libvirt users - May 2010 - FYI: Notes on setting up KVM guests using iSCSI

DV suggested that we document some libvirt setups using shared storage. I'm
not a fan of NFS, so I wrote some blog posts on how to use iSCSI in the
context of libvirt + KVM.

There is of course more than one way todo things, so I've outlined a couple
of different options. One completely manual command line approach using
tgtadm on the iSCSI server:

 
http://berrange.com/posts/2010/05/05/provisioning-kvm-virtual-machines-on-iscsi-the-hard-way-part-1-of-2/

..and virsh/virt-install on the KVM host

 
http://berrange.com/posts/2010/05/05/provisioning-kvm-virtual-machines-on-iscsi-the-hard-way-part-2-of-2/

Then one completely GUI based approach, using a QNAP NAS as the iSCSI server

 
http://berrange.com/posts/2010/05/04/provisioning-kvm-virtual-machines-on-iscsi-with-qnap-virt-manager-part-1-of-2/

..and a virt-manager on the KVM host:

 
http://berrange.com/posts/2010/05/04/provisioning-kvm-virtual-machines-on-iscsi-with-qnap-virt-manager-part-2-of-2/

You can of course mix+match, doing the iSCSI server the manual way and the
libvirt bits the GUI way and vica-verca. Any other commercial iSCSI server
will have the same concepts so the libvirt instructions apply in all likely
scenarios.

Regards,
Daniel
-- 
|: Red Hat, Engineering, London    -o-   http://people.redhat.com/berrange/ :|
|: http://libvirt.org -o- http://virt-manager.org -o- http://deltacloud.org :|
|: http://autobuild.org        -o-         http://search.cpan.org/~danberr/ :|
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On 05/05/2010 07:23 AM, Daniel P. Berrange wrote:
> DV suggested that we document some libvirt setups using shared storage.
I'm
> not a fan of NFS, so I wrote some blog posts on how to use iSCSI in the
> context of libvirt + KVM.
Thank you for creating and sharing these.
>   
http://berrange.com/posts/2010/05/05/provisioning-kvm-virtual-machines-on-iscsi-the-hard-way-part-2-of-2/
I have a question about this example, specifically the shareable 
permission option and tag:  (perm=sh, <shareable/>)

What does that do, exactly?  Is it simply the required r/w option to 
prevent corruption of VMs when using shared storage, or is it needed 
only if the disk will be actively by more than one VM?  (That 2nd idea 
doesn't seem quite right to me, I would expect to have to use some kind 
of locking technology to prevent it two or more VMs trying to write to 
the same disk at the same time).

Thanks,
Tom

Daniel,


Thank you Very much for you efforts. I'll be studying these with interest.

I also plan on replying to the previous response to my request for help on 
shard storage later today.  I'm still trying to run some tests to see if I 
understand how the Pools vs Volumes work with libvirt and iSCSI.

Thanks again!
David.

On Wed, 5 May 2010, Daniel P. Berrange wrote:
> DV suggested that we document some libvirt setups using shared storage.
I'm
> not a fan of NFS, so I wrote some blog posts on how to use iSCSI in the
> context of libvirt + KVM.
>
> There is of course more than one way todo things, so I've outlined a
couple
> of different options. One completely manual command line approach using
> tgtadm on the iSCSI server:
>
> 
http://berrange.com/posts/2010/05/05/provisioning-kvm-virtual-machines-on-iscsi-the-hard-way-part-1-of-2/
>
> ..and virsh/virt-install on the KVM host
>
> 
http://berrange.com/posts/2010/05/05/provisioning-kvm-virtual-machines-on-iscsi-the-hard-way-part-2-of-2/
>
> Then one completely GUI based approach, using a QNAP NAS as the iSCSI
server
>
> 
http://berrange.com/posts/2010/05/04/provisioning-kvm-virtual-machines-on-iscsi-with-qnap-virt-manager-part-1-of-2/
>
> ..and a virt-manager on the KVM host:
>
> 
http://berrange.com/posts/2010/05/04/provisioning-kvm-virtual-machines-on-iscsi-with-qnap-virt-manager-part-2-of-2/
>
> You can of course mix+match, doing the iSCSI server the manual way and the
> libvirt bits the GUI way and vica-verca. Any other commercial iSCSI server
> will have the same concepts so the libvirt instructions apply in all likely
> scenarios.
>
> Regards,
> Daniel
> -- 
> |: Red Hat, Engineering, London    -o-   http://people.redhat.com/berrange/
:|
> |: http://libvirt.org -o- http://virt-manager.org -o- http://deltacloud.org
:|
> |: http://autobuild.org        -o-         http://search.cpan.org/~danberr/
:|
> |: GnuPG: 7D3B9505  -o-   F3C9 553F A1DA 4AC2 5648 23C1 B3DF F742 7D3B 9505
:|
>
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