kolla-ansible/doc/source/reference/compute/xenserver-guide.rst

XenServer

Overview

Kolla can deploy the OpenStack services on XenServer hosts by choosing xenapi as the compute virt driver.

In XenServer, there is a privileged domain which is known as dom0; and it can run a number of un-privileged domains which are known as domUs or VMs.

Most OpenStack services (e.g. Keystone, Glance, Horizon) can run either in the XenServer VMs or in separate baremetal hosts, but some services (which make direct use of the hypervisor) must run in the XenServer VMs. These services will interact with the XenServer host via XenAPI to perform privileged operations. See the following list for such kind of services:

• nova-compute
• neutron-openvswitch-agent-xenapi
• ceilometer-compute

Note

At the moment, only CentOS 7.x has been tested.

Preparation for compute node on XenServer hosts

We need some bootstrap tasks particularly for XenAPI compute nodes. The tasks are implemented in the package of python-os-xenapi and exposed to kolla-ansible via a single command - xenapi_bootstrap. This package is contained in the RDO CloudSIG repository [RDO repos] and will be installed on compute nodes at nova deployment. So we need ensure this repository is reachable from the compute nodes or cache the repository locally.

Create a compute VM on each XenServer host which will be used to boot instances on. The VM must meet the common requirements declared by kolla-ansible for KVM/QEMU deployment.

Additionally you should install PV driver in the VM [XenServer documents]; and create the HIMN(Host Internal Management Network) for each compute VM by following these steps:

1. In XenCenter, from the menu choose "View -> Hidden Objects";
2. You will see HIMN in the host's 'Networking' page;
3. Create an interface on HIMN for the compute VM.

The remaining instructions are just the same as the preparations for KVM/QEMU deployment.

Deployment

Enable the virt type xenapi and configure connection options in /etc/kolla/globals.yml:

nova_compute_virt_type: "xenapi"
xenserver_username: "root"
xenserver_connect_protocol: "https"

Note

When using https as the connection protocol, please refer XenServer user document to setup the signed SSL certificates to allow the secure communications between dom0 and domU. Otherwise, please use http for self-signed certificates.

You also need set the password for xenserver_username in /etc/kolla/passwords.yml:

xenserver_password: "root_password"

Then you can start kolla-ansible deployment just following the general deployment instructions [Quick Start].

References

For more information on XenAPI OpenStack, see:

XenAPI OpenStack: https://docs.openstack.org/nova/latest/admin/configuration/hypervisor-xen-api.html