Hi Dave, No, we don't have these hosts in vCenter as they're running under a free ESXi 4.1 license.
The two quotes you have from my earlier message echo what I wrote re: "virtual disk path" and "VM working directory path" earlier this morning. Regards, Mike On Mon, Jun 9, 2014 at 11:26 AM, David DeMizio <[email protected]> wrote: > Thanks Mike, > > So can I use the local ssd for my Virtual disk path and use my existing > SAN for Repository path and VM working directory path. Now, are your > hosts part of vcenter or are you connecting directly to the esxi hosts.Can > I keep the esxi hosts in vcenter? I'm not sure if vcenter allows you to > have datastores with same the name so I would need separate profiles for > each esxi host which is fine since this is a small environment Can you also > please clarify the two statements below > > - Create a directory on your ESXi hosts' SSDs for the local copies of the > images. The VMs will boot from these copies and will benefit from the > speed of the SSDs -- they get written-to rarely and read a bunch. ( So this > is the Virtual Disk path) do I actually have to create the directory or > just specify on the host profile? > - Create another directory (either on your SSD or spinning disk space on > the hosts, or even on the SAN) for the individual-VM files (the .vmx and > the virtual memory files). This is the VM working directory path. No to > clear on why I have manually create the directory. Thanks again. > > > > > > On Mon, Jun 9, 2014 at 10:06 AM, Mike Haudenschild <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> Hi Dave, >> >> I think you're coming at this from a shared storage perspective, which is >> totally understandable since you're currently using a SAN. In a local >> storage setup, the ESXi host either a) pulls a copy of the image to local >> storage from an NFS mount, or b) the management node has a copy of the >> image (locally or is pointed at a remote mount) and pushes it to the ESXi >> host. (I think the VCL docs recommend the former approach as being more >> efficient since it can use ESXi's file management utilities.) >> >> The main benefit from using SSDs for local storage will be reduced load >> times due to the image actually booting from those drives. >> >> I've attached screenshots of our host profile as well as the datastores >> on the ESXi host. >> >> On the host profile (full docs on these settings at >> http://vcl.apache.org/docs/vmwareconfiguration): >> >> - Repository path = NFS share from which the ESXi host will copy the >> image the first time a management node tells this host to boot that image. >> This is a RAID 50 on 10k SAS dives in this particular rig. See note [1]. >> - Virtual disk path = Local storage on the ESXi host from which end-user >> VMs will boot the image. This is a RAID 1 of SSDs. >> - VM working directory path = Local storage on the ESXi host where VCL >> will build the temporary directories used for each running VM. This is a >> RAID 50 on 15k SAS drives. >> >> [1] NB... In the ESXi screenshot, disregard the datastore "Master VCL >> Repository." The Linux system hosting the NFS share is actually a VM that >> happens to be running on this ESXi host. >> >> The datastore screenshot shows the corresponding names of the datastores. >> As long as you name the datastores the same across hosts, you can get away >> with using a single VM host profile for your local-storage hosts. If you >> have some hosts with dramatically different local storage situations, you >> may need different profiles. >> >> Also, I haven't even touched the issue of vMotion here, which changes the >> conversation about shared-vs-local storage a lot. If your use case for >> vMotion is about planned ESXi host maintenance, you can always migrate VMs >> away from a host-to-be-rebooted to other hosts via the VCL Web UI (any VMs >> with active reservations will be placed in a pending state). vMotion for >> HA with VCL local storage is a different story. >> >> Regards, >> Mike >> >> >> >> On Mon, Jun 9, 2014 at 9:44 AM, David DeMizio <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Thanks Mike. >>> >>> I have attached of my current vanilla esxi local storage profile. >>> >>> I'm not to clear on why the Golden images would want to be on NFS share, >>> isn't that what is used to spin up the VMs? also "Create a directory on >>> your ESXi hosts' SSDs for the local copies of the images. The VMs will >>> boot from these copies and will benefit from the speed of the SSDs -- they >>> get written-to rarely and read a bunch" VCL automatically knows to use the >>> local copes or is it a setting the the profile. Just a bit confused on what >>> needs to go where in the profile that's why I have attached it. When you >>> say mount this with the same repository path on all your ESXI hosts are you >>> referring to actually ssh into esxi hosts and created and NFS share? Thank >>> you >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 4:57 PM, Mike Haudenschild <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> Hi Dave, >>>> >>>> This is the configured I've used the most with VCL. You will have >>>> multiple "virtual hosts," each with its own "computers" (VMs) assigned to >>>> it. If VCL wants to spin up an image on VM#1, and VM#1 is assigned to VM >>>> Host A, VCL's management node will open a connection with Host A and bring >>>> up the VM. >>>> >>>> From what I've been reading, I think you can use the same VM host >>>> profile for the VM hosts that will use local storage. >>>> >>>> - Have your golden images hosted via an NFS share available to all ESXi >>>> hosts. >>>> - Mount this with the same repository path on all your ESXi hosts. >>>> - Create a directory on your ESXi hosts' SSDs for the local copies of >>>> the images. The VMs will boot from these copies and will benefit from the >>>> speed of the SSDs -- they get written-to rarely and read a bunch. >>>> - Create another directory (either on your SSD or spinning disk space >>>> on the hosts, or even on the SAN) for the individual-VM files (the .vmx and >>>> the virtual memory files). If you have enough SSD storage space, do it >>>> here, else do it on spinning disks. Remember that these files get torn >>>> down after every reservation, and that the virtual memory files created >>>> correspond to the physical memory assigned to the VM -- so it's not >>>> absolutely necessary or even advisable (from a wear perspective) to have >>>> these on SSDs. >>>> >>>> If you use the same paths and network configs for both your >>>> ESXi/SSD/local storage hosts, you can use a single VM host profile for >>>> these hosts. You'll obviously still have a different host profile for your >>>> SAN/shared storage hosts. >>>> >>>> Regards, >>>> Mike >>>> >>>> >>>> On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 4:48 PM, David DeMizio <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> >>>>> Thanks Aaron, >>>>> >>>>> For your hosts with local storage do you use NFS share for your golden >>>>> images? So from what I have gathered so far, each esxi host will have it's >>>>> own VM Working Directory Path (local ssd storage). Also, each host will >>>>> always run the same virtual machines whereas with shared storage and using >>>>> vcenter host profile, it may put the virtual machine on any host in the >>>>> cluster. I'm just trying to picture how vcl will work when a user request >>>>> an image? How will VCL know which esxi hosts to connect to, to create the >>>>> virtual machine? >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 4:30 PM, Aaron Coburn <[email protected]> >>>>> wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> Hi, David, >>>>>> >>>>>> > So am I correct that I need two vm host profiles for each esxi host? >>>>>> >>>>>> I believe that is correct. In our setup, we have some hosts with >>>>>> local storage and some hosts with shared backend storage. For those with >>>>>> local storage, the vcl connects directly to the esx host (not using >>>>>> vcenter >>>>>> -- vcenter is only used for those hosts with a shared, SAN-based >>>>>> storage). >>>>>> It may be the case that you could get this to work with vCenter by >>>>>> disabling DRS (vMotion), but it is a lot easier to just connect directly >>>>>> to >>>>>> the different hosts. >>>>>> >>>>>> Regards, >>>>>> Aaron Coburn >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> On Jun 5, 2014, at 2:53 PM, David DeMizio <[email protected]> wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>> > So am I correct that I need two vm host profiles for each esxi >>>>>> host? I'll have to have a better look at the VCL website. I'm just not >>>>>> clear on how this is going to be setup. I've been using the vcenter >>>>>> profile >>>>>> since I started experimenting with VCL. I guess each esxi host will have >>>>>> dedicated virtual machines that will always run on that esxi host? >>>>>> > >>>>>> > >>>>>> > David DeMizio >>>>>> > Academic Systems Coordinator >>>>>> > Office of Information Technology >>>>>> > New College of Florida >>>>>> > Phone: 941-487-4222 | Fax: 941-487-4356 >>>>>> > www.ncf.edu >>>>>> > >>>>>> > >>>>>> > On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 2:06 PM, Dmitri Chebotarov <[email protected]> >>>>>> wrote: >>>>>> > Hmm... I'm not sure if this can be done with vCenter profile. I >>>>>> think vCenter profile assumes you have shared storage. >>>>>> > >>>>>> > >>>>>> > You could add ESXi hosts directly to VCL, and then create local >>>>>> datastore in each host. You may need to remove ESXi hosts from vCenter, >>>>>> as >>>>>> it won't allow you to have the same local datastore name on each host. >>>>>> > >>>>>> > From: David DeMizio <[email protected]> >>>>>> > Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2014 12:34 PM >>>>>> > To: user >>>>>> > Subject: Re: Local storage >>>>>> > >>>>>> > Thanks Andy >>>>>> > >>>>>> > I guess I just need clarification on what type of vm host profile I >>>>>> will need to use with this type of setup and if I need a separate vm host >>>>>> profile for each of my esxi host servers? >>>>>> > >>>>>> > >>>>>> > David DeMizio >>>>>> > Academic Systems Coordinator >>>>>> > Office of Information Technology >>>>>> > New College of Florida >>>>>> > Phone: 941-487-4222 | Fax: 941-487-4356 >>>>>> > www.ncf.edu >>>>>> > >>>>>> > >>>>>> > On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 12:09 PM, Andy Kurth <[email protected]> >>>>>> wrote: >>>>>> > I haven't tried it, but apparently you can vMotion VMs without >>>>>> having shared storage starting with 5.1: >>>>>> > >>>>>> > >>>>>> http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/09/vmotion-without-shared-storage-requirement-does-it-have-a-name.html >>>>>> > >>>>>> > -Andy >>>>>> > >>>>>> > >>>>>> > On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 11:22 AM, David DeMizio <[email protected]> >>>>>> wrote: >>>>>> > Thank Dmitri, >>>>>> > >>>>>> > I'm getting a bit confused because the VM Working Directory Path >>>>>> pointing to the local SSD which the other server knows nothing about. I'm >>>>>> currently using the VMware Vcenter host profile will I need to change >>>>>> that >>>>>> and use the esxi local storage profile? Seems like I'm going to need two >>>>>> virtual hosts using the esxi local storage policy? >>>>>> > >>>>>> > >>>>>> > David DeMizio >>>>>> > Academic Systems Coordinator >>>>>> > Office of Information Technology >>>>>> > New College of Florida >>>>>> > Phone: 941-487-4222 | Fax: 941-487-4356 >>>>>> > www.ncf.edu >>>>>> > >>>>>> > >>>>>> > On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 10:22 AM, Dmitri Chebotarov < >>>>>> [email protected]> wrote: >>>>>> > Hi David >>>>>> > >>>>>> > I think it should work fine with local SSD storage on ESXi hosts. >>>>>> You still may want to use a shared NFS storage for your images (Virtual >>>>>> Disk Path), but you can point VM Working Directory Path to local SSD >>>>>> storage. >>>>>> > >>>>>> > -- >>>>>> > Thank you, >>>>>> > >>>>>> > Dmitri Chebotarov >>>>>> > VCL Sys Eng, Engineering & Architectural Support, TSD - Ent Servers >>>>>> & Messaging >>>>>> > 223 Aquia Building, Ffx, MSN: 1B5 >>>>>> > Phone: (703) 993-6175 | Fax: (703) 993-3404 >>>>>> > >>>>>> > >>>>>> > From: David DeMizio <[email protected]> >>>>>> > Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2014 10:08 AM >>>>>> > To: user >>>>>> > Subject: Local storage >>>>>> > >>>>>> > >>>>>> > Hello, >>>>>> > >>>>>> > We have two servers with local Solid state storage in both of them >>>>>> that I would like to start testing with VCL. Currently, I am using >>>>>> vsphere >>>>>> 5.5 with the vcl vmware module to provision my nodes by using a SAN. Of >>>>>> course if I plan to test VCL just using the local SSD drives than I will >>>>>> lose the ability of vmotion, at least I think I will because each server >>>>>> will not have access to the other servers SSDs. Can I still use the >>>>>> vmware >>>>>> module if I go this route? Any other suggestions are appreciated. Thank >>>>>> you. >>>>>> > >>>>>> > -Dave >>>>>> > >>>>>> > >>>>>> > >>>>>> > >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>> >>>> >>> >> >
