1. Akimbi Slingshot Virtual Cluster Management Trevor Grove DRC-SCS – CSCF University of Waterloo

2. Overview What is Akimbi Slingshot? How do we access it? What can we do with it? Questions?

3. Akimbi Slingshot – what is it? Management software for sets of virtual machines Built on Microsoft Virtual Server and/or VMWare GSX products –We have the version that bundles MS Virtual Server 2005 R2 –VM: AMI BIOS with Intel 440BX chipset Usual configurations, uni-processor, SVGA video (S3 Trio64 chipset) ; Slingshot supports single NIC only

4. VM Management Slingshot manages –IP address assignment, static & “fenced” –VM template definition –Console management for running VMs –Virtual CD library of ISO images Fenced networks –Creates virtual router for a collection of VMs –Provides inbound and outbound NAT (automatic assignment of “interior” & “exterior” addresses)

5. Slingshot product components Two pieces: –Management console (the “slingshot server”) –Managed servers (worker systems where VMs run) Our setup: –Lightning (129.97.75.73, 192.168.1.15): Slingshot server –Snowball1.. Snowball10 (1.21..1.30): worker systems –VM storage (disks & VM state) on (new)squall (1.14)

6. Slingshot usage Windows, IE-browser-based –Management console is an IE application with ActiveX controls –RPC between Slingshot server & managed servers Multi-user –Every user has a collection of VM definitions (“templates”) –Shared libraries of VM templates, VM instances (“configurations”)

7. Network configuration Our system is behind the coldfront firewall on 192.168/16 Communication with Slingshot server can be from anywhere –Ligntning.cs.uwaterloo.ca (129.97.75.73) –Requires IE with appropriate permissions Communication with managed servers must be from clients on 192.168/16 –Problem with exterior-client slingshot managed- server Lightning has a public address, snowballs do not

8. VPN for network access There is a VPN server (PPTP only) running on lightning.cs.uwaterloo.ca (129.97.75.73) to provide access to the 192.168/16 network –Must set default route through the VPN Windows, MAC OSX have clients built-in –MAC of questionable utility – IE must support ActiveX

9. Other access RDP server on Lightning –Via its public address at 129.97.75.73 –Only two ports available VNC server –To be established –Freeware versions appear to support only a single session

10. Other network details 192.168.192.0.. 192.168.195.255 are reserved for VMs 192.168.127.0.. 192.168.128.0 are reserved for VPN clients DNS server at 192.168.1.15; default domain tcl.cs.uwaterloo.ca

11. Slingshot product abstraction Slingshot server communicates with managed servers to instantiate VM templates Templates are created on a bare machine and then enhanced to support automatic IP management –AkimbiTools –Publishing a template Published templates are used to create configurations –Configuration are collections of VM templates that can be instantiated (turned on)

12. Basic steps 1.Create a new template –Install an OS from an ISO image 2.Install AkimbiTools –OS-dependent, procedure for Linux requires manual intervention 3.Publish the template –Make available for use in configurations

13. Basic steps, 2 4.Define a configuration –One or more VM instances based on available published templates 5.Deploy the configuration –Choose fenced versus non-fenced network management –“power on” the VMs

14. Fenced versus non-fenced Non-fenced: –Each VM in a deployed configuration receives a static IP address from the available pool –Cloning such a configuration is not possible Fenced: –Each VM is assigned two addresses: internal and external –Cloning is possible: internal address doesn’t change, external does

15. Demo Deploy a bare machine (no OS) Insert an ISO & start OS install Deploy bare machine (OS) Create a single-machine configuration –Deploy fenced & unfenced, clone

16. Next steps For you: –Figure out how to connect to the Slingshot server with IE & ActiveX –Use demo/trials –Request a userid from me (trg@cs) For me: –Figure out more about library management, cloning and configuration capture –Install VNC server

17. Questions?