Openvswitch with DPDK support on CloudStack – Part 2 | CloudStack Feature Deep Dive

Introduction In my previous post, I described the new ‘Open vSwitch with DPDK support’ on CloudStack for KVM hosts. There, I focused on describing the feature, as it was new to CloudStack, and also explained the necessary configuration on the KVM agents’ side to enable DPDK support. DPDK (Data Plane Development Kit) (https://www.dpdk.org/) is a set of libraries and NIC drivers for fast package processing in userspace. Using DPDK along with OVS brings benefits to networking performance on VMs and networking appliances. DPDK support in CloudStack requires that the KVM hypervisor is running on DPDK compatible hardware. In this post, […]

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Ceph and CloudStack – Part 3

Introduction In the previous two parts of this article series, we have covered the complete Ceph installation process and implemented Ceph as an additional Primary Storage in CloudStack. In this final part, I will show you some examples of working with RBD images, and will cover some Ceph specifics, both in general and related to the CloudStack. RBD image manipulations In case you need to do some low-level client support, you can even try to mount that image as the local disk on any KVM (or Ceph) node. For this purpose, we use a tool, conveniently named, “rbd”, which is […]

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Ceph and CloudStack – Part 2

In the previous article we covered some basics around Ceph and deployed a working Ceph cluster. In this article, we are going to finish the Ceph configuration needed for CloudStack and add it as a new Primary Storage pool. We are also going to deploy Ceph volumes via CloudStack and examine them. Finally, in part 3 (to be published soon), I will show you some examples of working with RBD images and will cover some Ceph specifics, both in general and related to the CloudStack. Before proceeding with the actual work, let me first mention that CloudStack supports Ceph with […]

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Ceph and CloudStack – Part 1

As well as NFS and various block storage solutions for Primary Storage, CloudStack has supported Ceph with KVM for a number of years now. Thanks to some great Ceph users in the community lots of previously missing CloudStack storage features have been implemented for Ceph (and lots of bugs squashed), making it the perfect choice for CloudStack if you are looking for easy scaling of storage and decent performance. In this and my next article, I am going to cover all steps needed to actually install a Ceph cluster from scratch, and subsequently add it to CloudStack. In this article I […]

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Openvswitch with DPDK support on CloudStack | CloudStack Feature Deep Dive

Introduction This blog describes a new feature to be introduced in the CloudStack 4.12 release (already in the current master branch of the CloudStack repository). This feature will provide support for the Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) in conjunction with Open vSwitch (OVS) for guest VMs and is targeted at the KVM hypervisor. The Data Plane Development Kit (https://www.dpdk.org/) is a set of libraries and NIC drivers for fast package processing in userspace. Using DPDK along with OVS brings benefits to networking performance on VMs and networking appliances. In this blog, we will introduce how DPDK can be used on […]

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Integration Testing within CloudStack – Marvin

Integration testing – What it is and why SDLC needs it. What is Integration testing? This is a type of testing where multiple components are combined and tested working together. There are different aspects of integration testing depending on the project and component scale, but usually it comes down to validating that different modules can work together and / or independently. This type of testing drives one out of the tunnel vision one could develop while working on a complex task and gives feedback how the work integrates with rest of the system. Integration testing in CloudStack Integration testing in […]

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Secure Live KVM VM Migration with CloudStack 4.11.1 | CloudStack Feature Deep Dive

Introduction CloudStack 4.11.1 introduces a new security enhancement on top of the new CA framework to secure live KVM VM migrations. This feature allows live migration of guest VMs across KVM hosts using secured TLS enabled libvirtd process. Without this feature, the live migration of guest VMs across KVM hosts would use an unsecured TCP connection, which is prone to man-in-the-middle attacks leading to leakage of critical VM data (the VM state and memory). This feature brings stability and security enhancements for CloudStack and KVM users. Overview The initial implementation of the CA framework was limited to the provisioning of X509 certificates to secure […]

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How to deploy templates without using secondary storage on KVM

Introduction ShapeBlue have been working on a new feature for Apache Cloudstack 4.11.1 that will allow users to bypass secondary storage with KVM. The feature introduces a new way to use templates and ISOs, allowing administrators to use them without being cached on secondary storage. Using this approach Cloudstack administrators will not have to worry about massive secondary storage, since it will be simple bypassed, there won’t be any template sitting there waiting. As well it’s bypassing the SSVM since the download task will not be carried on by the SSVM, but the KVM agent itself. This will enable administrators […]

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Inter-VPC connectivity in CloudStack

Introduction In this article Abhinandan  Prateek discusses a method for allowing inter-VPC routing in CloudStack utilising Quagga on the VPC Virtual Router. Please note – this feature is currently in development, this is being considered for release in CloudStack 4.10 (please refer to upcoming release notes for details). In CloudStack a VPC acts as a container for multiple isolated networks that can communicate with each other via its virtual router (VPC-VR).  A VPC can have its own virtual network topology resembling a traditional multi-tier physical network that it is substituting itself for.  The following figure shows a typical CloudStack VPC with three […]

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Networking KVM for CloudStack

Introduction KVM hypervisor networking for CloudStack can sometimes be a challenge, considering KVM doesn’t quite have the matured guest networking model found in the likes of VMware vSphere and Citrix XenServer. In this blog post we’re looking at the options for networking KVM hosts using bridges and VLANs, and dive a bit deeper into the configuration for these options. Installation of the hypervisor and CloudStack agent is pretty well covered in the CloudStack installation guide, so we’ll not spend too much time on this. Network bridges On a linux KVM host guest networking is accomplished using network bridges. These are similar to […]

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