This section provides basic information about lab’s system requirements. It also contains a description of a test which you may use to check if your hardware fits the requirements. To do this, run the test and compare the results with baseline data provided.
System packages are required for Murano
Ubuntu
Install all the requirements on Ubuntu by running:
sudo apt-get install gcc python-pip python-dev \
libxml2-dev libxslt-dev libffi-dev \
libpq-dev python-openssl mysql-client
CentOS
Install all the requirements on CentOS by running:
sudo yum install gcc python-pip python-devel libxml2-devel \
libxslt-devel libffi-devel postgresql-devel pyOpenSSL \
mysql
| Criteria | Minimal | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 4 core @ 2.4 GHz | 24 core @ 2.67 GHz |
| RAM | 8 GB | 24 GB or more |
| HDD | 2 x 500 GB (7200 rpm) | 4 x 500 GB (7200 rpm |
| RAID | Software RAID-1 (use mdadm as it will improve read performance almost two times) | Hardware RAID-10 |
Table: Hardware requirements
There are a few possible storage configurations except the shown above. All of them were tested and were working well.
1x SSD 500+ GB
the HDD and mount the SSD drive to folder where VM images are)
1x HDD (15000 rpm) 500+ GB
We have measured time required to boot 1 to 5 instances of Windows system simultaneously. You can use this data as the baseline to check if your system is fast enough.
You should use sysprepped images for this test, to simulate VM first boot.
Steps to reproduce test:
Prepare Windows 2012 Standard (with GUI) image in QCOW2 format. Let’s assume that its name is ws-2012-std.qcow2
Ensure that there is NO KVM PROCESSES on the host. To do this, run command:
ps aux | grep kvm
Make 5 copies of Windows image file:
for i in $(seq 5); do \
cp ws-2012-std.qcow2 ws-2012-std-$i.qcow2; done
Create script start-vm.sh in the folder with .qcow2 files:
#!/bin/bash
[ -z $1 ] || echo "VM count not provided!"; exit 1
for i in $(seq $1); do
echo "Starting VM $i ..."
kvm -m 1024 -drive file=ws-2012-std-$i.qcow2,if=virtio -net user -net nic,model=virtio -nographic -usbdevice tablet -vnc :$i & done
Start ONE instance with command below (as root) and measure time between VM’s launch and the moment when Server Manager window appears. To view VM’s desktop, connect with VNC viewer to your host to VNC screen :1 (port 5901):
sudo ./start-vm.sh 1
Turn VM off. You may simply kill all KVM processes by
sudo killall kvm
Start FIVE instances with command below (as root) and measure time interval between ALL VM’s launch and the moment when LAST Server Manager window appears. To view VM’s desktops, connect with VNC viewer to your host to VNC screens :1 thru :5 (ports 5901-5905):
sudo ./start-vm.sh 5
Turn VMs off. You may simply kill all KVM processes by
sudo killall kvm
The table below provides baseline data which we’ve got in our environment.
| Boot 1 instance | Boot 5 instances | |
|---|---|---|
| Avg. Time | 3m:40s | 8m |
| Max. Time | 5m | 20m |
Avg. Time refers to the lab with recommended hardware configuration, while Max. Time refers to minimal hardware configuration.
Default KVM installation could be improved to provide better performance.
The following optimizations may improve host performance up to 30%: