Question

How can I create a new Compute Zone in Cloud.net environment?​

Environment

Cloud.net, all versions.

Answer

Compute zones can be used to create different tiers of service and have data stores and networks attached to them. The combination of Compute resource, data store, and network groups can be used to create private clouds for customers. Compute zones have types which are inherited by the compute resources in the zone. This section provides information on how you can create and manage compute zones.

To create a new compute zone:

1. Go to your Control Panel > Admin > Settings menu and click the Compute Zones icon.
2. Press "+" or click the Create Compute Zone button.

On the screen that follows the parameters you need to input depend on the type of the compute zone you want to create:

• Label - give your compute zone a name.

• Server type - choose the server type from the drop-down box. Choose the virtual server type to create a KVM zone.

  The zone's type cannot be changed after the zone is created.

• Location group - select the location group to which this compute zone will be assigned.

• Release resource type - this option allows you to free up the compute resource resources and over-commit RAM, CPU and CPU shares by means of the virtual servers that are shut down. By default, the compute zone is created with the Memory Guarantee option enabled. In this case the over-committing cannot be used. To enable resource releasing, choose either the Ballooning or Only Started Virtual Servers option.

  • Memory guarantee - the actual free compute resource memory is calculated. All virtual servers residing on the compute resource will be able to start. 

  • Ballooning  - free compute resource memory is calculated with the ability to use memory over-committing. 

  • Only started Virtual Servers - only the memory of running virtual servers is calculated.

• Max VS to start at once - specify the maximum number of virtual servers that can be started simultaneously on a compute resource (5 recommended). This option ensures that virtual servers with VIP status will be booted prior to other servers.

• Placement type - specify the compute resource selection algorithm, which will be used on virtual server provisioning and recovery, per compute zone.

  • Take CR with maximum free RAM (Sparse) - set this type to select the compute resource with maximum free RAM during the VS recovery. This option allows you to perform faster migration of virtual servers with a lesser (sparse) number of iterations during the failover.
    This option behaves in different ways, depending on the event:
    On provisioning, the round-robin algorithm will be used on compute resource selection.
    On recovery, the compute resource with maximum free RAM will be selected.
  • Take CR with minimum free RAM (Dense)- with this type the system selects the compute resource with minimum required free RAM. This option allows filling a compute resource as densely as possible before starting to use the next compute resource in the zone.

• Failover timeout - time period (in minutes) for which the iterations will run during the failover if the compute resource does not respond.

• CPU units - set the number of CPU units which will be assigned to each compute resource in this zone by default.

• Set max memory (appears only if the Ballooning release resource type is selected) - move the slider to the right to enable a max memory parameter for virtual servers within the compute zone

  When you enable the Set max memory option, the limit for VSs is calculated as follows:  Max Memory Limit = Memory × Compute Resource Max Memory Rate  Where:  Memory - the amount of RAM currently allocated to a virtual server Compute Resource Max Memory Rate - the default max memory rate is eight (8). If the calculated max memory limit is more than 90% of free RAM available on a compute resource, then the limit is equal to 90% of free RAM available on the compute resource.

• CPU guarantee - move the slider to the right to ensure there is enough CPU on the compute zone to create a new VS. 

• Run sysprep - move the slider to enable Windows virtual server deployment with running sysprep. If the slider is disabled and there are several simple deployed virtual servers from the same template in the cloud, they will have identical SIDS. This will result in the system conflict.

• CPU Model Configuration - select the type of CPU model configuration

  • Default KVM - regular CPU model configuration with no default CPU flags
  • Extended CPU Configuration - CPU model with a set of extended CPU flags that can be applied to new and existing VSs in a zone
  • Passthrough Host CPU - CPU model with a set of default and additional flags automatically applied to existing and new VSs

• Instance Package VSs - move the slider to the right if you want the zone to be used when creating Instance Package VSs only.

  Note that Instance Package VSs can only be created on compute resources within compute zones where all compute resources are assigned the same amount of CPU units. If there are compute resources with different amounts of CPU units set in a zone, it will not be possible to create Instance Package VSs in such zones. The reason is that CPU priority for Instance Package VSs in this configuration cannot be set to 100%, which is the default value for such virtual servers.

   

  

  3. After you fill in all the parameters, click the Save button.