Start UP VCL test environment issue

[Khder Omar <kh...@gmail.com>]

Hi all,

Recently joined the VCL users community, we have been involved to setup a
test VCL environment in our lab for bench marking purposes. Thus, we have
setup in virtual machine using VMware Workstation and installed VCL 2.3
version. Following the wiki
https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/VCL/VCL+2.3
We have installed VCL ALL-IN-ONE in one virtual machine [management node
and computer node included the front end ].
Reaching the Base Image creation step [
https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/VCL/Create+a+Linux+Base+Image]
and specifically a Linux Base Image, we have faced The email notification
has the following content:

>From MAILER-DAEMON  Thu Jul 17 03:18:14 2014
Return-Path: <>
X-Original-To: root@localhost
Delivered-To: root@localhost.localdomain
Received: by vclup.localdomain (Postfix, from userid 0)
        id 88158E1CEF; Thu, 17 Jul 2014 03:18:14 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: VCL -- NOTICE DELAY Image Creation test100
To: root@localhost.localdomain
From: nobody@example.com
Message-Id: <20...@localhost.localdomain>
Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 03:18:14 +0200 (CEST)


We apologize for the inconvenience.
Your image creation of test100 has been delayed
due to a system issue that prevented the automatic completion.

The image creation request and the computing resource have
been placed in a safe mode. The VCL system administrators
have been notified for manual intervention.

Once the issues have been resolved, you will be notified
by the successful completion email or contacted directly
by the VCL system administrators.

If you do not receive a response within one business day, please
reply to this email.

Thank You,
VCL Team


For more details, we have configured in the frontend 'Manage Computer'
section using XCAT 2.x as provisioning engine.

More information are being attached /var/log/vcld.log

Eventually, XCAT has been installed correctly but we are able to see the
error in the log file:
|2900|23:23|image| 2014-08-07
13:47:54|2900|23:23|image|OS.pm:create_currentimage_txt(237)|failed to
create currentimage.txt file on localhost

Without creating base image we still have the same notification message
stated in the reservation section in the VCL frontend.

Since we are new using VCL within XCAT as a bare metal provisioning engine,
we were wondering if any one has faced a similar error and any help will be
appreciated. In the other hand, Is there any hint to use VMware as well in
ONE-IN-ALL virtual machine based architecture just to test a reservation
and being able to connect to the environment once an image created and
uploaded ?
 Then, we can proceed by extending the environment by separating management
node and computer in different machines.

Looking forward to hear from you and thanks in advance!

Best Regards
Phd Team

Re: Start UP VCL test environment issue

[Khder Omar <kh...@gmail.com>]

Dear Andy,

Many thanks for your interesting answer !  Eventually, to answer to your
question we got at blocking step once we have finished installing all the
VCL components successfully in one node. By reaching the 'Capture a Base
Image' step  [
https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/VCL/Capture+A+Base+Image] we
got so far some errors but we could finally see in the frontend in 'New
Reservation' tab our Image. After adding the image to the specific image
group and mapped to the specific computer which runs in the same VCL
instance [All-In-One architecture], we were facing the following error
message [See attached file]:




*There are no available times thatthe selected image can be used. *


In the other hand, for the same image, creating the reservation in later
option will generate a different error message: [See attached file]


*There are currently no computers available that can run the application
you selected.*

The base image actually resides in the database but cannot be handled for
reservation!


Furthermore, we intend to mimic a real production environment. Using
VirtualBox or VMware workstation, we were wondering if passing by
installing an ESXi server in a virtual machine besides to a VCL server
instance in another VM would be sufficient for a simple correct test and
run a reservation ?

What would be the optimized way to do so ? VMware Server is not supported
anymore and I think testing with ESXi will be more beneficial !


Looking forward to hear from you and thanks in advance !

Best Regards

Phd team






>

Re: Start UP VCL test environment issue

[Andy Kurth <an...@ncsu.edu>]

To begin with, make sure you are using the latest release (2.3.2) and
following the corresponding instructions:
http://vcl.apache.org/docs/VCL232InstallGuide.html

I don't understand what you are attempting to capture.  You have a single
computer with a VCL server VM on it, correct?  Are you trying to capture
another Linux VM on this machine, a separate bare metal computer, or were
you thinking the VCL server VM running on this computer could somehow
capture a bare metal image if itself?

If you intend to capture VMs running on the computer, VMware Workstation is
not supported.  You could try to install ESXi or KVM on it.  It is
certainly possible to have a self-contained VCL environment which is able
to provision VMs on a single computer which also hosts the VCL server VM.
 I have created numerous environments like this for VCL training workshops.
 There is a wiki page I created a few years ago which may give some
pointers:
https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/VCL/Configuring+a+Standalone+VCL+Environment+using+VMware+Server+2.0

One other suggestion, never use "localhost" for a computer defined within
VCL.  I also would not use "localhost" for the name of the management node.
 This causes problems.

Regards,
Andy


On Thu, Aug 7, 2014 at 7:23 AM, Khder Omar <kh...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Recently joined the VCL users community, we have been involved to setup a
> test VCL environment in our lab for bench marking purposes. Thus, we have
> setup in virtual machine using VMware Workstation and installed VCL 2.3
> version. Following the wiki
> https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/VCL/VCL+2.3
> We have installed VCL ALL-IN-ONE in one virtual machine [management node
> and computer node included the front end ].
> Reaching the Base Image creation step [
> https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/VCL/Create+a+Linux+Base+Image]
> and specifically a Linux Base Image, we have faced The email notification
> has the following content:
>
> From MAILER-DAEMON  Thu Jul 17 03:18:14 2014
> Return-Path: <>
> X-Original-To: root@localhost
> Delivered-To: root@localhost.localdomain
> Received: by vclup.localdomain (Postfix, from userid 0)
>         id 88158E1CEF; Thu, 17 Jul 2014 03:18:14 +0200 (CEST)
> Subject: VCL -- NOTICE DELAY Image Creation test100
> To: root@localhost.localdomain
> From: nobody@example.com
> Message-Id: <20...@localhost.localdomain>
> Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 03:18:14 +0200 (CEST)
>
>
> We apologize for the inconvenience.
> Your image creation of test100 has been delayed
> due to a system issue that prevented the automatic completion.
>
> The image creation request and the computing resource have
> been placed in a safe mode. The VCL system administrators
> have been notified for manual intervention.
>
> Once the issues have been resolved, you will be notified
> by the successful completion email or contacted directly
> by the VCL system administrators.
>
> If you do not receive a response within one business day, please
> reply to this email.
>
> Thank You,
> VCL Team
>
>
> For more details, we have configured in the frontend 'Manage Computer'
> section using XCAT 2.x as provisioning engine.
>
> More information are being attached /var/log/vcld.log
>
> Eventually, XCAT has been installed correctly but we are able to see the
> error in the log file:
> |2900|23:23|image| 2014-08-07
> 13:47:54|2900|23:23|image|OS.pm:create_currentimage_txt(237)|failed to
> create currentimage.txt file on localhost
>
> Without creating base image we still have the same notification message
> stated in the reservation section in the VCL frontend.
>
> Since we are new using VCL within XCAT as a bare
> metal provisioning engine, we were wondering if any one has faced a similar
> error and any help will be appreciated. In the other hand, Is there any
> hint to use VMware as well in ONE-IN-ALL virtual machine based architecture
> just to test a reservation and being able to connect to the environment
> once an image created and uploaded ?
>  Then, we can proceed by extending the environment by separating
> management node and computer in different machines.
>
> Looking forward to hear from you and thanks in advance!
>
> Best Regards
> Phd Team
>