Virtualization with Other Third Party Providers

If you want to use a third-party virtualization provider other than Xen, KVM, or VMware, you can import a JSON configuration file to SUSE Manager.

Similarly, if you have a VMWare installation that does not provide direct access to the API, a file-based VHM provides you with some basic management features.

This option is for importing files that have been created with the virtual-host-gatherer tool. It is not designed for manually created files.

Procedure: Exporting and Importing a JSON File

Export the JSON configuration file by running virtual-host-gatherer on the VM network.
Save the produced file to a location accessible by your SUSE Manager Server.
In the SUSE Manager Web UI, navigate to Systems Virtual Host Managers.
Click Create and select File-based.
In the Add a file-based Virtual Host Manager section, use these parameters:
- In the Label field, type a custom name for your VHM.
- In the Url field, type the path to your exported JSON configuration file.
Click Create to save your changes and create the VHM.
On the Virtual Host Managers page, select the new VHM.
On the Properties page, click Refresh Data to inventory the new VHM.

Listing 1. Example: Exported JSON configuration file:

{
    "examplevhost": {
        "10.11.12.13": {
            "cpuArch": "x86_64",
            "cpuDescription": "AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 4386",
            "cpuMhz": 3092.212727,
            "cpuVendor": "amd",
            "hostIdentifier": "'vim.HostSystem:host-182'",
            "name": "11.11.12.13",
            "os": "VMware ESXi",
            "osVersion": "5.5.0",
            "ramMb": 65512,
            "totalCpuCores": 16,
            "totalCpuSockets": 2,
            "totalCpuThreads": 16,
            "type": "vmware",
            "vms": {
                "vCenter": "564d6d90-459c-2256-8f39-3cb2bd24b7b0"
            }
        },
        "10.11.12.14": {
            "cpuArch": "x86_64",
            "cpuDescription": "AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 4386",
            "cpuMhz": 3092.212639,
            "cpuVendor": "amd",
            "hostIdentifier": "'vim.HostSystem:host-183'",
            "name": "10.11.12.14",
            "os": "VMware ESXi",
            "osVersion": "5.5.0",
            "ramMb": 65512,
            "totalCpuCores": 16,
            "totalCpuSockets": 2,
            "totalCpuThreads": 16,
            "type": "vmware",
            "vms": {
                "49737e0a-c9e6-4ceb-aef8-6a9452f67cb5": "4230c60f-3f98-2a65-f7c3-600b26b79c22",
                "5a2e4e63-a957-426b-bfa8-4169302e4fdb": "42307b15-1618-0595-01f2-427ffcddd88e",
                "NSX-gateway": "4230d43e-aafe-38ba-5a9e-3cb67c03a16a",
                "NSX-l3gateway": "4230b00f-0b21-0e9d-dfde-6c7b06909d5f",
                "NSX-service": "4230e924-b714-198b-348b-25de01482fd9"
            }
        }
    }
}

For more information, see the man page on your SUSE Manager server for virtual-host-gatherer:

man virtual-host-gatherer

The README file of that package provides background information about the type of a hypervisor, etc.:

/usr/share/doc/packages/virtual-host-gatherer/README.md

The man page and the README file also contain example configuration files.