not ready for 2.1) with the AddNode and SetNodeParams LUs (so that the relevant
files will be automatically shipped to new master candidates as they are set).
+VNC Console Password
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Current State and shortcomings
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Currently just the xen-hvm hypervisor supports setting a password to connect
+the the instances' VNC console, and has one common password stored in a file.
+
+This doesn't allow different passwords for different instances/groups of
+instances, and makes it necessary to remember to copy the file around the
+cluster when the password changes.
+
+Proposed changes
+++++++++++++++++
+
+We'll change the VNC password file to a vnc_password_file hypervisor parameter.
+This way it can have a cluster default, but also a different value for each
+instance. The VNC enabled hypervisors (xen and kvm) will publish all the
+password files in use through the cluster so that a redistribute-config will
+ship them to all nodes (see the Redistribute Config proposed changes above).
+
+The current VNC_PASSWORD_FILE constant will be removed, but its value will be
+used as the default HV_VNC_PASSWORD_FILE value, thus retaining backwards
+compatibility with 2.0.
+
+The code to export the list of VNC password files from the hypervisors to
+RedistributeConfig will be shared between the KVM and xen-hvm hypervisors.
+
+Disk/Net parameters
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Current State and shortcomings
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Currently disks and network interfaces have a few tweakable options and all the
+rest is left to a default we chose. We're finding that we need more and more to
+tweak some of these parameters, for example to disable barriers for DRBD
+devices, or allow striping for the LVM volumes.
+
+Moreover for many of these parameters it will be nice to have cluster-wide
+defaults, and then be able to change them per disk/interface.
+
+Proposed changes
+++++++++++++++++
+
+We will add new cluster level diskparams and netparams, which will contain all
+the tweakable parameters. All values which have a sensible cluster-wide default
+will go into this new structure while parameters which have unique values will not.
+
+Example of network parameters:
+ - mode: bridge/route
+ - link: for mode "bridge" the bridge to connect to, for mode route it can
+ contain the routing table, or the destination interface
+
+Example of disk parameters:
+ - stripe: lvm stripes
+ - stripe_size: lvm stripe size
+ - meta_flushes: drbd, enable/disable metadata "barriers"
+ - data_flushes: drbd, enable/disable data "barriers"
+
+Some parameters are bound to be disk-type specific (drbd, vs lvm, vs files) or
+hypervisor specific (nic models for example), but for now they will all live in
+the same structure. Each component is supposed to validate only the parameters
+it knows about, and ganeti itself will make sure that no "globally unknown"
+parameters are added, and that no parameters have overridden meanings for
+different components.
+
+The parameters will be kept, as for the BEPARAMS into a "default" category,
+which will allow us to expand on by creating instance "classes" in the future.
+Instance classes is not a feature we plan implementing in 2.1, though.
+
+Non bridged instances support
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Current State and shortcomings
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Currently each instance NIC must be connected to a bridge, and if the bridge is
+not specified the default cluster one is used. This makes it impossible to use
+the vif-route xen network scripts, or other alternative mechanisms that don't
+need a bridge to work.
+
+Proposed changes
+++++++++++++++++
+
+The new "mode" network parameter will distinguish between bridged interfaces
+and routed ones.
+
+When mode is "bridge" the "link" parameter will contain the bridge the instance
+should be connected to, effectively making things as today. The value has been
+migrated from a nic field to a parameter to allow for an easier manipulation of
+the cluster default.
+
+When mode is "route" the ip field of the interface will become mandatory, to
+allow for a route to be set. In the future we may want also to accept multiple
+IPs or IP/mask values for this purpose. We will evaluate possible meanings of
+the link parameter to signify a routing table to be used, which would allow for
+insulation between instance groups (as today happens for different bridges).
+
+For now we won't add a parameter to specify which network script gets called
+for which instance, so in a mixed cluster the network script must be able to
+handle both cases. The default kvm vif script will be changed to do so. (Xen
+doesn't have a ganeti provided script, so nothing will be done for that
+hypervisor)
+
External interface changes
--------------------------
+OS API
+~~~~~~
+
+The OS API of Ganeti 2.0 has been built with extensibility in mind. Since we
+pass everything as environment variables it's a lot easier to send new
+information to the OSes without breaking retrocompatibility. This section of
+the design outlines the proposed extensions to the API and their
+implementation.
+
+API Version Compatibility Handling
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+In 2.1 there will be a new OS API version (eg. 15), which should be mostly
+compatible with api 10, except for some new added variables. Since it's easy
+not to pass some variables we'll be able to handle Ganeti 2.0 OSes by just
+filtering out the newly added piece of information. We will still encourage
+OSes to declare support for the new API after checking that the new variables
+don't provide any conflict for them, and we will drop api 10 support after
+ganeti 2.1 has released.
+
+New Environment variables
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+Some variables have never been added to the OS api but would definitely be
+useful for the OSes. We plan to add an INSTANCE_HYPERVISOR variable to allow
+the OS to make changes relevant to the virtualization the instance is going to
+use. Since this field is immutable for each instance, the os can tight the
+install without caring of making sure the instance can run under any
+virtualization technology.
+
+We also want the OS to know the particular hypervisor parameters, to be able to
+customize the install even more. Since the parameters can change, though, we
+will pass them only as an "FYI": if an OS ties some instance functionality to
+the value of a particular hypervisor parameter manual changes or a reinstall
+may be needed to adapt the instance to the new environment. This is not a
+regression as of today, because even if the OSes are left blind about this
+information, sometimes they still need to make compromises and cannot satisfy
+all possible parameter values.
+
+OS Parameters
++++++++++++++
+
+Currently we are assisting to some degree of "os proliferation" just to change
+a simple installation behavior. This means that the same OS gets installed on
+the cluster multiple times, with different names, to customize just one
+installation behavior. Usually such OSes try to share as much as possible
+through symlinks, but this still causes complications on the user side,
+especially when multiple parameters must be cross-matched.
+
+For example today if you want to install debian etch, lenny or squeeze you
+probably need to install the debootstrap OS multiple times, changing its
+configuration file, and calling it debootstrap-etch, debootstrap-lenny or
+debootstrap-squeeze. Furthermore if you have for example a "server" and a
+"development" environment which installs different packages/configuration files
+and must be available for all installs you'll probably end up with
+deboostrap-etch-server, debootstrap-etch-dev, debootrap-lenny-server,
+debootstrap-lenny-dev, etc. Crossing more than two parameters quickly becomes
+not manageable.
+
+In order to avoid this we plan to make OSes more customizable, by allowing
+arbitrary flags to be passed to them. These will be special "OS parameters"
+which will be handled by Ganeti mostly as hypervisor or be parameters. This
+slightly complicates the interface, but allows one OS (for example
+"debootstrap" to be customizable and not require copies to perform different
+cations).
+
+Each OS will be able to declare which parameters it supports by listing them
+one per line in a special "parameters" file in the OS dir. The parameters can
+have a per-os cluster default, or be specified at instance creation time. They
+will then be passed to the OS scripts as: INSTANCE_OS_PARAMETER_<NAME> with
+their specified value. The only value checking that will be performed is that
+the os parameter value is a string, with only "normal" characters in it.
+
+It will be impossible to change parameters for an instance, except at reinstall
+time. Upon reinstall with a different OS the parameters will be by default
+discarded and reset to the default (or passed) values, unless a special
+--keep-known-os-parameters flag is passed.
+
projects / ganeti-local / blobdiff