Installing cloudstack mgmt server on non-Linux OS

[Jiri B <ji...@devio.us>]

Hi,

my attempt is to install cloudstack management server on
a non-Linux OS (an UNIX-like one). Of course not for production
setup in this case... :-)

But... I'm not sure I fully understand some basic concepts.

Are most of the scripts in /usr/share/cloudstack-common/scripts
used only when cloudstack mgmt server is also acting as
hypervisor? I see there's a lot of Linux specific commands
inside scripts (brctl, iptables...).

I also could not find info what is a process of creating
new VM (when using Linux KVM hypervisor, remote host).
Does mgmt server need permanent access to storage (NFS), and
is mgmt server creating new VM image with qemu-img inside
this storage or does delegate this task to a remote host?

Hence... the main confusion is how much is management server
involved in the show. If it is just giving orders (when using
remote hypervisor), like in RHEVM/oVirt case, and thus the tasks
are done by cloudstack agent (in KVM hypervisor case)...

Thank you very much for clarification.

jirib

Re: Installing cloudstack mgmt server on non-Linux OS

[Prasanna Santhanam <ts...@apache.org>]

On Thu, Nov 07, 2013 at 03:52:47AM -0500, Jiri B wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 07, 2013 at 10:04:15AM +0530, Prasanna Santhanam wrote:
> > On Wed, Nov 06, 2013 at 05:29:53PM -0500, Jiri B wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > my attempt is to install cloudstack management server on
> > > a non-Linux OS (an UNIX-like one). Of course not for production
> > > setup in this case... :-)
> > 
> > CloudStack is mostly tested on RHEL and Ubuntu. If you are using
> > something like Arch then you might see surprises. I'm guessing Debian
> > would work.
> 
> I would say you are confusing here. AS cloudstack mgmt server
> only hands off commands to hypervisors, why it should be big
> problem when hypervisor is RHEL/Debian distro?
> 
No problem with how cloudstack functions. Just that the packaging is
tested only with RHEL and Debian so with any other distro YMMV.
-- 
Prasanna.,

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Re: Installing cloudstack mgmt server on non-Linux OS

[Jiri B <ji...@devio.us>]

On Thu, Nov 07, 2013 at 10:04:15AM +0530, Prasanna Santhanam wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 06, 2013 at 05:29:53PM -0500, Jiri B wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > my attempt is to install cloudstack management server on
> > a non-Linux OS (an UNIX-like one). Of course not for production
> > setup in this case... :-)
> 
> CloudStack is mostly tested on RHEL and Ubuntu. If you are using
> something like Arch then you might see surprises. I'm guessing Debian
> would work.

I would say you are confusing here. AS cloudstack mgmt server
only hands off commands to hypervisors, why it should be big
problem when hypervisor is RHEL/Debian distro?

> > 
> > But... I'm not sure I fully understand some basic concepts.
> > 
> > Are most of the scripts in /usr/share/cloudstack-common/scripts
> > used only when cloudstack mgmt server is also acting as
> > hypervisor? I see there's a lot of Linux specific commands
> > inside scripts (brctl, iptables...).
> > 
> They are 'packaged' there, but are mostly executed on the hosts and/or
> on cloudstack's agents (systemvms, virtual routers etc).  Management
> server copies these into hypervisors when they are added (discovered)
> to cloudstack. After that cloudstack will only issue commands to
> hypervisors and the hypervisor agent will convert the command in to a
> script call and execute the required command.

OK, got it. So I should not modify paths to files in /usr and
python libs in 'scripts' subdir to match ones on my non-Linux
OS, because as you say, these scripts are copies to hypervisors
while they are added into the setup.

> > I also could not find info what is a process of creating
> > new VM (when using Linux KVM hypervisor, remote host).
> > Does mgmt server need permanent access to storage (NFS), and
> > is mgmt server creating new VM image with qemu-img inside
> > this storage or does delegate this task to a remote host?
> > 
> The task is delegated to the KVM hypervisor. CloudStack management
> server will send a 'command' to the KVM 'agent' to start a VM when you
> use the cloud management UI to launch a virtual machine.
> 
> > Hence... the main confusion is how much is management server
> > involved in the show. If it is just giving orders (when using
> > remote hypervisor), like in RHEVM/oVirt case, and thus the tasks
> > are done by cloudstack agent (in KVM hypervisor case)...
> 
> Right, it's only handing off commands to remote agents or if you like
> it's 'orchestrating' these flows.
> 
> > 
> > Thank you very much for clarification.
> > 
> > jirib
> 
> -- 
> Prasanna.,

Thank you for clarification.

jirib

Re: Installing cloudstack mgmt server on non-Linux OS

[Prasanna Santhanam <ts...@apache.org>]

On Wed, Nov 06, 2013 at 05:29:53PM -0500, Jiri B wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> my attempt is to install cloudstack management server on
> a non-Linux OS (an UNIX-like one). Of course not for production
> setup in this case... :-)

CloudStack is mostly tested on RHEL and Ubuntu. If you are using
something like Arch then you might see surprises. I'm guessing Debian
would work.

> 
> But... I'm not sure I fully understand some basic concepts.
> 
> Are most of the scripts in /usr/share/cloudstack-common/scripts
> used only when cloudstack mgmt server is also acting as
> hypervisor? I see there's a lot of Linux specific commands
> inside scripts (brctl, iptables...).
> 
They are 'packaged' there, but are mostly executed on the hosts and/or
on cloudstack's agents (systemvms, virtual routers etc).  Management
server copies these into hypervisors when they are added (discovered)
to cloudstack. After that cloudstack will only issue commands to
hypervisors and the hypervisor agent will convert the command in to a
script call and execute the required command.

> I also could not find info what is a process of creating
> new VM (when using Linux KVM hypervisor, remote host).
> Does mgmt server need permanent access to storage (NFS), and
> is mgmt server creating new VM image with qemu-img inside
> this storage or does delegate this task to a remote host?
> 
The task is delegated to the KVM hypervisor. CloudStack management
server will send a 'command' to the KVM 'agent' to start a VM when you
use the cloud management UI to launch a virtual machine.

> Hence... the main confusion is how much is management server
> involved in the show. If it is just giving orders (when using
> remote hypervisor), like in RHEVM/oVirt case, and thus the tasks
> are done by cloudstack agent (in KVM hypervisor case)...

Right, it's only handing off commands to remote agents or if you like
it's 'orchestrating' these flows.

> 
> Thank you very much for clarification.
> 
> jirib

-- 
Prasanna.,

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