2.6 Requirements and Cloud Manager Support for the Virtual Environment

The following table lists the virtual machine technologies or hypervisors, the host operating system for these technologies, the guest operating systems (also known as virtual machines (VMs) or “workloads”) supported by these technologies, and the provisioning adapter job available in the Cloud Manager Orchestration Server that is used to provision and manage the life cycle of the VMs.

More information about RHEL 6 VM support in Cloud Manager is also provided in this section.

For more detail about the life cycle management capabilities of Cloud Manager Orchestration, see Section 11.0, Configuring Orchestration Provisioning Adapters.

Table 2-3 VM Technologies with Supported Host Operating Systems, Guest Operating System, and Provisioning Adapter

Hypervisor or Virtualization Technology

Host Operating System (that is, “VM Hosts”)

Guest Operating System (that is, “VMs” or “Workloads)

Orchestration Provisioning Adapter

  • VMware vSphere 4

  • VMware vSphere 5 ESXi only

  • VMware vSphere 5.1 ESXi only

Subject to the VMware support matrix

  • SLES 10 SP4

  • SLES 11 (latest SP)

  • RHEL 61

  • Windows Server 2003 R2 (latest SP)

  • Windows Server 2008 R2 (latest SP)

vsphere

Citrix XenServer 6 Free Edition

Citrix XenServer

  • Windows Server 2008 R2 (latest SP)

  • Windows Server 2003 R2 (latest SP)

  • SLES 11 (latest SP)

  • SLES 10 SP4

  • RHEL 6 (latest SP)

  • CentOS 6

xenserv

Citrix XenServer 6 Enterprise Edition

Citrix XenServer

  • Windows Server 2008 R2 (latest SP)

  • Windows Server 2003 R2 (latest SP)

  • SLES 11 (latest SP)

  • SLES 10 SP4

  • RHEL 6 (latest SP)

  • CentOS 6

xenserv

Microsoft Hyper-V4

Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V enabled

  • Windows Server 2008 R2 (latest SP)

  • Windows Server 2003 R2 (latest SP)

hyperv

  • SUSE Xen 4.0

  • SLES 11 (latest SP)

  • SLES 10 (latest SP)

  • SLES 11 (latest SP)

  • RHEL 5 (latest SP)

  • RHEL 6 (latest SP)1

  • Windows Server 2003 R2 (latest SP)2

  • Windows Server 2008 R2 (latest SP)2

xen

Kernel-based Virtual Machine for Linux (KVM)

SLES 11 SP1 or SP2 running libvirt 0.7.6 or greater

Subject to the published KVM support matrix

kvm

1 For more information about RHEL 6 VM support, see RHEL 6 VM Support, below.

2 Windows VMs running on the Xen hypervisor require a VM host CPU with the Intel VT or AMD-V technology available and enabled.

4 A complete listing of guest OS support for the Hyper-V hypervisor is available at the Microsoft TechNet Web site and at the Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V product page. This matrix shows only those guest OS’s supported by Cloud Manager.

RHEL 6 VM Support

You need to be aware of the following limitations of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 VMs in the NetIQ Cloud Manager environment:

  1. In the file structure of the template VM, open the /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules file and remove all its lines.

  2. In the file structure of the template VM, open the /lib/udev/write_net_rules file and comment (that is, add a # sign preceding the code) the line that looks similar to this:

    write_rule "$match" "$INTERFACE" "$COMMENT"
    

NOTE:Editing the template VM files assures that all its clones will work properly.

2.6.1 Requirements for Machines Designated as VM Hosts

We recommend that computers designated as VM hosts in your data center be able to host the VM and run it according to designated parameters of the specific VM. The processor architecture must match the designated VM’s processor in architecture, although not in version number. In order for a machine to serve as a host machine, it must also have a hypervisor installed along with the operating system.

Table 2-4 Minimum and Recommended Hardware Requirements for VM Host Machines

Host Operating System

Minimum Requirements

Recommended Hardware

SLES 11 SP2

  • x86_64

  • 2 GB RAM

  • 30 GB hard drive space

  • x86_64

  • 4+ GB RAM

  • 100+ GB hard drive space

SLES 11 SP1

  • x86 or x86_64

  • 2 GB RAM

  • 30 GB hard drive space

  • x86 or x86_64

  • 4+ GB RAM

  • 100+ GB hard drive space

Windows Server 2008 R2 enabled with Hyper-V

  • 1GHz (x86 processor) or 1.4GHz (x64 processor)

  • 512MB RAM

  • 10 GB hard drive space

  • 2+ GHz

  • 2+ GB RAM

  • 40+ GB hard drive space

2.6.2 Supported VMs

The following table lists the virtual machine technologies or hypervisors, the host operating system for these technologies, the guest operating systems (also known as virtual machines (VMs) or “workloads”) supported by these technologies, and the provisioning adapter job available in the Cloud Manager Orchestration Server that is used to provision and manage the life cycle of the VMs.

For more detail about the life cycle management capabilities of Cloud Manager Orchestration, see Section 11.0, Configuring Orchestration Provisioning Adapters.

Table 2-5 VM Technologies with Supported Host Operating Systems, Guest Operating System, and Provisioning Adapter

Hypervisor or Virtualization Technology

Host Operating System (that is, “VM Hosts”)

Guest Operating System (that is, “VMs” or “Workloads)

Orchestration Provisioning Adapter

  • VMware vSphere 4

  • VMware vSphere 5 ESXi Only

Subject to the VMware support matrix

  • SLES 10 SP3

  • SLES 10 SP4

  • SLES 11 (latest SP)

  • RHEL 5 (latest SP)

  • RHEL 61

  • Windows Server 2003 R2 (latest SP)

  • Windows Server 2008 R2 (latest SP)

vsphere

Citrix XenServer 5.6, latest SP

Citrix XenServer

  • Windows Server 2008 R2 (latest SP)

  • Windows Server 2003 R2 (latest SP)

  • SLES 11 (latest SP)

  • RHEL 5 (latest SP)

  • RHEL 6 (latest SP)

xenserv

Microsoft Hyper-V4

Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V enabled

  • Windows Server 2008 R2 (latest SP)

  • Windows Server 2003 R2 (latest SP)

hyperv

  • SUSE Xen 4.0

  • SLES 11 (latest SP)

  • SLES 10 (latest SP)

  • SLES 11 (latest SP)

  • RHEL 5 (latest SP)

  • Windows Server 2003 R2 (latest SP)2

  • Windows Server 2008 R2 (latest SP)2

xen

Kernel-based Virtual Machine for Linux (KVM)

SLES 11 SP1 or SP2 running libvirt 0.7.6 or greater

Subject to the published KVM support matrix

kvm

1 For more information about RHEL 6 VM Support, see RHEL 6 VM Support, above.

2S Windows VMs running on the Xen hypervisor require a VM host CPU with the Intel VT or AMD-V technology available and enabled.

4 A complete listing of guest OS support for the Hyper-V hypervisor is available at the Microsoft TechNet Web site and at the Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V product page. This matrix shows only those guest OS’s supported by Cloud Manager.

RHEL 6 VM Support Limitations

You need to be aware of the following limitations of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 VMs in the NetIQ Cloud Manager environment:

  • The 64-bit version of RHEL 6, unlike previous versions, does not support installation of the 32-bit zos-agent*.rpm package. The install now includes a novell-zenworks-zos-agent-<version>-${release}.x86_64.rpm package that should be installed instead. This package is referenced on the http://server:8001 index page and is included in all agent directories (that is (/RHEL4 /RHEL5 /RHEL6) on the 64-bit distribution CD.

  • SLES 11 hosts can mount the ext4 file system if you load the proper kernel module on the host. You can do this by entering the following command at the command line of the SLES 11 host:

    modprobe –allow-unsupported ext4
    

    To allow the ext4 module to be loaded at boot time:

    1. Edit the /etc/modprobe.d/unsupported-modules file and set allow_unsupported_modules to 1.

    2. Edit /etc/sysconfig/kernel and add ext4 to the MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT variable.

    These procedures work only on SLES 11 kernel, not the SLES 10 kernel.

    Making these changes could make the system unavailable for support. The unsupported-modules text file states:

    Every kernel module has a ‘supported’ flag. If this flag is not set, loading this module taints your kernel. You will not get much help with a kernel problem if your kernel is marked as tainted. In this case you firstly have to avoid loading of unsupported modules.

  • Discovered RHEL 6 VMs show appropriate fact values. For example, the value for the resource.os.type fact is rhel6. The value for resource.os.vendor.string is Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 6.0 (Santiago) and the value for resource.os.vendor.version is 6. The VM Client has also been modified to show RHEL 6 as an available OS.

  • RHEL 6 uses the udev service, which testing has shown renames the network interfaces on a cloned VM and causes configuration errors. To turn of the udev service so that network configuration can work with personalization,

  1. In the file structure of the template VM, open the /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules file and remove all its lines.

  2. In the file structure of the template VM, open the /lib/udev/write_net_rules file and comment (that is, add a # sign preceding the code) the line that looks similar to this:

    write_rule "$match" "$INTERFACE" "$COMMENT"
    

NOTE:Editing the template VM files assures that all its clones will work properly.