Xen Orchestra: XAPI and XenServer from the web-XPUS13 Lambert

http://xen-orchestra.com
Vates : Open source solutions
http://vates.fr
Xen Orchestra
Olivier Lambert
XO Project Leader
olivier.lambert@vates.fr
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Xen + XAPI from the Web

LinuxCon / Xen User Summit 2013 - http://xen-orchestra.com
http://vates.fr
Plan
1) Why Xen Orchestra?
2) Global design
3) Current state
4) Next steps
5) Conclusion
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http://vates.fr
Why Xen Orchestra?
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Why Xen Orchestra?
● XO was born because of this question:
'On which host is running my VM, goddammit?'
● Then I searched something which:
– Provides a Web interface for managing Xen
– Gives a global overview of VMs and their hosts
– Makes every day Xen administration easier
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http://vates.fr
Why Xen Orchestra?
Timeline
First XO XCP 1.0
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
XenServer opensourced
XO “reboot”
Project discontinued
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Why Xen Orchestra?
The reboot
● Get a simple and neat GUI for Xen
● Enjoy it with latest web technologies
● Embrace and leverage XAPI possibilities
● Driven by Open source (AGPL)
● Company support (Vates)
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Why Xen Orchestra?
Ideal specifications
● Accessible from a web browser
● Work out of the box
● Cover everyday Xen administration tasks
● Innovative interface
● Use few resources (bandwidth/cpu/ram)
● Scalable design
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Why Xen Orchestra?
What is NOT XO
● NOT a clone of XenCenter (but share the goal)
● NOT a cloud manager (e.g: OpenStack)
● NO specific agent to install on hosts or VMs
● NO complicated stack to install
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Why Xen Orchestra?
Existing GUI's for XAPI hosts
● XenCenter: Windows only (Mono?), rich client, no persistence
● Open Xen Manager: XenCenter's clone, rich client, no
persistence (last ver: 2010)
● Lot of small and/or dead projects without communities
● Specific projects: VPS vendors, big cloud interfaces (like
Cloudstack or OpenStack)
A gap exists for XO
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Global design
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Global design
Why XAPI?
● XenServer have Xen+XAPI
● XAPI available on other distros (Debian/CentOS)
● Most versatile and feature-complete stack (pools...)
● XAPI is the backbone for existing management apps
(XenCenter, xe CLI, {Open,Cloud}Stack)
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Global design
Why XAPI?
● Event tracking with progress and notifications: perfect
for XO! (always up to date, bandwidth friendly)
● Resource pools
● Storage
● VM lifecycle
● And many more!
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Global design
Architecture
● Modular architecture:
– XO-Server: persistence, connections, ACL's...
– XO-Web: interface
● Benefits:
– Uncouple interface project from backend
– Change interface or backend painlessly
– And more...
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Global design
XO Architecture
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Global design
XO Architecture
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Global design
Example
XS Master
XS host3
XS host2
XS host 4
XS host 5
Pool 1
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Global design
Example (XenCenter)
XS Master
XS host3
XS host2
XS host 4
XS host 5
Pool 1 XenCenter
Client 1
XenCenter
Client 2
XenCenter
Client 3
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http://vates.fr
Global design
Example (XO)
XS Master
XS host3
XS host2
XS host 4
XS host 5
Pool 1
XO
Web
Client 1
Web
Client 3
Web
Client 2
+ cache
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Global design
Technologies
● Rebooted with PHP again
● Not great for dealing with servers
● XML-RPC bugs in PHP lib
● Exterior criticism about this choice
We looked for a better fit
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Global design
Technologies for XO-Server
● Node.js seems promising
● Less complexity than PHP
● Better maintenance
● Adapted design for our needs
● Easy to interact with Redis (NoSQL)
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Global design
Technologies for XO-Web
● Single page app (much faster)
● Backbone.js (Marionette.js)
● WebSocket
● Twitter Bootstrap
● No more PHP, only JavaScript
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Global design
UI Design
● The most challenging part
● Data density, diversity and redundancy
● 2 parallel choices :
– Traditional solutions (tables) but always “light”
– Innovative design allows more data density
● UI research is a priority
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Global design
Classical design
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Global design
Innovative design
● Great JS lib: D3.js (http://d3js.org/)
● Plenty of examples for dealing data complexity
● Mixing symbols for displaying multiples data
And we have a Software ergonomist
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Global design
Example
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Global design
Example
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Current state
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Current state
Plug and play
● Distributed in xva appliance:
– Download
– Import
– Go on its IP in your browser
– That's it!
● No overkill stack for “just” Xen admin
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Current state
Features
● Works out the box for XenServer/XAPI hosts:
– Tested on Debian+XAPI and XS 6.2
● Overview panel
● VMs list
● VMs consoles in Firefox
● Local users and permissions
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Current state
Features
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Current state
Features
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http://vates.fr
Current state
Features
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http://vates.fr
Current state
Features
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http://vates.fr
Current state
Features
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Current state
Features
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Next steps
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Next steps
Short term (2013)
● Creating and managing VM/storage/network
● LDAP compatible backend
● Instant report and graphs with RRD's
● More innovative views
● Distro packaging
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Next steps
Mid-term (2014)
● Stable release
● Possibility of pro support or sponsoring
● Trends (RRD history, workload analysis)
● Possibilities with modular architecture:
– Other backend? (only change XO-Server)
– Research projects
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Conclusion
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Conclusion
● Website drained 4k unique visitors in August
● Visits from more than 100 countries
● Early users are enthusiasts
● Expectations are high
● Understaffing limits our developing rate
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Thank you!
● Website project: http://xen-orchestra.com
● Forum: http://xen-orchestra.com/forum
● IRC: #vates on Freenode
● Twitter: @vatesfr
Come talk to us after this talk
We'll be available here until Friday
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Xen Orchestra: XAPI and XenServer from the web-XPUS13 Lambert

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Xen Orchestra: XAPI and XenServer from the web-XPUS13 Lambert