[Users] Can oVirt be installed in a virtual machine?

Keith Robertson kroberts at redhat.com
Sun Sep 23 13:34:01 UTC 2012


On 09/22/2012 05:35 PM, Nicolas Chenier wrote:
> *Question 1 - if oVirt goes down... do the ovirt-nodes and VMs remain 
> up?* Can someone answer this please? :-)
If the oVirt manager (ie. the web application running inside AS7) loses 
connectivity to the node, the VM's on that node will keep running.  You 
should know; however, that the general design is for the manager to 
remain in contact with the nodes.
>
> Due to budget and space constraints, I currently have 2 servers total.
>
> What if I did the following:
>
> Server 1) Fedora 17 with KVM/Virt-manager... running oVirt as a VM 
> (through virt-manager) off the iSCSI NAS.
Fine
> Server 2) oVirt-node machine - one and only host machine for oVirt 
> running on Server 1).
Again fine.
>
> With this setup I can run VMs from iSCSI on oVirt-node Server 2).
Yes, nearly identical to my setup.
>
> In the event that oVirt-node Server 2) goes down... is anything 
> stopping me from setting up my VMs on Server 1) with the iSCSI storage 
> from the NAS and run my VMs without oVirt through virt-manager?
Yes, I don't think that will work out of the box.  It could probably be 
done but it would require some manual steps.
>
> This would give me some form of redundancy (requiring manual 
> intervention) in the event that my ovirt-node went down... is this a 
> feasible setup?
See previous comment.
>
> To make it even more redundant, maybe I should do the following with 
> Server 2)
>
> Install Fedora 17 with KVM/Virt-Manager, and VDSM... in the event that 
> Server 1) fails... I can run my VMs on Server 2) through virt-manager?
>
> Should I just drop oVirt for now and run virt-manager on my 2 hosts, 
> moving VMs manually (as they are running off iSCSI NAS) if a host 
> fails? <tear>
It depends on what you are trying to do.  oVirt and virt-manager solve 
different problems.  I would say that virt-manager is probably OK for a 
small setup, but I wouldn't deploy an enterprise solution around it.

You have enough gear for a small oVirt setup.  Run with that and add 
more nodes as you can.  My 2c.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Nic
>
>
>
> On Sat, Sep 22, 2012 at 4:09 PM, Keith Robertson <kroberts at redhat.com 
> <mailto:kroberts at redhat.com>> wrote:
>
>     On 09/22/2012 02:28 PM, Nicolas Chenier wrote:
>>     Question - if oVirt goes down... do the ovirt-nodes and VMs
>>     remain up?
>>
>>
>>     Keith, how would you set yourself up with these specs:
>>
>>     2 host servers (quad-core xeons with 32gigs of ram)
>     Are you saying that you only have 2 machines in total, or that you
>     have 2 machines that can be dedicated hypervisors (ie. ovirt-node)
>     and a third machine that can be a dedicated manager?
>
>     If the former then one machine must run some version of *nix
>     compatible with oVirt Manager and, the other machine in this
>     scenario can simply run ovirt-node.
>
>     If the latter, then you have 1 box dedicated as a manager and 2
>     boxes as dedicated hypervisors.  This is a fairly basic/good setup.
>>     1 iSCSI NAS
>>
>>     Starting to think there is no way to achieve HA with this setup? 
>     Not with only 2 boxes.  No.
>
>>     oVirt requires a dedicated machine?
>     Generally, speaking.  Yes.
>
>     Truly HA setups aren't cheap and people often have different ideas
>     of what constitutes HA.  Offhand I would think that you would need...
>
>     - 2 boxes for the oVirt manager
>     - Clustering software for the manager to facilitate an
>     active/passive setup.
>     - UPSs (at *least* 2) which can be controlled by clustering
>     software.  Why?  Most clustering SW require a fence device. These
>     will be your fence devices.
>     - 2 boxes for your hypervisors (ie. ovirt-nodes).  This will
>     facilitate fail-over from one node to the other.
>
>     HA isn't cheap and can't usually be done on 2 boxes, IMO unless
>     you're failing over a single app.
>
>
>
>>
>>     Thank you!
>>
>>     Nic
>>
>>     PS. Could oVirt be integrated into ovirt-node on every server?
>>
>>
>>
>>     On Sat, Sep 22, 2012 at 2:16 PM, Keith Robertson
>>     <kroberts at redhat.com <mailto:kroberts at redhat.com>> wrote:
>>
>>         On 09/22/2012 01:09 PM, Nicolas Chenier wrote:
>>>         Hi Alan,
>>>
>>>         I have oVirt running in a VM off my Desktop (Fedora 17 w/
>>>         KVM & Virt-Manager) off my iSCSI NAS.
>>>
>>>         I've attached Server #1 as my first host (it's running
>>>         ovirt-node).
>>>
>>>         In the process of setting up my storage domains. I have a
>>>         few questions to the experts out there:
>>>
>>>         1) How do I add my CD .ISOs to setup new VMs? Create iSCSI
>>>         storage domain? But then how do I copy my ISOs to it?
>>         Create an ISO storage domain and use the ovirt-iso-uploader
>>         to add your ISOs and .vfd files into that domain.
>>
>>>
>>>         2) Can I run my oVirt VM from ovirt-node machine, without
>>>         running it in oVirt (ie. setup iSCSI in virt-manager (as it
>>>         is now) and run oVirt from virt-manager... then I can manage
>>>         my hosts through that ovirt VM?
>>         Huh?  You could run the oVirt Manager from a VM managed by
>>         virt-manager... yes.  Running the oVirt manager inside a VM
>>         on a hypervisor (ie. ovirt-node) controlled by that same
>>         manager isn't supported AFAIK because the mgr. could get fenced.
>>
>>         To summarize, you can pretty much run the oVirt manager on
>>         any supported OS as long as that OS instance isn't running on
>>         a hypervisor (ie. ovirt-node) controlled by *that* manager.
>>
>>         If you haven't noticed the vocabulary to describe the various
>>         components can get a little confusing. ;)
>>
>>
>>>
>>>         Not sure if I'm making myself clear... but I'm making
>>>         progress. I think as long as you are not managing your oVirt
>>>         vm through oVirt itself, the solution should work fine! Just
>>>         trying to see if I can get that done on an ovirt-node machine...
>>>
>>>         Thank you,
>>>
>>>         Nic
>>>
>>>
>>>         On Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 3:31 PM, Alan Johnson
>>>         <alan at datdec.com <mailto:alan at datdec.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>>             On Wed, Sep 12, 2012 at 9:22 PM, Nicolas Chenier
>>>             <dascope at gmail.com <mailto:dascope at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>>                 I was under the impression that my oVirt VM would
>>>                 show up in oVirt and that I could manage it through
>>>                 there...
>>>                 What you're saying is that I should just run it
>>>                 seperatly and not manage it with itself (oVirt)?
>>>                 keep it on my shared storage so that I can run it
>>>                 off any of the 2 servers? But not manage it with
>>>                 oVirt (itself). I think I'm starting to get it now...
>>>                 I really appreciate your help!
>>>                 Nic
>>>
>>>
>>>             Nic, how did you make out with this?  I'm looking to do
>>>             the same thing and am wondering if there is any risk in
>>>             running the engine on a VM managed by the same engine,
>>>             as you were suggesting before.  Did you give this a shot?
>>>
>>>             Itamar, why did you steer Nic away from this?
>>>
>>>             _______________
>>>             Alan Johnson
>>>             alan at datdec.com <mailto:alan at datdec.com>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>>         Users mailing list
>>>         Users at ovirt.org  <mailto:Users at ovirt.org>
>>>         http://lists.ovirt.org/mailman/listinfo/users
>>
>>
>>
>
>


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