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 16 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) 16 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 Support 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.
      Screen shot showing the console button on the Virtual Machine Manager screen.
  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 AppNeta Support access to the system to install licenses. See APM-Private Cloud Maintenance.
  15. Contact AppNeta Support 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>