Everybody talks about PowerVC since the October 8th announcement, after seeing a few videos and reading a few articles about it, I didn’t find anything telling what’s the product really has in his guts. I had the chance to deploy and test a PowerVC express version (using local storage), faced a lot of problems and found some interesting things to share with you. Rather than boiling the ocean 
and asking for new features (oh everybody wants new features !), here is a practical how-to, some tips and tricks and the lessons I’ve learned about it. After a few weeks of work I can say that PowerVC is really good and pretty simple to use and deploy. Here we go :
Preparing the PowerVC express host
Setting SELinux from enforcing to permissive
Please refer to my previous about installing a Linux On Power if you have any doubt about this. Before trying to install PowerVC express edition you first have to disable selinux or at least set the policy form enforcing to permissive. Please note that a mandatory reboot is needed for this modification :
# sed -i 's/SELINUX=enforcing/SELINUX=permissive/g' /etc/selinux/config # grep ^SELINUX /etc/selinux/config SELINUX=permissive SELINUXTYPE=targeted
Reboot the PowerVC express host :
[root@powervc-standard ~]# shutdown -fh now Broadcast message from root@powervc-standard (/dev/pts/0) at 15:43 ... The system is going down for halt NOW!
Yum repository
Before running the installer you have to configure your yum repository because the installer needs to install rpm shipped with the Red Hat Enterprise installation cdrom. I choose to use the cdrom as repository but this one can be served through http, without any problems :
# mkdir /mnt/cdrom ; mount -o loop /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom # cat /etc/yum.repos.d/rhel-cdrom.repo [rhel-cdrom] name=RHEL Cdrom baseurl=file:///mnt/cdrom gpgckeck=0 enabled=1 # yum update # yum upgrade
If using x86 version : noop scheduler
If you are using the x86 version of PowerVC express you can experience some slowness while trying to install the product. In my case I had to change the I/O scheduler from cfq to noop. My advice is just to temporarily enable it. My installation of PowerVC express takes hours (no joke, almost 5 hours) before changing the I/O scheduler to noop. Enabling this option reduce this time to an half hour (in my case) :
# cat /sys/block/vda/queue/scheduler noop anticipatory deadline [cfq] # echo "noop" > /sys/block/vda/queue/scheduler # cat /sys/block/vda/queue/scheduler [noop] anticipatory deadline cfq
PATH modification
Add the /opt/ibm/powervc/bin to your path to be allowed to run PowerVC commands such as powervc-console-term, powervc-services, powervc-get-token, and so on …..
# more /root/.bash_profile PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin:/opt/ibm/powervc/bin
I’ll not detail the installation here but just run this installer and follow the questions asked by the installer :
# ./install Select the offering type to install: 1 - Express (IVM support) 2 - Standard (HMC support) 9 - Exit 1 Extracting license content International Program License Agreement [..]
Preparing the Virtual I/O Server and the IVM
Before trying to do anything you have to configure the Virtual I/O Server and the IVM, check that all the points below are ok before registering the host :
- You need at least one Shared Ethernet Adapter to use PowerVC express, you can on an IVM have up to four Shared Ethernet Adapter.
- A virtual media repository created with at least 40Gb free.
# lsrep Size(mb) Free(mb) Parent Pool Parent Size Parent Free 40795 29317 rootvg 419328 342272
# grep MaxSessions /etc/ssh/sshd_config MaxSessions 20 # stopsrc -s sshd # startsrc -s sshd
PowerVC usage
Host Registering
It’s very easy but registering the host is one of the most important step in this configuration. Just set your IVM hostname user and password. The tricky part is to check the box to use local storage, you then have to choose the directory where images will be stored. Be careful when choosing this directory, it can’t be changed on the fly, and you have to remove and re-register the host if you want to do this. My advice is not to choose the default /home/padmin directory, and to create a dedicated logical volume for this.
If the host registration fails check all the Virtual I/O Server prerequisites, then retry. If it fails again check the /var/log/nova/api.log and /var/log/nova/compute_xxx.log
Manage existing Virtual Machines
Unlike VMcontrol PowerVC allows to manage existing machines, so if your IVM is correctly configured, you’ll not have trouble to import existing machines, and manage them with PowerVC. This is one of the strength of PowerVC, it assure a backward compatibility for your existing Virtual I/O Clients. And it’s simple to use (look at the images below) :
Network Definition
Create a network using one of your Shared Ethernet Adapter to be able to deploy machines :
First installation with ISO image
Importing ISO images
For the first installation (if you do not have any systems already installed on your system) you first need to import an iso to PowerVC, be very careful to read the next steps because I had a lot problems of space with this. Importing images is managed by glance, so if you have any problem checking in /var/log/glance file can be useful (putting in verbose mode too in /etc/glance/glance.conf). Just use the powervc-iso-import command to do so :
# powervc-iso-import --name aix-7100-02-02 --os-distro aix --location /root/AIX_7.1_Base_Operating_System_TL_7100-02-02_DVD_1_of_2_32013.iso Password: +----------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | Property | Value | +----------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | Property 'architecture' | ppc64 | | Property 'hypervisor_type' | powervm | | Property 'os_distro' | aix | | checksum | df548a0cc24dbec196d0d3ead92feaca | | container_format | bare | | created_at | 2014-02-04T19:45:29.125109 | | deleted | False | | deleted_at | None | | disk_format | iso | | id | ee0a6544-c065-4ab7-aec8-7d6ee4248672 | | is_public | True | | min_disk | 0 | | min_ram | 0 | | name | aix-7100-02-02 | | owner | 437b161186414e2bb0d4778cbd6fa14c | | protected | False | | size | 3835723776 | | status | active | | updated_at | 2014-02-04T19:49:29.031481 | +----------------------------+--------------------------------------+
The result of the command above do not tell you anything about what is really done by the command.
Images are stored forever in /var/lib/glance/images and copied here by powerc-iso-import, this is the place where you need to have free space, don’t forget to remove you source image from the PowerVC host or you’ll need to have more space (in fact double space :-)). Check the /var/lib/glance/images while running powervc-iso-import shows you that images are copied :
# ls -lh /var/lib/glance/images total 3.3G -rw-r-----. 1 glance glance 3.3G Feb 4 22:08 3b95401b-85b4-4682-a7a5-332ea9e48348 # ls -lh /var/lib/glance/images total 3.4G -rw-r-----. 1 glance glance 3.4G Feb 4 22:09 3b95401b-85b4-4682-a7a5-332ea9e48348
Deploying a Virtual Machine with ISO image :
Be careful when deploying images to have enough space in /home/padmin directory of the Virtual I/O Server : images are first copied to this directory before being available on the Virtual I/O Server media repository in /var/vio/VMLibrary (they are -apparently- removed later). On the PowerVC host itself, be careful to have enough space in /var/lib/nova/images and /var/lib/glance/images. On the PowerVC host images are stored by glance PowerVC so DON’T DELETE IMAGES in /var/lib/glance/images ! My understanding of this is that images are copied on fly from glance (/var/lib/images/glances) where images are stored (by powervc-import-iso), to nova (/var/lib/nova/images) where images are copied and then sent to the Virtual I/O Server, and then added to the Virtual I/O Server repository. PowerVC is using ftp to copy files to the Virtual I/O Server, so be sure to have ports open between PowerVC host and the Virtual I/O Server.
- Here is an exemple of iso file present in /home/padmin on the Virtual I/O Server when deploying a server with an image, below we can see that image was copied in /var/lib/nova/images before beeing copied on the Virtual I/O Server :
padmin@deckard# ls *.iso config rhel-server-6.4-beta-ppc64-dvd.iso smit.script 89386e2e-c2f0-4f9d-b0f4-267f4a99dc1e.192_168_0_100.iso rhel-server-ppc-6.4-boot.iso smit.transaction ioscli.log smit.log tivoli [root@powervc-express ~]# ls -l /var/lib/nova/images/ total 4579236 -rw-r--r--. 1 nova nova 4689133568 Feb 4 22:31 89386e2e-c2f0-4f9d-b0f4-267f4a99dc1e.192_168_0_100.iso
padmin@deckard# ps -ef | grep mkvopt padmin 6422716 8519802 0 05:41:42 - 0:00 ioscli mkvopt -name 89386e2e-c2f0-4f9d-b0f4-267f4a99dc1e -file /home/padmin/89386e2e-c2f0-4f9d-b0f4-267f4a99dc1e.192_168_0_100.iso -ro padmin 8519802 10485798 0 05:41:42 - 0:00 rksh -c ioscli mkvopt -name 89386e2e-c2f0-4f9d-b0f4-267f4a99dc1e -file /home/padmin/89386e2e-c2f0-4f9d-b0f4-267f4a99dc1e.192_168_0_100.iso -ro;echo $? padmin 10158232 9699504 2 05:42:30 pts/0 0:00 grep mkvopt
padmin@deckard# lsmap -all SVSA Physloc Client Partition ID --------------- -------------------------------------------- ------------------ vhost0 U8203.E4A.06E7E53-V1-C11 0x00000002 VTD vtopt0 Status Available LUN 0x8200000000000000 Backing device /var/vio/VMLibrary/89386e2e-c2f0-4f9d-b0f4-267f4a99dc1e Physloc Mirrored N/A VTD vtscsi0 Status Available LUN 0x8100000000000000 Backing device lv00 Physloc Mirrored N/A padmin@deckard# lsrep Size(mb) Free(mb) Parent Pool Parent Size Parent Free 40795 29317 rootvg 419328 342272 Name File Size Optical Access 89386e2e-c2f0-4f9d-b0f4-267f4a99dc1e 4472 vtopt0 ro fa9b3cf0-a649-4bf0-b309-5f2bab6379ea 3659 None ro rhel-server-ppc-6.4-boot.iso 227 None ro rhel-server-ppc-6.4.iso 3120 None ro
When deploying an iso image after all the steps below are finished the Virtual Machine newly created will be in shutoff state :
Run the console term before starting the Virtual Machine, then start the Virtual Machine (by PowerVC) :
# powervc-console-term tyler61 Password: Starting terminal.
# powervc-console-term --f mary Password: Multiple servers were found with the same name. Specify the server ID. 089ecbc5-5bed-4d06-8659-bf7c57529c95 mary 231ad074-7557-42b5-82b9-82ae2483fccd mary powervc-console-term --f 089ecbc5-5bed-4d06-8659-bf7c57529c95
padmin@deckard# ps -ef | grep -i mkvt padmin 2556048 8323232 0 06:39:15 pts/1 0:00 rksh -c ioscli rmvt -id 2 && ioscli mkvt -id 2 && exit
Then follow the instruction on the screen to finish these first installation (like if you were installing an AIX form the cdrom):
IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM
IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM IBM
-
Elapsed time since release of system processors: 151 mins 48 secs
/
Elapsed time since release of system processors: 151 mins 57 secs
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to AIX.
boot image timestamp: 18:20:10 02/04/2013
The current time and date: 05:00:31 02/05/2014
processor count: 1; memory size: 2048MB; kernel size: 29153194
boot device: /vdevice/v-scsi@30000002/disk@8200000000000000:\ppc\chrp\bootfile.exe
kernel debugger setting: enabled
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AIX Version 6.1
Preparing the capture of the first installed Virtual Machine
The Activation Engine
Before capturing the Virtual machine run the Activation Engine. The script will allow the machine to be captured and the captured image to be automatically reconfigured on the fly after first boot time. Be careful when running the Activation Engine, the Virtual Machine will be shut-off just by running this script.
# scp 192.168.0.98:/opt/ibm/powervc/activation-engine/vmc.vsae.tar . # tar xvf vmc.vsae.tar x activation-engine-2.2-106.aix5.3.noarch.rpm, 1240014 bytes, 2422 media blocks. [..] x aix-install.sh, 2681 bytes, 6 media blocks. # rm /opt/ibm/ae/AP/* # cp /opt/ibm/ae/AS/vmc-network-restore/resetenv /opt/ibm/ae/AP/ovf-env.xml # JAVA_HOME=/usr/java5/jre # ./aix-install.sh Install VSAE and VMC extensions package activation-engine-jython-2.2-106 is already installed package activation-engine-2.2-106 is already installed package vmc-vsae-ext-2.4.4-1 is already installed # /opt/ibm/ae/AE.sh --reset JAVA_HOME=/usr/java5/jre [..] [2014-02-04 23:49:51,980] INFO: OS: AIX Version: 6 [..] [2014-02-04 23:51:20,095] INFO: Cleaning AR and AP directories [2014-02-04 23:51:20,125] INFO: Shutting down the system SHUTDOWN PROGRAM Tue Feb 4 23:51:21 CST 2014 Broadcast message from root@tyler (tty) at 23:51:21 ... shutdown: PLEASE LOG OFF NOW !!! System maintenance is in progress. All processes will be killed now. Broadcast message from root@tyler (tty) at 23:51:21 ... shutdown: THE SYSTEM IS BEING SHUT DOWN NOW [..] Wait for '....Halt completed....' before stopping. Error reporting has stopped.
Capturing the host
Just select the virtual machine you want to capture, and click capture 
:
Here are the step realized by PowerVC when running a capture (so be careful to have enough space on PowerVC and Virtual I/O Server before running it :
- By looking on the Virtual I/O Server itself, the main capture process is a simple dd command capturing the logical volume of the physical volume used as rootvg backing device, once the dd is finished this one is gzipped (in /home/padmin) :
padmin@deckard# ps -ef | grep dd
root 5832754 7078058 9 06:54:09 - 0:01 dd if=/dev/lv00 bs=1024k
root 7078058 9043976 82 06:54:09 - 0:14 dd if=/dev/lv00 bs=1024k
padmin 8388674 9699504 2 06:59:20 pts/0 0:00 grep dd
padmin@deckard# ls -l /home/padmin/5154d176-6c3b-4eda-aa20-998deb207ca8.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root staff 6102452605 Feb 05 07:13 5154d176-6c3b-4eda-aa20-998deb207ca8.gz
padmin@deckard# ps -ef | grep ftp padmin 7012516 9699504 1 07:20:47 pts/0 0:00 grep ftp padmin 7078072 4587660 47 07:14:18 - 0:11 ftpd [root@powervc-express ~]# ls -l /var/lib/nova/images total 4666504 -rw-r--r--. 1 nova nova 4778496000 Feb 5 00:22 5154d176-6c3b-4eda-aa20-998deb207ca8.gz
# ls -l /var/lib/glance/images total 6453096 -rw-r-----. 1 glance glance 1918828544 Feb 5 00:30 5154d176-6c3b-4eda-aa20-998deb207ca8 -rw-r-----. 1 glance glance 4689133568 Feb 4 22:26 89386e2e-c2f0-4f9d-b0f4-267f4a99dc1e
Deploying
Deploying an host is very easy, just follow the instruction :
- Here is an example of a deploy screen (I like visual thing when reading documents :-)) :
- Choose on which host you want to deploy the machine. You can on this step select the number of instance to deploy (you had to have a dhcp network configured for multiple instance), and select the size of the machine (by default a few one are pre-defined but you can define you own templates) :
- PowerVC is smart enough to tell you a prediction of your machine usage. (It will show you in yellow the whole usage of your Power Server after the machine deployment (practical, and visual, love it !) :
- Then just wait for the deployment to finish, steps are the same as an iso deployment, but the activation engine will be started at first boot to reconfigure the virtual machine :
Here is a image to sum-up the capture, the ISO deployment, and a deployment of a Virtual Machine, I think it’ll be easier for you to understand with an image :
Tips and tricks
Using PowerVC express on Power 6 machines
There are a few things not written and tell in the manual. By looking in the source code you can find an hidden option to add in the /etc/nova/nova.conf file. There is one very interesting option for PowerVC express that allows you to try it on a Power6 server. If you want to do this, just add ivm_power6_enabled = true to /etc/nova/nova.conf. Restart PowerVC service before you can add any Power 6 server. The piece of code can be found in /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/powervc_discovery/registration/compute/ivm_powervm_registrar.py file :
LOG.info("ivm_power6_enabled set to TRUE in nova.conf, "
"so POWER6 will be allowed for testing")
If you want to do so, just add it in the /etc/nova/nova.conf file in the [DEFAULT] section
# grep power6 /etc/nova/nova.conf ivm_power6_enabled = true
Just for the story, I was sure this was possible because the first presentation I’ve found on the internet about PowerVC was on PowerVC Express on a 8203-EA4 machine which is a Power 6 machine, the screenshots provided in these presentation were enough to tell me it was possible (don’t blame anybody for this). Next grep was my best friend to find were this option was hidden. Be aware that this option is only available for test purpose, so don’t open a PMR about this or it’ll be directly closed by IBM. Once again if IBMers are reading this one, tell me if it is ok to publish this option. If not I can remove it from the post.
Enabling verbose and debug output
PowerVC is not verbose at all when something is going wrong it’s sometimes difficult to check what is going on. First off all, the product is based on OpenStack so you’ll have access to all OpenStack log files. These files are located to /var/log/nova, /var/log/glance and so on. By default debug and verbose output are disabled for each OpenStack part. This is not supported by PowerVC but you can enable this verbose and debug output. For instance I had problem with nova when registering an host, putting verbose and debug mode in /etc/nova/nova.conf helped me a lot and let me check the ssh command run on the Virtual I/O Server (look for on the example below):
# grep -iE "verbose|debug" /etc/nova/nova.conf verbose=true debug=true # vi /var/log/nova/compute-192_168_0_100.log 2014-02-16 22:07:48.523 13090 ERROR powervc_nova.virt.ibmpowervm.ivm.exception [req-a4bee79a-5eb8-43fd-8ca6-ed75ebee880f 04c4ca89f32046ed91e0493c9e554d1d 437b161186414e2bb0d4778cbd6fa14c] Unexpected exception while running IVM command. Command: mksyscfg -r lpar -i "max_virtual_slots=64,max_procs=4,lpar_env=aixlinux,desired_procs=1,min_procs=1,proc_mode=shared,virtual_eth_adapters=\"36/0/1//0/0\",desired_proc_units=0.100000000000000,sharing_mode=uncap,min_mem=512,desired_mem=512,virtual_eth_mac_base_value=fa3f3d3cae,max_proc_units=4,lpar_proc_compat_mode=default,name=priss-6712136f-000000cd,max_mem=4096,min_proc_units=0.1" Exit code: 1 Stdout: [] Stderr: ['[VIOSE01040181-0025] Value for attribute desired_proc_units is not valid.', '']
Using the PowerVC Rest API
Systems engineers and systems administrator like me are rarely using REST APIs. If you want to automate some PowerVC actions such as deploying virtual machines without the need to go one the web interface you have to use the REST API provided with PowerVC. First of all here are the places where you’ll find some useful documentation for the PowerVC REST API
- On the PowerVC inforcenter, you’ll find good tips and tricks for using the REST API :
- The PowerVC programming guide :
PowerVC is providing a script that is using the REST API. This one will generate an API token used for each calls of the API. This script is written in Python so I decided to take this script as reference to develop my own scripts based on this one :
- You first have to use powervc-get-token to generate a token used to call the API. In general GET requests are used to query PowerVC (list virtual machines, list networks), and POST request to create things (create a network, create a virtual machine).
- Get an API token to begin, by using powervc-get-token :
# powervc-get-token Password: 323806024c70455d84a7a1db900a4f89
import httplib
import json
import os
import sys
def main():
token = raw_input("Please enter PowerVC token : ")
print "PowerVC token used = "+token
conn = httplib.HTTPSConnection('localhost')
headers = {"X-Auth-Token":token, "Content-type":"application/json"}
body = ""
conn.request("GET", "/powervc/openstack/identity/v2.0/tenants", body, headers)
response = conn.getresponse()
raw_response = response.read()
conn.close()
json_data = json.loads(raw_response)
print json.dumps(json_data, indent=4, sort_keys=True)
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
# ./powervc-get-tenants
Please enter PowerVC token : a3a9904fa5a24a24aa6833358f54c7ce
PowerVC token used = a3a9904fa5a24a24aa6833358f54c7ce
{
"tenants": [
{
"description": "IBM Default Tenant",
"enabled": true,
"id": "437b161186414e2bb0d4778cbd6fa14c",
"name": "ibm-default"
}
],
"tenants_links": []
}
import httplib
import json
import os
import sys
def main():
token = raw_input("Please enter PowerVC token : ")
print "PowerVC token used = "+token
tenant_id = raw_input("Please enter PowerVC Tenant ID : ")
print "Tenant ID = "+tenant_id
conn = httplib.HTTPSConnection('localhost')
headers = {"X-Auth-Token":token, "Content-type":"application/json"}
body = ""
conn.request("GET", "/powervc/openstack/network/v2.0/networks", body, headers)
response = conn.getresponse()
raw_response = response.read()
conn.close()
json_data = json.loads(raw_response)
print json.dumps(json_data, indent=4, sort_keys=True)
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
# ./powervc-list-networks
Please enter PowerVC token : a3a9904fa5a24a24aa6833358f54c7ce
PowerVC token used = a3a9904fa5a24a24aa6833358f54c7ce
Please enter PowerVC Tenant ID : 437b161186414e2bb0d4778cbd6fa14c
Tenant ID = 437b161186414e2bb0d4778cbd6fa14c
{
"networks": [
{
"admin_state_up": true,
"id": "83e233a7-34ef-4bf2-ae95-958046da770f",
"name": "local_net",
"provider:network_type": "vlan",
"provider:physical_network": "default",
"provider:segmentation_id": 1,
"shared": false,
"status": "ACTIVE",
"subnets": [
"6b76f7e6-02fa-427f-9032-e8d28aaa6ef4"
],
"tenant_id": "437b161186414e2bb0d4778cbd6fa14c"
}
]
}
import httplib
import json
import os
import sys
def main():
token = raw_input("Please enter PowerVC token : ")
print "PowerVC token used = "+token
tenant_id = raw_input("Please enter PowerVC Tenant ID : ")
print "Tenant ID ="+tenant_id
conn = httplib.HTTPSConnection('localhost')
headers = {"X-Auth-Token":token, "Content-type":"application/json"}
body = ""
conn.request("GET", "/powervc/openstack/compute/v2/"+tenant_id+"/images", body, headers)
response = conn.getresponse()
raw_response = response.read()
conn.close()
json_data = json.loads(raw_response)
print json.dumps(json_data, indent=4, sort_keys=True)
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
# ./powervc-list-images
Please enter PowerVC token : a3a9904fa5a24a24aa6833358f54c7ce
PowerVC token used = a3a9904fa5a24a24aa6833358f54c7ce
Please enter PowerVC Tenant ID : 437b161186414e2bb0d4778cbd6fa14c
Tenant ID = 437b161186414e2bb0d4778cbd6fa14c
{
"images": [
{
"id": "0537da41-8542-41a0-b1b0-84ed75c6ed27",
"links": [
{
"href": "http://localhost:8774/v2/437b161186414e2bb0d4778cbd6fa14c/images/0537da41-8542-41a0-b1b0-84ed75c6ed27",
"rel": "self"
},
{
"href": "http://localhost:8774/437b161186414e2bb0d4778cbd6fa14c/images/0537da41-8542-41a0-b1b0-84ed75c6ed27",
"rel": "bookmark"
},
{
"href": "http://192.168.0.12:9292/437b161186414e2bb0d4778cbd6fa14c/images/0537da41-8542-41a0-b1b0-84ed75c6ed27",
"rel": "alternate",
"type": "application/vnd.openstack.image"
}
],
"name": "ted_capture_201402161858"
}
]
}
import httplib
import json
import os
import sys
def main():
token = raw_input("Please enter PowerVC token : ")
print "PowerVC token used = "+token
tenant_id = raw_input("Please enter PowerVC Tenant ID : ")
print "Tenant ID ="+tenant_id
headers = {"Content-Type": "application/json"}
conn = httplib.HTTPSConnection('localhost')
headers = {"X-Auth-Token":token, "Content-type":"application/json"}
body = {
"server": {
"flavor": {
"OS-FLV-EXT-DATA:ephemeral": 10,
"disk": 10,
"extra_specs": {
"powervm:proc_units": 1
},
"ram": 512,
"vcpus": 1
},
"imageRef": "0537da41-8542-41a0-b1b0-84ed75c6ed27",
"max_count": 1,
"name": "api",
"networkRef": "83e233a7-34ef-4bf2-ae95-958046da770f",
"networks": [
{
"fixed_ip": "192.168.0.21",
"uuid": "83e233a7-34ef-4bf2-ae95-958046da770f"
}
]
}
}
conn.request("POST", "/powervc/openstack/compute/v2/"+tenant_id+"/servers",
json.dumps(body), headers)
response = conn.getresponse()
raw_response = response.read()
conn.close()
json_data = json.loads(raw_response)
print json.dumps(json_data, indent=4, sort_keys=True)
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
# ./powervc-create-vm
Please enter PowerVC token : a3a9904fa5a24a24aa6833358f54c7ce
PowerVC token used = a3a9904fa5a24a24aa6833358f54c7ce
Please enter PowerVC Tenant ID : 437b161186414e2bb0d4778cbd6fa14c
Tenant ID =437b161186414e2bb0d4778cbd6fa14c
{
"server": {
"OS-DCF:diskConfig": "MANUAL",
"adminPass": "LE2bqbA2y87X",
"id": "0c7521d1-7e09-4c07-bc19-40e9ac3b756f",
"links": [
{
"href": "http://localhost:8774/v2/437b161186414e2bb0d4778cbd6fa14c/servers/0c7521d1-7e09-4c07-bc19-40e9ac3b756f",
"rel": "self"
},
{
"href": "http://localhost:8774/437b161186414e2bb0d4778cbd6fa14c/servers/0c7521d1-7e09-4c07-bc19-40e9ac3b756f",
"rel": "bookmark"
}
],
"security_groups": [
{
"name": "default"
}
]
}
}
Backup and restore
PowerVC does not have any HA solution, so my advice is to run it on a ip alias and to have a second dormant PowerVC instance ready to be setup at the time you need it. To do so my advice is to regularly run a powervc-backup (why not in crontab). If you need to restore PowerVC on the dormant instance, the only thing to do is to restore the backup (put it in /var/opt/imb/powervc/backups before running powervc-restore). The backup/restore is just an export/import of each db2 database (cinder,glance,nova,…), so it can take space and time (in my case my backup takes 8Gb and restoring the backup on the dormant instance takes me 1 hour).
- Backuping :
# powervc-backup Continuing with this operation will stop all PowerVC services. Do you want to continue? (y/N):y PowerVC services stopped. Database CINDER backup completed. Database QTM_IBM backup completed. Database NOSQL backup completed. Database NOVA backup completed. Database GLANCE backup completed. Database KEYSTONE backup completed. Database and file backup completed. Backup data is in archive /var/opt/ibm/powervc/backups/20142199544840294/powervc_backup.tar.gz. PowerVC services started. PowerVC backup completed successfully.
# powervc-restore --noPrompt
Places to check
Finding information about PowerVC is not so simple, the product is still young and there are not many feedbacks and informations about it. Here are a few places to check if you have any problems. Keep in mind that the community is very active and is growing day by day :
- The linked-in PowerVC group is very useful and very active don’t hesitate to go here if you have any question about it : http://www.linkedin.com/groups/PowerVC-6610502/about
- PowerVC developer works forum : https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/groups/service/html/communityview?communityUuid=67c72dc8-51c6-4f7b-bf0d-7735620026fe
- PowerVC user guide : http://download4.boulder.ibm.com/sar/CMA/OSA/03uaa/0/powervc_pdf.pdf
- Redbook : IBM PowerVC Introduction and Configuration : http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/RedbookAbstracts/sg248199.html?Open
If I have one last word to say this one will be future. In my opinion PowerVC is the future for deployment on Power Systems. I had the chance to use VMcontrol and PowerVC : both are powerful, but the second is so simple to use that I can easily say that it will be used by IBM customers (has anyone used VMcontrol in production outside of PureSystems ?). Where VMcontrol has fail PowerVC can succeed …. but looking in the code you’ll find some part of VMcontrol (in the Activation Engine). So the ghost of VMcontrol is not so far and wil surely be kicked by PowerVC. Once again, I hope it helps, comments are welcome, I really need it to be sure my posts are useful and simple to understand.
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