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Ceph is quite complicated, and I suspect you're going to run into
serious issues trying to get RBD support in iPXE. You'd really need
to implement a tiny RBD client, which sounds like it would be pretty
complicated.<br>
<br>
I'd suggest an alternative: Store the linux kernel and initramfs in
Ceph Object Storage. iPXE can already boot from HTTP, so you can
load your kernel/initrd via object storage, then let the kernel
handle booting from the RBD.<br>
<br>
I can't really help with how to get the XenServer initrd to support
Ceph, but that seems like a far simpler process then updating iPXE
to support Ceph.<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 5/13/2014 11:23 AM, Stephen Perkins
wrote:<br>
</div>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Hi all,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I have a goal in mind and I'm not entirely
sure how to reach it. So… with this in mind, I thought I
would discuss what I want as an end result and then ask if a
certain approach may make sense.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">End goal: Create a highly available (no
single point of failure) scale out infrastructure for booting
and running diskless XenServer hosts and lots of Guest
Operating systems that have live migration capabilities. I
want this with as few systems in place as is possible.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">While most people will start down the iSCSI
path, I am not entirely sure that this is the approach I would
like to look at. The iPXE full iSCSI stack is awesome and
provides great capabilities but it requires a lot of
clustering work to make it highly available. This is
compounded if you want a cluster with more than 2 nodes.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I am interested in using the ceph clustered
storage system. This system already provides me with a highly
available scale out solution and… once configured and working
give me the highly available storage I want and integrates
well with the Xen Clients.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But… the hard part is that I want to boot
diskless XenServers from this ceph store. This is where:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> 1) iPXE comes in<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> 2) My knowledge about ends<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My thought is that I would boot a
customized iPXE from a tiny USB DOM or a highly available
DHCP/TFTP/PXEboot infrastructure. Once iPXE is running, I
would like to boot directly from a ceph cluster volume instead
of the more standard iSCSI volume.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So, I wanted to ask thoughts on whether it
makes sense to try to develop another backend connectivity
option to iPXE. I would like to look at adding a ceph/RBD
option that will allow me to provide a list of IP addresses
(and other needed config info) for the ceph cluster and allow
me to mount a ceph store to boot from.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Then… I would have to address the problem
of how to get an initrd for XenServer that would have the ceph
modules available and allow me to boot a root file system from
there.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Is iPXE the correct place to look to help
provide this?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Is this a hugely monumental project… or
just a monumental project (given that the ceph client code
exists and is open source)…<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I thought I would reach out here before I
wrote to the ceph group. I my approach is embarrassingly
wrong, please feel free to let me know!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Thanks,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">- Steve<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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