OVirt

oVirt Overview

oVirt is an open-source virtualization management platform designed for centralized control of virtualized infrastructure across enterprise environments. Originating as a community-driven project by Red Hat, it serves as the foundation for Red Hat Virtualization (RHV) and focuses on managing KVM-based hypervisors. Licensed under the Apache License 2.0, oVirt provides a web-based interface for administering virtual machines (VMs), storage, and networking, positioning itself as a robust alternative to proprietary solutions like VMware vSphere.

Core Architecture and Components

The platform comprises two primary elements: the oVirt Engine, a centralized management server that orchestrates VM lifecycle operations, storage allocation, and network configurations, and oVirt Nodes, which are lightweight Linux-based hypervisors optimized for running KVM virtual machines. The Engine supports multi-host clusters, enabling administrators to define data centers, logical networks, and storage domains through a unified interface.

Hypervisor Support and Guest Compatibility

oVirt exclusively supports KVM on x86-64, PowerPC64, and s390x architectures, with ongoing development to extend compatibility to ARM-based systems. It accommodates diverse guest operating systems, including Linux distributions, Windows, and FreeBSD, leveraging SPICE, VNC, and RDP protocols for seamless VM access. Live migration capabilities ensure uninterrupted service during host maintenance or failure.

High Availability and Fault Tolerance

High availability (HA) is enforced through power fencing mechanisms, such as IPMI or iDRAC interfaces, which enable automated host recovery during hardware failures. HA VMs are automatically restarted on healthy nodes within clusters, provided sufficient CPU, memory, and storage resources are available on destination hosts. Live migration further minimizes downtime by relocating running VMs between nodes without service interruption.

Storage and Network Management

oVirt integrates with shared storage solutions like NFS, iSCSI, Fibre Channel, and GlusterFS, organizing storage into domains for centralized management. The platform’s software-defined networking (SDN) supports VLANs, bonded interfaces, and SR-IOV for enhanced network performance. Security groups and firewall rules can be configured directly through the web interface, enabling granular traffic control.

Self-Service and Multi-Tenancy

Role-based access control (RBAC) allows administrators to delegate VM management tasks to users while enforcing quotas and resource limits. A self-service portal empowers users to deploy preconfigured VM templates, clone instances from snapshots, and automate provisioning via cloud-init. Multi-tenancy is achieved through isolated projects and accounts, ensuring secure resource partitioning.

Disaster Recovery and Backup Solutions

Storage domain portability enables VMs to be imported into different oVirt Engine instances, facilitating disaster recovery. GlusterFS geo-replication and third-party block-level replication tools provide asynchronous data synchronization across sites. Automated Engine backups can be scheduled and stored remotely, while VM snapshots allow point-in-time recovery.

Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) Support

oVirt’s integration with GlusterFS enables hyper-converged deployments, where compute and storage resources coexist on the same nodes. The self-hosted engine feature eliminates single points of failure by running the management server as a VM within the cluster, leveraging GlusterFS for high availability. This architecture simplifies scaling by allowing incremental node additions.

Ecosystem Integration and Automation

The platform integrates with OpenStack components like Glance (for disk images) and Neutron (for networking), extending its cloud-native capabilities. APIs and CLI tools enable automation via Ansible, Terraform, and custom scripts, while the Webhook Framework supports real-time event notifications for DevOps workflows.

Recent Developments and Use Cases

Organizations like Brookhaven National Laboratory employ oVirt with CephFS to deliver highly available services, such as web servers and identity providers, with sub-minute failover times. The self-hosted engine deployment model, combined with distributed storage, ensures resilience against hardware failures, making oVirt suitable for mission-critical applications in research and enterprise environments.

Tool Link: https://www.ovirt.org/