Xapi Project

Schedule Snapshot Design

Design document
Revision v2
Status proposed
Review #186
Revision history
v1 Initial version
v2 Renaming VMSS fields and APIs. API message_create superseeds vmss_create_alerts.
v3 Remove VMSS alarm_config details and use existing pool wide alarm config
v4 Renaming field from retention-value to retained-snapshots and schedule-snapshot to scheduled-snapshot
v5 Add new API task_set_status

The scheduled snapshot feature will utilize the existing architecture of VMPR. In terms of functionality, scheduled snapshot is basically VMPR without its archiving capability.

Introduction

  • Schedule snapshot will be a new object in xapi as VMSS.
  • A pool can have multiple VMSS.
  • Multiple VMs can be a part of VMSS but a VM cannot be a part of multiple VMSS.
  • A VMSS takes VMs snapshot with type [snapshot, checkpoint, snapshot_with_quiesce].
  • VMSS takes snapshot of VMs on configured intervals:
    • hourly -> On everyday, Each hour, Mins [0;15;30;45]
    • daily -> On everyday, Hour [0 to 23], Mins [0;15;30;45]
    • weekly -> Days [Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday,Saturday,Sunday], Hour[0 to 23], Mins [0;15;30;45]
  • VMSS will have a limit on retaining number of VM snapshots in range [1 to 10].

Datapath Design

  • There will be a cron job for VMSS.
  • VMSS plugin will go through all the scheduled snapshot policies in the pool and check if any of them are due.
  • If a snapshot is due then : Go through all the VM objects in XAPI associated with this scheduled snapshot policy and create a new snapshot.
  • If the snapshot operation fails, create a notification alert for the event and move to the next VM.
  • Check if an older snapshot now needs to be deleted to comply with the retained snapshots defined in the scheduled policy.
  • If we need to delete any existing snapshots, delete the oldest snapshot created via scheduled policy.
  • Set the last-run timestamp in the scheduled policy.

Xapi Changes

There is a new record for VM Scheduled Snapshot with new fields.

New fields:

  • name-label type String : Name label for VMSS.
  • name-description type String : Name description for VMSS.
  • enabled type Bool : Enable/Disable VMSS to take snapshot.
  • type type Enum [snapshot; checkpoint; snapshot_with_quiesce] : Type of snapshot VMSS takes.
  • retained-snapshots type Int64 : Number of snapshots limit for a VM, max limit is 10 and default is 7.
  • frequency type Enum [hourly; daily; weekly] : Frequency of taking snapshot of VMs.
  • schedule type Map(String,String) with (key, value) pair:
    • hour : 0 to 23
    • min : [0;15;30;45]
    • days : [Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday,Saturday,Sunday]
  • last-run-time type Date : DateTime of last execution of VMSS.
  • VMs type VM refs : List of VMs part of VMSS.

New fields to VM record:

  • scheduled-snapshot type VMSS ref : VM part of VMSS.
  • is-vmss-snapshot type Bool : If snapshot created from VMSS.

New APIs

  • vmss_snapshot_now (Ref vmss, Pool_Operater) -> String : This call executes the scheduled snapshot immediately.
  • vmss_set_retained_snapshots (Ref vmss, Int value, Pool_Operater) -> unit : Set the value of vmss retained snapshots, max is 10.
  • vmss_set_frequency (Ref vmss, String “value”, Pool_Operater) -> unit : Set the value of the vmss frequency field.
  • vmss_set_type (Ref vmss, String “value”, Pool_Operater) -> unit : Set the snapshot type of the vmss type field.
  • vmss_set_scheduled (Ref vmss, Map(String,String) “value”, Pool_Operater) -> unit : Set the vmss scheduled to take snapshot.
  • vmss_add_to_schedule (Ref vmss, String “key”, String “value”, Pool_Operater) -> unit : Add key value pair to VMSS schedule.
  • vmss_remove_from_schedule (Ref vmss, String “key”, Pool_Operater) -> unit : Remove key from VMSS schedule.
  • vmss_set_last_run_time (Ref vmss, DateTime “value”, Local_Root) -> unit : Set the last run time for VMSS.
  • task_set_status (Ref task, status_type “value”, READ_ONLY) -> unit : Set the status of task owned by same user, Pool_Operator can set status for any tasks.

New CLIs

  • vmss-create (required : “name-label”;”type”;”frequency”, optional : “name-description”;”enabled”;”schedule:”;”retained-snapshots”) -> unit : Creates VM scheduled snapshot.
  • vmss-destroy (required : uuid) -> unit : Destroys a VM scheduled snapshot.