Speed up IS Windows provisioning if slow when using Integrated Storage

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James Withall

November 22, 2013 10:26

Disclaimer **Note this wrapper has not been through QA and is provided as is. This will be implemented into OnApp in upcoming releases.**

 

Issue

Windows VMs take a long time stuck in Provisioning. It may take up to 4 hours or more to provision a Windows VM.

 

Environment

All Windows* templates

Cloud-boot Hypervisors & Backup server

OnApp Storage Version (all)

OnApp Platform 3.x.x

 

Resolution

Essentially what the wrapper will do on the fly:

a) Create a non-sparse raw format of the windows template in the templates directory
ntfsclone -r -O /onapp/templates/win12_x64_dc-ver3.2-kvm-nonspecial.img /onapp/templates/win12_x64_dc-ver3.2-kvm.img

b) dd the contents using non-buffered IO and large block size for efficient IO performance
dd if=/onapp/templates/win12_x64_dc-ver3.2-kvm-nonspecial.img of=/dev/mapper/hpmw5sn1cal08yX1 bs=64M iflag=direct oflag=direct 

Note the first time a template is deployed using this it will be slow provisioning, after that it should be faster.

Here are the steps to apply the wrapper on your cloud.

For OnApp 3.0:

1. On Control Panel server:

cd /tftpboot/images/centos5/diskless/snapshot/<BS_MAC_ADDRESS>

curl -O http://downloads.repo.onapp.com/ntfsclone_3.0

2. On the Backup Server (also add to custom config):

#Wrapper IS ntfsclone

cp /.rw/ntfsclone_3.0 /sbin/
mv /sbin/ntfsclone /sbin/ntfsclone.orig
mv /sbin/ntfsclone_3.0 /sbin/ntfsclone

chmod 766 /sbin/ntfsclone

 ** Reboot your backup server for the changes to take effect, or execute step 2 manually on your backup server

 ** Note the first time a template is deployed using this it will be slow provisioning, after that it should be faster.

For OnApp 3.1:

1. On Control Panel server:

cd /tftpboot/images/centos5/diskless/snapshot/<BS_MAC_ADDRESS>

curl -O http://downloads.repo.onapp.com/ntfsclone_3.1

2. On the Backup Server (also add to custom config):

#Wrapper IS ntfsclone

cp /.rw/ntfsclone_3.1 /sbin/
mv /sbin/ntfsclone /sbin/ntfsclone.orig
mv /sbin/ntfsclone_3.1 /sbin/ntfsclone

chmod 766 /sbin/ntfsclone

 ** Reboot your backup server for the changes to take effect, or execute step 2 manually on your backup server

 ** Note the first time a template is deployed using this it will be slow provisioning, after that it should be faster.

 

For OnApp 3.1.2:

1. On Control Panel server:

cd /tftpboot/images/centos5/diskless/snapshot/<BS_MAC_ADDRESS>

curl -O http://downloads.repo.onapp.com/ntfsclone_3.1.2

2. On the Backup Server (also add to custom config):

#Wrapper IS ntfsclone

cp /.rw/ntfsclone_3.1.2 /sbin/
mv /sbin/ntfsclone /sbin/ntfsclone.orig
mv /sbin/ntfsclone_3.1.2 /sbin/ntfsclone

chmod 766 /sbin/ntfsclone

 ** Reboot your backup server for the changes to take effect, or execute step 2 manually on your backup server

 ** Note the first time a template is deployed using this it will be slow provisioning, after that it should be faster.

 

For OnApp 3.2:

1. On Control Panel server:

cd /tftpboot/images/centos5/diskless/snapshot/<BS_MAC_ADDRESS>

curl -O http://downloads.repo.onapp.com/ntfsclone_3.2

curl -O http://downloads.repo.onapp.com/mkfs.ntfs_3.2

2. On the Backup Server (also add to custom config):

#Wrapper IS ntfsclone

cp /.rw/ntfsclone_3.2 /sbin/
mv /sbin/ntfsclone /sbin/ntfsclone.orig
mv /sbin/ntfsclone_3.2 /sbin/ntfsclone

chmod 766 /sbin/ntfsclone

#Wrapper IS mkfs.ntfs

cp /.rw/mkfs.ntfs_3.2 /sbin/
mv /sbin/mkfs.ntfs /sbin/mkfs.ntfs.orig
mv /sbin/mkfs.ntfs_3.2 /sbin/mkfs.ntfs
chmod +x /sbin/mkfs.ntfs

 ** Reboot your backup server for the changes to take effect, or execute step 2 manually on your backup server

 ** Note the first time a template is deployed using this it will be slow provisioning, after that it should be faster.

Cause

This is a known issue with provisioning Windows VMs when using Integrated Storage. It's due to the block size used by ntfsclone. We are recreating Windows templates that will solve the issue. 

 

4

• 

  VinaHost February 18, 2014 03:06

  Hello,

   

  In our testing(3.2.x)  with Windows 8 template, it was failed at "ConfigureOperatingSystem" step.

   

  Thanks.

   

  0

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• 

  James Withall February 18, 2014 10:31

  Hi Vinahost,

   

  Did you open a support ticket regarding this failure? If not please do so.

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• 

  VinaHost February 22, 2014 02:18

  Hello,

  Hi,

   

  In our previous test, seem you're missing mk.ntfs guide , now it works fine. Thank you.

   

  Hien.

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• 

  Marcel Auf Der Maur March 04, 2014 10:34

  Hello,

   

  i have tested on Centos 6.4 and Onapp 3.1.2

  I have change 2 Lines(Line12, 15)  in the Script because i don't have a dd in /sbin/

  #!/bin/bash
  #if ntfsclone is used for taking a -s backup or restore backup
  #then use ntfsclone.orig
  
  if [[ $@ == *-s* ]] || [[ $@ == *backups* ]]; then
  /sbin/ntfsclone.orig $@
  exit 0;
  fi
  
  #Workaround CORE-1194
  if [ -f $5_core-1194 ]; then
  /bin/dd if=$5_core-1194 of=$4 bs=64M oflag=direct
  else
  /sbin/ntfsclone.orig $1 $2 $3 $5_core-1194 $5 > /dev/null
  /bin/dd if=$5_core-1194 of=$4 bs=64M oflag=direct
  fi
  
  

  Thanks

   

  Marcel

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  support March 05, 2014 02:44

  Hello，

  I've tested on CentOS 5.9 with OnApp 3.1,it was failed at "Provisioning" step and open a support ticket regarding this failure,then got below reply:

  "Looks like the wrapper hasn't been through QA testing however, and is provided as is. As such, the admins have advised to revert to using the normal method until it has passed QA testing."

  Dean

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