface (CLI). Some devices attached to your VM, such as disks and NICs, can also be modified using the RHEL 8 web console.

Prerequisites

Obtain the required options for the device you intend to attach to a VM. To see the available options for a specific device, use the virt-xml --device=? command. For example:

# virt-xml --network=?
--network options:
[...]
address.unit
boot_order
clearxml
driver_name
[...]

Optional: Back up the XML configuration of your VM by using virsh dumpxml vm-name and sending the output to a file. For example, the following backs up the configuration of your Motoko VM as the motoko.xml file:

# virsh dumpxml Motoko > motoko.xml
# cat motoko.xml
<domain type='kvm' xmlns:qemu='http://libvirt.org/schemas/domain/qemu/1.0'>
  <name>Motoko</name>
  <uuid>ede29304-fe0c-4ca4-abcd-d246481acd18</uuid>
  [...]
</domain>

Procedure

Use the virt-xml --edit command, including the definition of the device and the required options:
For example, the following clears the <cpu> configuration of the shut-off testguest VM and sets it to host-model:
```
# virt-xml testguest --edit --cpu host-model,clearxml=yes
Domain 'testguest' defined successfully.
```

Verification

To verify the device has been modified, do any of the following:

Run the VM and test if the device is present and reflects the modifications.
Use the virsh dumpxml command and see if the device’s XML definition has been modified in the VM’s XML configuration.
For example, the following output shows the configuration of the testguest VM and confirms that the CPU mode has been configured as host-model.
```
# virsh dumpxml testguest
[...]
<cpu mode='host-model' check='partial'>
  <model fallback='allow'/>
</cpu>
[...]
```

Troubleshooting

If modifying a device causes your VM to become unbootable, use the virsh define utility to restore the XML configuration by reloading the XML configuration file you backed up previously.
```
# virsh define testguest.xml
```

Note

For small changes to the XML configuration of your VM, you can use the virsh edit command - for example virsh edit testguest. However, do not use this method for more extensive changes, as it is more likely to break the configuration in ways that could prevent the VM from booting.

Additional resources

The man virt-xml command

10.3.3. Removing devices from virtual machines

You can change the functionality of your virtual machines (VMs) by removing a virtual device. For example, you can remove a virtual disk device from one of your VMs if it is no longer needed.

The following procedure demonstrates how to remove virtual devices from your virtual machines (VMs) using the command-line interface (CLI). Some devices, such as disks or NICs, can also be removed from VMs using the RHEL 8 web console.

Prerequisites

Optional: Back up the XML configuration of your VM by using virsh dumpxml vm-name and sending the output to a file. For example, the following backs up the configuration of your Motoko VM as the motoko.xml file:

# virsh dumpxml Motoko > motoko.xml
# cat motoko.xml
<domain type='kvm' xmlns:qemu='http://libvirt.org/schemas/domain/qemu/1.0'>
  <name>Motoko</name>
  <uuid>ede29304-fe0c-4ca4-abcd-d246481acd18</uuid>
  [...]
</domain>

Procedure

Use the virt-xml --remove-device command, including a definition of the device. For example:

The following removes the storage device marked as vdb from the running testguest VM after it shuts down:

# virt-xml testguest --remove-device --disk target=vdb
Domain 'testguest' defined successfully.
Changes will take effect after the domain is fully powered off.

The following immediately removes a USB flash drive device from the running testguest2 VM:

# virt-xml testguest2 --remove-device --update --hostdev type=usb
Device hotunplug successful.
Domain 'testguest2' defined successfully.

Troubleshooting

If removing a device causes your VM to become unbootable, use the virsh define utility to restore the XML configuration by reloading the XML configuration file you backed up previously.
```
# virsh define testguest.xml
```

Additional resources

The man virt-xml command

10.4. Managing host devices using the web console

To modify the functionality of your virtual machine (VM), you can manage the host devices attached to your VM using the RHEL 8 web console.

Host devices are physical devices that are attached to the host system. Based on your requirements, you can enable your VMs to directly access these hardware devices and components.

You can use the web console to:

10.4.1. Viewing devices attached to virtual machines using the web console

Before adding or modifying the devices attached to your virtual machine (VM), you may want to view the devices that are already attached to your VM. The following procedure provides instructions for viewing such devices using the web console.

Prerequisites

The web console VM plug-in is installed on your system.

Procedure

In the Virtual Machines interface, click the VM whose information you want to see.
A new page opens with detailed information about the VM.
Scroll to the Host devices section.

Additional resources

Managing virtual devices

10.4.2. Attaching devices to virtual machines using the web console

To add specific functionalities to your virtual machine (VM), you can use the web console to attach host devices to the VM.

Note

Attaching multiple host devices at the same time does not work. You can attach only one device at a time.

For more information, see RHEL 8 Known Issues.

Prerequisites

If you are attaching PCI devices, ensure that the status of the managed attribute of the hostdev element is set to yes.
Note
When attaching PCI devices to your VM, do not omit the managed attribute of the hostdev element, or set it to no. If you do so, PCI devices cannot automatically detach from the host when you pass them to the VM. They also cannot automatically reattach to the host when you turn off the VM.
As a consequence, the host may become unresponsive or shut down unexpectedly.
You can find the status of the managed attribute in your VM’s XML configuration. The following example opens the XML configuration of the Ag47 VM:
```
# virsh edit Ag47
```
Back up important data from the VM.
Optional: Back up the XML configuration of your VM. For example, to back up the Centurion VM:
```
# virsh dumpxml Centurion > Centurion.xml
```
The web console VM plug-in is installed on your system.

Procedure

In the Virtual Machines interface, click the VM to which you want to attach a host device.
A new page opens with an Overview section with basic information about the selected VM and a Console section to access the VM’s graphical interface.
Scroll to Host devices.
The Host devices section displays information about the devices attached to the VM as well as options to Add or Remove devices.
Click Add host device.
The Add host device dialog appears.
Select the device you wish to attach to the VM.
Click Add
The selected device is attached to the VM.

Verification

Run the VM and check if the device appears in the Host devices section.

10.4.3. Removing devices from virtual machines using the web console

To free up resources, modify the functionalities of your VM, or both, you can use the web console to modify the VM and remove host devices that are no longer required.

Warning

Removing attached USB host devices using the web console may fail because of incorrect correlation between the device and bus numbers of the USB device.

For more information, see RHEL 8 Known Issues.

As a workaround, remove the <hostdev> part of the USB device, from the VM’s XML configuration, using the "virsh" utility. The following example opens the XML configuration of the Ag47 VM:

# virsh edit Ag47

Prerequisites

The web console VM plug-in is installed on your system.
Optional: Back up the XML configuration of your VM by using virsh dumpxml vm-name and sending the output to a file. For example, the following backs up the configuration of your Motoko VM as the motoko.xml file:

# virsh dumpxml Motoko > motoko.xml
# cat motoko.xml
<domain type='kvm' xmlns:qemu='http://libvirt.org/schemas/domain/qemu/1.0'>
  <name>Motoko</name>
  <uuid>ede29304-fe0c-4ca4-abcd-d246481acd18</uuid>
  [...]
</domain>

Procedure

In the Virtual Machines interface, click the VM from which you want to remove a host device.
A new page opens with an Overview section with basic information about the selected VM and a Console section to access the VM’s graphical interface.
Scroll to Host devices.
The Host devices section displays information about the devices attached to the VM as well as options to Add or Remove devices.
Click the Remove button next to the device you want to remove from the VM.
A remove device confirmation dialog appears.
Click Remove.
The device is removed from the VM.

Troubleshooting

If removing a host device causes your VM to become unbootable, use the virsh define utility to restore the XML configuration by reloading the XML configuration file you backed up previously.
```
# virsh define motoko.xml
```

10.5. Managing virtual USB devices

When using a virtual machine (VM), you can access and control a USB device, such as a flash drive or a web camera, that is attached to the host system. In this scenario, the host system passes control of the device to the VM. This is also known as a USB-passthrough.

The following sections provide information about using the command line to:

Attach a USB device to a VM
Remove a USB device from a VM

10.5.1. Attaching USB devices to virtual machines

To attach a USB device to a virtual machine (VM), you can include the USB device information in the XML configuration file of the VM.

Prerequisites

Ensure the device you want to pass through to the VM is attached to the host.

Procedure

Locate the bus and device values of the USB that you want to attach to the VM.
For example, the following command displays a list of USB devices attached to the host. The device we will use in this example is attached on bus 001 as device 005.
```
# lsusb
[...]
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 2567:0a2b Intel Corp.
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0407:6252 Kingston River 2.0
[...]
```
Use the virt-xml utility along with the --add-device argument.
For example, the following command attaches a USB flash drive to the Library VM.
```
# virt-xml Library --add-device --hostdev 001.005
Domain 'Library' defined successfully.
```

Note

To attach a USB device to a running VM, add the --update argument to the previous command.

Verification

Run the VM and test if the device is present and works as expected.

Use the virsh dumpxml command to see if the device’s XML definition has been added to the <devices> section in the VM’s XML configuration file.

# virsh dumpxml Library
[...]
<hostdev mode='subsystem' type='usb' managed='yes'>
  <source>
    <vendor id='0x0407'/>
    <product id='0x6252'/>
    <address bus='1' device='5'/>
  </source>
  <alias name='hostdev0'/>
  <address type='usb' bus='0' port='3'/>
</hostdev>
[...]

Additional resources

The man virt-xml command
Attaching devices to virtual machines

10.5.2. Removing USB devices from virtual machines

To remove a USB device from a virtual machine (VM), you can remove the USB device information from the XML configuration of the VM.

Procedure

Locate the bus and device values of the USB that you want to remove from the VM.
For example, the following command displays a list of USB devices attached to the host. The device we will use in this example is attached on bus 001 as device 005.
```
# lsusb
[...]
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 2567:0a2b Intel Corp.
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0407:6252 Kingston River 2.0
[...]
```
Use the virt-xml utility along with the --remove-device argument.
For example, the following command removes a USB flash drive, attached to the host as device 005 on bus 001, from the Library VM.
```
# virt-xml Library --remove-device --hostdev 001.005
Domain 'Library' defined successfully.
```

Note

To remove a USB device from a running VM, add the --update argument to the previous command.

Verification

Run the VM and check if the device has been removed from the list of devices.

Additional resources

The man virt-xml command
Attaching devices to virtual machines

10.5.3. Attaching smart card readers to virtual machines

If you have a smart card reader attached to a host, you can also make it available to virtual machines (VMs) on that host. Libvirt provides a specialized virtual device that presents a smart card interface to the guest VM. It is recommended you only use the spicevmc device type, which utilizes the SPICE remote display protocol to tunnel authentication requests to the host.

Although it is possible to use standard device passthrough with smart card readers, this method does not make the device available on both the host and guest system. As a consequence, you could lock the host system when you attach the smart card reader to the VM.

Important

The SPICE remote display protocol has become deprecated in RHEL 8. Since the only recommended way to attach smart card readers to VMs depends on the SPICE protocol, the usage of smart cards in guest VMs is also deprecated in RHEL 8.

In a future major version of RHEL, the functionality of attaching smart card readers to VMs will only be supported by third party remote visualization solutions.

Prerequisites

Ensure the smart card reader you want to pass through to the VM is attached to the host.
Ensure the smart card reader type is supported in RHEL 8.

Procedure

Create and attach a virtual smart card reader device to a VM. For example, to attach a smart card reader to the testguest VM:
```
# virt-xml testguest --add-device --smartcard mode=passthrough,type=spicevmc
Domain 'testguest' defined successfully.
Changes will take effect after the domain is fully powered off.
```
Note
To attach a virtual smart card reader device to a running VM, add the --update argument to the previous command.

Verification

View the XML configuration of the VM.
```
# virsh dumpxml testguest
```
Ensure the XML configuration contains the following smart card device definition.
```
<smartcard mode='passthrough' type='spicevmc'/>
```

10.6. Managing virtual optical drives

When using a virtual machine (VM), you can access information stored in an ISO image on the host. To do so, attach the ISO image to the VM as a virtual optical drive, such as a CD drive or a DVD drive.

The following sections provide information about using the command line to:

Attach a drive and an ISO image to a VM
Replace an ISO image in a virtual optical drive
Remove an ISO image from a virtual optical drive
Remove a drive from the VM

10.6.1. Attaching optical drives to virtual machines

To attach an ISO image as a virtual optical drive, edit the XML configuration file of the virtual machine (VM) and add the new drive.

Prerequisites

You must store the ISO image on the local host.
You must know the path to the ISO image.

Procedure

Use the virt-xml utility with the --add-device argument.
For example, the following command attaches the Doc10 ISO image, stored in the /MC/tank/ directory, to the DN1 VM.
```
# virt-xml DN1 --add-device --disk /MC/tank/Doc10.iso,device=cdrom
Domain 'DN1' defined successfully.
```

Verification

Run the VM and test if the device is present and works as expected.

Additional resources

The man virt-xml command
Attaching devices to virtual machines

10.6.2. Replacing ISO images in virtual optical drives

To replace an ISO image attached as a virtual optical drive to a virtual machine (VM), edit the XML configuration file of the VM and specify the replacement.

Prerequisites

You must store the ISO image on the local host.
You must know the path to the ISO image.

Procedure

Locate the target device where the CD-ROM is attached to the VM. You can find this information in the VM’s XML configuration file.
For example, the following command displays the DN1 VM’s XML configuration file, where the target device for CD-ROM is sda.
```
# virsh dumpxml DN1
...
<disk>
  ...
  <source file='/MC/tank/Doc10.iso'/>
  <target dev='sda' bus='sata'/>
  ...
</disk>
...
```
Use the virt-xml utility with the --edit argument.
For example, the following command replaces the Doc10 ISO image, attached to the DN1 VM at target sda, with the DrDN ISO image stored in the /Dvrs/current/ directory.
```
# virt-xml DN1 --edit target=sda --disk /Dvrs/current/DrDN.iso
Domain 'DN1' defined successfully.
```

Verification

Run the VM and test if the device is replaced and works as expected.

Additional resources

The man virt-xml command

10.6.3. Removing ISO images from virtual optical drives

To remove an ISO image from a virtual optical drive attached to a virtual machine (VM), edit the XML configuration file of the VM.

Procedure

Locate the target device where the CD-ROM is attached to the VM. You can find this information in the VM’s XML configuration file.
For example, the following command displays the DN1 VM’s XML configuration file, where the target device for CD-ROM is sda.
```
# virsh dumpxml DN1
...
<disk>
  ...
  <source file='/Dvrs/current/DrDN'/>
  <target dev='sda' bus='sata'/>
  ...
</disk>
...
```
Use the virt-xml utility with the --edit argument.
For example, the following command removes the DrDN ISO image from the CD drive attached to the DN1 VM.
```
# virt-xml DN1 --edit target=sda --disk path=
Domain 'DN1' defined successfully.
```

Verification

Run the VM and check that image is no longer available.

Additional resources

The man virt-xml command

10.6.4. Removing optical drives from virtual machines

To remove an optical drive attached to a virtual machine (VM), edit the XML configuration file of the VM.

Procedure

Locate the target device where the CD-ROM is attached to the VM. You can find this information in the VM’s XML configuration file.
For example, the following command displays the DN1 VM’s XML configuration file, where the target device for CD-ROM is sda.
```
# virsh dumpxml DN1
...
<disk type='file' device='cdrom'>
  <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>
  <target dev='sda' bus='sata'/>
  ...
</disk>
...
```
Use the virt-xml utility with the --remove-device argument.
For example, the following command removes the optical drive attached as target sda from the DN1 VM.
```
# virt-xml DN1 --remove-device --disk target=sda
Domain 'DN1' defined successfully.
```

Verification

Confirm that the device is no longer listed in the XML configuration file of the VM.

Additional resources

The man virt-xml command

10.7. Managing SR-IOV devices

An emulated virtual device often uses more CPU and memory than a hardware network device. This can limit the performance of a virtual machine (VM). However, if any devices on your virtualization host support Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV), you can use this feature to improve the device performance, and possibly also the overall performance of your VMs.

10.7.1. What is SR-IOV?

Single-root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) is a specification that enables a single PCI Express (PCIe) device to present multiple separate PCI devices, called virtual functions (VFs), to the host system. Each of these devices:

Is able to provide the same or similar service as the original PCIe device.
Appears at a different address on the host PCI bus.
Can be assigned to a different VM using VFIO assignment.

For example, a single SR-IOV capable network device can present VFs to multiple VMs. While all of the VFs use the same physical card, the same network connection, and the same network cable, each of the VMs directly controls its own hardware network device, and uses no extra resources from the host.

How SR-IOV works

The SR-IOV functionality is possible thanks to the introduction of the following PCIe functions:

Physical functions (PFs) - A PCIe function that provides the functionality of its device (for example networking) to the host, but can also create and manage a set of VFs. Each SR-IOV capable device has one or more PFs.
Virtual functions (VFs) - Lightweight PCIe functions that behave as independent devices. Each VF is derived from a PF. The maximum number of VFs a device can have depends on the device hardware. Each VF can be assigned only to a single VM at a time, but a VM can have multiple VFs assigned to it.

VMs recognize VFs as virtual devices. For example, a VF created by an SR-IOV network device appears as a network card to a VM to which it is assigned, in the same way as a physical network card appears to the host system.

Figure 10.1. SR-IOV architecture

Benefits

The primary advantages of using SR-IOV VFs rather than emulated devices are:

Improved performance
Reduced use of host CPU and memory resources

For example, a VF attached to a VM as a vNIC performs at almost the same level as a physical NIC, and much better than paravirtualized or emulated NICs. In particular, when multiple VFs are used simultaneously on a single host, the performance benefits can be significant.

Disadvantages

To modify the configuration of a PF, you must first change the number of VFs exposed by the PF to zero. Therefore, you also need to remove the devices provided by these VFs from the VM to which they are assigned.
A VM with an VFIO-assigned devices attached, including SR-IOV VFs, cannot be migrated to another host. In some cases, you can work around this limitation by pairing the assigned device with an emulated device. For example, you can bond an assigned networking VF to an emulated vNIC, and remove the VF before the migration.
In addition, VFIO-assigned devices require pinning of VM memory, which increases the memory consumption of the VM and prevents the use of memory ballooning on the VM.

Additional resources

Supported devices for SR-IOV assignment

10.7.2. Attaching SR-IOV networking devices to virtual machines

To attach an SR-IOV networking device to a virtual machine (VM) on an Intel or AMD host, you must create a virtual function (VF) from an SR-IOV capable network interface on the host and assign the VF as a device to a specified VM. For details, see the following instructions.

Prerequisites

The CPU and the firmware of your host support the I/O Memory Management Unit (IOMMU).
- If using an Intel CPU, it must support the Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d).
- If using an AMD CPU, it must support the AMD-Vi feature.
The host system uses Access Control Service (ACS) to provide direct memory access (DMA) isolation for PCIe topology. Verify this with the system vendor.
For additional information, see Hardware Considerations for Implementing SR-IOV.

The physical network device supports SR-IOV. To verify if any network devices on your system support SR-IOV, use the lspci -v command and look for Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) in the output.

# lspci -v
[...]
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82576 Gigabit Network Connection (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Gigabit ET Dual Port Server Adapter
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16, NUMA node 0
	Memory at fcba0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
[...]
	Capabilities: [150] Alternative Routing-ID Interpretation (ARI)
	Capabilities: [160] Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV)
	Kernel driver in use: igb
	Kernel modules: igb
[...]

The host network interface you want to use for creating VFs is running. For example, to activate the eth1 interface and verify it is running:

# ip link set eth1 up
# ip link show eth1
8: eth1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP mode DEFAULT qlen 1000
   link/ether a0:36:9f:8f:3f:b8 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
   vf 0 MAC 00:00:00:00:00:00, spoof checking on, link-state auto
   vf 1 MAC 00:00:00:00:00:00, spoof checking on, link-state auto
   vf 2 MAC 00:00:00:00:00:00, spoof checking on, link-state auto
   vf 3 MAC 00:00:00:00:00:00, spoof checking on, link-state auto

For SR-IOV device assignment to work, the IOMMU feature must be enabled in the host BIOS and kernel. To do so:
- On an Intel host, enable VT-d:
  - If your Intel host uses multiple boot entries:
    Edit the /etc/default/grub file and add the intel_iommu=on and iommu=pt parameters at the end of the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX line:
    GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="crashkernel=auto resume=/dev/mapper/rhel_dell-per730-27-swap rd.lvm.lv=rhel_dell-per730-27/root rd.lvm.lv=rhel_dell-per730-27/swap console=ttyS0,115200n81 intel_iommu=on iommu=pt"
    Regenerate the GRUB configuration:
    # grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
    Reboot the host.
  - If your Intel host uses a single boot entry:
    Regenerate the GRUB configuration with the intel_iommu=on iommu=pt parameter:
    # grubby --args="intel_iommu=on iommu=pt" --update-kernel DEFAULT
    Reboot the host.
- On an AMD host, enable AMD-Vi:
  - If your AMD host uses multiple boot entries:
    Edit the /etc/default/grub file and add the iommu=pt parameter at the end of the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX line:
    GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="crashkernel=auto resume=/dev/mapper/rhel_dell-per730-27-swap rd.lvm.lv=rhel_dell-per730-27/root rd.lvm.lv=rhel_dell-per730-27/swap console=ttyS0,115200n81 iommu=pt"
    Regenerate the GRUB configuration:
    # grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
    Reboot the host.
  - If your AMD host uses a single boot entry:
    Regenerate the GRUB configuration with the iommu=pt parameter:
    # grubby --args="iommu=pt" --update-kernel DEFAULT
    Reboot the host.

Procedure

Optional: Confirm the maximum number of VFs your network device can use. To do so, use the following command and replace eth1 with your SR-IOV compatible network device.
```
# cat /sys/class/net/eth1/device/sriov_totalvfs
7
```
Use the following command to create a virtual function (VF):
```
# echo VF-number > /sys/class/net/network-interface/device/sriov_numvfs
```
In the command, replace:
- VF-number with the number of VFs you want to create on the PF.
- network-interface with the name of the network interface for which the VFs will be created.
The following example creates 2 VFs from the eth1 network interface:
```
# echo 2 > /sys/class/net/eth1/device/sriov_numvfs
```

Verify the VFs have been added:

# lspci | grep Ethernet
82:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82599ES 10-Gigabit SFI/SFP+ Network Connection (rev 01)
82:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82599ES 10-Gigabit SFI/SFP+ Network Connection (rev 01)
82:10.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82599 Ethernet Controller Virtual Function (rev 01)
82:10.2 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82599 Ethernet Controller Virtual Function (rev 01)

Make the created VFs persistent by creating a udev rule for the network interface you used to create the VFs. For example, for the eth1 interface, create the /etc/udev/rules.d/eth1.rules file, and add the following line:
```
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="net", ENV{ID_NET_DRIVER}=="ixgbe", ATTR{device/sriov_numvfs}="2"
```
This ensures that the two VFs that use the ixgbe driver will automatically be available for the eth1 interface when the host starts. If you do not require persistent SR-IOV devices, skip this step.
Warning
Currently, the setting described above does not work correctly when attempting to make VFs persistent on Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM57810 adapters. In addition, attaching VFs based on these adapters to Windows VMs is currently not reliable.

Hot-plug one of the newly added VF interface devices to a running VM.

# virsh attach-interface testguest1 hostdev 0000:82:10.0 --managed --live --config

Verification

If the procedure is successful, the guest operating system detects a new network interface card.

10.8. Managing virtual SCSI devices

Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) devices are physical devices that are attached to the host and use the SCSI standards for connection and data transfer.

Just like other physical devices attached to a host, you can pass through control and management of these SCSI devices to any virtual machines (VMs) running on the host system. Additionally, with SCSI virtual devices you can also enable persistent reservation so that a particular VM can request exclusive access to these devices. You can set up persistent reservation on both Libvirt system connections and Libvirt session connections.

10.8.1. Understanding persistent reservation of SCSI virtual devices

A virtual machine (VM) can access and use SCSI virtual devices that are connected to it. Generally, a single system or VM accesses an SCSI device at a time. In such a scenario, the SCSI device is known as the target and the accessing system or VM is known as the initiator. Persistent reservation of SCSI devices synchronizes access from multiple initiators. In other words, a persistent reservation allows only the initiator that has performed the reservation to access the target while blocking other initiators.

Performing persistent reservations requires privileged access. Unprivileged programs like QEMU cannot set up persistent reservations. However, you can use a separate program called qemu-pr-helper to set up the reservations. qemu-pr-helper has special privileges and communicates with QEMU and storage directly. In addition, if you set up SCSI devices using the device mapper multipath, the qemu-pr-helper program applies reservations from the VM to all paths.

Important

Do not migrate VMs that use persistent reservations. Persistent reservations are attached to the initiator that created them.

10.8.2. Enabling persistent reservation of SCSI virtual devices on a system connection

If you are using a privileged Libvirt system connection, qemu:///system, configure the SCSI virtual devices to allow persistent reservation commands. This allows virtual machines (VMs) to request exclusive access to an SCSI device.

Note

The following steps only enable persistent reservation. You can perform the actual reservation of devices using dedicated software running on the VM.

Prerequisites

Make sure the VM is shut down.

Procedure

Open the multipath.conf file and add the reservation_key file parameter to the defaults section.
Note
When you add a reservation_key file parameter, the multipathd service will store a mapped path between the device’s World Wide Identifier (WWID) and the reservation key. The path is stored in the /etc/multipath/prkeys file. The multipathd service uses this file to apply reservations to new paths.
```
...
defaults
  {
  user_friendly_names yes
  find_multipaths yes
  reservation_key file
  }
...
```
Open the VM’s XML configuration file. For example:
```
# virsh edit Example-Machine
```

Under the <source> section, add the following lines to the virtual disk description:

...
<disk type="block" device="lun">
  <driver ... type="raw"/>
  <source dev="..." >
    <reservations managed="yes"/>
  </source>
  <target dev="..." bus="scsi"/>
</disk>
...

Save the file and reboot the VM.

Verification

Check the reservation status of the device.
If you have not successfully enabled persistent reservation, the following command will result in an error.
```
# sg_persist -k /dev/sdb
LIO-ORG disk1 4.0
Peripheral device type: disk
PR generation=0x1, there are NO registered reservation keys
```

Additional resources

Automatic features for virtual machine security

10.8.3. Enabling persistent reservation of SCSI virtual devices on a session connection

If you are using an unprivileged Libvirt session connection, qemu:///session, configure the SCSI virtual devices to allow persistent reservation commands. This allows virtual machines (VMs) to request exclusive access to an SCSI device.

Note

The following steps only enable persistent reservation. You can perform the actual reservation of devices using dedicated software running on the VM.

Prerequisites

Make sure the VM is shut down.
Ensure that the QEMU Persistent Helper service is running.
```
# systemctl is-active qemu-pr-helper.socket
```

Procedure

Open the multipath.conf file and add the reservation_key file parameter to the defaults section.
Note
When you add a reservation_key file parameter, the multipathd service will store a mapped path between the device’s World Wide Identifier (WWID) and the reservation key. The path is stored in the /etc/multipath/prkeys file. The multipathd service uses this file to apply reservations to new paths.
```
...
defaults
  {
  user_friendly_names yes
  find_multipaths yes
  reservation_key file
  }
...
```
Open the VM’s XML configuration file. For example:
```
# virsh edit Example-Machine
```

Under the <source> section, add the following lines to the virtual disk description:

<source>
  …
    <reservations managed='no'>
      <source type='unix' mode='client' path='/run/qemu-pr-helper.sock'/>
    </reservations>
  …
</source>

Save the file and reboot the VM.

Verification

Check the reservation status of the device.
If you have not successfully enabled persistent reservation, the following command will result in an error.
```
# sg_persist -k /dev/sdb
LIO-ORG disk1 4.0
Peripheral device type: disk
PR generation=0x1, there are NO registered reservation keys
```

Additional resources

Automatic features for virtual machine security

10.9. Attaching DASD devices to virtual machines on IBM Z

Using the vfio-ccw feature, you can assign direct-access storage devices (DASDs) as mediated devices to your virtual machines (VMs) on IBM Z hosts. This for example makes it possible for the VM to access a z/OS dataset, or to provide the assigned DASDs to a z/OS machine.

Prerequisites

Your host system is using the IBM Z hardware architecture and supports the FICON protocol.
The target VM is using a Linux guest operating system.
The mdevctl package is installed.
```
# yum install mdevctl
```
The driverctl package is installed.
```
# yum install driverctl
```
The necessary kernel modules have been loaded on the host. To verify, use:
```
# lsmod | grep vfio
```
The output should contain the following modules:
- vfio_ccw
- vfio_mdev
- vfio_iommu_type1
You have a spare DASD device for exclusive use by the VM, and you know the device’s identifier.
This procedure uses 0.0.002c as an example. When performing the commands, replace 0.0.002c with the identifier of your DASD device.

Procedure

Obtain the subchannel identifier of the DASD device.
```
# lscss -d 0.0.002c
Device   Subchan.  DevType CU Type Use  PIM PAM POM  CHPIDs
----------------------------------------------------------------------
0.0.002c 0.0.29a8  3390/0c 3990/e9 yes  f0  f0  ff   02111221 00000000
```
In this example, the subchannel identifier is detected as 0.0.29a8. In the following commands of this procedure, replace 0.0.29a8 with the detected subchannel identifier of your device.
If the lscss command in the previous step only displayed the header output and no device information, perform the following steps:
1. Remove the device from the cio_ignore list.
```
# cio_ignore -r 0.0.002c
```
2. In the guest OS, edit the kernel command line of the VM and add the device identifier with a ! mark to the line that starts with cio_ignore=, if it is not present already.
```
cio_ignore=all,!condev,!0.0.002c
```
3. Repeat step 1 on the host to obtain the subchannel identifier.
Bind the subchannel to the vfio_ccw passthrough driver.
```
# driverctl -b css set-override 0.0.29a8 vfio_ccw
```
Note
This binds the 0.0.29a8 subchannel to vfio_ccw persistently, which means the DASD will not be usable on the host. If you need to use the device on the host, you must first remove the automatic binding to 'vfio_ccw' and rebind the subchannel to the default driver:
# driverctl -b css unset-override 0.0.29a8

Generate an UUID.

# uuidgen
30820a6f-b1a5-4503-91ca-0c10ba12345a

Create the DASD mediated device using the generated UUID.

# mdevctl start --uuid 30820a6f-b1a5-4503-91ca-0c10ba12345a --parent 0.0.29a8 --type vfio_ccw-io

Make the mediated device persistent.

# mdevctl define --auto --uuid 30820a6f-b1a5-4503-91ca-0c10ba12345a

Shut down the VM, if it is running.
Attach the mediated device to the VM. To do so, use the virsh edit utility to edit the XML configuration of the VM, add the following section to the XML, and replace the uuid value with the UUID you generated in the previous step.
```
<hostdev mode='subsystem' type='mdev' model='vfio-ccw'>
  <source>
    <address uuid="30820a6f-b1a5-4503-91ca-0c10ba12345a"/>
  </source>
</hostdev>
```

Verification

Obtain the identifier that libvirt assigned to the mediated DASD device. To do so, display the XML configuration of the VM and look for a vfio-ccw device.

# virsh dumpxml vm-name

<domain>
[...]
    <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='mdev' managed='no' model='vfio-ccw'>
      <source>
        <address uuid='10620d2f-ed4d-437b-8aff-beda461541f9'/>
      </source>
      <alias name='hostdev0'/>
      <address type='ccw' cssid='0xfe' ssid='0x0' devno='0x0009'/>
    </hostdev>
[...]
</domain>

In this example, the assigned identifier of the device is 0.0.0009.

Start the VM and log in to its guest OS.

In the guest OS, confirm that the DASD device is listed. For example:

# lscss | grep 0.0.0009
0.0.0009 0.0.0007  3390/0c 3990/e9      f0  f0  ff   12212231 00000000

In the guest OS, set the device online. For example:

# chccwdev -e 0.0009
Setting device 0.0.0009 online
Done

Additional resources

Select Your Language

Infrastructure and Management

Cloud Computing

Storage

Runtimes

Integration and Automation

Red Hat Training

Chapter 10. Managing virtual devices

10.1. How virtual devices work

10.2. Types of virtual devices

10.3. Managing devices attached to virtual machines using the CLI

10.3.1. Attaching devices to virtual machines

10.3.2. Modifying devices attached to virtual machines

10.3.3. Removing devices from virtual machines

10.4. Managing host devices using the web console

10.4.1. Viewing devices attached to virtual machines using the web console

10.4.2. Attaching devices to virtual machines using the web console

10.4.3. Removing devices from virtual machines using the web console

10.5. Managing virtual USB devices

10.5.1. Attaching USB devices to virtual machines

10.5.2. Removing USB devices from virtual machines

10.5.3. Attaching smart card readers to virtual machines

10.6. Managing virtual optical drives

10.6.1. Attaching optical drives to virtual machines

10.6.2. Replacing ISO images in virtual optical drives

10.6.3. Removing ISO images from virtual optical drives

10.6.4. Removing optical drives from virtual machines

10.7. Managing SR-IOV devices

10.7.1. What is SR-IOV?

10.7.2. Attaching SR-IOV networking devices to virtual machines

10.7.3. Supported devices for SR-IOV assignment

10.8. Managing virtual SCSI devices

10.8.1. Understanding persistent reservation of SCSI virtual devices

10.8.2. Enabling persistent reservation of SCSI virtual devices on a system connection

10.8.3. Enabling persistent reservation of SCSI virtual devices on a session connection

10.9. Attaching DASD devices to virtual machines on IBM Z

Language and Page Formatting Options

Red Hat Training

Chapter 10. Managing virtual devices

10.1. How virtual devices work

10.2. Types of virtual devices

10.3. Managing devices attached to virtual machines using the CLI

10.3.1. Attaching devices to virtual machines

10.3.2. Modifying devices attached to virtual machines

10.3.3. Removing devices from virtual machines

10.4. Managing host devices using the web console

10.4.1. Viewing devices attached to virtual machines using the web console

10.4.2. Attaching devices to virtual machines using the web console

10.4.3. Removing devices from virtual machines using the web console

10.5. Managing virtual USB devices

10.5.1. Attaching USB devices to virtual machines

10.5.2. Removing USB devices from virtual machines

10.5.3. Attaching smart card readers to virtual machines

10.6. Managing virtual optical drives

10.6.1. Attaching optical drives to virtual machines

10.6.2. Replacing ISO images in virtual optical drives

10.6.3. Removing ISO images from virtual optical drives

10.6.4. Removing optical drives from virtual machines

10.7. Managing SR-IOV devices

10.7.1. What is SR-IOV?

10.7.2. Attaching SR-IOV networking devices to virtual machines

10.7.3. Supported devices for SR-IOV assignment

10.8. Managing virtual SCSI devices

10.8.1. Understanding persistent reservation of SCSI virtual devices

10.8.2. Enabling persistent reservation of SCSI virtual devices on a system connection

10.8.3. Enabling persistent reservation of SCSI virtual devices on a session connection

10.9. Attaching DASD devices to virtual machines on IBM Z