Default Protection Group for new VMs

  • 17 February 2014
  • 8 replies
  • 1531 views

Userlevel 4
Badge +20
Hello,

Is there a way (other than REST or scripting/crontab) to put any new VM created inside a container to a "default" protection domain?

The rationale is to create a "standard" policy for all VMs of a cluster like "this cluster is replicated every 2h, by default", then if exceptions need to be handled, they can be treated on a case by case basis.

I have a customer that is PoCing Nutanix, with the goal to move from a NetApp/NFS/IBM Blades solution to Nutanix if everything goes well.
Problem is, they use SnapMirror to replicate their datastore (1 by cluster) every 1h. They do want to be able to replicate just a VM, but they don't want to have to add each new VM individually to a protection domain.

Sylvain.

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8 replies

Userlevel 4
Badge +19
Just through scripting today. Question for you though, Would you like a default protection domain set per container or at the cluster level? Or should the cluster have a default and then the container overides the global setting?
Userlevel 4
Badge +20
The bare minimum should be at the container level.
We create VM far more often than we create containers.

If it's possible to define a default for a cluster then override it at the container level, fine, but I can also set the default protection group for each new container of the cluster...

Anyway, as a container needs to replicate to another container, this doesn't make a lot of sense, no? How would the cluster be able to automaticaly decide which container on site A goes to which container on site B?

Sylvain.
Userlevel 4
Badge +19
container to container replication isn't needed, it would all have to be site up at the production domain level, you could have vm's in a containter that went go replicated to different sites.
Userlevel 4
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I don't know if I understand your post right, but if you mean that it would have to be setup at the protection domain level, yes.
My idea in this case would be to have a default protection domain assigned to all new VMs created in the cluster or container.
That way, you can configure the protection domain settings once (like replication frequency) and then have all new VMs inherit these settings.
If you need specific settings for a VM, you would still have the ability to assign another protection domain to this VM and effectivly override the default settings.

In my case, as we are replicating all VMs every hour from cluster A on site 1 to cluster B on site 2, we would be covered.
In the futur if we create VMs that does not need replication (like vShield agent VM for exemple), we could either create a specific container for these VMs, or exclude them from the protection domain and achieve the desired result.

Sylvain.
Userlevel 4
Badge +19
With NOS 4.0 and powershell you can automate this

http://itbloodpressure.com/2014/04/17/nos-4-0-powershell-add-all-your-vms-to-a-protection-domain/
Userlevel 4
Badge +20
Great solution!

I suggested a one liner that should work, too.
I cannot test it (yet) but I plan to as soon as I upgrade to NOS4.0

But still, I would like something realy integrated at the Nutanix Cluster level, rather than automated/orchestrated from the outside.
The thing is, this solution is really neat, but I will still depend on a script, that has to be monitored, and maybe upgraded.
Another moving piece.

My client that had this request already manage more that 4200 VMs, and they may double that number in the next 2 years. Having this integrated by default would really be helpful here.

Sylvain.
Userlevel 2
Badge +13
Hi guys any solution to this problem, I have a customer asking about it.

Thanks,
Tony
Badge +5
It would be cool to be able to assign protection config/sla details directly to a cluster or to a storage container - an additional way to view/interact with the infrastructure