AN!CDB v1.0.0
This program is a "Cluster Dashboard" designed for simple management of AN!Clusters[1]. It is a simple, web-based application designed to be browser agnostic and tablet friendly.
It is designed to be used by people with little computer experience. It's goal is to easy and reliable use of VM clusters by small companies and organizations with little to no in-house IT staff.
Fundamentally, the dashboard provides 3 main functions;
a. Cluster and VM management b. VM provisioning and removal c. Media and resource management for existing VMs
Online Documentation
Cluster and VM management
This covers the daily care and feeding of the cluster.
The dashboard allows users to easily power up the cluster nodes and start the cluster stack.
Once the cluster is up and running, the option to boot, live-migrate, gracefully shut down and force-off virtual machines.
Individual nodes can be withdrwan from the cluster and powered off to enable planned maintenance and emergency service. Once service is completed, the node can be powered back on and rejoin the cluster.
With all VMs shut down, the dashboard can be used to cold-stop the cluster entirely.
VM Provisioning and Removal
The dashboard allows users to create new virtual servers on the cluster. Installation media can be added to the cluster in one of three ways;
a. Create an image from a DVD or CD disc mounted in the dashboard server b. Upload an ISO from the user's computer/tablet c. Direct download to the cluster from a website or ftp site
Once the media is on the cluster, users can use it to create a new virtual server. The user simply names the new VM, chooses the OS type from a drop-down list, chooses the installation and, if needed, driver disc image, sets the number of CPUs and the amount of RAM.
The primary node, failover group and storage configuration is all selected and managed automatically for the user.
Existing virtual servers can be deleted from the cluster. Once removed, the resources formally consumed by that VM are released back into the cluster's resource pools, making them immediately available for use by existing or new VMs.
Media and Resource Management for Existing VMs
The dashboard allows for easy management of existing VMs. A user can "insert" or "eject" a CD or DVD. This allows users to easily install applications that they have on physical media.
Existing VMs can change the number of CPUs and the amount of RAM allocated to a virtual server. If the VM's operating system supports it, this change will be instantly reflected in the VM. Otherwise, the changes take effect when the client next powers off and restarts their VM.
Usage
The AN! Cluster Dashboard is designed to be easy to use by the users. In order to achieve this, the dashboard requires certain naming conventions be used in the clusters.
Cluster Node Name:
The cluster node names must use the suffix nXX, where XX indicates the
node's number. For example, the node names an-c01n01 and an-c01n02 would
work fine.
Failover Domain Names:
The failover domains used for the VM resource must have matching 'nXX'
suffixes. Continuing the earlier example, the FOD names primary_n01 and
primary_n02 would be good.
Clustered LVM Volume Group Names:
The volume groups must have the prefix of nXX, again matching the nodes
numbers. Continuing again our example, n01_vg0 and n02_vg0 are good names.
The trick here is that the nXX is used to map the storage and failover
domains to the preferred host for a given VM.
Screenshots
