Thanks for the feedback!

Ok so management server is just a standalone server (no fancy specs generally 
speaking) for the CS control panel itself.

Compute NODE: CPU, RAM, Local Storage. That's my goal, using KVM as a platform. 
So essentially, I can do this for example:

Compute NODE Specs:

Dell R815
4 x Opteron 16-Core CPUs
256GB RAM
6 x 2TB SSD Drives
Perc H700 RAID
KVM Platform (offering Linux & Windows templates)

I can say, down the road add the above similar NODES into the cluster, 
seamlessly via the CS management panel. Just like that, correct? Nothing else 
fancy involved? 

Regarding selling them like VPS, I'm assuming the option to provide the end 
user/customer a full list of available templates for them to install and 
reinstall at their disposal can be done easily? Say we wanted 10 Linux OS 
flavors to offer and 2 Windows. We can set this up in advance and grant the 
user the ability via some predefined package per se?

We currently use SolusVM for virtualization (VPS plans). So, generally 
speaking, I'm not sure I see much of a difference overall between this and CS? 
Please correct me if I'm wrong. Because as it stands now, SolusVM works in 
generally the same exact way. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Mackey [mailto:tmac...@gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2016 9:59 AM
To: users@cloudstack.apache.org
Subject: Re: New Initial HW Setup

Good morning.

I think it's probably best to take a step back and define a couple of things.


1. The management server is really a highly efficient cluster manager. It runs 
external to the compute nodes.
2. A compute node contains CPU and RAM, has a network fabric, and may have 
local storage. Compute nodes can be clustered based on the native capabilities 
of the chosen hypervisor (e.g. XenServer uses the XAPI cluster manager with its 
rules, while KVM is a collection hosts).
3. A compute node can be bare metal, but those rules are very different.

I used to present a hypervisor matrix, and here's my most recent deck:
http://www.slideshare.net/TimMackey/selecting-the-correct-hypervisor-for-cloudstack-45.
Much of whats in there will be relevant to you at this point.

Looking at your specific questions:

 - " *how does the primary management server hosting the CS panel, utilize 
processing power from external additional NODES*". First you will configure the 
management server with knowledge of the compute node. The management server 
then understands the capacity of the compute node, and from there you can do 
stuff like provision VMs. For example, if you've a template which has a compute 
offering with 2vCPUs, 8GB RAM and two vNICs, that's how the management server 
will setup the VM which will be based on the template the user chooses.

- "*sell equivalent of **standalone dedicated servers, how would that work*".
If the goal is to provide an equivalent of a bare metal virtual server, then 
things are much more involved from the user perspective (e.g. you need to start 
with a predefined ISO). If the goal is to provide a VPS from a set of 
predefined OS types, then that's easier - just upload a template for each one. 
The user then selects which template they want and it gets provisioned.

- "*If I'm guaranteeing 500GB SSD storage, 4 CPU Cores and **32GB RAM he/she 
would have no way of knowing if it's cloud based or **standalone, am I right or 
wrong*". It depends upon what you're guaranteeing. Within the guest it would be 
easy to tell if you've 4 cores, 32 GB RAM and 500GB disk.
What would be hard to tell is if the vCPUs are dedicated or overloads, and if 
the disk was SSD. As a user, I honestly care less about SSD than IOPs, and 
there are ways to tell that.

btw, everywhere I mention "user selects" that could be a workflow you kick off 
on behalf of the user. It's entirely possible to provide only guest VM access 
via SSH if you don't want users to have access to the CloudStack management 
console.

Hope this helps some, and if I've misspoken something, I'm certain others will 
set me right!

-tim


On Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 8:27 AM, NOC <n...@logicweb.com> wrote:

> Hello,
>
>
>
> Looking to start up a virtualized setup using CloudStack and would 
> like some feedback / advice as I do some researching.
>
>
>
> For starting off, was looking to do a single NODE instead of separate 
> NODES for CPU/RAM, Storage.
>
>
>
> Example:
>
>
>
> Dell R815
>
> 4 x Opteron 16-Core CPUs
>
> 256GB RAM
>
> 6 x 2TB SSD Drives
>
> Perc H700 RAID
>
> Centos 7 64 bit
>
>
>
> Wouldn't that be sufficient enough to get going and just add more, 
> similar nodes down the road seamlessly for additional processing power and 
> RAM?
>
>
>
> One of my main confusion is how does the primary management server 
> hosting the CS panel, utilize processing power from external 
> additional NODES? I cannot understand how this happens and would appreciate 
> some explanation.
>
>
>
> From my understanding, CS basically creates the equivalent of virtual 
> servers (VPS). So in essence, scaling up or down you can offer cloud 
> hosting (ie like shared hosting) and virtual servers. But, to sell 
> equivalent of standalone dedicated servers, how would that work? You 
> cannot offer the client KVM/IPMI, yet how does one prove if the server 
> is virtualized or not, on the client side? If I'm guaranteeing 500GB 
> SSD storage, 4 CPU Cores and 32GB RAM he/she would have no way of 
> knowing if it's cloud based or standalone, am I right or wrong?
>
>
>
> Thanks in advance for the tips.
>
>
>
>

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