virt-manager using iscsi

[Jon R.]

Hello,

Stats:
FC11
xen-3.4.1
virt-manager 0.7.0
2.6.31-rc6

I have setup a domU to serve up iscsi disks that are really LVs on the
host. I have configured ied.conf to use these LVs as iscsi targets. I
have an .iso loopback mounted and offered up on my webserver for HTTP
installs.

When I try to create a new domU I have to uncheck 'Enable storage for
this virtual machine' and then specify 'Add Target' during the disk
portion of the install. It finds the disk and labels it as sda but the
"What Drive Would You Like To Boot This Installation From?" is grayed
out. Unless you choose 'Custom Partition' you cannot move on. I choose
'Custom Partition' and create my partitions as simple as possible.

/boot 200MB
swap 512MB
/    Rest of drive

I hit 'Next' and the dialog box 'Creating File System On /dev/sda1'. I
watch the target server on port 3260 with tcpdump. I see traffic passing
back and forth between the domU's, the one acting as the target and the
one being installed with virt-manager.

The dialog box just stays on the console and the traffic eventually
comes to a complete stop.

I am getting nothing useful in the logs on either dom0 or domU as to why
it just dies. 

Has anybody ran into this before? 
Is this never going to work because of my setup? 

Can iSCSI be the /boot?

How do you specify iscsi using virt-install? Maybe I could get a little
more output that way.

Any ideas appreciated,

Jon

[Pasi Kärkkäinen]

On Wed, Oct 07, 2009 at 07:21:22PM -0800, Jon wrote:
>  
>  Can iSCSI be the /boot?
>   
I think it should be possible.. 

>  How do you specify iscsi using virt-install? Maybe I could get a
> little
>  more output that way.
>  
>  Any ideas appreciated,
>   
usually people use iscsi-initiator in dom0, and use phy: backed disks
for guests.. so the guest doesn't know anything about iSCSI.

Although if you have the iscsi-target as domU it might and will make
things difficult.. it'd be better to have the iscsi-target on completely
separate physical box.

-- Pasi

[itamar]

if you use gpxe it's possible to have iscsi for all, including /boot

it will require a dhcp server.



On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 5:03 AM, Pasi Kärkkäinen <pasik(a)iki.fi&gt; wrote:
>  On Wed, Oct 07, 2009 at 07:21:22PM -0800, Jon wrote:
> >
> > Can iSCSI be the /boot?
> >
>
>  I think it should be possible..
>
> > How do you specify iscsi using virt-install? Maybe I could get a little
> > more output that way.
> >
> > Any ideas appreciated,
> >
>
>  usually people use iscsi-initiator in dom0, and use phy: backed disks
>  for guests.. so the guest doesn't know anything about iSCSI.
>
>  Although if you have the iscsi-target as domU it might and will make
>  things difficult.. it'd be better to have the iscsi-target on completely
>  separate physical box.
>
>  -- Pasi
>
>  --
>  Fedora-xen mailing list
>  Fedora-xen(a)redhat.com
>  https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-xen
>  


-- 
------------

Itamar Reis Peixoto

e-mail/msn: itamar(a)ispbrasil.com.br
sip: itamar(a)ispbrasil.com.br
skype: itamarjp
icq: 81053601
[phone]
[phone]

[Pasi Kärkkäinen]

On Thu, Oct 08, 2009 at 05:11:47AM -0300, Itamar Reis Peixoto wrote:
>  if you use gpxe it's possible to have iscsi for all, including
> /boot
>  
>  it will require a dhcp server.
>   
I guess you mean using gpxe to provide iBFT ?

I _think_ fedora should support also manually configured iscsi for
root/boot..

-- Pasi

>  
>  
>  On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 5:03 AM, Pasi Kärkkäinen <pasik(a)iki.fi&gt; wrote:
>  > On Wed, Oct 07, 2009 at 07:21:22PM -0800, Jon wrote:
>  >>
>  >> Can iSCSI be the /boot?
>  >>
>  >
>  > I think it should be possible..
>  >
>  >> How do you specify iscsi using virt-install? Maybe I could get a little
>  >> more output that way.
>  >>
>  >> Any ideas appreciated,
>  >>
>  >
>  > usually people use iscsi-initiator in dom0, and use phy: backed disks
>  > for guests.. so the guest doesn't know anything about iSCSI.
>  >
>  > Although if you have the iscsi-target as domU it might and will make
>  > things difficult.. it'd be better to have the iscsi-target on completely
>  > separate physical box.
>  >
>  > -- Pasi
>  >
>  > --
>  > Fedora-xen mailing list
>  > Fedora-xen(a)redhat.com
>  > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-xen
>  >
>  
>  
>  
>  -- 
>  ------------
>  
>  Itamar Reis Peixoto
>  
>  e-mail/msn: itamar(a)ispbrasil.com.br
>  sip: itamar(a)ispbrasil.com.br
>  skype: itamarjp
>  icq: 81053601
>  [phone]
>  [phone]

[Jon R.]

Quoting Pasi Kärkkäinen <pasik(a)iki.fi&gt;:

>  On Wed, Oct 07, 2009 at 07:21:22PM -0800, Jon wrote:
> >
> > Can iSCSI be the /boot?
> >
>
>  I think it should be possible..
>
> > How do you specify iscsi using virt-install? Maybe I could get a little
> > more output that way.
> >
> > Any ideas appreciated,
> >
>
>  usually people use iscsi-initiator in dom0, and use phy: backed disks
>  for guests.. so the guest doesn't know anything about iSCSI.
>
>  Although if you have the iscsi-target as domU it might and will make
>  things difficult.. it'd be better to have the iscsi-target on completely
>  separate physical box.
>
>  -- Pasi 
I'll give that a try. I have been wondering if the way I have it setup  
is my issue. I will put it on another system and give it another try.  
Do you think if I set it up in another domU on a different xen host it  
would be alright?

Jon

[Pasi Kärkkäinen]

On Thu, Oct 08, 2009 at 12:53:41AM -0800, jonr(a)destar.net wrote:
>  Quoting Pasi Kärkkäinen <pasik(a)iki.fi&gt;:
>  
>  >On Wed, Oct 07, 2009 at 07:21:22PM -0800, Jon wrote:
>  >>
>  >>Can iSCSI be the /boot?
>  >>
>  >
>  >I think it should be possible..
>  >
>  >>How do you specify iscsi using virt-install? Maybe I could get a little
>  >>more output that way.
>  >>
>  >>Any ideas appreciated,
>  >>
>  >
>  >usually people use iscsi-initiator in dom0, and use phy: backed disks
>  >for guests.. so the guest doesn't know anything about iSCSI.
>  >
>  >Although if you have the iscsi-target as domU it might and will make
>  >things difficult.. it'd be better to have the iscsi-target on completely
>  >separate physical box.
>  >
>  >-- Pasi
>  
>  I'll give that a try. I have been wondering if the way I have it setup  
>  is my issue. I will put it on another system and give it another try.  
>  Do you think if I set it up in another domU on a different xen host it  
>  would be alright?
>   
I wouldn't run that important service on a virtual machine.

You want to minimize the latency and maximize the throughput for the
iscsi target.. 

Unless it's only for testing purposes, then it's fine.

-- Pasi

[Jon R.]

Quoting Pasi Kärkkäinen <pasik(a)iki.fi&gt;:

>  On Thu, Oct 08, 2009 at 12:53:41AM -0800, jonr(a)destar.net wrote:
> > Quoting Pasi Kärkkäinen <pasik(a)iki.fi&gt;:
> >
> > >On Wed, Oct 07, 2009 at 07:21:22PM -0800, Jon wrote:
> > >>
> > >>Can iSCSI be the /boot?
> > >>
> > >
> > >I think it should be possible..
> > >
> > >>How do you specify iscsi using virt-install? Maybe I could get a little
> > >>more output that way.
> > >>
> > >>Any ideas appreciated,
> > >>
> > >
> > >usually people use iscsi-initiator in dom0, and use phy: backed disks
> > >for guests.. so the guest doesn't know anything about iSCSI.
> > >
> > >Although if you have the iscsi-target as domU it might and will make
> > >things difficult.. it'd be better to have the iscsi-target on completely
> > >separate physical box.
> > >
> > >-- Pasi
> >
> > I'll give that a try. I have been wondering if the way I have it setup
> > is my issue. I will put it on another system and give it another try.
> > Do you think if I set it up in another domU on a different xen host it
> > would be alright?
> >
>
>  I wouldn't run that important service on a virtual machine.
>
>  You want to minimize the latency and maximize the throughput for the
>  iscsi target..
>
>  Unless it's only for testing purposes, then it's fine.
>
>  -- Pasi
>  
Thanks for the advice Pasi. It is just for testing, I want to get it  
figured out before I dedicate a box to it.

Jon

[Bill McGonigle]

On 10/07/2009 11:21 PM, Jon wrote:
>  I have setup a domU to serve up iscsi disks that are really LVs on
> the
>  host. I have configured ied.conf to use these LVs as iscsi targets. I
>  have an .iso loopback mounted and offered up on my webserver for HTTP
>  installs.
>   
...
>  The dialog box just stays on the console and the traffic eventually
>  comes to a complete stop.
>  
>  I am getting nothing useful in the logs on either dom0 or domU as to why
>  it just dies. 
>  
>  Has anybody ran into this before? 
>  Is this never going to work because of my setup?  
I had something similar, I think, with a Nexenta DomU doing ZFS storage
for the other Dom0's.  I wound up having to do:

  /usr/sbin/xm sched-credit -d 0 60000

to keep them from deadlocking.

I have iscsid mounting the volumes and then exporting them to Xen like:


'phy:/dev/disk/by-path/ip-192.168.1.3:3260-iscsi-iqn.1986-03.com.sun:02:b1723f77-ac5f-4037-a3c7-9e9458f86679-lun-0,hda,w',

What I need to do still is write a daemon to live on Dom0 that will
listen for the DomU reporting that it's up and services are ready and
then start the dependent DomU's.  Hackish, but now I have to start by
hand or make some WAG's with sleep statements.

-Bill


-- 
Bill McGonigle, Owner
BFC Computing, LLC
http://bfccomputing.com/
Telephone: [phone]
Email, IM, VOIP: bill(a)bfccomputing.com
VCard: http://bfccomputing.com/vcard/bill.vcf
Social networks: bill_mcgonigle/bill.mcgonigle

[Bill McGonigle]

On 10/19/2009 05:45 PM, Bill McGonigle wrote:
>  I had something similar, I think, with a Nexenta DomU doing ZFS
> storage
>  for the other Dom0's.  I wound up having to do: 
"for the other _DomU's_", of course.

-Bill

-- 
Bill McGonigle, Owner
BFC Computing, LLC
http://bfccomputing.com/
Telephone: [phone]
Email, IM, VOIP: bill(a)bfccomputing.com
VCard: http://bfccomputing.com/vcard/bill.vcf
Social networks: bill_mcgonigle/bill.mcgonigle