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Terminology

VM Host

• A VM host is a physical computer running a VMware hypervisor
• A VCL computer entry must be added for each VM host (Manage Computers > Edit Computer Information)
• After the computer has been added to VCL, it is designated as a VM host by changing the computer state to vmhostinuse (Manage Computers > Computer Utilities)

VM

• A VM is a virtual machine managed by VCL
• A computer entry must be added to VCL for each VM (Manage Computers > Edit Computer Information)
• Each VM must be assigned to a VM host (Virtual Hosts > VM Hosts tab > Configure Host)
• VMs do not need to be created manually in VMware, VCL automatically creates and deletes VMs

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• Select the ESXi host
• Select the Configuration tab
• Select Security Profile under Software
• Click Properties
• Select Remote Tech Support (SSH)
• Click Options
• Select Start automatically
• Click Start
• Click OK

ESX

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In the case of ESX 4.1, SSH  is enabled as the default. Using the vSphere Client, you can confirm it5.0:

• Select the ESXi host
• Select the Configuration tab
• Select Security Profile under Software
• Click Properties
• Select SSH Server
• Click Options
• Confirm that Start automatically is selected
• Click OK

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SSH identity key authentication must be configured if SSH is used to manage the VM host.

• Create an SSH key pair on the management node (or use a key you previously created):

  Tip
  ssh-keygen -t rsa -f /etc/vcl/vcl.key -N '' -b 1024 -C 'VCL root account'

• Log into the ESX host via SSH (password authentication should work) and create the directory:

  Tip
  ssh <ESXi host> 'mkdir /.ssh'

• Copy the public key to the ESXi host:
  ESXi 4.x:

  Tip
  scp /etc/vcl/vcl.key.pub <ESXi host>:/.ssh/authorized_keys

  ESXi 5.x:

  Tip
  scp /etc/vcl/vcl.key.pub <ESXi host>:/etc/ssh/keys-root/authorized_keys

• Test making an SSH connection using the key:

  Tip
  ssh -i /etc/vcl/vcl.key <ESXi host>

IMPORTANT: Under ESXi 4.x, the authorized_keys file is erased when the ESXi VM host is rebooted. Complete the following steps to make the authorized_keys file persistent:

Note: VCL will perform these steps automatically when the 1st reservation assigned to the host is processed.

• Create a compressed tarball file containing the /.ssh directory:

  Tip
  tar -C / -czf bootbank/vcl.tgz .ssh

• Edit the /bootbank/boot.cfg file and append ' --- vcl.tgz' to modules line as shown in the following example:

  Panel
  kernel=b.z kernelopt= modules=k.z — s.z — c.z — oem.tgz — license.tgz — m.z — state.tgz — vcl.tgz build=4.1.0-260247 updated=2 bootstate=0

  Tip
  Optionally you can run the following two commands: tar -C / -czf vcl.tgz .ssh BootModuleConfig.sh --add=vcl.tgz --verbose

VM Host Profile Parameters

General Parameters

Name (required)

• Descriptive name of the VM host profile

Type (deprecated)

• Will be removed in VCL 2.3

Image (optional)

• VCL hypervisor image installed on VM host computers using xCAT

  Info
  xCAT is not required.  VM host computers may be installed manually or by some other means.

• If xCAT is not used, select "No Image"
• VCL has the ability to install a hypervisor image on bare-metal computers using xCAT.  If the image property is configured, the image is installed when a computer's state is changed to vmhostinuse via Manage Computers > Computer Utilities

Username/Password (optional)

• Name and password of the administrative or root user residing on the VM host
• This account is used to manage the VM host and VMs assigned to the host
• The username and password are currently only used if the vSphere SDK is used to manage the VM host and VMs

Storage Parameters

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• Location where master copies of images are stored which are used by running VMs
• Example: /vmfs/volumes/nfs-datastore1

  Info
  For ESXi, the path configured in the profile may simply be the short datastore name as it appears in the vSphere Client: nfs-datastore1

• Storage location should be large enough to store all of the images which may be loaded on the VM host (from 100's of GB to several TB)
• VCL creates a directory for each image in the datastore
• Images are stored in the vmfs thin vmdk format
• Datastore Path may either reside on local or network storage
• Multiple VM hosts can share the same datastore if network storage is used
  • A single datastore may be used by all VM hosts if performance is adequate
  • Multiple VMs on different hosts may access the same Datastore Path image at the same time
  • It is recommended that datastores are shared among hosts so that fewer copies of each image have to be stored
  • The underlying storage hardware and network connectivity from the hosts to the storage must be adequate
  • Storage where the datastore is located should be optimized for read performance
• VCL configures VMs to access images stored in the Datastore Path in read-only mode
  • Changes made to the VM's hard drive are written to delta files located in the VM Path directory dedicated for the VM

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• Path on VM host where VM files are stored (.vmx, delta, .vswp, nvram...)
• If not configured, the Datastore Path location will be used
• VCL creates a directory under the VM Path directory for each VM it creates
  • Contains the .vmx file which defines the VM
  • Contains delta vmdk files which are written to as changes are made to the VM's hard drive
• VM Path may either reside on local or network storage
• Location should be dedicated for each VM host
  • Multiple VM hosts should not share the same VM Path location for performance and image safety reasons
  • VM Paths of multiple hosts may reside on the same volume but a subdirectory should be created for each host
• Storage where the VM Path is located should be optimized for read-write performance

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• Path where master copies of images are stored which are used to transfer images to VM host datastores or to other repositories:
  • If a reservation is assigned to a host but the image does not exist in that host's datastore, it is copied from the repository to the datastore path when the VM is loaded
  • If the VCL environment contains multiple management nodes and the image does not exist in the repository or the host's datastore, the image will be retrieved from another management node's repository by copying it via SCP
• The Repository Path parameter does not need to be if the VCL environment contains a single management node and all VM hosts share the same Datastore Path
• Example: /vmfs/volumes/nfs-repository1
• VMs do not run directly off of the images stored in the repository
• Setting the Repository Path parameter determines whether or not an additional copy of an image is created when an image is captured
  • If repository path is not configured then only a single copy of the image will exist in the datastore after an image is captured
  • If repository path is configured then two copies of the image will exist after an image is captured - one in the datastore and one in the repository
• Images in the repository are stored in the 2 GB sparse vmdk format
  • The size of the vmdk files will approximately be equal to the amount of actual data saved in the image regardless of the size of the VM's hard drive
  • Storing images in the 2 GB sparse format is necessary to allow images to be transferred via SCP without having to transfer data equal to the entire size of the VM's hard drive
  • Example: A Linux image contains is allocated a 30 GB hard drive but only 800 MB is actually used. A copy of the image is stored in both the datastore (thin vmdk) and repository (2 GB sparse vmdk).  Each of these locations is mounted via NFS on the VM host and management node.
    • The size of the 2 GB sparse vmdk files will be approximately equal to the actual amount of data used according to both the ls and du commands from the management node:

      Panel

      Wiki Markup \[root@vcl-mn vmwarelinux-RHEL54Small2251-v0\]# ls \-lh \-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 880M Apr 22  2011 vmwarelinux-RHEL54Small2251-v0-s001.vmdk ... \-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1.5K Apr 22  2011 vmwarelinux-RHEL54Small2251-v0.vmdk total 798M \[root@vcl-mn vmwarelinux-RHEL54Small2251-v0\]# du \-ch \*.vmdk 406M    vmwarelinux-RHEL54Small2251-v0-s001.vmdk ... 16K     vmwarelinux-RHEL54Small2251-v0-s016.vmdk 8.0K    vmwarelinux-RHEL54Small2251-v0.vmdk 798M    total

    • The size of the thin vmdk file will be equal to the size of the VM's hard drive according to the ls command from the management node:

      Panel
      Wiki Markup \[root@vcl-mn vmwarelinux-RHEL54Small2251-v0\]# ls \-lh total 953M -rw-\-----\- 1 root root *30G* Aug  1  2011 vmwarelinux-RHEL54Small2251-v0-flat.vmdk -rw-\-----\- 1 root root 540 Aug  2  2011 vmwarelinux-RHEL54Small2251-v0.vmdk

    • The size of the thin vmdk file will be approximately equal to the actual amount of data used according to the du command from the management node:

      Panel
      Wiki Markup \[root@vcl-mn vmwarelinux-RHEL54Small2251-v0\]# du \-ch \*.vmdk 953M    vmwarelinux-RHEL54Small2251-v0-flat.vmdk 8.0K    vmwarelinux-RHEL54Small2251-v0.vmdk 953M    total

    • Copy the thin vmdk via SCP - the amount of data copied is equal to the size of the VM's hard drive (30 GB):

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      Wiki Markup \[root@vcl-mn nfs-datastore1\]# scp \-r vmwarelinux-RHEL54Small2251-v0 matilda:/install/thin vmwarelinux-RHEL54Small2251-v0-flat.vmdk                                                      7% 2261MB  25.3MB/s   18:45 ETA

    • Copy the 2 GB sparse vmdk via SCP - the amount of data copied is approximately equal to the actual amount of data used:

      Panel

      Wiki Markup \[root@vcl-mn vmware_images\]# scp \-r vmwarelinux-RHEL54Small2251-v0 matilda:/install/2gbsparse vmwarelinux-RHEL54Small2251-v0-s001.vmdk                                                    100%  880MB  25.9MB/s   00:34 ... vmwarelinux-RHEL54Small2251-v0-s016.vmdk                                                    100%   64KB  64.0KB/s   00:00 vmwarelinux-RHEL54Small2251-v0.vmdk                                                         100% 1444     1.4KB/s   00:00

VM Disk

• Defines whether the storage where the VM host's Datastore Path resides is dedicated to a single host or shared among multiple hosts:
  • localdisk
    • The VM host's Datastore Path is located on local disks or dedicated network storage
    • The VM host is the only host which accesses the Datastore Path
    • Repository Path must be configured
  • networkdisk
    • The VM host's Datastore Path is located on network storage which is shared by other VM hosts
    • Repository Path is optional

Networking Parameters

Virtual Switch

• Should match the network names configured on the VM host
• For ESXi, the Virtual Switch parameters must match the Virtual Machine Port Group Network Labels configured in the vSphere Client
• For VMware Server 2.x, the Virtual Switch parameters must match the Network Names configured by running vmware-config.pl
• Virtual Switch 0 - private VCL management network
• Virtual Switch 1 - public network used by user making reservation to access the VMs

Generate eth0/eth1 MAC

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