VMware vSphere – nova 24.1.2.dev11 Documentation (2023)

introduction¶

OpenStack Compute supports the VMware vSphere family of products and provides access to advanced features such as vMotion, high availability and Dynamic Resource Scheduling (DRS).

This section describes how to configure VMware-based virtual machine images to boot. The VMware driver supports vCenter version 5.5.0 and later.

The VMware vCenter driver enables thenova-computeService for communicating with a VMware vCenter Server that manages one or more ESX host clusters. The driver aggregates the ESX hosts in each cluster to provide the compute scheduler with one large hypervisor unit for each cluster. Because individual ESX hosts are not exposed to the scheduler, Compute schedules at the granularity of clusters and vCenter uses DRS to select the actual ESX host within the cluster. When a virtual machine finds its way into a vCenter cluster, it can use all vSphere features.

The following sections describe how to configure the VMware vCenter driver.

Architecture at a high level¶

The following diagram shows a high-level view of the VMware driver architecture:

VMware driver architecture

As shown in the figure, the OpenStack Compute Scheduler sees three hypervisors, each corresponding to a cluster in vCenter.nova-computecontains the VMware driver. You can run with severalnova-computeServices. It is recommended to run with onenova-computeservice per ESX cluster, ensuring that while compute schedules run at the granularity of thenova-computeThe service is actually capable of scheduling at the cluster level. Again the VMware driver insidenova-computeinteracts with the vCenter APIs to choose an appropriate ESX host within the cluster. Internally, vCenter uses DRS for placement.

The VMware vCenter driver also interacts with the Image Service to copy VMDK images from the Image Service's back-end storage. The dotted line in the figure represents VMDK images that are copied to the vSphere datastore by the OpenStack Image service. VMDK images are cached in the datastore, so the copying process is only required when the VMDK image is used for the first time.

After OpenStack starts a VM in a vSphere cluster, the VM becomes visible in vCenter and can access advanced vSphere features. At the same time, the VM is visible in the OpenStack dashboard and you can manage it like any other OpenStack VM. You can perform advanced vSphere operations in vCenter while configuring OpenStack resources like VMs from the OpenStack dashboard.

The figure does not show how the networking fits into the architecture. See for detailsNetworking with VMware vSphere.

Configuration overview¶

To get started with the VMware vCenter driver, follow these general steps:

1. Configure vCenter. SeeRequirements and Limitations.

2. Configure the VMware vCenter driver in theneue.conffile.seeVMware vCenter driver.

3. Load the desired VMDK images into the image service. SeeImages mit VMware vSphere.

4. Configure the network service (Neutron). SeeNetworking with VMware vSphere.

Requirements and Limitations¶

Use the following list to prepare a vSphere environment running with the VMware vCenter driver:

Copy VMDK files

In vSphere 5.1, copying large image files (e.g. 12GB and larger) from the image service can take a long time. To improve performance, VMware recommends upgrading to VMware vCenter Server 5.1 Update 1 or later. For more information, seeRelease Notes.

DRS

Enable DRS and fully automated placement for each cluster containing multiple ESX hosts.

Shared camp

Only shared storage is supported and datastores must be shared among all hosts in a cluster. It is recommended that non-OpenStack dedicated datastores be removed from clusters that are configured for OpenStack.

clusters and data storage

Do not use OpenStack clusters and datastores for any other purpose. Otherwise, OpenStack will display incorrect usage information.

Networking

The network configuration depends on the desired network model. SeeNetworking with VMware vSphere.

security groups

Security groups are supported when using the VMware driver with OpenStack Networking and the NSX plugin.

note

The NSX plugin is the only plugin validated for vSphere.

VNC

The port range 5900-6105 (inclusive) is automatically enabled for VNC connections on every ESX host in all clusters under OpenStack control.

note

In addition to the standard VNC port numbers (5900 to 6000) given in the above document, the following ports are also used: 6101, 6102 and 6105.

See Also

Email Countdown Timers: How to Create and Use Them in Your Email MarketingWhat is stakeholder theory? | WriteMultinational corporation: Definition of how it works, four typesSolution for expired STS certificate of vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 - Eagle Technologies

You must change the ESXi firewall configuration to allow the VNC ports. Also, for the firewall changes to persist after a reboot, you need to create a custom vSphere installer package (VIB), which is then installed on the running ESXi host or added to a custom image profile used to install ESXi hosts . For details on creating a VIB to persist firewall configuration changes, seeknowledge base.

note

The VIB can be downloaded fromopenstack-vmwareapi-team/Tools.

To use multiple vCenter installations with OpenStack, each vCenter must be assigned to a separate availability zone. This is required because the OpenStackBlock Storage VMDK driver does not currently work across multiple vCenter installations.

VMware vCenter service account¶

The OpenStack integration requires a vCenter service account with the following minimum privileges. Apply the permissions to thedata centerRoot object and select itPropagate to child objectsPossibility.

VMware vCenter driver¶

Use the VMware vCenter driver (VMwareVCDriver) to connect OpenStack Compute to vCenter. This recommended configuration allows access through vCenter to advanced vSphere features such as vMotion, High Availability, and Dynamic Resource Scheduling (DRS).

[ORIGINALLY]compute_driver = vmwareapi.VMwareVCDriver[VMWare]host_ip = <vCenter hostname or IP address>host_username = <vCenter username>host_password = <vCenter password>Clustername = <vCenter-Clustername>datastore_regex = <optional data store regular expression>

Images mit VMware vSphere¶

The vCenter driver supports VMDK format images. Media in this format can be obtained from VMware Fusion or from an ESX environment. It is also possible to use other formats, e.g. g. qcow2, to convert to VMDK format usingqemu-imgutility. After a VMDK disk is available, load it into the image service. Then you can use it with the VMware vCenter driver. The following sections provide additional details about the supported media and the commands used for conversion and upload.

$Create Openstack image\--disk-format vmdk\--container-format leather\--Propertyvmware_disktype="sparse" \--Propertyvmware_ostype="ubuntu64Gast" \ubuntu-sparse < ubuntuLTS-sparse.vmdk

$qemu-img convert -f qcow2 ~/Downloads/trusty-server-cloudimg-amd64-disk1.img\-O vmdk trusty-server-cloudimg-amd64-disk1.vmdk

$Create Openstack image\--container-format leer --disk-format vmdk\--Propertyvmware_disktype="sparse" \--Propertyvmware_adaptertyp="id" \trusty-cloud < trusty-server-cloudimg-amd64-disk1.vmdk

$head -20 <vmdk filename>

$Create Openstack image\--disk-format vmdk\--container-format leather\--Propertyvmware_adaptertyp="lsiLogic" \--Propertyvmware_disktype="preallocated" \--Propertyvmware_ostype="ubuntu64Gast" \ubuntu-thick-scsi < ubuntuLTS-flat.vmdk

$Create Openstack image\--disk-format vmdk\--container-format leather\--Propertyvmware_adaptertyp="lsiLogic" \--Propertyvmware_disktype="preallocated" \--Propertyhypervisor_typ="vmware" \--Propertyvmware_ostype="ubuntu64Gast" \ubuntu-thick-scsi < ubuntuLTS-flat.vmdk

Networking with VMware vSphere¶

The VMware driver supports networking with the Networking Service (Neutron). Depending on your installation, complete these configuration steps before deploying VMs:

1. Before deploying VMs, create a port group with the same name as thevmware.integration_bridgevalue aneue.conf(Default isbr-int). All VM NICs are mapped to this port group for management by the OpenStack Network Plugin.

Volumes mit VMware vSphere¶

The VMware driver supports attaching volumes from the Block Storage service. The VMware VMDK driver for OpenStack Block Storage is recommended and should be used to manage volumes based on vSphere datastores. For more information on the VMware VMDK driver, see the Cinder Guide on the VMDK Driver (TODO: This has not yet been imported and published). Also an aniSCSI volume driver has limited support and can only be used for attachments.

Troubleshooting¶

Operators can troubleshoot VMware-specific errors by correlating OpenStacklogs with vCenter logs. Each RPC call made by an OpenStack driver hasanopIDwhich can be traced in the vCenter logs. For example, consider the following excerpt from anova-computeProtocol:

Aug 15 07:31:09 localhost nova-compute[16683]: DEBUG oslo_vmware.service [-] Calling Folder.CreateVM_Task with opID=oslo.vmware-debb6064-690e-45ac-b0ae-1b94a9638d1f {{(pid=16683 ) request_handler /opt/stack/oslo.vmware/oslo_vmware/service.py:355}}

In this case theopIDisoslo.vmware-debb6064-690e-45ac-b0ae-1b94a9638d1fand we can get the vCenter log (usually/var/log/vmware/vpxd/vpxd.log) so it can determine if something went wrong with theCreate VMOperation.