BACD July 2012 : The Xen Cloud Platform

Editor's Notes

1. XenoServer : enablers as well the concept
2. Note: 10th birthday of the project is coming up
3. Hold this thought! We will come back to this later….!
4. PVOPS is the Kernel Infrastructure to run a PV Hypervisor on top of Linux
5. Dom 0:In a typical Xen set-up Dom0 contains a smorgasboard of functionality:System bootDevice emulation & multiplexingAdministrative toolstackDrivers (e.g. Storage & Network)Etc.LARGE TCB – BUT, Smaller as in a Type 2 hypervisorDriver/Stub/Service Domains: also known as Disaggregation
6. PVOPS is the Kernel Infrastructure to run a PV Hypervisor on top of Linux
7. Device Model emulated in QEMUModels for newer devices are much faster, but for now PV is even faster
8. Automatic PerformancePV on HVM guests are very close to PV guests in benchmarks that favour PV MMUsPV on HVM guests are far ahead of PV guests in benchmarks that favour nested paging
9. PVOPS is the Kernel Infrastructure to run a PV Hypervisor on top of Linux
10. Where are we?1) Linux 3 contains everything needed to run Xen on a Vanilla Kernel, both as Dom0 and DomU2) That’s of course a little bit of an old hat now3) But it is worth mentioning that it only took 5 years to upstream that PVOPS into the kernel
11. Just one example of a survey, many morehttp://www.colt.net/cio-research/z2-cloud-2.htmlAccording to many surveys, security is actually the main reason which makes or breaks cloud adoptionBetter security means more adoptionConcerns about security means slowed adoption
12. So for a hypervisor, as Xen which is powering 80% of the public cloud – rackspace, AWS and many other VPS providers use Xen and with cloud computing becoming mainstream, furthering security is really importantOne of the key things there is isolation between VMs, but also simplicity as I pointed out earlierBut there are also a number of advanced features in Xen, which are not that widely know. So I wanted to give you a short overview of two of them
13. Ask some questions
14. Example: XOARSelf-destructing VMs (destroyed after initialization): PCIBack = virtualize access to PCI Bus configRestartable VMs (periodic restarts): NetBack (Physical network driver exposed to guest) = restarted on timerBuilder (instantiate other VMs) = Restarted on each request
15. What about domain 0 itself?Once we've disaggregated domain 0, what will be left? The answer is: very little! We'll still have the logic for booting the host, for starting and stopping VMs, and for deciding which VM should control which piece of hardware... but that's about it. At this point domain 0 could be considered as a small "embedded" system, like a home NAT box or router.
16. Note: not exactly 1:1 with XEComparisons to other APIs in the virtualization space (source: Steven Maresca)Generally speaking XAPI is well-designed and well-executedXAPI makes it pleasantly easy to achieve quick productivityXAPI is set up to work with frameworkssuch as CloudStack and OpenStack. Some SOAPy lovers of big XML envelopes and WSDLs scoff at XML-RPC, but it certainly gets the job done with few complaintsExample codehttp://bazaar.launchpad.net/~nova-core/nova/github/files/head:/plugins/xenserver/xenapi/etc/xapi.d/plugins/   https://github.com/xen-org/xen-api/blob/master/scripts/examples/python/XenAPIPlugin.py
17. VM lifecycle (start, stop, resume) ... automation is the key pointLive snapshots: Takes a snapshot of a live VM (e.g. for disaster recovery or migration)Resource pools (multiple physical machines): XS & XCP onlylive migration: VM is backed up while running, onto shared storage (e.g. NFS) in a pool and when completed restarted elsewhere in that pool. disaster recovery: you can find lots of information on how this works at http://support.citrix.com/servlet/KbServlet/download/17141-102-19301/XenServer_Pool_Replication_-_Disaster_Recovery.pdf (the key point is that I can back up the metadata for the entire VM)Flexible storage: XAPI does hide details for storage and networkingI.e. I apply generic commands (NFS, NETAPP, iSCSI ... once its created they all appear the same) from XAPI. I only need to know the storage type when I create storage and network objects (OOL)Upgrading a host to a later version of XCP (all my configs and VMs stay the same) …and patching (broken now - bug, can apply security patches to XCP/XS or Dom0 but not DomU)
18. * Host Architectural Improvements. XCP 1.5 now runs on the Xen 4.1 hypervisor, provides GPT (new partition table type) support and a smaller, more scalable Dom0. * GPU Pass-Through. Enables a physical GPU to be assigned to a VM providing high-end graphics. * Increased Performance and Scale. Supported limits have been increased to 1 TB memory for XCP hosts, and up to16 virtual processors and 128 GB virtual memory for VMs. Improved XCP Tools with smaller footprint. * Networking Improvements. Open vSwitch is now the default networking stack in XCP 1.5 and now provides formal support for Active-Backup NIC bonding. * Enhanced Guest OS Support. Support for Ubuntu 10.04 (32/64-bit).Updated support for Debian Squeeze 6.0 64-bit, Oracle Enterprise Linux6.0 (32/64-bit) and SLES 10 SP4 (32/64-bit). Experimental VM templates for CentOS 6.0 (32/64-bit), Ubuntu 10.10 (32/64-bit) and Solaris 10. * Virtual Appliance Support (vApp). Ability to create multi-VM and boot sequenced virtual appliances (vApps) that integrate with Integrated Site Recovery and High Availability. vApps can be easily imported and exported using the Open Virtualization Format (OVF) standard.
19. * Host Architectural Improvements. XCP 1.5 now runs on the Xen 4.1 hypervisor, provides GPT (new partition table type) support and a smaller, more scalable Dom0. * GPU Pass-Through. Enables a physical GPU to be assigned to a VM providing high-end graphics. * Increased Performance and Scale. Supported limits have been increased to 1 TB memory for XCP hosts, and up to16 virtual processors and 128 GB virtual memory for VMs. Improved XCP Tools with smaller footprint. * Networking Improvements. Open vSwitch is now the default networking stack in XCP 1.5 and now provides formal support for Active-Backup NIC bonding. * Enhanced Guest OS Support. Support for Ubuntu 10.04 (32/64-bit).Updated support for Debian Squeeze 6.0 64-bit, Oracle Enterprise Linux6.0 (32/64-bit) and SLES 10 SP4 (32/64-bit). Experimental VM templates for CentOS 6.0 (32/64-bit), Ubuntu 10.10 (32/64-bit) and Solaris 10. * Virtual Appliance Support (vApp). Ability to create multi-VM and boot sequenced virtual appliances (vApps) that integrate with Integrated Site Recovery and High Availability. vApps can be easily imported and exported using the Open Virtualization Format (OVF) standard.
20. Example: XOARSelf-destructing VMs (destroyed after initialization): PCIBack = virtualize access to PCI Bus configRestartable VMs (periodic restarts): NetBack (Physical network driver exposed to guest) = restarted on timerBuilder (instantiate other VMs) = Restarted on each request
21. Hold this thought! We will come back to this later….!
22. Performance : similar to other hypervisorsMaturity: Tried & Tested, Most Problems that are Problems are well knownOpen source: Good body of Knowledge, Tools