HVM at Gandi

Gandi's virtualization platform is migrating from XenPV – the open and powerful software virtualization technology that has been supporting our platform since 2008 –, to PVHVM with KVM – a mix of hardware and software virtualization that offers gains of performance and ease of use.

Now available for everyone for testing purposes, HVM-based servers offer the classic features of Gandi Servers – such as live-scaling of CPU*, RAM and disk – and some new perks:

• performance gains
• ability to boot a hosted kernel (like on our current platform) or custom kernels using grub
• compatible with any system that includes virtio and supports ACPI events

* Please note that hot-removal of CPU cores is not currently supported on the HVM platform. You need to stop the VM to remove CPU cores.

You can now create HVM-based servers or start migrating current servers to the new platform.

Choose between using the distributions with the kernel we provide, or build and install another system with a compatible custom kernel of your choice.

This document will show you how to get started.

We're providing three images containing an HVM-compatible 3.18 Linux kernel.

To create a new VM with HVM, simply run the following command (or select the image from the list if creating from the web interface):

Debian 7

  $ gandi vm create --image="Debian 7 64 bits (HVM)" --hostname <pick a hostname>

Debian 8

  $ gandi vm create --image="Debian 8 64 bits (HVM)" --hostname <pick a hostname>

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

  $ gandi vm create --image="Ubuntu 14.04 64 bits LTS (HVM)" --hostname <pick a hostname>

Your fully-functional VM will be created and run on our HVM platform.

If you wish to use another distribution or a custom kernel, jump to the following sections.

Follow these instructions to easily migrate your existing server to the HVM platform.

They'll walk you through the installation of the gandi-hosting-vm2 package (which will also pull-in support ACPI event packages), tweaking some settings depending on your distribution and changing your kernel to 3.18-x86_64 (hvm).

To get started, access your current VM (let's call it xenpv-server in our examples):

  local $> gandi vm ssh xenpv-server

Then, install the “gandi-hosting-vm2” package:

  xenpv-server #> apt-get install gandi-hosting-vm2

Copy-paste the following command to edit the /etc/fstab file:

  xenpv-server #> sed -i 's/xvda1/sda/' /etc/fstab

Note for Ubuntu

On Ubuntu, you also need to change the /etc/mtab file. You can copy-paste and run this command to set the correct settings:

  xenpv-server #> sed -i 's/xvda1/sda/' /etc/mtab

Note for Debian 7

Copy-paste the following code to remove the gandi-config settings from /etc/inittab on Debian 7. The new settings will be inserted automatically by gandi-hosting-vm2 at first boot.

  
  xenpv-server #> sed -i '/^# console configuration by gandi-config$/,$d' /etc/inittab
  

Once you've done the manual edits on your Ubuntu or Debian machine, you can upgrade your system's disk kernel to the HVM-compatible Linux 3.18 kernel we provide. Assuming your system disk is called xenpv-server-disk, you can use:

  local $> gandi disk update xenpv-server-disk --kernel "3.18-x86_64 (hvm)" --cmdline 'root=/dev/sda'

Now you can stop and start the VM and it'll be running on our HVM platform:

  local $> gandi vm stop xenpv-server  # soft rebooting won't hit the spot
  local $> gandi vm start xenpv-server

Finally, connect to your server again to update and upgrade any necessary packages, given the kernel upgrade:

  xenpv-server #> apt-get update
  xenpv-server #> apt-get upgrade
  xenpv-server #> reboot

And that should be enough to make your VM run smoothly on our HVM platform!

To get started, access your current VM (let's call it xenpv-server in our examples):

  local $> gandi vm ssh xenpv-server

Then, install the “gandi-hosting-vm2” package:

  xenpv-server #> yum install gandi-hosting-vm2 

Or urpmi gandi-hosting-vm2 on Mageia / Mandriva.

Copy-paste the following command to edit the /etc/fstab file:

  xenpv-server #> sed -i 's/xvda1/sda/' /etc/fstab

Once you've done the manual edits on your machine, you can upgrade your system's disk kernel to the HVM-compatible Linux 3.18 kernel we provide. Assuming your system disk is called xenpv-server-disk, you can use:

  local $> gandi disk update xenpv-server-disk --kernel "3.18-x86_64 (hvm)"

Now you can stop and start the VM and it'll be running on our HVM platform:

  local $> gandi vm stop xenpv-server  # soft rebooting won't hit the spot
  local $> gandi vm start xenpv-server

Finally, connect to your server again to update and upgrade any necessary packages, given the kernel upgrade:

  xenpv-server #> yum update
  xenpv-server #> reboot

With Mageia / Mandriva, you can use urpmi –auto-select if you're not using yum.

And that should be enough to make your VM run smoothly on our HVM platform!

You'll need to do some research to migrate other distributions to HVM while we work on providing more pre-built images. We recommend that you read the walk-through provided above and do your best to adapt the steps to your distribution. Basically, you'll need to:

1. Adapt and install the gandi-hosting-vm2 package
2. Install the equivalent of the acpid and acpi-support-base packages that are available for your distribution (as they are dependencies of gandi-hosting-vm2)
3. Change the /etc/fstab, /etc/mtab and/or /etc/inittab files, or their equivalents, to use the settings specified above and/or in the package
4. Change the kernel of the VM's system disk to “3.18-x86_64 (hvm)”, either using the CLI or the web interface
5. Stop and start the VM (not reboot or restart it)
6. Update and upgrade your system, and reboot for good luck

Look for troubleshooting tips and support contacts towards the bottom of this document if you encounter a roadblock.

On Gandi's HVM platform, you can choose to run your servers with the kernels and images we provide, or run them using your own kernels and systems either with GRUB or by booting directly from disk.

When launching a server with a grub kernel system disk, the host will boot the server using its own GRUB. The host's GRUB will then load your server's GRUB configuration from the default location on the attached system disk.

Your system disk, which can contain a custom kernel (i.e. a kernel or distribution not provided by Gandi), will then be used to boot your server, loading from the GRUB config and with the resources you allocated.

You can follow the same instructions presented above to migrate a server with GRUB, but you'll need a different kernel and add additional configurations.

Once you have installed the necessary packages and edited the system files, choose the grub kernel (instead of the 3.18 (hvm) kernel). For example:

  local $> gandi disk update xenpv-server-disk --kernel grub
  local $> gandi vm stop xenpv-server
  local $> gandi vm start xenpv-server

In addition to the Debian-related instructions detailed above, and before changing your disk's kernel, follow these steps to boot your VM with GRUB on the HVM platform:

  hvm-server #> install -m 0755 -d -o root -g root /boot/grub
  hvm-server #> apt-get install grub2-common
  hvm-server #> apt-get install linux-image-amd64
  hvm-server #> grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg # or update-grub
  local $> gandi disk update hvm-server-disk --kernel grub 
  local $> gandi vm stop hvm-server
  local $> gandi vm start hvm-server

Each distribution (or family) can have its own specific packages, paths and settings to boot with GRUB. In general, it's important that you add the following setting to your GRUB configuration to enable the emergency console, in addition to placing your GRUB configuration at the path indicated above.

  GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX='console=ttyS0'

Place FreeBSD into a non-system disk that you attach to a temporary server, where you include your GRUB config. Then create a brand new server and use the disk containing FreeBSD as the server's system disk.

First, you need to prepare your FreeBSD image locally. On a GNU/Linux workstation, for example:

local $> qemu-img create -f raw freebsd.raw 3G
local $> kvm -hda freebsd.raw -cdrom freebsd.iso -boot d -curses

-curses option will facilitate copy/paste of following commands.

At the “Partitioning” screen, choose “Shell”, then:

# newfs /dev/ada0
# cat << EOF > /tmp/bsdinstall_etc/fstab
/dev/ada0 / ufs rw 1 1
EOF
# exit

At the “Network Configuration” screen, do not configure any network interface.

At the “Manual configuration” screen, open a shell, then:

# mkdir /boot/grub
# cat << EOF > /boot/grub/grub.cfg
menuentry "FreeBSD" {
    insmod ufs2
    set root=(hd0)
    kfreebsd /boot/loader
}
EOF
# sed -i -e s/ada/da/ /etc/fstab
# echo ifconfig_vtnet0=dhcp >> /etc/rc.conf
# exit

Then, you can add it to the server.

local $> gandi vm create --hostname freebsd-temp-config

local $> gandi disk create --name freebsd-system --vm freebsd-temp-config 

local $> gandi vm ssh freebsd-temp-config

freebsd-temp-config #> # copy your FreeBSD image to the server, then:
freebsd-temp-config #> dd if=freebsd.raw of=/dev/<freebsd-system>

local $> gandi vm create --hostname freebsd 
local $> gandi disk update freebsd-system --kernel grub
local $> gandi vm ssh freebsd 

freebsd #> uname -a
> FreeBSD freebsd X.X-RELEASE FreeBSD X.X-RELEASE [...)

You can make our host boot directly from your system disk if it provides its own MBR (master boot record), allowing you to use your own bootloader for example as if you were booting on a bare metal machine.

Whereas with GRUB you avoid the need to manage things such as MBRs, partitions and other lower level concerns, you must tread with extra care when booting directly from disk.

First, create a temporary VM with the HVM kernel and add :

local $> gandi vm create --name temphvm --datacenter=LU --image="Debian 7 64 bits (HVM)"

Then, create and attach a new disk to this VM. This is the disk that you'll configure to be bootable.

local $> gandi disk create --vm temphvm --name rawbootdisk
 

Use the temp VM to copy your boot image (using dd for example).

Once ready, detach the disk from the VM and change its kernel to raw:

local $> gandi disk detach rawbootdisk
local $> gandi disk update rawbootdisk --kernel raw
local $> gandi vm delete temphvm

Finally, create a new VM and use this disk as its system image:

local $> gandi vm create --datacenter LU --image rawbootdisk

If your VM is not booting after migrating to HVM , you can either revert the kernel back to 3.10 (or another non-HVM kernel) and start over, or detach the system disk and attach it to another VM for debugging:

1. Detach your system disk from the VM ($ gandi disk detach my_boot_disk)
2. Create a new temporary VM ($ gandi vm create –hostname temphvmfix)
3. Attach your system disk to the temporary VM as a non-system disk ($ gandi disk attach my_boot_disk –vm temphvmfix)
4. Fix the errors
5. Detach the disk from the temporary VM ($ gandi disk detach my_boot_disk)
6. Reattach the disk to your VM as its system disk ($ gandi disk attach my_boot_disk –vm my_original_vm)
7. Resume testing

Please contact our Support team to report any issues.

You can also join #gandi on irc.freenode.net to hangout with our developers and other customers.