libvirt/docs/architecture.html
2006-02-10 08:43:31 +00:00

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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="libvirt.css" /><link rel="SHORTCUT ICON" href="/32favicon.png" /><title>libvirt architecture</title></head><body><div id="container"><div id="intro"><div id="adjustments"></div><div id="pageHeader"></div><div id="content2"><h1 class="style1">libvirt architecture</h1><h3>This is Xen specific since this is the only hypervisor supported at the
moment</h3><p>When running in a Xen environment, programs using libvirt have to execute
in "Domain 0", which is the primary Linux OS loaded on the machine. That OS
kernel provides most if not all of the actual drivers used by the set of
domains. It also runs the Xen Store, a database of informations shared by the
hypervisor, the kernels, the drivers and the xen daemon. Xend. The xen daemon
supervise the control and execution of the sets of domains. The hypervisor,
drivers, kernels and daemons communicate though a shared system bus
implemented in the hypervisor. The figure below tries to provide a view of
this environment:</p><img src="architecture.gif" alt="The Xen architecture" /><p>The library can be initialized in 2 ways depending on the level of
priviledge of the embedding program. If it runs with root access,
virConnectOpen() can be used, it will use three different ways to connect to
the Xen infrastructure:</p><ul><li>a connection to the Xen Daemon though an HTTP RPC layer</li>
<li>a read/write connection to the Xen Store</li>
<li>use Xen Hypervisor calls</li>
</ul><p>The library will usually interract with the Xen daemon for any operation
changing the state of the system, but for performance and accuracy reasons
may talk directly to the hypervisor when gathering state informations at
least when possible (i.e. when the running program using libvirt has root
priviledge access).</p><p>If it runs without root access virConnectOpenReadOnly() should be used to
connect to initialize the library. It will try to open the read-only socket
<code>/var/run/xenstored/socket_ro</code> to connect to the Xen Store and
also try to use the RPC to the Xen daemon. In this case use of hypervisor
calls and write to the Xen Store will not be possible, restraining the amount
of APIs available and slowing down information gathering about domains.</p></div></div><div class="linkList2"><div class="llinks2"><h3 class="links2"><span>main menu</span></h3><ul><li><a href="index.html">Home</a></li><li><a href="news.html">Releases</a></li><li><a href="intro.html">Introduction</a></li><li><a href="architecture.html">libvirt architecture</a></li><li><a href="downloads.html">Downloads</a></li><li><a href="FAQ.html">FAQ</a></li><li><a href="bugs.html">Reporting bugs and getting help</a></li><li><a style="font-weight:bold" href="html/index.html">API Menu</a></li><li><a href="ChangeLog.html">Recent Changes</a></li></ul></div><div class="llinks2"><h3 class="links2"><span>related links</span></h3><ul><li><a href="https://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/">Mail archive</a></li><li><a href="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/Research/SRG/netos/xen/index.html">Xen project</a></li><li><form action="search.php" enctype="application/x-www-form-urlencoded" method="get"><input name="query" type="text" size="12" value="Search..." /><input name="submit" type="submit" value="Go" /></form></li><li><a href="http://xmlsoft.org/"><img src="Libxml2-Logo-90x34.gif" alt="Made with Libxml2 Logo" /></a></li></ul><p class="credits">Graphics and design by <a href="mail:dfong@redhat.com">Diana Fong</a></p></div></div><div id="bottom"><p class="p1"></p></div></div></body></html>