Configure live migrations¶

General configuration¶

To enable any type of live migration, configure the compute hosts according to the instructions below:

1. Set the following parameters in nova.conf on all compute hosts:

   • server_listen=0.0.0.0

     You must not make the VNC server listen to the IP address of its compute host, since that addresses changes when the instance is migrated.

     Important

     Since this setting allows VNC clients from any IP address to connect to instance consoles, you must take additional measures like secure networks or firewalls to prevent potential attackers from gaining access to instances.

   • instances_path must have the same value for all compute hosts. In this guide, the value /var/lib/nova/instances is assumed.

2. Ensure that name resolution on all compute hosts is identical, so that they can connect each other through their hostnames.

   If you use /etc/hosts for name resolution and enable SELinux, ensure that /etc/hosts has the correct SELinux context:

   # restorecon /etc/hosts
   

3. Enable password-less SSH so that root on one compute host can log on to any other compute host without providing a password. The libvirtd daemon, which runs as root, uses the SSH protocol to copy the instance to the destination and can’t know the passwords of all compute hosts.

   You may, for example, compile root’s public SSH keys on all compute hosts into an authorized_keys file and deploy that file to the compute hosts.

4. Configure the firewalls to allow libvirt to communicate between compute hosts.

   By default, libvirt uses the TCP port range from 49152 to 49261 for copying memory and disk contents. Compute hosts must accept connections in this range.

   For information about ports used by libvirt, see the libvirt documentation.

   Important

   Be mindful of the security risks introduced by opening ports.

Securing live migration streams¶

If your compute nodes have at least libvirt 4.4.0 and QEMU 2.11.0, it is strongly recommended to secure all your live migration streams by taking advantage of the “QEMU-native TLS” feature. This requires a pre-existing PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) setup. For further details on how to set this all up, refer to the Secure live migration with QEMU-native TLS document.

Block migration, volume-based live migration¶

If your environment satisfies the requirements for “QEMU-native TLS”, then block migration requires some setup; refer to the above section, Securing live migration streams, for details. Otherwise, no additional configuration is required for block migration and volume-backed live migration.

Be aware that block migration adds load to the network and storage subsystems.

Shared storage¶

Compute hosts have many options for sharing storage, for example NFS, shared disk array LUNs, Ceph or GlusterFS.

The next steps show how a regular Linux system might be configured as an NFS v4 server for live migration. For detailed information and alternative ways to configure NFS on Linux, see instructions for Ubuntu, RHEL and derivatives or SLES and OpenSUSE.

1. Ensure that UID and GID of the nova user are identical on the compute hosts and the NFS server.

2. Create a directory with enough disk space for all instances in the cloud, owned by user nova. In this guide, we assume /var/lib/nova/instances.

3. Set the execute/search bit on the instances directory:

   $ chmod o+x /var/lib/nova/instances
   

   This allows qemu to access the instances directory tree.

4. Export /var/lib/nova/instances to the compute hosts. For example, add the following line to /etc/exports:

   /var/lib/nova/instances *(rw,sync,fsid=0,no_root_squash)
   

   The asterisk permits access to any NFS client. The option fsid=0 exports the instances directory as the NFS root.

After setting up the NFS server, mount the remote filesystem on all compute hosts.

1. Assuming the NFS server’s hostname is nfs-server, add this line to /etc/fstab to mount the NFS root:

   nfs-server:/ /var/lib/nova/instances nfs4 defaults 0 0
   

2. Test NFS by mounting the instances directory and check access permissions for the nova user:

   $ sudo mount -a -v
   $ ls -ld /var/lib/nova/instances/
   drwxr-xr-x. 2 nova nova 6 Mar 14 21:30 /var/lib/nova/instances/
   

Advanced configuration for KVM and QEMU¶

Live migration copies the instance’s memory from the source to the destination compute host. After a memory page has been copied, the instance may write to it again, so that it has to be copied again. Instances that frequently write to different memory pages can overwhelm the memory copy process and prevent the live migration from completing.

This section covers configuration settings that can help live migration of memory-intensive instances succeed.

1. Live migration completion timeout

   The Compute service aborts a migration when it has been running for too long. The timeout is calculated based on the instance size, which is the instance’s memory size in GiB. In the case of block migration, the size of ephemeral storage in GiB is added.

   The timeout in seconds is the instance size multiplied by the configurable parameter libvirt.live_migration_completion_timeout, whose default is 800. For example, shared-storage live migration of an instance with 8GiB memory will time out after 6400 seconds.

2. Instance downtime

   Near the end of the memory copy, the instance is paused for a short time so that the remaining few pages can be copied without interference from instance memory writes. The Compute service initializes this time to a small value that depends on the instance size, typically around 50 milliseconds. When it notices that the memory copy does not make sufficient progress, it increases the time gradually.

   You can influence the instance downtime algorithm with the help of three configuration variables on the compute hosts:

   live_migration_downtime = 500
   live_migration_downtime_steps = 10
   live_migration_downtime_delay = 75
   

   live_migration_downtime sets the maximum permitted downtime for a live migration, in milliseconds. The default is 500.

   live_migration_downtime_steps sets the total number of adjustment steps until live_migration_downtime is reached. The default is 10 steps.

   live_migration_downtime_delay sets the time interval between two adjustment steps in seconds. The default is 75.

3. Auto-convergence

   One strategy for a successful live migration of a memory-intensive instance is slowing the instance down. This is called auto-convergence. Both libvirt and QEMU implement this feature by automatically throttling the instance’s CPU when memory copy delays are detected.

   Auto-convergence is disabled by default. You can enable it by setting live_migration_permit_auto_converge=true.

   Caution

   Before enabling auto-convergence, make sure that the instance’s application tolerates a slow-down.

   Be aware that auto-convergence does not guarantee live migration success.

4. Post-copy

   Live migration of a memory-intensive instance is certain to succeed when you enable post-copy. This feature, implemented by libvirt and QEMU, activates the virtual machine on the destination host before all of its memory has been copied. When the virtual machine accesses a page that is missing on the destination host, the resulting page fault is resolved by copying the page from the source host.

   Post-copy is disabled by default. You can enable it by setting live_migration_permit_post_copy=true.

   When you enable both auto-convergence and post-copy, auto-convergence remains disabled.

   Caution

   The page faults introduced by post-copy can slow the instance down.

   When the network connection between source and destination host is interrupted, page faults cannot be resolved anymore and the instance is rebooted.

The full list of live migration configuration parameters is documented in the Nova Configuration Options

Shared storage¶

Prerequisites

• Compatible XenServer hypervisors.

  For more information, see the Requirements for Creating Resource Pools section of the XenServer Administrator’s Guide.

• Shared storage.

  An NFS export, visible to all XenServer hosts.

  Note

  For the supported NFS versions, see the NFS and SMB section of the XenServer Administrator’s Guide.

To use shared storage live migration with XenServer hypervisors, the hosts must be joined to a XenServer pool.

Using shared storage live migrations with XenServer Hypervisors

1. Add an NFS VHD storage to your master XenServer, and set it as the default storage repository. For more information, see NFS VHD in the XenServer Administrator’s Guide.

2. Configure all compute nodes to use the default storage repository (sr) for pool operations. Add this line to your nova.conf configuration files on all compute nodes:

   sr_matching_filter=default-sr:true
   

3. To add a host to a pool, you need to know the pool master ip address, user name and password. Run below command on the XenServer host:

   $ xe pool-join master-address=MASTER_IP master-username=root master-password=MASTER_PASSWORD
   

   Note

   The added compute node and the host will shut down to join the host to the XenServer pool. The operation will fail if any server other than the compute node is running or suspended on the host.

Block migration¶

• Compatible XenServer hypervisors.

  The hypervisors must support the Storage XenMotion feature. See your XenServer manual to make sure your edition has this feature.

  Note

  • To use block migration, you must use the --block-migrate parameter with the live migration command.
  • Block migration works only with EXT local storage storage repositories, and the server must not have any volumes attached.

vSphere configuration¶

Enable vMotion on all ESX hosts which are managed by Nova by following the instructions in this KB article.