Centennial Networking Lab has started writing an ESX provisioning
module for VCL, and we have proof-of-concept VCL module code that is
doing successful deployments of virtual machines to an ESX 3i
hypervisors.
We have a few questions:
1) Where does the responsibility of the provisioning module stop.
Right now we have the module copying the files, registering the VM,
and turning it on. Do we need to do anything else, or is that too
much? (such as waiting for the machine to boot before returning)
2) How do we deal with cleaning a hypervisor up after the reservation
is complete? With the current architecture, there is no
deprovisioning API for the modules, which VCL could call when a
reservation is done, so we can unregister and clean up the VM. That
would seem like the best way to do this, but until then, we need to
find a workaround. Since VMs are currently based on slots, we can
identify them by their slot name/number and clean them up when the
next provisioning load event happens for that slot. Does this sound
like an appropriate solution for now?
3) What variable is the slot name/number in the datastructure handed
to the module?
4) How should the virtual machines users get setup with our module?
Are the OS module components functional enough, or do we need to add
code in our provisioning module for this?
Thanks!
Brian & Andrew
Brian Bouterse
Secure Open Systems Initiative
919.698.8796
