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

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

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

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)

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

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”)

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

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

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

Other network details are reserved for VMs are reserved for VPN clients DNS server at ; default domain tcl.cs.uwaterloo.ca

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)

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

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

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

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

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

Questions?