Provided by: ganeti-3.0_3.0.2-1ubuntu1_all 
Name
ganeti - cluster-based virtualization management
Synopsis
# gnt-cluster init cluster1.example.com
# gnt-node add node2.example.com
# gnt-instance add -n node2.example.com \
> -o debootstrap --disk 0:size=30g \
> -t plain instance1.example.com
DESCRIPTION
The Ganeti software manages physical nodes and virtual instances of a cluster based on a virtualization
software. The current version (2.3) supports Xen 3.x and KVM (72 or above) as hypervisors, and LXC as an
experimental hypervisor.
Quick start
First you must install the software on all the cluster nodes, either from sources or (if available) from
a package. The next step is to create the initial cluster configuration, using gnt-cluster init.
Then you can add other nodes, or start creating instances.
Cluster architecture
In Ganeti 2.0, the architecture of the cluster is a little more complicated than in 1.2. The cluster is
coordinated by a master daemon (ganeti-masterd(8)), running on the master node. Each node runs (as be‐
fore) a node daemon, and the master has the RAPI daemon running too.
Node roles
Each node can be in one of the following states:
master Only one node per cluster can be in this role, and this node is the one holding the authoritative
copy of the cluster configuration and the one that can actually execute commands on the cluster
and modify the cluster state. See more details under Cluster configuration.
master_candidate
The node receives the full cluster configuration (configuration file and jobs) and can become a
master via the gnt-cluster master-failover command. Nodes that are not in this state cannot tran‐
sition into the master role due to missing state.
regular
This the normal state of a node.
drained
Nodes in this state are functioning normally but cannot receive new instances, because the inten‐
tion is to set them to offline or remove them from the cluster.
offline
These nodes are still recorded in the Ganeti configuration, but except for the master daemon
startup voting procedure, they are not actually contacted by the master. This state was added in
order to allow broken machines (that are being repaired) to remain in the cluster but without cre‐
ating problems.
Node flags
Nodes have two flags which govern which roles they can take:
master_capable
The node can become a master candidate, and furthermore the master node. When this flag is dis‐
abled, the node cannot become a candidate; this can be useful for special networking cases, or
less reliable hardware.
vm_capable
The node can host instances. When enabled (the default state), the node will participate in in‐
stance allocation, capacity calculation, etc. When disabled, the node will be skipped in many
cluster checks and operations.
Node Parameters
The ndparams refer to node parameters. These can be set as defaults on cluster and node group levels,
but they take effect for nodes only.
Currently we support the following node parameters:
oob_program
Path to an executable used as the out-of-band helper. It needs to implement the corresponding in‐
terface; in particular, in needs to support the power-on, power-off, power-cycle, power-status,
and health commands. The full specification can be found in the Ganeti Node OOB Management Frame‐
work design document (implemented in Ganeti 2.4). Design documents are also available online on
http://docs.ganeti.org/.
spindle_count
This should reflect the I/O performance of local attached storage (e.g. for "file", "plain" and
"drbd" disk templates). It doesn't have to match the actual spindle count of (any eventual) me‐
chanical hard-drives, its meaning is site-local and just the relative values matter.
exclusive_storage
When this Boolean flag is enabled, physical disks on the node are assigned to instance disks in an
exclusive manner, so as to lower I/O interference between instances. This parameter cannot be set
on individual nodes, as its value must be the same within each node group. The Partitioned Ganeti
design document (implemented in Ganeti 2.9) contains more details.
ovs When this Boolean flag is enabled, OpenvSwitch will be used as the network layer. This will cause
the initialization of OpenvSwitch on the nodes when added to the cluster. Per default this is not
enabled.
ovs_name
When ovs is enabled, this parameter will represent the name of the OpenvSwitch to generate and
use. This will default to switch1.
ovs_link
When ovs is enabled, a OpenvSwitch will be initialized on new nodes and will have this as its con‐
nection to the outside. This parameter is not set per default, as it depends very much on the
specific setup.
ssh_port
The port used for SSH connections to nodes belonging to a group. The user is responsible for
properly configuring the ports of SSH daemons on machines prior to adding them as Ganeti nodes or
when modifying the parameter value of an existing group. Note that using non-standard SSH ports
and downgrading to an older Ganeti version that doesn't support ssh_port will break the cluster.
Hypervisor State Parameters
Using --hypervisor-state you can set hypervisor specific states.
The format is: hypervisor:option=value.
Currently we support the following hypervisor state values:
mem_total
Total node memory, as discovered by this hypervisor
mem_node
Memory used by, or reserved for, the node itself; note that some hypervisors can report this in an
authoritative way, other not
mem_hv Memory used either by the hypervisor itself or lost due to instance allocation rounding; usually
this cannot be precisely computed, but only roughly estimated
cpu_total
Total node cpu (core) count; usually this can be discovered automatically
cpu_node
Number of cores reserved for the node itself; this can either be discovered or set manually. Only
used for estimating how many VCPUs are left for instances
Note that currently this option is unused by Ganeti; values will be recorded but will not influence the
Ganeti operation.
Disk State Parameters
Using --disk-state you can set disk specific states.
The format is: storage_type/identifier:option=value. Where we currently just support lvm as storage
type. The identifier in this case is the LVM volume group. By default this is xenvg.
Currently we support the following hypervisor state values:
disk_total
Total disk size (usually discovered automatically)
disk_reserved
Reserved disk size; this is a lower limit on the free space, if such a limit is desired
disk_overhead
Disk that is expected to be used by other volumes (set via reserved_lvs); usually should be zero
Note that currently this option is unused by Ganeti; values will be recorded but will not influence the
Ganeti operation.
Cluster configuration
The master node keeps and is responsible for the cluster configuration. On the filesystem, this is
stored under the @LOCALSTATEDIR@/ganeti/lib directory, and if the master daemon is stopped it can be
backed up normally.
The master daemon will replicate the configuration database called config.data and the job files to all
the nodes in the master candidate role. It will also distribute a copy of some configuration values via
the ssconf files, which are stored in the same directory and start with a ssconf_ prefix, to all nodes.
Jobs
All cluster modification are done via jobs. A job consists of one or more opcodes, and the list of op‐
codes is processed serially. If an opcode fails, the entire job is failed and later opcodes are no
longer processed. A job can be in one of the following states:
queued The job has been submitted but not yet processed by the master daemon.
waiting
The job is waiting for for locks before the first of its opcodes.
canceling
The job is waiting for locks, but is has been marked for cancellation. It will not transition to
running, but to canceled.
running
The job is currently being executed.
canceled
The job has been canceled before starting execution.
success
The job has finished successfully.
error The job has failed during runtime, or the master daemon has been stopped during the job execution.
Common command line features
Options
Many Ganeti commands provide the following options. The availability for a certain command can be
checked by calling the command using the --help option.
gnt-... command [--dry-run] [--priority {low | normal | high}]
[--submit] [--print-jobid]
The --dry-run option can be used to check whether an operation would succeed.
The option --priority sets the priority for opcodes submitted by the command.
The --submit option is used to send the job to the master daemon but not wait for its completion. The
job ID will be shown so that it can be examined using gnt-job info.
The --reason option allows to specify a reason for the submitted job. It is inherited by all jobs creat‐
ed by this job and intended to make it easier to track the reason why any given job exists. Some reason
strings have special meanings:
rate-limit:n:label
Assigns the job to a rate-limiting bucket identified by the combination of (n, label); that
is rate-limit:4:mylabel and rate-limit:5:mylabel are different buckets. n must be a posi‐
tive integer; label is an arbitrary ASCII string. The job scheduler will ensure that, for
each rate-limiting bucket, there are at most n jobs belonging to that bucket that are run‐
ning in parallel.
The special-cases for reason strings above must be given in exactly the specified format; if they are
preceded by other characters (whitespace included), they become normal reasons and have no special ef‐
fect.
The --print-jobid option makes the command print the job id as first line on stdout, so that it is easy
to parse by other programs.
Defaults
For certain commands you can use environment variables to provide default command line arguments. Just
assign the arguments as a string to the corresponding environment variable. The format of that variable
name is binary_command. binary is the name of the gnt-* script all upper case and dashes replaced by un‐
derscores, and command is the command invoked on that script.
Currently supported commands are gnt-node list, gnt-group list and gnt-instance list. So you can config‐
ure default command line flags by setting GNT_NODE_LIST, GNT_GROUP_LIST and GNT_INSTANCE_LIST.
Debug options
If the variable FORCE_LUXI_SOCKET is set, it will override the socket used for LUXI connections by com‐
mand-line tools (gnt-*). This is useful mostly for debugging, and some operations won't work at all if,
for example, you point this variable to the confd-supplied query socket and try to submit a job.
If the variable is set to the value master, it will connect to the correct path for the master daemon
(even if, for example, split queries are enabled and this is a query operation). If set to query, it
will always (try to) connect to the query socket, even if split queries are disabled. Otherwise, the
value is taken to represent a filesystem path to the socket to use.
Field formatting
Multiple ganeti commands use the same framework for tabular listing of resources (e.g. gnt-instance
list, gnt-node list, gnt-group list, gnt-debug locks, etc.). For these commands, special states are de‐
noted via a special symbol (in terse mode) or a string (in verbose mode):
*, (offline)
The node in question is marked offline, and thus it cannot be queried for data. This result is
persistent until the node is de-offlined.
?, (nodata)
Ganeti expected to receive an answer from this entity, but the cluster RPC call failed and/or we
didn't receive a valid answer; usually more information is available in the node daemon log (if
the node is alive) or the master daemon log. This result is transient, and re-running command
might return a different result.
-, (unavail)
The respective field doesn't make sense for this entity; e.g. querying a down instance for its
current memory 'live' usage, or querying a non-vm_capable node for disk/memory data. This result
is persistent, and until the entity state is changed via ganeti commands, the result won't change.
??, (unknown)
This field is not known (note that this is different from entity being unknown). Either you have
mis-typed the field name, or you are using a field that the running Ganeti master daemon doesn't
know. This result is persistent, re-running the command won't change it.
Key-value parameters
Multiple options take parameters that are of the form key=value,key=value,... or category:key=value,....
Examples are the hypervisor parameters, backend parameters, etc. For these, it's possible to use values
that contain commas by escaping with via a backslash (which needs two if not single-quoted, due to shell
behaviour):
# gnt-instance modify -H kernel_path=an\\,example instance1
# gnt-instance modify -H kernel_path='an\,example' instance1
Additionally, the following non-string parameters can be passed. To pass the boolean value True, only
mention the key (leaving out the equality sign and any value). To pass the boolean value False, again
only mention the key, but prefix it with no_. To pass the special None value, again only mention the
key, but prefix it with a single - sign.
Query filters
Most commands listing resources (e.g. instances or nodes) support filtering. The filter language is
similar to Python expressions with some elements from Perl. The language is not generic. Each condition
must consist of a field name and a value (except for boolean checks), a field can not be compared to an‐
other field. Keywords are case-sensitive.
Examples (see below for syntax details):
• List webservers:
gnt-instance list --filter 'name =* "web*.example.com"'
• List instances with three or six virtual CPUs and whose primary nodes reside in groups starting with
the string "rack":
gnt-instance list --filter
'(be/vcpus == 3 or be/vcpus == 6) and pnode.group =~ m/^rack/'
• Nodes hosting primary instances:
gnt-node list --filter 'pinst_cnt != 0'
• Nodes which aren't master candidates:
gnt-node list --filter 'not master_candidate'
• Short version for globbing patterns:
gnt-instance list '*.site1' '*.site2'
Syntax in pseudo-BNF:
<quoted-string> ::= /* String quoted with single or double quotes,
backslash for escaping */
<integer> ::= /* Number in base-10 positional notation */
<re> ::= /* Regular expression */
/*
Modifier "i": Case-insensitive matching, see
http://docs.python.org/library/re#re.IGNORECASE
Modifier "s": Make the "." special character match any character,
including newline, see http://docs.python.org/library/re#re.DOTALL
*/
<re-modifiers> ::= /* empty */ | i | s
<value> ::= <quoted-string> | <integer>
<condition> ::=
{ /* Value comparison */
<field> { == | != | < | <= | >= | > } <value>
/* Collection membership */
| <value> [ not ] in <field>
/* Regular expressions (recognized delimiters
are "/", "#", "^", and "|"; backslash for escaping)
*/
| <field> { =~ | !~ } m/<re>/<re-modifiers>
/* Globbing */
| <field> { =* | !* } <quoted-string>
/* Boolean */
| <field>
}
<filter> ::=
{ [ not ] <condition> | ( <filter> ) }
[ { and | or } <filter> ]
Operators:
== Equality
!= Inequality
< Less than
<= Less than or equal
> Greater than
>= Greater than or equal
=~ Pattern match using regular expression
!~ Logically negated from =~
=* Globbing, see glob(7), though only * and ? are supported
!* Logically negated from =*
in, not in
Collection membership and negation
Common daemon functionality
All Ganeti daemons re-open the log file(s) when sent a SIGHUP signal. logrotate(8) can be used to rotate
Ganeti's log files.
REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to the project's issue tracker (https://github.com/ganeti/ganeti/issues) or contact the de‐
velopers using the Ganeti mailing list.
SEE ALSO
Ganeti overview and specifications: ganeti(7) (general overview), ganeti-os-interface(7) (guest OS defin‐
itions), ganeti-extstorage-interface(7) (external storage providers).
Ganeti commands: gnt-cluster(8) (cluster-wide commands), gnt-job(8) (job-related commands), gnt-node(8)
(node-related commands), gnt-instance(8) (instance commands), gnt-os(8) (guest OS commands), gnt-stor‐
age(8) (storage commands), gnt-group(8) (node group commands), gnt-backup(8) (instance import/export com‐
mands), gnt-debug(8) (debug commands).
Ganeti daemons: ganeti-watcher(8) (automatic instance restarter), ganeti-cleaner(8) (job queue cleaner),
ganeti-noded(8) (node daemon), ganeti-rapi(8) (remote API daemon).
Ganeti htools: htools(1) (generic binary), hbal(1) (cluster balancer), hspace(1) (capacity calculation),
hail(1) (IAllocator plugin), hscan(1) (data gatherer from remote clusters), hinfo(1) (cluster information
printer), mon-collector(7) (data collectors interface).
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Ganeti ganeti(7)