kiss-configure - configuring VMs

Overview

The configuration is kept in a pair of git repositories on the cluster nodes. You should only ever work on the "primary" node, that is, the first one in the cluster_members list.

VMs are defined via YAML files in /srv/kiss-configure/vm-config/cluster_name/, and the configuration is then applied to the nodes by running kiss-configure in /srv/kiss-configure.

These steps lead to a VM that's ready to be started (but has no operating system).

The VM configuration file looks like this:

name: vm1
primary_on: node1
network_bridge: br0
ram_megs: 512
root_disk_size: 10G
cpus: 2
more_disks:
  - name: var
    size: 100G

name

name is the name of the VM. It is used in

the logical volume names as NAME_root
the systemd unit file as vm-NAME.service
the DRBD resource as NAME

There is no support for changing names automatically. Choose one, stick with it, or rename all the stuff manually.

primary_on

primary_on gives the node name where the VM normally runs.

network_bridge

We only support one network interface per VM; it is connected to a bridge on the host, and this is the name of that bridge. The bridge itself has to be created in the system configuration (look at /etc/network/interfaces on an installed cluster member for how that's done).

So on a cluster connected to a trunk port, you'd create a bridge for each VLAN of interest, and then assign them to the VMs.

ram_megs

This is obvious, or is it?

root_disk_size

Each VM has at least one virtual disk, backed by volume 0 in a DRBD resource with the same name as the VM. That resource in turn is backed by the logical volume vmvg/NAME_root. root_disk_size is used when creating that LV, so you can use any size modifier that lvm (or rather, ansible's "lvol" module) accepts.

cpus

The number of virtual CPUs to provide to the VM.

more_disks

This is an optional item; it contains a list of up to three additional virtual disks for the VM, each with a name and a size.

Those disks are taken in the order they appear and added to the DRBD resource starting at volume 1 (so changing their order will lead to bad things). They are backed by LVs named vmvg/VMNAME_DISKNAME, and the size parameter is treated like root_disk_size.

Starting a VM, and tools

systemctl start vm@NAME

Alternatively, there's a script kiss-boot-iso that can be run for a temporary boot with an ISO file in the virtual CD drive. Run it like

kiss-boot-iso NAME ISO-FILE

Of course, the VM must be stopped beforehand.

Or, you can attach an ISO file to a running VM via

kiss-vm-monitor NAME iso NUMBER ISO-FILE

and detach it with

kiss-vm-monitor NAME iso NUMBER

where NUMBER is the number of the virtual CD drive, 0 or 1 (you may need two for windows installation with virtio drivers).

kiss-vm-monitor also has a powerdown and a reset option.