Bootstrapping a VM in Openstack environment

In this Openstack Architecture, by Russell Bryant presentation from Redhat 2013 summit we can see description of all Openstack components together with best practices how to deploy them to achieve maximum scalability. If you are interested in more details this link will help you to take the next level: Openstack software architecture.

The amount and verbosity of available information can be overwhelming and it may become difficult after reading all of it to answer a single question:

How does a single VM is created in Openstack and how does the Openstack systems interact together to achieve it.

The slide below shows the six steps and hides the necessary complexity (at least at the beginning, for another view take a look at Event flow when a cloud instance is provisioned in Openstack).

How to create startup usb disk to flash BIOS

I needed upgrade my BIOS. When looking into it I've been surprised how long did it took me to find the right tool and to how many issues i run when trying and testing it. Hopefully this post will help others to get it quicker.

Problem

How to create a bootable usb pendrive that can be used to flush Bios

Solution 1 (tested)

This solution is based on: HP Flash Utility - HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool.

To create a USB that can be used to boot a system into old DOS system please follow these steps:

• Download the HP Flash Utility hpflash1.zip and Windows 98 MS-DOS System Files win98boot.zip. 
• Extract and run the hpflash1 installer
• Extract the contents of "win98boot" to a location readily accessible 
• If you want to use the graphical interface HPUSBFW.EXE make sure you modify your PATH so you can run HPUSBF.EXE from cmd. 
• Regardless is you are going to use the command line or the graphical interface make sure you run it 'As Administrator'
• For the graphical installer under Format Options tick the "Create a DOS startup disk" option. Click the "..." button near the empty text box to browse to the location of where you extracted the Windows 98 MS-DOS System Files Verification.

One finished the USB will have these files in only:

 
J:\> DIR /A
  Directory of J:\

05/11/1998  07:01 PM           222,390 IO.SYS
05/11/1998  07:01 PM                 0 MSDOS.SYS
05/11/1998  07:01 PM            93,880 COMMAND.COM
               3 File(s)        316,270 bytes

Solution 2 (found later and not tested)

Download the Unetbootin utility (http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net) and install FreeDOS onto USB drive.

Bios upgrade

Once the USB has been created you need to copy there all BIOS.ROM files you need. Finally restart the system and let it boot from USB. Once you get access to the DOS command prompt you need to follow you BIOS upgrade instruction.

My USB drive before reboot had these following files:

 
J:\> DIR /A
  Directory of J:\

05/11/1998  07:01 PM           222,390 IO.SYS
05/11/1998  07:01 PM                 0 MSDOS.SYS
05/11/1998  07:01 PM            93,880 COMMAND.COM
11/01/2012  05:38 PM                39 flash.bat
11/01/2012  05:16 PM         4,194,304 8225v303.ROM
12/13/2010  04:55 PM           153,824 AFUDOS.Exe

References

1. USB
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-security/how-can-i-make-a-ms-dos-boot-disk-on-a-cdusb-for/9fd9067a-d327-4ba5-8aca-0f33501b87a4
http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-How-to-boot-into-DOS-with-a-USB-thumb-drive
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/46707-ms-dos-bootable-flash-drive-create.html

2. Alternative solution
https://www.zotacusa.com/help/index.php/Knowledgebase/Article/View/30/0/flashing-bios-with-afudos

3. Others
http://www.thpc.info/how/showhidden.html

Event flow when a cloud instance is provisioned in Openstack

Many people think that cloud is alike virtualizastion or other way around. Both technologies have a lot of things in common and with a sophisticated virtualization manager or orchestration tool (example can be a VMware vCenter or vCloud) we get a look and feel that cloud promise but in essence cloud is not the same like virtualization.

In this post instead to polemize who is right or not I would like to rather take a look at the events that are happening when we provision a cloud server, either in cloud or VMware. The inside view is only for the Openstack although.

Problem

What is happening in the Openstack cluster when a cloud server is provisioned and booted.

Solution

Before a VM can be marked as booted and fully provisioned there are number or messages and requests exchanged between the core openstack components[4].

This slides show event after event what is happening: Openstack cloud request flow [2].
This diagram [3] below is an additional visualization of interaction between the components.

References

1. Python Code level analyse
   http://www.laurentluce.com/posts/openstack-nova-internals-of-instance-launching/
2. http://www.slideshare.net/mirantis/openstack-cloud-request-flow
3. Slides on Technical Architecture of Quantum (9/12) from the http://wiki.openstack.org/Quantum
4. http://www.openstack.org/software