[Users] Auto-start vms on boot?

Sun Dec 9 15:11:01 UTC 2012

Hi,
I'm not involved on the ovirt development, but here are my thoughts:
1. oVirt makes sense on a datacenter scenario, where there is always a HA
management server that takes care of everything, including the management
of all VMs state.
2. If you want such a tight relation between the host and the VMs running
on it, you don't need oVirt, just "plain" host virtualization, like the one
that comes on every linux distro with virt-manager.There you can install
and manage the VMs on a single host, forcing them to stop or start on host
shutdown or boot.
3. This is what I've been doing myself. Virt-manager can manage all hosts
running kvm/qemu but don't have this datacenter approach, where you store
your VMs on a SAN/iSCSI and you run you VMs on diskless hosts and can
migrate them as you which, for instance.

If the oVirt developers think that i?m missing something or that I'm wrong,
please come and correct me :-)

Alex

2012/12/9 Itamar Heim <iheim at redhat.com>

> On 12/09/2012 02:55 PM, Adrian Gibanel wrote:
>
>> This is how I see it:
>>
>> Engine should have an offline database of its assigned hosts and their
>> state (With state I mean properties. One of these properties would be
>> the auto-start one).
>> So when a host starts the engine starts and then loops assigned virtual
>> machines. While looping the virtual machines checs its auto-start
>> property. If it's set to true it starts the virtual machine.
>>
>> Not sure if what I am describing has an easy implementation with current
>> oVirt architecture. Any comments from people who might understand better
>> oVirt architecture on this use-case?
>>
>> I think the hosts should rely the least possible on the management server.
>>
>
> my concern is how to make sure engine only starts VMs it should in this
> case.
>
>
>> ------------------------------**------------------------------**
>> ------------
>>
>>     *De: *"Itamar Heim" <iheim at redhat.com>
>>     *Para: *"Adrian Gibanel" <adrian.gibanel at btactic.com>
>>     *CC: *"users" <users at ovirt.org>
>>     *Enviados: *Viernes, 7 de Diciembre 2012 19:39:26
>>     *Asunto: *Re: [Users] Auto-start vms on boot?
>>
>>
>>     On 12/07/2012 06:23 PM, Adrian Gibanel wrote:
>>      > My use case is that I just don't want to start manually the
>>     virtual machines when the host starts and, also, if the host is
>>     shutdown it should guest-shutdown the virtual machines.
>>      >
>>      > Any doc on that pin option? How one is supposed to pin a virtual
>>     machine to a host?
>>
>>     just to be clear, we still don't have the behavior i described. I just
>>     stated the only use case i'm familiar for a similar requirement.
>>     (pinning a VM to host is done via the edit vm dialog).
>>
>>     question on your use case - how would the engine know if the admin
>> just
>>     shutdown a VM manually from a VM which should be auto started
>>     (should we
>>     add such a checkbox).
>>     in the use case i described, we would be adding a 'start/stop VM with
>>     host' for a VM pinned to a host.
>>
>>      >
>>      > Thank you.
>>      >
>>      > ----- Mensaje original -----
>>      >
>>      >> On 12/06/2012 10:34 PM, Adrian Gibanel wrote:
>>      >>> It would seem that oVirt does not provide an standard way of
>>      >>> forcing boot of virtual machines at boot.
>>      >>>
>>      >>> Pools can have pre-started vms as stated here:
>>      >>>
>>     https://access.redhat.com/**knowledge/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_**
>> Enterprise_Virtualization/3.1/**html/Administration_Guide/**
>> Prestarting_Virtual_Machines_**in_a_Pool.html<https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Virtualization/3.1/html/Administration_Guide/Prestarting_Virtual_Machines_in_a_Pool.html>
>>      >>> but pools imply state-less virtual machines and I am talking more
>>      >>> about normal virtual machines.
>>      >>>
>>      >>> I've found this script:
>>      >>>
>>      >>> https://github.com/iranzo/**rhevm-utils/blob/master/rhev-**
>> vm-start.py<https://github.com/iranzo/rhevm-utils/blob/master/rhev-vm-start.py>
>>      >>>
>>      >>> which could do to the trick if run at host boot.
>>      >>>
>>      >>> I've also thought (but not tried) to mark a virtual machine as
>>      >>> "Highly Available" even if I have only one host (I mean, usually
>>      >>> HA only makes sense when you have two hosts).
>>      >>>
>>      >>> Marking a VM as H.A. would do the trick?
>>      >>> Any special reason why there isn't and standard way of marking
>>      >>> which vms should be auto-started at boot?
>>      >>>
>>      >>> Just wanted to hear your thoughts before filling an RFE.
>>      >>>
>>      >>>
>>      >>> Thank you.
>>      >>>
>>      >> what exactly is your use case?
>>      >> the one i'm familiar with is to tie the VM life cycle to a
>> specific
>>      >> host, so a VM which is pinned to a specific host for a certain
>> task
>>      >> (say, IDS), is always starting when the host starts, and will be
>>      >> automatically shutdown when host is moved to maintenance.
>>      >> so only relevant for VMs which are pinned to a host.
>>
>> --
>> <http://www.btactic.com/>***Adrián Gibanel*
>>
>> I.T. Manager
>>
>> +34 675 683 301
>> www.btactic.com <http://btactic.com/>
>>
>>
>>
>> *
>> Ens podeu seguir a/Nos podeis seguir en:
>>
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>> >
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>>
>>
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