Proxmox VE 2.0 beta cluster tested - some issues

[grl]

Hi,

did a setup of Proxmox VE Cluster and tested it in the last days.
Most of it works quite well, especially considering the fact, that I never used Proxmox before.
As I had some minor issues I'd like to report about the setup and ask a few questions.

I used two Core2 machines with 4GB Ram each as Cluster-nodes.
For storing the images I used our centralized storage, connecting via NFS.

The nodes where setup via the 2.0beta ISO-Image and connected as discribed in the Wiki.
As guests I installed 4 different Debian squeeze machines containing a house-made toolset to emulate our standard requirements.
As an addition I installed a Windows2008R2 server as a guest to play around with Windows as well - despite we don't use windows in our normal day-to-day work.

Each of these guests got assigned 2GB of RAM.

Migrating the vm's from one node to the other worked like a charm most of the time, even running all of them on one node and rebooting the other node worked perfectly. I even tried to migrate while doing some heavy calculations in a Firebird-SQL database - this worked as well.

Two times (out of may be 100) the guest machine stopped running on migration (both times the Windows Server) although I checked the "live" checkbox when migrating. Unfortunatly I was not able to reproduce this error.

There are still some open questions:
- When using a cluster I would like to get an automatic failover upon Hardware-failure of one of the nodes. We already have automatic failover for the storage, so no problem here. Can someone recommend a path to follow?
- I did'nt find a clear way to backup the machines. What is the recommended way?
- When opening a console I get some undefined keymap. e.g. I did'nt find a way to send a - to the guest. So no way of typing "apt-get update" in the guest machine. On the node we use german keyboards and I even tried to do a "dpkg-reconfigure locales" on the nodes - but no success. The same problem is on the Windows-Guest.
- when connecting with Firefox from a 64Bit Linux box the console crashes Firefox frequently. It worked with some Proxmox 1.9 test-installation. For now we use Chromium as a browser which works ok.

regards
Lukas

 

[udo]

Hi,

did a setup of Proxmox VE Cluster and tested it in the last days.
Most of it works quite well, especially considering the fact, that I never used Proxmox before.
As I had some minor issues I'd like to report about the setup and ask a few questions.

I used two Core2 machines with 4GB Ram each as Cluster-nodes.
For storing the images I used our centralized storage, connecting via NFS.

The nodes where setup via the 2.0beta ISO-Image and connected as discribed in the Wiki.
As guests I installed 4 different Debian squeeze machines containing a house-made toolset to emulate our standard requirements.
As an addition I installed a Windows2008R2 server as a guest to play around with Windows as well - despite we don't use windows in our normal day-to-day work.

Each of these guests got assigned 2GB of RAM.

Migrating the vm's from one node to the other worked like a charm most of the time, even running all of them on one node and rebooting the other node worked perfectly. I even tried to migrate while doing some heavy calculations in a Firebird-SQL database - this worked as well.

Two times (out of may be 100) the guest machine stopped running on migration (both times the Windows Server) although I checked the "live" checkbox when migrating. Unfortunatly I was not able to reproduce this error.

There are still some open questions:
- When using a cluster I would like to get an automatic failover upon Hardware-failure of one of the nodes. We already have automatic failover for the storage, so no problem here. Can someone recommend a path to follow?
- I did'nt find a clear way to backup the machines. What is the recommended way?
- When opening a console I get some undefined keymap. e.g. I did'nt find a way to send a - to the guest. So no way of typing "apt-get update" in the guest machine. On the node we use german keyboards and I even tried to do a "dpkg-reconfigure locales" on the nodes - but no success. The same problem is on the Windows-Guest.
- when connecting with Firefox from a 64Bit Linux box the console crashes Firefox frequently. It worked with some Proxmox 1.9 test-installation. For now we use Chromium as a browser which works ok.

regards
Lukas

Hi Lukas,
do you have change the console in the gui? See here http://forum.proxmox.com/threads/7145-VNC-Console-keyboard-issue?p=40588#post40588
The gui-backup isn't implemented yet - but see on the console "man vzdump".
For automatic failover it's to early i think.

Udo

 

[grl]

Udo,

tried to change the console - but no success so far. Unfortunatly I don't have a Windows-Box to test it, but I've the same problem using different flavors of ubuntu and an OSX-Box as Terminal.

"too early for failover" - do you think for getting automatic failover you can't use proxmox at all?

regards
Lukas

 

[tom]

backup will be available next week.

HA will be available in 2.0 stable.

 

[grl]

Tom,

thanks for your quick answer.
I know it's not very popular to ask a developer for a release date - but is there a timeline for 2.0 stable?

regards
Lukas

 

[tom]

See http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Roadmap#Roadmap_for_2.x

 

[grl]

OK, now tried with Ubuntu, MacOS and Windows and with different browsers.

The keymap is wrong on all OSs, with all Browsers and with all Guests.

Any hint how to correct that?

regards
Lukas

 

[udo]

OK, now tried with Ubuntu, MacOS and Windows and with different browsers.

The keymap is wrong on all OSs, with all Browsers and with all Guests.

Any hint how to correct that?

regards
Lukas

Strange,
i'm using only linux (and for test OSX) and the only issue is the missing tab-key.
In the gui -> options -> keyboard i have German(de), which is also my computer-default.
I use the same settings in the VM (german) - and it's work. If i use an english keyboard layout in the VM the chars (y / -) are not right.

Do you use us-layout inside the VM?

Udo

PS: Browser is iceweasel (firefox) 3.5.19 and others versions.

 

[grl]

I'm using German as well on all Vm's and on the Desktop-PCs and als a setting in Options->Keyboard - but no success.

The missing Tab-Key is here as well...

regards
Lukas

 

[udo]

I'm using German as well on all Vm's and on the Desktop-PCs and als a setting in Options->Keyboard - but no success.

The missing Tab-Key is here as well...

regards
Lukas

What kind of java-plugin do you have installed?
I had

ii  sun-java6-bin                                 6.26-3                           Sun Java(TM) Runtime Environment (JRE) 6 (architecture dependent files)
ii  sun-java6-jre                                 6.26-3                           Sun Java(TM) Runtime Environment (JRE) 6 (architecture independent files)
ii  sun-java6-plugin                              6.26-3                           Java(TM) Plug-in, Java SE 6

 

[tom]

Set your keymap: "Datacenter/Options/Keyboard".
Note: if you do any change, the KVM guests needs to be stopped and started again to apply the settings, reboot is not enough.

Regarding the tab issue seen on some Linux Deskops, see this bugreport (also includes a workaround).

 

[grl]

Tom,

thanks for your help, stopping and starting did the trick...

regards
Lukas

 

[knireis]

Set your keymap: "Datacenter/Options/Keyboard".
Note: if you do any change, the KVM guests needs to be stopped and started again to apply the settings, reboot is not enough.

Regarding the tab issue seen on some Linux Deskops, see this bugreport (also includes a workaround).

I cannot find the workaround for the TAB issue in the bugreport. And stopping and starting as described above does not work either.

 

[tom]

see http://forum.proxmox.com/threads/7183-Send-CTRL-ALT-F1?p=40882#post40882

 

[oban]

Hi,
Living in Switzerland (French part), when I set the Datacenter/Options/Keyboard to "french(Swiss)" and a windows server 2008 R2 guest input kanguage to "french_switzerland", I'm not able to get the right keymap. No accentuate characters or signs (like "+" or "*") normally accessible by pressing the shift + key "1" or shift + key "3". In plus, some keys are not at the right place... very strange key mapping.

However, changing the Datacenter/Options/Keyboard to "german(Swiss)" I get a full keyboard correctly mapped.... with still one strange behavior : when I set the windows server 2008 R2 input language to "french switzerland" , I have the "swiss german" keys available and when I set the "german switzerland" language, I have the "swiss french" keys available.

I can live with this little swap but it could be helpful to understand why the "Datacenter/Options/Keyboard" setting behavior is not similar when it is set to german (swiss) or french (swiss).

best regards
oban

 

[dietmar]

I can live with this little swap but it could be helpful to understand why the "Datacenter/Options/Keyboard" setting behavior is not similar when it is set to german (swiss) or french (swiss).

Does the keyboard mapping work for you in 1.9 (is this 2.0 related)?

 

[oban]

Hi, dietmar

No, it doesn't work. I have try to set 1.9 in the same way (with swiss/german) hoping the same working behavior, but without success. Neither and swiss/german nor swiss/french works. In 1.9, I have the same wrong behavior as in 2.0 with swiss/french.

My current host config :

Host: kubuntu 11.10 amd64
browser: google chrome, version 15.0.874.106
java plugin: 1.6.0.26

If you need more tests, do not hesitate to ask for.

oban