Transcript Akimbi Slingshot Virtual Cluster Management

Akimbi Slingshot
Virtual Cluster Management
Trevor Grove
DRC-SCS – CSCF
University of Waterloo
Overview
•
•
•
•
What is Akimbi Slingshot?
How do we access it?
What can we do with it?
Questions?
Akimbi Slingshot – what is it?
• Management software for sets of virtual
machines
• Built on Microsoft Virtual Server and/or
VMWare GSX products
– We have the version that bundles MS Virtual
Server 2005 R2
– VM: AMI BIOS with Intel 440BX chipset
• Usual configurations, uni-processor, SVGA video
(S3 Trio64 chipset) ; Slingshot supports single NIC
only
VM Management
• Slingshot manages
–
–
–
–
IP address assignment, static & “fenced”
VM template definition
Console management for running VMs
Virtual CD library of ISO images
• Fenced networks
– Creates virtual router for a collection of VMs
– Provides inbound and outbound NAT (automatic
assignment of “interior” & “exterior” addresses)
Slingshot product components
• Two pieces:
– Management console (the “slingshot server”)
– Managed servers (worker systems where VMs run)
• Our setup:
– Lightning (129.97.75.73, 192.168.1.15): Slingshot
server
– Snowball1 .. Snowball10 (1.21..1.30): worker systems
– VM storage (disks & VM state) on (new)squall (1.14)
Slingshot usage
• Windows, IE-browser-based
– Management console is an IE application with
ActiveX controls
– RPC between Slingshot server & managed
servers
• Multi-user
– Every user has a collection of VM definitions
(“templates”)
– Shared libraries of VM templates, VM
instances (“configurations”)
Network configuration
• Our system is behind the coldfront firewall on
192.168/16
• Communication with Slingshot server can be
from anywhere
– Ligntning.cs.uwaterloo.ca (129.97.75.73)
– Requires IE with appropriate permissions
• Communication with managed servers must be
from clients on 192.168/16
– Problem with exterior-client<->slingshot<->managedserver
• Lightning has a public address, snowballs do not
VPN for network access
• There is a VPN server (PPTP only)
running on lightning.cs.uwaterloo.ca
(129.97.75.73) to provide access to the
192.168/16 network
– Must set default route through the VPN
• Windows, MAC OSX have clients built-in
– MAC of questionable utility – IE must support
ActiveX
Other access
• RDP server on Lightning
– Via its public address at 129.97.75.73
– Only two ports available
• VNC server
– To be established
– Freeware versions appear to support only a
single session
Other network details
• 192.168.192.0 .. 192.168.195.255 are
reserved for VMs
• 192.168.127.0 .. 192.168.128.0 are
reserved for VPN clients
• DNS server at 192.168.1.15; default
domain tcl.cs.uwaterloo.ca
Slingshot product abstraction
• Slingshot server communicates with managed
servers to instantiate VM templates
• Templates are created on a bare machine and
then enhanced to support automatic IP
management
– AkimbiTools
– Publishing a template
• Published templates are used to create
configurations
– Configuration are collections of VM templates that
can be instantiated (turned on)
Basic steps
1. Create a new template
– Install an OS from an ISO image
2. Install AkimbiTools
– OS-dependent, procedure for Linux requires
manual intervention
3. Publish the template
– Make available for use in configurations
Basic steps, 2
4. Define a configuration
– One or more VM instances based on
available published templates
5. Deploy the configuration
– Choose fenced versus non-fenced network
management
– “power on” the VMs
Fenced versus non-fenced
• Non-fenced:
– Each VM in a deployed configuration receives
a static IP address from the available pool
– Cloning such a configuration is not possible
• Fenced:
– Each VM is assigned two addresses: internal
and external
– Cloning is possible: internal address doesn’t
change, external does
Demo
•
•
•
•
Deploy a bare machine (no OS)
Insert an ISO & start OS install
Deploy bare machine (OS)
Create a single-machine configuration
– Deploy fenced & unfenced, clone
Next steps
• For you:
– Figure out how to connect to the Slingshot
server with IE & ActiveX
– Use demo/trials
– Request a userid from me (trg@cs)
• For me:
– Figure out more about library management,
cloning and configuration capture
– Install VNC server
Questions?