APM-Private Cloud - KVM Setup

APM-Private Cloud is a virtual machine (VM) image that can be deployed on customer-supplied hardware running a KVM hypervisor.

Prerequisites

The APM-Private Cloud KVM image requires KVM on a system capable of hosting a guest machine with the following minimum hardware requirements.

Component Minimum requirements
vCPUs 4
Memory 8 GB
Hard Disk 1 (pca-base) 40 GB (SSD performance required)
Hard Disk 2 (pca-data) 750 GB (SSD performance required)
Hard Disk 3 (pca-backup) 2000 GB
Hard Disk 4 (pca-flow-data) 326 GB (SSD performance required)
Network Adapter 1 x 1 GigE
Video Card 4 MB

The compute resources should be adjusted based on planned usage:

  Trial up to 250 monitoring points up to 1000 monitoring points
vCPUs 4 4 16
Memory (Gb) 8 16 64

Storage resources can be thin-provisioned. Actual storage usage may vary depending on the number of monitored paths and actual performance of monitored networks and applications.

Installing APM-Private Cloud on KVM

To install APM-Private Cloud on KVM:

  1. Contact AppNeta Customer Care for a link to an APM-Private Cloud KVM image.
  2. Copy the image to your KVM host machine.
    • Copy it to a directory where you’d like the KVM disk image files to reside.
    • For example: /data/kvm_images/myvpca
  3. Uncompress the image file.
    • tar -xvzf <KVM image filename>
    • Four .qcow2 disk image files are extracted.
  4. Create a KVM domain definition file. See Creating a KVM domain definition file.
  5. Define a virtual machine based on the KVM domain definition file.
    • virsh define <KVM domain definition file>
  6. Set the virtual machine to start automatically when the KVM host is restarted.
    • virsh autostart <KVM domain name>
    • “KVM domain name” is the same as the “name” field in the KVM domain definition file.
  7. Start the virtual machine.
    • virsh start <KVM domain name>
  8. Confirm that the virtual machine is persistent and will start automatically when the KVM host is restarted.
    • virsh list --autostart --persistent
    • You may require superuser privileges to see the list (e.g., sudo -i).
  9. Use virt-manager (or a similar application) to view the virtual machines running on the KVM host.
    • virt-manager
    • This does not have to be run on the KVM host.
  10. In virt-manager, access the APM-Private Cloud virtual machine console.
    1. Connect to the KVM host.
    2. Select the virtual machine running the APM-Private Cloud (same as “name” field in the KVM domain definition file).
    3. Click the console icon.
      vPCA-virt-manager-0.png
  11. Complete the initial setup. You will be prompted for the following information:
    • First Name - First name of the APM-Private Cloud administrator.
    • Last Name - Last name of the APM-Private Cloud administrator.
    • Email - Email address of the APM-Private Cloud administrator. This is the user ID for the account.
    • Organization Name - Name of the organization.
    • Password - Administrator account password.
    • Confirm Password - Administrator account password.
    • Hostname - Hostname for the VM (e.g., my-vpca).
    • Domain Name - Domain name the VM will exist within (e.g., mydomain.org).
    • Address Source, DHCP - Indicates that the network configuration will be provided by DHCP.
    • Address Source, Static - Indicates that the network configuration will be specified explicitly.
      • IPv4 Address - IPv4 address of the VM (e.g., 192.168.1.100).
      • NetMask - Netmask for the VM (dotted-decimal notation) (e.g., 255.255.255.0).
      • Gateway - IPv4 address of the router providing Internet access (e.g., 192.168.1.254).
      • Preferred DNS - IPv4 address of the primary DNS server (e.g., 192.168.1.201).
      • Additional DNS - IPv4 address of the secondary DNS server (e.g., 192.168.1.202).
    • Preferred NTP Servers - Hostname and domain name of the preferred NTP server (e.g., pool.ntp.org).
    • Additional NTP Servers - Comma-separated list of hostnames and domain names (or IP addresses) of additional NTP servers that may be used. (Optional)
  12. Select Finish and press Enter to complete the setup.
    • Wait for the configuration changes to be completed.
    • Record the IP address and login URL of the new APM-Private Cloud VM.
  13. From a browser, log into your APM-Private Cloud.
    • Use the IP address or login URL provided at the end of the initial setup procedure.
      • For example: https://192.168.1.100 or https://my-vpca.mydomain.org/pvc/login.html
    • Use the email address and password you provided in the setup procedure as login credentials.
  14. Provide Customer Care access to the system to install licenses. See APM-Private Cloud Maintenance.
  15. Contact AppNeta Customer Care to install your licenses.
  16. Go to APM-Private Cloud Configuration to configure APM-Private Cloud services.

Creating a KVM domain definition file

A KVM domain definition file is required to specify the configuration of the KVM virtual machine APM-Private Cloud will run on. Create a file using the XML that follows as the basis for your KVM domain definition.

Adjust the following elements and attributes as required:

  • name - The virtual machine name. This should be unique across all VMs on the KVM host.
  • vcpu - The maximum number of virtual CPUs allocated to the virtual machine. See Prerequisites for appropriate values.
  • cpu - The guest CPU requirements.
  • memory - The maximum amount of memory allocated to the virtual machine at boot time. See Prerequisites for appropriate values.
  • source file - Absolute paths to the KVM disk image files you downloaded. There are four of these that must be changed.
  • source bridge - The name of a bridge interface on the KVM host.

For information on all available elements and attributes, see the libvirt Domain XML format page.

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<domain type="kvm">
  <name>myvpca</name>
  <description>kvm vpca</description>
  <os>
    <type>hvm</type>
  </os>
  <vcpu placement='static'>4</vcpu>
  <memory unit='G'>16</memory>
  <cpu sockets='2' cores='2' threads='1'/>
  <devices>
    <disk type='file' device='disk'>
      <driver name='qemu' type='qcow2'/>
      <source file='/data/kvm_images/myvpca/pca-base.qcow2'/>
      <target dev='vda' bus='virtio'/>
    </disk>
    <disk type='file' device='disk'>
      <driver name='qemu' type='qcow2'/>
      <source file='/data/kvm_images/myvpca/pca-data.qcow2'/>
      <target dev='vdb' bus='virtio'/>
    </disk>
    <disk type='file' device='disk'>
      <driver name='qemu' type='qcow2'/>
      <source file='/data/kvm_images/myvpca/pca-backup.qcow2'/>
      <target dev='vdc' bus='virtio'/>
    </disk>
    <disk type='file' device='disk'>
      <driver name='qemu' type='qcow2'/>
      <source file='/data/kvm_images/myvpca/pca-flow-data.qcow2'/>
      <target dev='vdd' bus='virtio'/>
    </disk>
    <interface type='bridge'>
      <source bridge='extbr0'/>
      <model type='virtio'/>
    </interface>
    <graphics type="vnc" autoport="yes" multiUser='yes'/>
    <serial type='pty'>
      <target port='0'/>
    </serial>
    <console type='pty'>
      <target type='serial' port='0'/>
    </console>
  </devices>
</domain>