Messages in this thread | | | Subject | VHACS-VM x86_64 Alpha Preview on 45nm multicore | From | "Nicholas A. Bellinger" <> | Date | Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:02:13 -0700 |
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Greetings all,
I am pleased to announce the Alpha availibility of VHACS-VM Demo for Hardware Virtualized x86_64 running (initially) on VMWare Workstation 6. The VHACS cluster stack also obviously runs on 'bare-metal' hardware, but today VHACS-VM is the easiest method to get your own open storage cloud up and running.
What is VHACS..?
VHACS is a Cloud Storage implementation running on Linux v2.6. VHACS is an acrynom for Virtualization, High Availibility, and Cluster Storage. VHACS is a combination of at least eight (8) long term OSS/Linux based projects, along with a CLI management interface for controlling VHACS nodes, clouds, and vservers within the VHACS cluster. Here is a quick rundown of the projects (so far) that make up the VHACS cluster stack:
CLUSTER:
* ) Pacemaker The scalable High-Availability cluster resource manager formerly part of Heartbeat * ) OpenAIS The OpenAIS Standards Based Cluster Framework is an OSI Certified implementation of the Service Availability Forum Application Interface Specification (AIS)
SERVER:
* ) LIO-Target w/ IBLOCK LIO-Core subsystem plugin for iSCSI Target mode export * ) DRBD Distributed Replicated Block device for Network RAID 1 Mirrors * ) Linux Logical Volume Manager (LVM) ('vhacs' volume group for creation of VHACS clouds)
CLIENT:
* ) Open/iSCSI iSCSI Initiator client * ) Ext3 filesystem * ) Linux-Vserver Linux Virtualization Layer
I am happy to report that VHACS-VM Alpha Demo x86_64 is running 0.8.15 VHACS code, along with the many other pieces of open source infrastructure that the VHACS cloud builds upon, and providing Active/Active H/A with Synchronous Data Replication iSCSI Target ERL=2 / MC/2 export that makes up the SERVER side of the VHACS cloud. The CLIENT side of the VHACS cloud is also running an iSCSI Initiator ext3 mounted filesystem with Open/iSCSI on top of Intel 45 nanometer 'Wolfdale' microprocessor silicon and DDR2 800 memory.
Futhermore, using commerically available x86 virtualization technology on open/closed platforms, I am very happy to report that VHACS-VM 2x node clusters are now up and running across both OPEN (Linux x86_64) and CLOSED (win32) x86 platforms on top of the 45nm chips with the VMMU/VMX parts enabled. The first OS independent storage clouds running on top of v2.6.25.9-kdb are now a reality.
Here is a link to the code, screenshots, and all the goodies:
http://linux-iscsi.org/index.php/VHACS-VM http://linux-iscsi.org/index.php/VHACS
The VHACS-VM x86_64 system images, which contain a Debian Etch system iamges running the very latest compontents that make up the VHACS cluster stack. Also included in the vhac64-west and vhacs64-east system images is a complete development environment, including a KDB enabled kernel that will allow the developer to pause the running image at any time, examine memory, or setup a breakpoint to track down a problem. The x86_64 system images currently require hardware x86 virtualization, please see the wiki for more information about hardware requirements. They are available from:
http://linux-iscsi.org/builds/VHACS-VM/x86_64/vmware6/
Also, there is great interest to see VHACS-VM running on KVM and QEMU Virtualization platforms. This is something that should not be too difficult as long as the virtualization platform supports execution of x86_64 system images. i386 system images are also in the works to bring the storage cloud to legacy environments without hardware x86_64 virtualization.
Enjoy,
--nab
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