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Posted to dev@cloudstack.apache.org by Likitha Shetty <li...@citrix.com> on 2013/09/30 07:54:55 UTC
[PROPOSAL] Support OVA files with multiple disks for templates and
uploaded volumes in VMWare
Hi,
Currently, Cloudstack only supports Template creation based on OVA files containing a single disk. If a user creates a template from a OVA file containing more than 1 disk and launches an instance using this template, only the first disk is attached to the new instance and other disks are ignored. Similarly with uploaded volumes, attaching an uploaded volume that contains multiple disks to a VM will result in only one VMDK to being attached to the VM.
This behavior needs to be improved in VMWare to support OVA files with multiple disks for both templates and uploaded volumes. For e.g. If a user creates a template from a OVA file containing more than 1 disk and launches an instance using this template, the first disk should be attached to the new instance as the ROOT disk, volumes should be created based on other VMDK disks in the OVA file and should be attached to the instance.
I will soon propose a Functional Spec for this improvement.
The corresponding JIRA ticket can be found at https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CLOUDSTACK-4757 .
Thanks,
Likitha
RE: [PROPOSAL] Support OVA files with multiple disks for templates
and uploaded volumes in VMWare
Posted by Alex Huang <Al...@citrix.com>.
Likitha,
This is not of value to VmWare only. We should make sure it works or has plugin points for all of the hypervisors. In general, how we support this today is through hypervisor capabilities to determine during orchestration and then on the Resource for each hypervisor, it can determine if it can support commands introduced for a functionality.
--Alex
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Likitha Shetty [mailto:likitha.shetty@citrix.com]
> Sent: Monday, September 30, 2013 10:30 AM
> To: dev@cloudstack.apache.org
> Subject: RE: [PROPOSAL] Support OVA files with multiple disks for templates
> and uploaded volumes in VMWare
>
> True, OVA can contain any disk image type. I specifically called out VMware
> because I was thinking about how today in CS this enhancement is of value
> only to VMware.
>
> But yes, as you pointed out, during implementation we should ensure this
> support is hypervisor agnostic.
>
> Thanks,
> Likitha
>
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: Chip Childers [mailto:chipchilders@apache.org]
> >Sent: Monday, September 30, 2013 10:06 PM
> >To: dev@cloudstack.apache.org
> >Subject: Re: [PROPOSAL] Support OVA files with multiple disks for
> >templates and uploaded volumes in VMWare
> >
> >On Mon, Sep 30, 2013 at 03:26:54PM +0000, Likitha Shetty wrote:
> >> Chip,
> >>
> >> In Cloudstack, for Xen and KVM hypervisors since the files used for
> >> templates
> >and volumes are virtual disks (VHD, QCOW2) the current CS assumption of
> >template and volumes containing a single virtual disk seems fine. But
> >since for VMware the files used for templates and volumes are in OVA
> >format which is an archive that can contain multiple VMDKs this
> >improvement seems appropriate only for VMware?
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >> Likitha
> >
> >Ok, I see why you are headed down a VMware only path now. That being
> >said, OVF/OVA are actually envelope specs which can contain any disk
> image type.
> >The key is to either use the native HV OVF/A import capabilities
> >(VMware obviously does this, as does XenServer IIRC), or use a tool
> >like virt-tools to make the embedded meta-data about the included VM
> useful for the target HV.
> >
> >While I get doing this for VMware only, I'd ask that the implementation
> >be designed to potentially work with the other HVs.
> >
> >Make sense?
RE: [PROPOSAL] Support OVA files with multiple disks for templates
and uploaded volumes in VMWare
Posted by Likitha Shetty <li...@citrix.com>.
True, OVA can contain any disk image type. I specifically called out VMware because I was thinking about how today in CS this enhancement is of value only to VMware.
But yes, as you pointed out, during implementation we should ensure this support is hypervisor agnostic.
Thanks,
Likitha
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Chip Childers [mailto:chipchilders@apache.org]
>Sent: Monday, September 30, 2013 10:06 PM
>To: dev@cloudstack.apache.org
>Subject: Re: [PROPOSAL] Support OVA files with multiple disks for templates and
>uploaded volumes in VMWare
>
>On Mon, Sep 30, 2013 at 03:26:54PM +0000, Likitha Shetty wrote:
>> Chip,
>>
>> In Cloudstack, for Xen and KVM hypervisors since the files used for templates
>and volumes are virtual disks (VHD, QCOW2) the current CS assumption of
>template and volumes containing a single virtual disk seems fine. But since for
>VMware the files used for templates and volumes are in OVA format which is an
>archive that can contain multiple VMDKs this improvement seems appropriate
>only for VMware?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Likitha
>
>Ok, I see why you are headed down a VMware only path now. That being said,
>OVF/OVA are actually envelope specs which can contain any disk image type.
>The key is to either use the native HV OVF/A import capabilities (VMware
>obviously does this, as does XenServer IIRC), or use a tool like virt-tools to make
>the embedded meta-data about the included VM useful for the target HV.
>
>While I get doing this for VMware only, I'd ask that the implementation be
>designed to potentially work with the other HVs.
>
>Make sense?
Re: [PROPOSAL] Support OVA files with multiple disks for templates
and uploaded volumes in VMWare
Posted by Chip Childers <ch...@apache.org>.
On Mon, Sep 30, 2013 at 03:26:54PM +0000, Likitha Shetty wrote:
> Chip,
>
> In Cloudstack, for Xen and KVM hypervisors since the files used for templates and volumes are virtual disks (VHD, QCOW2) the current CS assumption of template and volumes containing a single virtual disk seems fine. But since for VMware the files used for templates and volumes are in OVA format which is an archive that can contain multiple VMDKs this improvement seems appropriate only for VMware?
>
> Thanks,
> Likitha
Ok, I see why you are headed down a VMware only path now. That being
said, OVF/OVA are actually envelope specs which can contain any disk
image type. The key is to either use the native HV OVF/A import
capabilities (VMware obviously does this, as does XenServer IIRC), or
use a tool like virt-tools to make the embedded meta-data about the
included VM useful for the target HV.
While I get doing this for VMware only, I'd ask that the implementation
be designed to potentially work with the other HVs.
Make sense?
RE: [PROPOSAL] Support OVA files with multiple disks for templates
and uploaded volumes in VMWare
Posted by Likitha Shetty <li...@citrix.com>.
Chip,
In Cloudstack, for Xen and KVM hypervisors since the files used for templates and volumes are virtual disks (VHD, QCOW2) the current CS assumption of template and volumes containing a single virtual disk seems fine. But since for VMware the files used for templates and volumes are in OVA format which is an archive that can contain multiple VMDKs this improvement seems appropriate only for VMware?
Thanks,
Likitha
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Chip Childers [mailto:chip.childers@sungard.com]
>Sent: Monday, September 30, 2013 7:42 PM
>To: dev@cloudstack.apache.org
>Subject: Re: [PROPOSAL] Support OVA files with multiple disks for templates and
>uploaded volumes in VMWare
>
>On Mon, Sep 30, 2013 at 05:54:55AM +0000, Likitha Shetty wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Currently, Cloudstack only supports Template creation based on OVA files
>containing a single disk. If a user creates a template from a OVA file containing
>more than 1 disk and launches an instance using this template, only the first disk
>is attached to the new instance and other disks are ignored. Similarly with
>uploaded volumes, attaching an uploaded volume that contains multiple disks to
>a VM will result in only one VMDK to being attached to the VM.
>>
>> This behavior needs to be improved in VMWare to support OVA files with
>multiple disks for both templates and uploaded volumes. For e.g. If a user
>creates a template from a OVA file containing more than 1 disk and launches an
>instance using this template, the first disk should be attached to the new
>instance as the ROOT disk, volumes should be created based on other VMDK
>disks in the OVA file and should be attached to the instance.
>>
>
>+1, but question. Why VMware only?
>
>> I will soon propose a Functional Spec for this improvement.
>>
>> The corresponding JIRA ticket can be found at
>https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CLOUDSTACK-4757 .
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Likitha
>>
Re: [PROPOSAL] Support OVA files with multiple disks for templates
and uploaded volumes in VMWare
Posted by Chip Childers <ch...@sungard.com>.
On Mon, Sep 30, 2013 at 05:54:55AM +0000, Likitha Shetty wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Currently, Cloudstack only supports Template creation based on OVA files containing a single disk. If a user creates a template from a OVA file containing more than 1 disk and launches an instance using this template, only the first disk is attached to the new instance and other disks are ignored. Similarly with uploaded volumes, attaching an uploaded volume that contains multiple disks to a VM will result in only one VMDK to being attached to the VM.
>
> This behavior needs to be improved in VMWare to support OVA files with multiple disks for both templates and uploaded volumes. For e.g. If a user creates a template from a OVA file containing more than 1 disk and launches an instance using this template, the first disk should be attached to the new instance as the ROOT disk, volumes should be created based on other VMDK disks in the OVA file and should be attached to the instance.
>
+1, but question. Why VMware only?
> I will soon propose a Functional Spec for this improvement.
>
> The corresponding JIRA ticket can be found at https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CLOUDSTACK-4757 .
>
> Thanks,
> Likitha
>