Mailing List Archive: OpenStack: Operators

Using a SAN for nova-volume & KVM

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vachon at sessionm

Jul 27, 2012, 12:13 PM

Post #1 of 10 (722 views)
Permalink

Using a SAN for nova-volume & KVM

Hi All,

We are architecting our system for KVM (as it is the best hypervisor for
your money for HA networking) and a SAN for HA nova-volumes. The only
reference to being able to use a SAN is with XenServer as the hypervisor.
I have no problem giving a server permission to create luns (or
pre-creating them if I have to) for now. I want to make sure I can point
all the stuff to the SAN instead of doing some half-hearted attempt by
using a box as a proxy.

Our san is an EQL so iSCSI is easy. Also, we run our "san" net on
a separate 10Gbe set of interfaces (all the servers have connectivity into
the SAN layer).

Any thoughts?

--
Thomas Vachon
Principal Operations Architect
*session M*

jon at jonproulx

Jul 28, 2012, 3:35 PM

Post #2 of 10 (691 views)
Permalink

Re: Using a SAN for nova-volume & KVM [In reply to]

Hi Tom,

Hopefully someone has a better answer for you as I'm still relatively
new to OpenStack myself, but I looked into this a little while ago
because I too have an Equalogic SAN and KVM hypervisors. The
Equalogic connector in that equation is provided by XenServer not
OpenStack (in fact I think but am less sure that it isn't even part of
the opensource xen).

Since I'm running a research system I can take some risks and have
decided to go this Ceph for my storage needs, if I were in your HA
needing shoes I'd look at how much coding was required to hook
Equalogic's API (which exists but I haven't looked at in years) into
the nova-volume service, you could be someone's hero, but I don't
think there's any current work toward this.

I'd be happy to be told I'm wrong about that...

-Jon

On Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 3:13 PM, Thomas Vachon <vachon [at] sessionm> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> We are architecting our system for KVM (as it is the best hypervisor for
> your money for HA networking) and a SAN for HA nova-volumes. The only
> reference to being able to use a SAN is with XenServer as the hypervisor. I
> have no problem giving a server permission to create luns (or pre-creating
> them if I have to) for now. I want to make sure I can point all the stuff
> to the SAN instead of doing some half-hearted attempt by using a box as a
> proxy.
>
> Our san is an EQL so iSCSI is easy. Also, we run our "san" net on a
> separate 10Gbe set of interfaces (all the servers have connectivity into the
> SAN layer).
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> --
> Thomas Vachon
> Principal Operations Architect
> session M
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> OpenStack-operators mailing list
> OpenStack-operators [at] lists
> http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-operators
>

_______________________________________________
OpenStack-operators mailing list
OpenStack-operators [at] lists
http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-operators

jon at jonproulx

Jul 28, 2012, 6:44 PM

Post #3 of 10 (694 views)
Permalink

Re: Using a SAN for nova-volume & KVM [In reply to]

It does look like nova/volume/san.py could be extended to use the
EqlCliExec.py utility from the Equallogic SDK, unfortunately all the
pieces of the SDK are full of this copyright:

Copyright (C) 2009 by Dell, Inc.

All rights reserved. This software may not be copied, disclosed,
transferred, or used except in accordance with a license granted
by Dell, Inc. This software embodies proprietary information
and trade secrets of Dell, Inc

So unless we can talk Dell into being more sane with licensing, full
and proper integration with OpenStack is unlikely.

-Jon

On Sat, Jul 28, 2012 at 6:35 PM, Jonathan Proulx <jon [at] jonproulx> wrote:
> Hi Tom,
>
> Hopefully someone has a better answer for you as I'm still relatively
> new to OpenStack myself, but I looked into this a little while ago
> because I too have an Equalogic SAN and KVM hypervisors. The
> Equalogic connector in that equation is provided by XenServer not
> OpenStack (in fact I think but am less sure that it isn't even part of
> the opensource xen).
>
> Since I'm running a research system I can take some risks and have
> decided to go this Ceph for my storage needs, if I were in your HA
> needing shoes I'd look at how much coding was required to hook
> Equalogic's API (which exists but I haven't looked at in years) into
> the nova-volume service, you could be someone's hero, but I don't
> think there's any current work toward this.
>
> I'd be happy to be told I'm wrong about that...
>
> -Jon
>
> On Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 3:13 PM, Thomas Vachon <vachon [at] sessionm> wrote:
>> Hi All,
>>
>> We are architecting our system for KVM (as it is the best hypervisor for
>> your money for HA networking) and a SAN for HA nova-volumes. The only
>> reference to being able to use a SAN is with XenServer as the hypervisor. I
>> have no problem giving a server permission to create luns (or pre-creating
>> them if I have to) for now. I want to make sure I can point all the stuff
>> to the SAN instead of doing some half-hearted attempt by using a box as a
>> proxy.
>>
>> Our san is an EQL so iSCSI is easy. Also, we run our "san" net on a
>> separate 10Gbe set of interfaces (all the servers have connectivity into the
>> SAN layer).
>>
>> Any thoughts?
>>
>> --
>> Thomas Vachon
>> Principal Operations Architect
>> session M
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> OpenStack-operators mailing list
>> OpenStack-operators [at] lists
>> http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-operators
>>

_______________________________________________
OpenStack-operators mailing list
OpenStack-operators [at] lists
http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-operators

lorin at nimbisservices

Jul 28, 2012, 8:18 PM

Post #4 of 10 (690 views)
Permalink

Re: Using a SAN for nova-volume & KVM [In reply to]

Jon:

There are several people from Dell that are active in the OpenStack community, they're probably good points of contact to engage with Dell on this issue. Two names I know of offhand are:

- Stephen Spector
- Rob Hirschfeld

Take care,

Lorin
--
Lorin Hochstein
Lead Architect - Cloud Services
Nimbis Services, Inc.
www.nimbisservices.com

On Jul 28, 2012, at 9:44 PM, Jonathan Proulx <jon [at] jonproulx> wrote:

> It does look like nova/volume/san.py could be extended to use the
> EqlCliExec.py utility from the Equallogic SDK, unfortunately all the
> pieces of the SDK are full of this copyright:
>
> Copyright (C) 2009 by Dell, Inc.
>
> All rights reserved. This software may not be copied, disclosed,
> transferred, or used except in accordance with a license granted
> by Dell, Inc. This software embodies proprietary information
> and trade secrets of Dell, Inc
>
> So unless we can talk Dell into being more sane with licensing, full
> and proper integration with OpenStack is unlikely.
>
> -Jon
>
> On Sat, Jul 28, 2012 at 6:35 PM, Jonathan Proulx <jon [at] jonproulx> wrote:
>> Hi Tom,
>>
>> Hopefully someone has a better answer for you as I'm still relatively
>> new to OpenStack myself, but I looked into this a little while ago
>> because I too have an Equalogic SAN and KVM hypervisors. The
>> Equalogic connector in that equation is provided by XenServer not
>> OpenStack (in fact I think but am less sure that it isn't even part of
>> the opensource xen).
>>
>> Since I'm running a research system I can take some risks and have
>> decided to go this Ceph for my storage needs, if I were in your HA
>> needing shoes I'd look at how much coding was required to hook
>> Equalogic's API (which exists but I haven't looked at in years) into
>> the nova-volume service, you could be someone's hero, but I don't
>> think there's any current work toward this.
>>
>> I'd be happy to be told I'm wrong about that...
>>
>> -Jon
>>
>> On Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 3:13 PM, Thomas Vachon <vachon [at] sessionm> wrote:
>>> Hi All,
>>>
>>> We are architecting our system for KVM (as it is the best hypervisor for
>>> your money for HA networking) and a SAN for HA nova-volumes. The only
>>> reference to being able to use a SAN is with XenServer as the hypervisor. I
>>> have no problem giving a server permission to create luns (or pre-creating
>>> them if I have to) for now. I want to make sure I can point all the stuff
>>> to the SAN instead of doing some half-hearted attempt by using a box as a
>>> proxy.
>>>
>>> Our san is an EQL so iSCSI is easy. Also, we run our "san" net on a
>>> separate 10Gbe set of interfaces (all the servers have connectivity into the
>>> SAN layer).
>>>
>>> Any thoughts?
>>>
>>> --
>>> Thomas Vachon
>>> Principal Operations Architect
>>> session M
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> OpenStack-operators mailing list
>>> OpenStack-operators [at] lists
>>> http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-operators
>>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> OpenStack-operators mailing list
> OpenStack-operators [at] lists
> http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-operators

Rob_Hirschfeld at Dell

Jul 28, 2012, 9:12 PM

Post #5 of 10 (691 views)
Permalink

Re: Using a SAN for nova-volume & KVM [In reply to]

Lorin,

Thanks for forwarding. I am the right contact for this.

Yes - there is something we can do to help with this. I can't do it on the list at this time so I'm contacting Jon & Thomas directly to continue the conversation.

If other people are interested in this capability, please let me know.

Rob Hirschfeld
Rob_Hirschfeld [at] Dell<mailto:Rob_Hirschfeld [at] Dell>
@zehicle

From: Lorin Hochstein [mailto:lorin [at] nimbisservices]
Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2012 10:18 PM
To: Jonathan Proulx
Cc: Thomas Vachon; OpenStack Operators; Hirschfeld, Rob; Stephen Spector
Subject: Re: [Openstack-operators] Using a SAN for nova-volume & KVM

Jon:

There are several people from Dell that are active in the OpenStack community, they're probably good points of contact to engage with Dell on this issue. Two names I know of offhand are:

- Stephen Spector
- Rob Hirschfeld

Take care,

Lorin
--
Lorin Hochstein
Lead Architect - Cloud Services
Nimbis Services, Inc.
www.nimbisservices.com<https://www.nimbisservices.com/>

On Jul 28, 2012, at 9:44 PM, Jonathan Proulx <jon [at] jonproulx<mailto:jon [at] jonproulx>> wrote:

It does look like nova/volume/san.py could be extended to use the
EqlCliExec.py utility from the Equallogic SDK, unfortunately all the
pieces of the SDK are full of this copyright:

Copyright (C) 2009 by Dell, Inc.

All rights reserved. This software may not be copied, disclosed,
transferred, or used except in accordance with a license granted
by Dell, Inc. This software embodies proprietary information
and trade secrets of Dell, Inc

So unless we can talk Dell into being more sane with licensing, full
and proper integration with OpenStack is unlikely.

-Jon

On Sat, Jul 28, 2012 at 6:35 PM, Jonathan Proulx <jon [at] jonproulx<mailto:jon [at] jonproulx>> wrote:
Hi Tom,

Hopefully someone has a better answer for you as I'm still relatively
new to OpenStack myself, but I looked into this a little while ago
because I too have an Equalogic SAN and KVM hypervisors. The
Equalogic connector in that equation is provided by XenServer not
OpenStack (in fact I think but am less sure that it isn't even part of
the opensource xen).

Since I'm running a research system I can take some risks and have
decided to go this Ceph for my storage needs, if I were in your HA
needing shoes I'd look at how much coding was required to hook
Equalogic's API (which exists but I haven't looked at in years) into
the nova-volume service, you could be someone's hero, but I don't
think there's any current work toward this.

I'd be happy to be told I'm wrong about that...

-Jon

On Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 3:13 PM, Thomas Vachon <vachon [at] sessionm<mailto:vachon [at] sessionm>> wrote:
Hi All,

We are architecting our system for KVM (as it is the best hypervisor for
your money for HA networking) and a SAN for HA nova-volumes. The only
reference to being able to use a SAN is with XenServer as the hypervisor. I
have no problem giving a server permission to create luns (or pre-creating
them if I have to) for now. I want to make sure I can point all the stuff
to the SAN instead of doing some half-hearted attempt by using a box as a
proxy.

Our san is an EQL so iSCSI is easy. Also, we run our "san" net on a
separate 10Gbe set of interfaces (all the servers have connectivity into the
SAN layer).

Any thoughts?

--
Thomas Vachon
Principal Operations Architect
session M

_______________________________________________
OpenStack-operators mailing list
OpenStack-operators [at] lists<mailto:OpenStack-operators [at] lists>
http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-operators

_______________________________________________
OpenStack-operators mailing list
OpenStack-operators [at] lists<mailto:OpenStack-operators [at] lists>
http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-operators

John.Garbutt at citrix

Jul 30, 2012, 7:10 AM

Post #6 of 10 (705 views)
Permalink

Re: Using a SAN for nova-volume & KVM [In reply to]

Thomas, any reason you had issues using XenServer? I don't understand your commend about HA networking? The XenAPI driver supports OpenStack's HA networking. I would like to understand what we more you would need to start using XenServer with OpenStack.

The Dell connector should work with OpenSource version of XenServer, called XCP. Although the free edition of XenServer should do all you need.

You can use the Dell storage as part of the XenServer storage manager integration in nova-volume. Renuka is adding the support into Cinder soon, which is more likely to meet your needs, so she should be able to help you. It might be good to have a real user work with her to get the feature working how you want it.

I hope that helps,
John

From: Rob_Hirschfeld [at] Dell [mailto:Rob_Hirschfeld [at] Dell]
Sent: Sunday, July 29, 2012 5:13 AM
To: openstack-operators [at] lists
Subject: Re: [Openstack-operators] Using a SAN for nova-volume & KVM

Lorin,

Thanks for forwarding. I am the right contact for this.

Yes - there is something we can do to help with this. I can't do it on the list at this time so I'm contacting Jon & Thomas directly to continue the conversation.

If other people are interested in this capability, please let me know.

Rob Hirschfeld
Rob_Hirschfeld [at] Dell<mailto:Rob_Hirschfeld [at] Dell>
@zehicle

From: Lorin Hochstein [mailto:lorin [at] nimbisservices]<mailto:[mailto:lorin [at] nimbisservices]>
Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2012 10:18 PM
To: Jonathan Proulx
Cc: Thomas Vachon; OpenStack Operators; Hirschfeld, Rob; Stephen Spector
Subject: Re: [Openstack-operators] Using a SAN for nova-volume & KVM

Jon:

There are several people from Dell that are active in the OpenStack community, they're probably good points of contact to engage with Dell on this issue. Two names I know of offhand are:

- Stephen Spector
- Rob Hirschfeld

Take care,

Lorin
--
Lorin Hochstein
Lead Architect - Cloud Services
Nimbis Services, Inc.
www.nimbisservices.com<https://www.nimbisservices.com/>

On Jul 28, 2012, at 9:44 PM, Jonathan Proulx <jon [at] jonproulx<mailto:jon [at] jonproulx>> wrote:

It does look like nova/volume/san.py could be extended to use the
EqlCliExec.py utility from the Equallogic SDK, unfortunately all the
pieces of the SDK are full of this copyright:

Copyright (C) 2009 by Dell, Inc.

All rights reserved. This software may not be copied, disclosed,
transferred, or used except in accordance with a license granted
by Dell, Inc. This software embodies proprietary information
and trade secrets of Dell, Inc

So unless we can talk Dell into being more sane with licensing, full
and proper integration with OpenStack is unlikely.

-Jon

On Sat, Jul 28, 2012 at 6:35 PM, Jonathan Proulx <jon [at] jonproulx<mailto:jon [at] jonproulx>> wrote:
Hi Tom,

Hopefully someone has a better answer for you as I'm still relatively
new to OpenStack myself, but I looked into this a little while ago
because I too have an Equalogic SAN and KVM hypervisors. The
Equalogic connector in that equation is provided by XenServer not
OpenStack (in fact I think but am less sure that it isn't even part of
the opensource xen).

Since I'm running a research system I can take some risks and have
decided to go this Ceph for my storage needs, if I were in your HA
needing shoes I'd look at how much coding was required to hook
Equalogic's API (which exists but I haven't looked at in years) into
the nova-volume service, you could be someone's hero, but I don't
think there's any current work toward this.

I'd be happy to be told I'm wrong about that...

-Jon

On Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 3:13 PM, Thomas Vachon <vachon [at] sessionm<mailto:vachon [at] sessionm>> wrote:
Hi All,

We are architecting our system for KVM (as it is the best hypervisor for
your money for HA networking) and a SAN for HA nova-volumes. The only
reference to being able to use a SAN is with XenServer as the hypervisor. I
have no problem giving a server permission to create luns (or pre-creating
them if I have to) for now. I want to make sure I can point all the stuff
to the SAN instead of doing some half-hearted attempt by using a box as a
proxy.

Our san is an EQL so iSCSI is easy. Also, we run our "san" net on a
separate 10Gbe set of interfaces (all the servers have connectivity into the
SAN layer).

Any thoughts?

--
Thomas Vachon
Principal Operations Architect
session M

_______________________________________________
OpenStack-operators mailing list
OpenStack-operators [at] lists<mailto:OpenStack-operators [at] lists>
http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-operators

_______________________________________________
OpenStack-operators mailing list
OpenStack-operators [at] lists<mailto:OpenStack-operators [at] lists>
http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-operators

vachon at sessionm

Jul 30, 2012, 7:14 AM

Post #7 of 10 (673 views)
Permalink

Re: Using a SAN for nova-volume & KVM [In reply to]

XenServer as a hypervisor does not have all the features we are looking
for, for instance, live migration.

--
Thomas Vachon
Principal Operations Architect
*session M*
+1-617-963-8993 x7104
vachon [at] sessionm

On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 10:10 AM, John Garbutt <John.Garbutt [at] citrix>wrote:

> Thomas, any reason you had issues using XenServer? I don�t understand your
> commend about HA networking? The XenAPI driver supports OpenStack�s HA
> networking. I would like to understand what we more you would need to start
> using XenServer with OpenStack.****
>
> ** **
>
> The Dell connector should work with OpenSource version of XenServer,
> called XCP. Although the free edition of XenServer should do all you need.
> ****
>
> ** **
>
> You can use the Dell storage as part of the XenServer storage manager
> integration in nova-volume. Renuka is adding the support into Cinder soon,
> which is more likely to meet your needs, so she should be able to help you.
> It might be good to have a real user work with her to get the feature
> working how you want it.****
>
> ** **
>
> I hope that helps,****
>
> John****
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* Rob_Hirschfeld [at] Dell [mailto:Rob_Hirschfeld [at] Dell]
> *Sent:* Sunday, July 29, 2012 5:13 AM
> *To:* openstack-operators [at] lists
>
> *Subject:* Re: [Openstack-operators] Using a SAN for nova-volume & KVM****
>
> ** **
>
> Lorin,****
>
> ** **
>
> Thanks for forwarding. I am the right contact for this.****
>
> ** **
>
> Yes � there is something we can do to help with this. I can�t do it on
> the list at this time so I�m contacting Jon & Thomas directly to continue
> the conversation. ****
>
> ** **
>
> If other people are interested in this capability, please let me know.****
>
> ** **
>
> Rob Hirschfeld****
>
> Rob_Hirschfeld [at] Dell****
>
> @zehicle****
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* Lorin Hochstein [mailto:lorin [at] nimbisservices]
> *Sent:* Saturday, July 28, 2012 10:18 PM
> *To:* Jonathan Proulx
> *Cc:* Thomas Vachon; OpenStack Operators; Hirschfeld, Rob; Stephen Spector
> *Subject:* Re: [Openstack-operators] Using a SAN for nova-volume & KVM****
>
> ** **
>
> Jon:****
>
> ** **
>
> There are several people from Dell that are active in the OpenStack
> community, they're probably good points of contact to engage with Dell on
> this issue. Two names I know of offhand are:****
>
> ** **
>
> - Stephen Spector****
>
> - Rob Hirschfeld****
>
> ** **
>
> Take care,****
>
> ** **
>
> Lorin****
>
> --****
>
> Lorin Hochstein****
>
> Lead Architect - Cloud Services****
>
> Nimbis Services, Inc.****
>
> www.nimbisservices.com****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> On Jul 28, 2012, at 9:44 PM, Jonathan Proulx <jon [at] jonproulx> wrote:***
> *
>
> ** **
>
> It does look like nova/volume/san.py could be extended to use the
> EqlCliExec.py utility from the Equallogic SDK, unfortunately all the
> pieces of the SDK are full of this copyright:
>
> Copyright (C) 2009 by Dell, Inc.
>
> All rights reserved. This software may not be copied, disclosed,
> transferred, or used except in accordance with a license granted
> by Dell, Inc. This software embodies proprietary information
> and trade secrets of Dell, Inc
>
> So unless we can talk Dell into being more sane with licensing, full
> and proper integration with OpenStack is unlikely.
>
> -Jon
>
> On Sat, Jul 28, 2012 at 6:35 PM, Jonathan Proulx <jon [at] jonproulx>
> wrote:****
>
> Hi Tom,
>
> Hopefully someone has a better answer for you as I'm still relatively
> new to OpenStack myself, but I looked into this a little while ago
> because I too have an Equalogic SAN and KVM hypervisors. The
> Equalogic connector in that equation is provided by XenServer not
> OpenStack (in fact I think but am less sure that it isn't even part of
> the opensource xen).
>
> Since I'm running a research system I can take some risks and have
> decided to go this Ceph for my storage needs, if I were in your HA
> needing shoes I'd look at how much coding was required to hook
> Equalogic's API (which exists but I haven't looked at in years) into
> the nova-volume service, you could be someone's hero, but I don't
> think there's any current work toward this.
>
> I'd be happy to be told I'm wrong about that...
>
> -Jon
>
> On Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 3:13 PM, Thomas Vachon <vachon [at] sessionm>
> wrote:****
>
> Hi All,
>
> We are architecting our system for KVM (as it is the best hypervisor for
> your money for HA networking) and a SAN for HA nova-volumes. The only
> reference to being able to use a SAN is with XenServer as the hypervisor.
> I
> have no problem giving a server permission to create luns (or pre-creating
> them if I have to) for now. I want to make sure I can point all the stuff
> to the SAN instead of doing some half-hearted attempt by using a box as a
> proxy.
>
> Our san is an EQL so iSCSI is easy. Also, we run our "san" net on a
> separate 10Gbe set of interfaces (all the servers have connectivity into
> the
> SAN layer).
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> --
> Thomas Vachon
> Principal Operations Architect
> session M
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> OpenStack-operators mailing list
> OpenStack-operators [at] lists
> http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-operators***
> *
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> OpenStack-operators mailing list
> OpenStack-operators [at] lists
> http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-operators***
> *
>
> ** **
>

John.Garbutt at citrix

Jul 30, 2012, 7:27 AM

Post #8 of 10 (681 views)
Permalink

Re: Using a SAN for nova-volume & KVM [In reply to]

It would be good to get that full list, so we can expand this doc, and look at closing any remaining gap:
http://wiki.openstack.org/HypervisorSupportMatrix

We have live-migration, hopefully, going into Folsom.
If you are using pools attached to shared storage (through host-aggregates), live migration support is in trunk.
The local disk block migrate version is up for review right now (the cross pool volume migration should be on its way soon):
https://blueprints.launchpad.net/nova/+spec/xenapi-live-block-migration

Thanks,
John

From: Thomas Vachon [mailto:vachon [at] sessionm]
Sent: Monday, July 30, 2012 3:14 PM
To: John Garbutt
Cc: openstack-operators [at] lists
Subject: Re: [Openstack-operators] Using a SAN for nova-volume & KVM

XenServer as a hypervisor does not have all the features we are looking for, for instance, live migration.

--
Thomas Vachon
Principal Operations Architect
session M
+1-617-963-8993 x7104
vachon [at] sessionm<mailto:vachon [at] sessionm>

On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 10:10 AM, John Garbutt <John.Garbutt [at] citrix<mailto:John.Garbutt [at] citrix>> wrote:
Thomas, any reason you had issues using XenServer? I don't understand your commend about HA networking? The XenAPI driver supports OpenStack's HA networking. I would like to understand what we more you would need to start using XenServer with OpenStack.

The Dell connector should work with OpenSource version of XenServer, called XCP. Although the free edition of XenServer should do all you need.

You can use the Dell storage as part of the XenServer storage manager integration in nova-volume. Renuka is adding the support into Cinder soon, which is more likely to meet your needs, so she should be able to help you. It might be good to have a real user work with her to get the feature working how you want it.

I hope that helps,
John

From: Rob_Hirschfeld [at] Dell<mailto:Rob_Hirschfeld [at] Dell> [mailto:Rob_Hirschfeld [at] Dell<mailto:Rob_Hirschfeld [at] Dell>]
Sent: Sunday, July 29, 2012 5:13 AM
To: openstack-operators [at] lists<mailto:openstack-operators [at] lists>

Subject: Re: [Openstack-operators] Using a SAN for nova-volume & KVM

Lorin,

Thanks for forwarding. I am the right contact for this.

Yes - there is something we can do to help with this. I can't do it on the list at this time so I'm contacting Jon & Thomas directly to continue the conversation.

If other people are interested in this capability, please let me know.

Rob Hirschfeld
Rob_Hirschfeld [at] Dell<mailto:Rob_Hirschfeld [at] Dell>
@zehicle

From: Lorin Hochstein [mailto:lorin [at] nimbisservices]<mailto:[mailto:lorin [at] nimbisservices]>
Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2012 10:18 PM
To: Jonathan Proulx
Cc: Thomas Vachon; OpenStack Operators; Hirschfeld, Rob; Stephen Spector
Subject: Re: [Openstack-operators] Using a SAN for nova-volume & KVM

Jon:

There are several people from Dell that are active in the OpenStack community, they're probably good points of contact to engage with Dell on this issue. Two names I know of offhand are:

- Stephen Spector
- Rob Hirschfeld

Take care,

Lorin
--
Lorin Hochstein
Lead Architect - Cloud Services
Nimbis Services, Inc.
www.nimbisservices.com<https://www.nimbisservices.com/>

On Jul 28, 2012, at 9:44 PM, Jonathan Proulx <jon [at] jonproulx<mailto:jon [at] jonproulx>> wrote:

It does look like nova/volume/san.py could be extended to use the
EqlCliExec.py utility from the Equallogic SDK, unfortunately all the
pieces of the SDK are full of this copyright:

Copyright (C) 2009 by Dell, Inc.

All rights reserved. This software may not be copied, disclosed,
transferred, or used except in accordance with a license granted
by Dell, Inc. This software embodies proprietary information
and trade secrets of Dell, Inc

So unless we can talk Dell into being more sane with licensing, full
and proper integration with OpenStack is unlikely.

-Jon

On Sat, Jul 28, 2012 at 6:35 PM, Jonathan Proulx <jon [at] jonproulx<mailto:jon [at] jonproulx>> wrote:
Hi Tom,

Hopefully someone has a better answer for you as I'm still relatively
new to OpenStack myself, but I looked into this a little while ago
because I too have an Equalogic SAN and KVM hypervisors. The
Equalogic connector in that equation is provided by XenServer not
OpenStack (in fact I think but am less sure that it isn't even part of
the opensource xen).

Since I'm running a research system I can take some risks and have
decided to go this Ceph for my storage needs, if I were in your HA
needing shoes I'd look at how much coding was required to hook
Equalogic's API (which exists but I haven't looked at in years) into
the nova-volume service, you could be someone's hero, but I don't
think there's any current work toward this.

I'd be happy to be told I'm wrong about that...

-Jon

On Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 3:13 PM, Thomas Vachon <vachon [at] sessionm<mailto:vachon [at] sessionm>> wrote:
Hi All,

We are architecting our system for KVM (as it is the best hypervisor for
your money for HA networking) and a SAN for HA nova-volumes. The only
reference to being able to use a SAN is with XenServer as the hypervisor. I
have no problem giving a server permission to create luns (or pre-creating
them if I have to) for now. I want to make sure I can point all the stuff
to the SAN instead of doing some half-hearted attempt by using a box as a
proxy.

Our san is an EQL so iSCSI is easy. Also, we run our "san" net on a
separate 10Gbe set of interfaces (all the servers have connectivity into the
SAN layer).

Any thoughts?

--
Thomas Vachon
Principal Operations Architect
session M

_______________________________________________
OpenStack-operators mailing list
OpenStack-operators [at] lists<mailto:OpenStack-operators [at] lists>
http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-operators

_______________________________________________
OpenStack-operators mailing list
OpenStack-operators [at] lists<mailto:OpenStack-operators [at] lists>
http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-operators

vachon at sessionm

Jul 30, 2012, 7:59 AM

Post #9 of 10 (693 views)
Permalink

Re: Using a SAN for nova-volume & KVM [In reply to]

Well first of all, we are using a deployment system which will not support
your system. That is by far the #1 blocker (we are using Razor/Puppet).
Live migration isn't something we "need" today, but the ability to rebuild
our cluster in a matter of an hour is. This is why We can't really get
into XCP

--
Thomas Vachon
Principal Operations Architect
*session M*
+1-617-963-8993 x7104
vachon [at] sessionm

On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 10:27 AM, John Garbutt <John.Garbutt [at] citrix>wrote:

> It would be good to get that full list, so we can expand this doc, and
> look at closing any remaining gap:****
>
> http://wiki.openstack.org/HypervisorSupportMatrix****
>
> ** **
>
> We have live-migration, hopefully, going into Folsom.****
>
> If you are using pools attached to shared storage (through
> host-aggregates), live migration support is in trunk.****
>
> The local disk block migrate version is up for review right now (the cross
> pool volume migration should be on its way soon):****
>
> https://blueprints.launchpad.net/nova/+spec/xenapi-live-block-migration***
> *
>
> ** **
>
> Thanks,****
>
> John****
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* Thomas Vachon [mailto:vachon [at] sessionm]
> *Sent:* Monday, July 30, 2012 3:14 PM
> *To:* John Garbutt
> *Cc:* openstack-operators [at] lists
>
> *Subject:* Re: [Openstack-operators] Using a SAN for nova-volume & KVM****
>
> ** **
>
> XenServer as a hypervisor does not have all the features we are looking
> for, for instance, live migration.
>
> --
> Thomas Vachon
> Principal Operations Architect
> *session M*****
>
> +1-617-963-8993 x7104
> vachon [at] sessionm****
>
>
>
> ****
>
> On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 10:10 AM, John Garbutt <John.Garbutt [at] citrix>
> wrote:****
>
> Thomas, any reason you had issues using XenServer? I don�t understand your
> commend about HA networking? The XenAPI driver supports OpenStack�s HA
> networking. I would like to understand what we more you would need to start
> using XenServer with OpenStack.****
>
> ****
>
> The Dell connector should work with OpenSource version of XenServer,
> called XCP. Although the free edition of XenServer should do all you need.
> ****
>
> ****
>
> You can use the Dell storage as part of the XenServer storage manager
> integration in nova-volume. Renuka is adding the support into Cinder soon,
> which is more likely to meet your needs, so she should be able to help you.
> It might be good to have a real user work with her to get the feature
> working how you want it.****
>
> ****
>
> I hope that helps,****
>
> John****
>
> ****
>
> *From:* Rob_Hirschfeld [at] Dell [mailto:Rob_Hirschfeld [at] Dell]
> *Sent:* Sunday, July 29, 2012 5:13 AM
> *To:* openstack-operators [at] lists****
>
>
> *Subject:* Re: [Openstack-operators] Using a SAN for nova-volume & KVM****
>
> ****
>
> Lorin,****
>
> ****
>
> Thanks for forwarding. I am the right contact for this.****
>
> ****
>
> Yes � there is something we can do to help with this. I can�t do it on
> the list at this time so I�m contacting Jon & Thomas directly to continue
> the conversation. ****
>
> ****
>
> If other people are interested in this capability, please let me know.****
>
> ****
>
> Rob Hirschfeld****
>
> Rob_Hirschfeld [at] Dell****
>
> @zehicle****
>
> ****
>
> *From:* Lorin Hochstein [mailto:lorin [at] nimbisservices]
> *Sent:* Saturday, July 28, 2012 10:18 PM
> *To:* Jonathan Proulx
> *Cc:* Thomas Vachon; OpenStack Operators; Hirschfeld, Rob; Stephen Spector
> *Subject:* Re: [Openstack-operators] Using a SAN for nova-volume & KVM****
>
> ****
>
> Jon:****
>
> ****
>
> There are several people from Dell that are active in the OpenStack
> community, they're probably good points of contact to engage with Dell on
> this issue. Two names I know of offhand are:****
>
> ****
>
> - Stephen Spector****
>
> - Rob Hirschfeld****
>
> ****
>
> Take care,****
>
> ****
>
> Lorin****
>
> --****
>
> Lorin Hochstein****
>
> Lead Architect - Cloud Services****
>
> Nimbis Services, Inc.****
>
> www.nimbisservices.com****
>
> ****
>
> ****
>
> On Jul 28, 2012, at 9:44 PM, Jonathan Proulx <jon [at] jonproulx> wrote:***
> *
>
> ****
>
> It does look like nova/volume/san.py could be extended to use the
> EqlCliExec.py utility from the Equallogic SDK, unfortunately all the
> pieces of the SDK are full of this copyright:
>
> Copyright (C) 2009 by Dell, Inc.
>
> All rights reserved. This software may not be copied, disclosed,
> transferred, or used except in accordance with a license granted
> by Dell, Inc. This software embodies proprietary information
> and trade secrets of Dell, Inc
>
> So unless we can talk Dell into being more sane with licensing, full
> and proper integration with OpenStack is unlikely.
>
> -Jon
>
> On Sat, Jul 28, 2012 at 6:35 PM, Jonathan Proulx <jon [at] jonproulx>
> wrote:****
>
> Hi Tom,
>
> Hopefully someone has a better answer for you as I'm still relatively
> new to OpenStack myself, but I looked into this a little while ago
> because I too have an Equalogic SAN and KVM hypervisors. The
> Equalogic connector in that equation is provided by XenServer not
> OpenStack (in fact I think but am less sure that it isn't even part of
> the opensource xen).
>
> Since I'm running a research system I can take some risks and have
> decided to go this Ceph for my storage needs, if I were in your HA
> needing shoes I'd look at how much coding was required to hook
> Equalogic's API (which exists but I haven't looked at in years) into
> the nova-volume service, you could be someone's hero, but I don't
> think there's any current work toward this.
>
> I'd be happy to be told I'm wrong about that...
>
> -Jon
>
> On Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 3:13 PM, Thomas Vachon <vachon [at] sessionm>
> wrote:****
>
> Hi All,
>
> We are architecting our system for KVM (as it is the best hypervisor for
> your money for HA networking) and a SAN for HA nova-volumes. The only
> reference to being able to use a SAN is with XenServer as the hypervisor.
> I
> have no problem giving a server permission to create luns (or pre-creating
> them if I have to) for now. I want to make sure I can point all the stuff
> to the SAN instead of doing some half-hearted attempt by using a box as a
> proxy.
>
> Our san is an EQL so iSCSI is easy. Also, we run our "san" net on a
> separate 10Gbe set of interfaces (all the servers have connectivity into
> the
> SAN layer).
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> --
> Thomas Vachon
> Principal Operations Architect
> session M
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> OpenStack-operators mailing list
> OpenStack-operators [at] lists
> http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-operators***
> *
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> OpenStack-operators mailing list
> OpenStack-operators [at] lists
> http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-operators***
> *
>
> ****
>
> ** **
>

John.Garbutt at citrix

Jul 30, 2012, 8:55 AM

Post #10 of 10 (692 views)
Permalink

Re: Using a SAN for nova-volume & KVM [In reply to]

Interesting, thanks for the feedback.

Not tried Razor myself, but you might be interested in xcp-xapi on Ubuntu, which gives you most of XCP/XenServer while running on Ubuntu. That should be able to run inside your deployment system:
http://www.xen.org/news/2012/05_xcp_in_ubuntu_server_12_04_LTS.html

Also, you can PXE install XenServer with an answer file, which would give the rapid deployment you need. The post install script would be able to wget and install the VM image that would run the nova code, and that can bootstap into your puppet environment:
http://docs.vmd.citrix.com/XenServer/6.0.0/1.0/en_gb/installation.html#pxe_boot_install

Thanks for your help,
John

From: Thomas Vachon [mailto:vachon [at] sessionm]
Sent: Monday, July 30, 2012 3:59 PM
To: John Garbutt
Cc: openstack-operators [at] lists
Subject: Re: [Openstack-operators] Using a SAN for nova-volume & KVM

Well first of all, we are using a deployment system which will not support your system. That is by far the #1 blocker (we are using Razor/Puppet). Live migration isn't something we "need" today, but the ability to rebuild our cluster in a matter of an hour is. This is why We can't really get into XCP

--
Thomas Vachon
Principal Operations Architect
session M
+1-617-963-8993 x7104
vachon [at] sessionm<mailto:vachon [at] sessionm>

On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 10:27 AM, John Garbutt <John.Garbutt [at] citrix<mailto:John.Garbutt [at] citrix>> wrote:
It would be good to get that full list, so we can expand this doc, and look at closing any remaining gap:
http://wiki.openstack.org/HypervisorSupportMatrix

We have live-migration, hopefully, going into Folsom.
If you are using pools attached to shared storage (through host-aggregates), live migration support is in trunk.
The local disk block migrate version is up for review right now (the cross pool volume migration should be on its way soon):
https://blueprints.launchpad.net/nova/+spec/xenapi-live-block-migration

Thanks,
John

From: Thomas Vachon [mailto:vachon [at] sessionm<mailto:vachon [at] sessionm>]
Sent: Monday, July 30, 2012 3:14 PM
To: John Garbutt
Cc: openstack-operators [at] lists<mailto:openstack-operators [at] lists>

Subject: Re: [Openstack-operators] Using a SAN for nova-volume & KVM

XenServer as a hypervisor does not have all the features we are looking for, for instance, live migration.

--
Thomas Vachon
Principal Operations Architect
session M
+1-617-963-8993 x7104
vachon [at] sessionm<mailto:vachon [at] sessionm>

On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 10:10 AM, John Garbutt <John.Garbutt [at] citrix<mailto:John.Garbutt [at] citrix>> wrote:
Thomas, any reason you had issues using XenServer? I don't understand your commend about HA networking? The XenAPI driver supports OpenStack's HA networking. I would like to understand what we more you would need to start using XenServer with OpenStack.

The Dell connector should work with OpenSource version of XenServer, called XCP. Although the free edition of XenServer should do all you need.

You can use the Dell storage as part of the XenServer storage manager integration in nova-volume. Renuka is adding the support into Cinder soon, which is more likely to meet your needs, so she should be able to help you. It might be good to have a real user work with her to get the feature working how you want it.

I hope that helps,
John

From: Rob_Hirschfeld [at] Dell<mailto:Rob_Hirschfeld [at] Dell> [mailto:Rob_Hirschfeld [at] Dell<mailto:Rob_Hirschfeld [at] Dell>]
Sent: Sunday, July 29, 2012 5:13 AM
To: openstack-operators [at] lists<mailto:openstack-operators [at] lists>

Subject: Re: [Openstack-operators] Using a SAN for nova-volume & KVM

Lorin,

Thanks for forwarding. I am the right contact for this.

Yes - there is something we can do to help with this. I can't do it on the list at this time so I'm contacting Jon & Thomas directly to continue the conversation.

If other people are interested in this capability, please let me know.

Rob Hirschfeld
Rob_Hirschfeld [at] Dell<mailto:Rob_Hirschfeld [at] Dell>
@zehicle

From: Lorin Hochstein [mailto:lorin [at] nimbisservices]<mailto:[mailto:lorin [at] nimbisservices]>
Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2012 10:18 PM
To: Jonathan Proulx
Cc: Thomas Vachon; OpenStack Operators; Hirschfeld, Rob; Stephen Spector
Subject: Re: [Openstack-operators] Using a SAN for nova-volume & KVM

Jon:

There are several people from Dell that are active in the OpenStack community, they're probably good points of contact to engage with Dell on this issue. Two names I know of offhand are:

- Stephen Spector
- Rob Hirschfeld

Take care,

Lorin
--
Lorin Hochstein
Lead Architect - Cloud Services
Nimbis Services, Inc.
www.nimbisservices.com<https://www.nimbisservices.com/>

On Jul 28, 2012, at 9:44 PM, Jonathan Proulx <jon [at] jonproulx<mailto:jon [at] jonproulx>> wrote:

It does look like nova/volume/san.py could be extended to use the
EqlCliExec.py utility from the Equallogic SDK, unfortunately all the
pieces of the SDK are full of this copyright:

Copyright (C) 2009 by Dell, Inc.

All rights reserved. This software may not be copied, disclosed,
transferred, or used except in accordance with a license granted
by Dell, Inc. This software embodies proprietary information
and trade secrets of Dell, Inc

So unless we can talk Dell into being more sane with licensing, full
and proper integration with OpenStack is unlikely.

-Jon

On Sat, Jul 28, 2012 at 6:35 PM, Jonathan Proulx <jon [at] jonproulx<mailto:jon [at] jonproulx>> wrote:
Hi Tom,

Hopefully someone has a better answer for you as I'm still relatively
new to OpenStack myself, but I looked into this a little while ago
because I too have an Equalogic SAN and KVM hypervisors. The
Equalogic connector in that equation is provided by XenServer not
OpenStack (in fact I think but am less sure that it isn't even part of
the opensource xen).

Since I'm running a research system I can take some risks and have
decided to go this Ceph for my storage needs, if I were in your HA
needing shoes I'd look at how much coding was required to hook
Equalogic's API (which exists but I haven't looked at in years) into
the nova-volume service, you could be someone's hero, but I don't
think there's any current work toward this.

I'd be happy to be told I'm wrong about that...

-Jon

On Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 3:13 PM, Thomas Vachon <vachon [at] sessionm<mailto:vachon [at] sessionm>> wrote:
Hi All,

We are architecting our system for KVM (as it is the best hypervisor for
your money for HA networking) and a SAN for HA nova-volumes. The only
reference to being able to use a SAN is with XenServer as the hypervisor. I
have no problem giving a server permission to create luns (or pre-creating
them if I have to) for now. I want to make sure I can point all the stuff
to the SAN instead of doing some half-hearted attempt by using a box as a
proxy.

Our san is an EQL so iSCSI is easy. Also, we run our "san" net on a
separate 10Gbe set of interfaces (all the servers have connectivity into the
SAN layer).

Any thoughts?

--
Thomas Vachon
Principal Operations Architect
session M

_______________________________________________
OpenStack-operators mailing list
OpenStack-operators [at] lists<mailto:OpenStack-operators [at] lists>
http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-operators

_______________________________________________
OpenStack-operators mailing list
OpenStack-operators [at] lists<mailto:OpenStack-operators [at] lists>
http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-operators

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