Edit a VM

Perform this task to reconfigure the VM with software and hardware options.

Restrictions and guidelines

If you select a high-speed hard disk for a VM, the high-speed disk can be used after you update its driver.

If you add or delete a high-speed disk for a running VM, the operation takes effect immediately. If you add or delete other types of disks for the VM, the operation takes effect when the VM starts again.

When you delete the NIC of a running VM, the NIC is deleted immediately if the operating system of the VM supports online NIC deletion. If the operating system does not support online NIC deletion, the NIC is deleted when the VM restarts.

If you delete the USB device on a host that contains a running VM configured with USB devices, that VM cannot access the USB device after it is re-added to the host. To enable the VM to access the USB device, you must restart the VM.

After you mount an image file to the virtual drive and open the drive from the VM console, display failure might occur. To resolve this issue, eject the drive, and then re-mount the image file to the drive from the VM console or from the VM editing page.

As a best practice to change the bus type for the disk of a VM, shut down the VM without powering it off; delete the disk on the VM editing page; add a disk with the desired bus type, and select the disk file (block device) of the deleted disk; and restart the VM.

After you take an internal or external snapshot for a VM, you cannot edit the disk mode of the VM.

To avoid network connectivity failures, make sure the MTU configured for a VM is smaller than or equal to the MTU of the vSwitch.

You cannot edit the disk size for a VM when either of the following conditions exists:

The VM has snapshots and the VM disk has multi-level image files (for example, fast clone has been performed on the VM).

The VM is offline and the VM disk has CBT incremental backup files.

When you edit a shutdown VM, the maximum memory capacity that you can allocate to the VM is equivalent to the available memory capacity on its host. When you edit a running VM, the maximum memory capacity that you can allocate to the VM depends on the VM's operating system.

Procedure

On the top navigation bar, click VMs. If multiple clusters exist in the system, you must also select a cluster from the left navigation pane.

Select a VM, click More in the VM card, and then select Edit. Alternatively, select the VM in the navigation pane, and then click Edit on the Summary tab.

From the menu, select a VM task as needed. Each time you finish editing a category of settings, click Apply to save the changes.

To add hardware options (for example, storage, NIC, USB, and PCI devices), click Add Hardware. To delete unused hardware options, click Delete Hardware.

VMs on an ARM host support only the storage, network, input, console, audio card, and graphics card options.

Parameters

x86 servers

Editable parameters on the Summary tab:

Alias: Enter an alias for the VM.

Auto Migration: To have the VM automatically migrate in the cluster after the DRS and IPM policies take effect, enable auto migration.

Destruction Protection: To prevent the VM from being deleted, enable destruction protection.

HA: To enable automatic migration of the VM to a correctly operating host when the VM or the current host malfunctions, enable HA. This option is available only if cluster HA is enabled. By default, VM HA is enabled.

Time Sync: Click Yes or No to enable or disable time synchronization between the VM and the host. If you select Yes, the VM automatically synchronizes its system time from the host when time deviation occurs. To use this feature, you must install CAStools 2.1.2.0 or later on the OS of the VM.

Auto CAStools: This feature automatically upgrades the CAStools installed in the guest OS of the VM to the same version as that offered by UIS Manager. The upgrade is performed at one a.m or when the VM restarts. Because VM time is used, you must enable time synchronization if you want to upgrade CAStools for the VMs at the same time.

Clock Type: Select a clock type. Options include World Clock and Local Clock. Select the local clock to set the local system time. Select the world clock to set the UTC time.

I/O Priority: Select the priority for the VM to read and write disks of the host. Options include Low, Medium, and High. When access contention occurs, the VM with higher I/O priority take precedence.

Boot Priority: Set the priority for the VM to run on a new host when the current host fails. Set a priority for each VM on the host depending on their importance in services. Options include Default, Low, Medium, and High. If you do not select a priority option, the default priority is used. Boot priority is useful only if cluster HA is enabled.

Blue Screen: Select the action to take on the VM after the VM fails. Options include No Action, Restart, and Migrate. Blue screen action takes effect only if cluster HA is enabled and the VM has CAStools.

No Action—No action to take.

Restart—Restart the VM.

Migrate—Migrate the VM to another host in the cluster.

CAStools Type: Options include Virtio Serial Port (the default) and Common Serial Port. Select a common serial port to install CAStools for the following versions of guest OS: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 (or earlier), CentOS 5.5 (or earlier), Oracle Linux 6.1 (or earlier), Red Flag Asianux Server 3 (or earlier), Debian GUN/Linux 7 (or earlier), Fedora 11 (or earlier), Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 (or earlier), NeoShine Destktop V4.0, NeoKylin V5, and Linx Tech OS.

Hardware Version: Select the QEMU version used by the VM. The larger the value, the later the version. After the management platform is upgraded, the hardware version of the VM is also upgraded. After the upgrade, the hardware of the VM might be incompatible with its OS, and a blue screen or boot failure might occur. To solve this issue, roll back the hardware version of the VM to the original version.

Integrity Check: Enable integrity check. This feature enables the system to check the integrity of the disks on a VM before starting it. If the VM fails the check, the system does not start the VM. The time that it takes to finish integrity check depends on the size of the disks of a VM.

Editable parameters on the CPU tab:

CPUs: Set the number of CPUs for the VM, which cannot be more than the maximum number of CPUs in the host. If you change the number of CPUs on a VM that supports hot-add of CPUs, the operating system of the VM might operate slowly for 3 to 5 seconds. For a Linux VM, do not perform CPU hot-add during VM startup.

CPU Cores: Specify the number of CPU cores and configure physical CPU bindings.

Operating Mode: Select a CPU operating mode.

Compatible—Virtualizes physical CPUs of different models into vCPUs of the same model. This mode shields the difference in physical CPUs from the guest OS. To move the VM between hosts that use different CPU models, select this mode.

Host Matching—Virtualizes physical CPUs of different models into vCPUs of different models. This mode features poor compatibility but provides better performance for OSs of VMs than the Compatible mode.

Straight-Through—Enables the guest OS to access the physical CPUs directly. This mode provides higher performance than compatible mode and host matching mode. However, you must make sure the source and destination hosts use the same CPU model.

Addressing Mode: Select an addressing mode that matches the guest OS. Options include 64 bit and 32 bit. This parameter is available when the CPU operating mode is compatible.

Schedule Priority: Select a priority for the processes on the VM to obtain physical CPU resources during a contention. Options include High, Medium, and Low.

Reserve: Enter the guaranteed minimum CPU frequency for the VM.

Limit/VM: Enter the maximum physical CPU frequency for each CPU core of the VM.

Limit Sharing: Turn on or turn off limit sharing. If limit sharing is enabled, the CPU cores of the VM share the sum of their CPU resources and can use the idle CPU resources of other cores in addition to their own CPU resources. For example, a VM has four cores and the limit per core is 2 KHz. If limit sharing is turned off, a core can run at a maximum of 2 KHz. If limit sharing is turned on, a core can run at 2 KHz or a higher rate as long as the total CPU frequency of all cores on the VM does not exceed 8 KHz (4 x 2 KHz).

Scale Down: Turn on or turn off online CPU scale-down, which allows online reduction of CPUs. This feature requires the support of guest OS.

Editable parameters on the Memory tab:

Assigned Size: Modify the memory size assigned to the VM. This value cannot exceed the memory size of the host. If the guest OS supports hot-adding memory (CAStools is required for Linux), the memory added to the VM takes effect immediately without rebooting. If the guest OS does not support hot-adding memory, you must shut down the VM first before you modify the memory size. Hot-adding memory is not supported for VMs that run a Linux OS, have an initial memory size less than 4 GB, and have an IDE disk attached. Memory hot-add is not allowed when memory ballooning is enabled.

Reserve: Enter the guaranteed memory size for the VM as a percentage of total available memory of the host.

Limit: Enter the maximum host memory capacity that the VM can use.

Resource Priority: Select a priority for the VM to obtain memory during a contention. Options include High, Medium, and Low.

Memory Ballooning: To dynamically distribute memory among VMs without shutting down the VMs when memory contention occurs, turn on this option. To use this feature, you must install CAStools on the VM and do not use memory hot-add.

HugePages: Enable or disable the VM to use HugePages memory of the host. You can turn on this option only if the HugePages feature is enabled on the host. In addition, this feature is mutually exclusive with memory reservation, memory limit, resource priority, and memory ballooning.

Editable parameters on the Disk panel:

Storage Format: Select a storage format. Options include High Speed (raw) and Intelligent (qcow2). You cannot modify the storage format if the VM is running, has snapshots, or has multi-level image files in disk.

Storage: Modify the storage size of the VM. You cannot modify the disk size of a VM if the VM has snapshots, the disk of the VM has multi-level image files, or the provision mode is eager zeroed or lazy zeroed. To avoid data input/output failure when you expand the high-speed disk of a VM, make sure no data is being input or output if the VM is running.

Provisioning: Select a volume provisioning mode. You can modify this parameter for a VM only then the VM meets the following requirements:

The VM is in shutdown state.

The disk type of the VM is file.

The disk of the VM uses single-level image files.

The VM does not have snapshots.

The following volume provisioning modes are available:

Thin—Allocates only as much storage space as the volume requires for its initial operations when the volume is created. If the volume requires more storage space later, you can allocate as much storage space as the volume requires as long as the maximum storage size is not exceeded.

Lazy Zeroed—Allocates the specified maximum storage size to the volume when the volume is created. Data remaining on the physical device is not erased during creation, but is zeroed out on first write from the VM. Network file system storage pools do not support this mode.

Eager Zeroed—Allocates the specified maximum storage size to the volume when the volume is created. Data remaining on the physical device is zeroed out during creation. It might take a longer time to create volumes in this mode than to create volumes in other modes.

Cluster Size: Set the cluster size. If the size of a file is greater than the cluster size, the file will be saved to multiple clusters. If the size of a file is smaller than the cluster size, the file monopolizes a cluster. As a best practice to improve disk performance and save storage resources, set the cluster size as large as possible. This parameter is required when you create an intelligent disk. This parameter cannot be modified if the VM is in running state, the VM has snapshots, or the disk of the VM has multi-level image files. This parameter is not available if the disk type is block device.

Disk Mode: Select whether to include the VM's disk in external snapshots. This parameter is available only when the VM uses a file-type disk. You cannot edit this parameter for a VM that has internal or external snapshots.

Dependent—Includes the disk in external snapshots. When you use an external snapshot to restore the VM, the disk is also restored.

Independent-Persistent—Does not include the disk in external snapshots. When you use an external snapshot to restore the VM, the disk is not restored.

I/O Rate Limits: Enter the I/O read and write rate limits in KBps.

IOPS Limits: Enter the IOPS read and write limits.

Cache Mode: Select a VM data cache mode. Options include Directsync, Writethrough, Writeback, and None.

Directsync—The system reads data from the physical disk.

Writethrough—The system writes data to the host cache, and then to the physical disk.

Writeback—The system writes data to the VM cache, then to the host cache, and finally to the physical disk.

None—The system writes data to the VM cache, and then to the physical disk.

Hot Swappable: Enable or disable disk hot swapping. This option is available only for the high-speed bus type.

Editable parameters on the Network panel:

Network Mode: Select a network mode. The advanced network mode is available after you deploy the UIS-Sec service.

vSwitch: Select a vSwitch for the VM. This parameter is available in basic network mode.

Private Network: Select a private network for the VM. The VLAN ID of the selected private network must be the same as the VLAN ID of the port profile. If no port profiles with the same VLAN ID as the private network exist, create a new port profile. To create private networks, access the UIS-Sec management platform. This parameter is available in advanced network mode.

Port Profile: Specify network parameters for the VM, including its VLAN, ACL, network bandwidth.

Virtual Firewall: Select a virtual firewall for the VM. The incoming and outgoing data packets on the VM will be filtered based on the firewall rules.

MAC Address: Configure the MAC address of the VM.

Configure Network: Configure the network parameters for the VM, including the IP/MAC binding, CAStools, and DHCP settings.

To bind an IP address to the MAC address of the NIC, select the IP/MAC Binding option. The VM can communicate with external networks only via this NIC. IP/MAC binding can help defend against VM spoofing attacks by blocking forged IP packets sourced from the IP address or MAC address of the VM.

To configure the network parameters from CAStools, select the CAStools option, make sure CAStools has been installed on the VM, and verify that no services conflict with CAStools. For example, you must disable Network Manager before configuring network parameters on a Linux VM.

To configure network parameters for the VM via a VM agent, select the DHCP option. Make sure CAStools has been installed on the VM and does not conflict with the services running on the VM. For example, disable the Network Manager service on a Linux VM before you configure its networks settings.

NIC IPv4/IPv6: Enter the IPv4/IPv6 address of the NIC. If you do not specify this parameter, the system automatically assigns an address in the selected private network.

Subnet Mask: Enter the subnet mask of the selected private network.

Subnet Gateway: Enter the gateway address of the selected private network.

Deploy Gateway: Select whether to enable automatic gateway settings deployment. Disabling this feature might cause network errors. As a best practice, select this option for only one NIC. This parameter is available in advanced network mode.

Primary DNS: Specify a primary DNS address for the NIC.

Secondary DNS: Specify a secondary DNS address for the NIC.

Device Model: Select a NIC type. This parameter is editable if the current NIC type is common, high-speed, Intel e1000, or intelligent. This parameter is not editable if the current NIC type is SR-IOV passthrough. SR-IOV passthrough NICs are not supported in advanced network mode.

Fast Forwarding: Turn on fast forwarding to improve the network performance of the VM. This feature is available only for high-speed NICs.

Hot Swappable: Enable or disable NIC hot swapping. This option is available only for high-speed NICs.

MTU: Modify the MTU of the VM NIC, in bytes.

Editable parameters on the Console VNC panel:

Password: Set the console password.

VNC Proxy: Enable or disable VNC proxy for the VM. You can click the Set icon to configure the VNC proxy server parameters, including the VNC proxy server address, login name, and password. If you access the console in safe mode, you must set the VNC proxy server address to the IP address of a host managed by UIS Manager. If the VNC proxy server is on a host managed by UIS Manager, the login name and password do not take effect.

Editable parameters on the Graphics Card panel:

Device Model: Select a graphics card model. Options include Cirrus, Vga, and Qxl. If the guest OS is Fedora19 or Fedora20, do not select Cirrus, which might cause display error.

Video Memory: Set the video memory size for the graphics card. The video memory size determines how much temporary data that the graphics card can store.

Editable parameters on the Serial Port panel:

Port Monitoring: Enable or disable the port monitoring feature.

Editable parameters on the More > Boot Device panel:

Auto Start: Enable this feature to configure the VM to start immediately after its host starts. This feature does not take effect when HA is enabled.

Boot Firmware: Select the boot mode. Options include BIOS and UEFI. If you select UEFI and multiple CD-COM drives are mounted with different Windows system installation files, the VM might not be booted from the boot device with the highest priority.

Order of bootable devices: Set the order of bootable devices by dragging them in the list, with the top one having the highest priority.

Editable parameters on the More > Virtual NUMA Configuration panel:

vNUMA: Enable or disable vNUMA. If you enable vNUMA, the virtual NUMA node preferentially uses the CPU and memory resources of the same physical NUMA node. To enable this feature, make sure the VM is offline and all CPUs of a NUMA node are bound to physical CPUs. When this feature is enabled, you cannot modify the number of CPUs, memory size, or HugePages configuration.

Editable parameters on the More > Advanced panel:

Anti-virus settings:

Enable Anti-Virus: Enable this feature to prevent the VM from virus attacks. To disable this feature, first shut down the VM.

The VM anti-virus settings depend on the anti-virus settings of UIS Manager. For more information, see "Configure the anti-virus service."

USB Redirection Policy Configuration:

USB Redirection: This feature enables the VM to use the USB devices of the client in remote desktop sessions.

USB Redirections: Specify the number of USB devices on the client that the VM can use in remote desktop sessions.

SPICE Client Access Policy Configuration:

Enable SSL: This feature enables SSL encryption for SPICE clients.

SSL Encrypted Channel Name: Select one or multiple channels. Options include Main, Input, Display, Cursor, Playback, Record, Smart Card, and USB Redirection.

Hardware options available from the Add Hardware menu:

Hardware type: Select a hardware type. Options include Storage, Network, Input, Console, Audio Card, USB Device, Remote USB Device, PCI Device, Graphics Card, Serial Port, TPM Device, Watchdog, and GPU Device.

Parameters for adding storage:

Bus Type: Select a bus type for the disk. Options include IDE Hard Disk, SCSI Hard Disk, USB Hard Disk, High-Speed Hard Disk, IDE CD-ROM, Floppy Disk, and High-Speed SCSI Hard Disk. The system supports USB 3.0 by default. If the system cannot recognize the USB, manually install the correct USB driver.

Type: Select a disk type. Options include File and Block Device.

File Path: Select a file.

Block Device Path: Select a block device file.

Size: Disk size.

Cache Mode: Select a VM data cache mode. Options include Directsync, Writethrough, Writeback, and None.

Disk Mode: Select whether to include the VM's disk in external snapshots. This parameter is available only when the VM uses a file-type disk.

Dependent—Includes the disk in external snapshots. When you use an external snapshot to restore the VM, the disk is also restored.

Independent-Persistent—Does not include the disk in external snapshots. When you use an external snapshot to restore the VM, the disk is not restored.

Controller: Select an SCSI controller. Options include the following:

Create: The system will create an SCSI controller. When a new SCSI disk controller is created, it will be sequentially numbered starting from Controller 2. For example, when adding a high-speed SCSI disk for the first time, create a new controller. The next time you add a high-speed SCSI disk, the disk controller will have three options: Creating a new controller, Controller 1, and Controller 2.

Controller 1: SCSI controller provided by the system.

I/O Rate Limits: Specify the maximum read/write rate in KBps for the disk. If you leave the field empty, the read/write rate of the disk is not limited.

IOPS Limits: Specify the maximum read and write IOPS. If you leave the field for read or write empty, the read or write IOPS is not limited.

Hot Swappable: Enable or disable disk hot swapping. This option is available only for high-speed disk.

Parameters for adding a network:

Device Model: Select a NIC type. Options include Command NIC, High-Speed NIC, Intel e1000 NIC, SR-IOV Passthrough, and intelligent NIC.

Kernel Acceleration: Enable or disable kernel acceleration, which improves VM performance. You must enable this feature for a high-Speed NIC.

Hot Swappable: Enable or disable NIC hot swapping. This option is available only for high-speed NICs.

vSwitch: Select a vSwitch for the VM.

Port Profile: Specify network parameters for the VM, including its VLAN, ACL, network bandwidth.

Virtual Firewall: Select a virtual firewall for the VM. The incoming and outgoing data packets on the VM will be filtered based on the firewall rules.

MAC Address Assignment Method: Options include Automatic and Manual.

MAC Address: Enter a MAC address if you select manual MAC address assignment.

Bound IPv4/IPv6 Address: Enter the IP address bound to the MAC address of the VM’s NIC. If the IP address specified for the VM's NIC is different from the bound IP address, the NIC cannot communicate correctly.

Driver Type: Select a driver type for the SR-IOV passthrough NIC. Only the VFIO driver is supported.

MTU: Set the MTU for the VM NIC, in bytes. The default value is 1500. This parameter is applicable only to common, high-speed, and Intel e1000 NICs.

Physical NIC: Set the physical NIC. This option is available only if the NIC type is SR-IOV passthrough.

VLAN ID: Set the VLAN ID of the VM’s NIC. This option is available only if the NIC type is SR-IOV passthrough.

If you configure a VLAN ID for an SR-IOV passthrough NIC, the NIC operates in access mode. For the packets sent by the VM, the VF adds VLAN tags and forwards the packets towards the destination. When receiving packets from the network side, the VF checks whether their VLAN tag matches the configured VLAN ID. If yes, the VF removes the VLAN tag and forwards the packets to the VM. If not, the VF drops the packets.

If you do not configure a VLAN ID for an SR-IOV passthrough NIC, the NIC operates in trunk mode and transparently forwards VLAN-tagged packets for the VM.

Parameters for adding an input device:

Type: Select a device type. Options include Notepad and Mouse.

Bus: Bus used by the input device.

Parameters for adding a console:

Type: Select a console type. Options include VNC and SPICE.

Password: Enter the console login password.

VNC Proxy: Enable or disable VNC proxy.

Port Assignment: Select a port assignment mode. Options include Auto and Manual.

Port: Specify the console port number. This parameter is available when you select the manual port assignment mode.

Keyboard Mapping (same as the host): Configure whether the disk mapping mode of the console is the same as that of the host.

Other: Select a keyboard mapping mode.

Parameters for adding a sound card:

Type: Select an audio card type. Options include ac97 and ich6.

Parameters for adding a USB device:

Controller: Select a controller type. Options include USB 1.0, USB 2.0, and USB 3.0.

Device Name: Name of the USB device.

Vendor: Vendor of the USB device.

Product Name: USB product name.

Parameters for adding a remote USB device:

Host Name: Name of the host that contains the USB device.

IP Address: IP address of the host.

Controller: Select a controller type. Options include USB 1.0, USB 2.0, and USB 3.0.

USB Device View: Click this button to view usage information about the remote USB devices in the cluster.

Device Name: Name of the remote USB device.

Vendor: Vendor of the remote USB device.

Product Name: USB product name.

State: State of the remote USB device.

User: User of the USB device.

Actions: Click the icon in this column to start or suspend a USB device.

Parameters for adding a PCI device:

Driver Type: Select a driver type for the PCI device. Only VFIO is available.

Device Name: Name of the PCI device.

Vendor: Vendor of the USB device.

Product Name: PCI product name.

Physical Interface: Physical NIC name.

Parameters for adding a GPU device:

Type: Type of the graphics card. This field is Qxl. If a VM has multiple graphics cards, the system will set the type of all the graphics cards to Qxl.

Parameters for adding a serial port:

Type: Select a serial port type. Options include Physical Host Character Device (dev) and Pseudo TTy (pty).

Serial Port: Specify the serial port number.

Path: Enter the serial port path. If you are adding a dev serial port, make sure the file path (for example, /dev/ttyS0) exists so the VM can start up.

Parameters for adding a TPM device:

TPM device: Trusted platform module.

Location: Select the location of the TPM device.

Parameters for adding a watchdog:

Actions: Select the action to take on VMs upon receipt of interrupt requests. Options include Restart, Shut Down, and Migrate.

Parameters for adding a GPU device:

A GPU device acts a CPU to process images so that the CPU can perform other tasks.

Resource Pool: Select a resource pool, which contains all available GPUs in the cluster. If you select a GPU resource pool, the physical GPU resources of the host are passed through to the VM. If you select a vGPU resource pool, the VM uses the vGPU resources of the host.

Service Template: Select a service template. The service template defines the priorities for VMs to access the resources in the resource pool. The host allocates the resources to VMs based on the priorities of the VMs if the resources are insufficient.

Driver Type: Select a driver type for the GPU device. Only the VFIO driver is supported.

Exclusive Mode: Select whether the VM can exclusively use the specified GPU/vGPU resources. If you select Yes, the GPU/vGPU resources cannot be used by any other VMs. This feature is available only when the host has available GPU/vGPU resources that have been added to the selected GPU resource pool. To migrate a VM when this feature is enabled, make sure sufficient GPU/vGPU resources are available on the target host and the VM is powered off.

Resource Count: Set the maximum number of GPU/vGPU resources that can be used by the VM. The value depends on the resource pool type and state of the exclusive mode feature:

If you select a vGPU resource pool, only 1 is available.

If you select a GPU resource pool and exclusive mode is disabled, the value is the maximum number of GPUs on a single host in the resource pool. For example, if the resource pool has three hosts, and the hosts have three, two, and two GPUs, respectively, the value is 3.

If you select a GPU resource pool and exclusive mode is enabled, the value is the number of available GPUs on the host attached to the VM.

ARM servers