• Reliable virtualization platform based on only two hardware nodes with ability to use “online migration”

• Two PC/Servers with:
  1. AMD-V or VT-x support
  2. At least 2GB RAM
  3. 2 HDD (first for Proxmox, second for DRBD)
  4. Single 1Gbit/s network adapter
  5. Accessible NTP server (for example: ntp.company.lan)

• In addition to minimum requirements:
  1. one or two extra network adapters for each PC/Server (for DRBD communications) and direct connection PC-to-PC on these ports (without any switches); use round-robin bonding in case of two adapters
  2. one extra network adapter for virtual machines
  3. Fast RAID configuration with BBU as a replacement to second HDD (/dev/sdb)

1. Install two nodes (virt1.company.lan / 10.10.1.1 and virt2.company.lan / 10.10.1.2) and login with user “root”
2. Update both nodes (highly recommended): aptitude update && aptitude full-upgrade
3. On virt1:
   1. add “server ntp.company.lan” to /etc/ntp.conf
   2. /etc/init.d/ntp restart
   3. ntpdc -p
   4. pvecm create cluster1
   5. pvecm status
4. On virt2:
   1. add “server ntp.company.lan” to /etc/ntp.conf
   2. /etc/init.d/ntp restart
   3. ntpdc -p
   4. pvecm add 10.10.1.1
5. DONE!

The following steps are supposed to be done on both nodes (identically)

1. Create partition /dev/sdb1 using “fdisk /dev/sdb”. PARTITIONS ON BOTH NODES MUST BE EXACTLY THE SAME SIZE.
2. aptitude install drbd8-utils
3. Replace file /etc/drbd.d/global_common.conf with

   global { usage-count no; }
   common { syncer { rate 30M; verify-alg md5; } }

4. Add file /etc/drbd.d/r0.res

   resource r0 {
       	protocol C;
       	startup {
               	wfc-timeout 0;    # non-zero might be dangerous
               	degr-wfc-timeout 60;
               	become-primary-on both;
       	}
       	net {
               	cram-hmac-alg sha1;
               	shared-secret "oogh2ouch0aitahNBLABLABLA";
               	allow-two-primaries;
               	after-sb-0pri discard-zero-changes;
               	after-sb-1pri discard-secondary;
               	after-sb-2pri disconnect;
       	}
       	on virt1 {
               	device /dev/drbd0;
               	disk /dev/sdb1;
               	address 10.10.1.1:7788;
               	meta-disk internal;
       	}
       	on virt2 {
               	device /dev/drbd0;
               	disk /dev/sdb1;
               	address 10.10.1.2:7788;
               	meta-disk internal;
       	}
   }

5. /etc/init.d/drbd start
6. drbdadm create-md r0
7. drbdadm up r0
8. cat /proc/drbd # to check if r0 is available

Following steps are supposed to be done only on ONE node

1. drbdadm -- --overwrite-data-of-peer primary r0
2. watch cat /proc/drbd # to monitor synchronization process
3. finally both nodes become primary and uptodate (Primary/Primary UpToDate/UpToDate), but actually no reason to wait until they are synced (very long), /dev/drbd0 is already available on both nodes and we can go to the next step - create LVM on top of DRBD
4. DONE!

Following steps are supposed to be done on both nodes (identically)

1. change /etc/lvm/lvm.conf

   --- /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.orig    2012-03-09 12:58:48.000000000 +0400
   +++ /etc/lvm/lvm.conf    2012-04-06 18:00:32.000000000 +0400
   @@ -63,7 +63,8 @@
    
    
    	# By default we accept every block device:
   -	filter = [ "a/.*/" ]
   +	#filter = [ "a/.*/" ]
   +	filter = [ "r|^/dev/sdb1|", "a|^/dev/sd|", "a|^/dev/drbd|" ,"r/.*/" ]
    
    	# Exclude the cdrom drive
    	# filter = [ "r|/dev/cdrom|" ]

Following steps are supposed to be done on any single node

1. pvcreate /dev/drbd0
2. pvscan # in order to check
3. vgcreate drbdvg /dev/drbd0
4. pvscan # in order to check
5. DONE!

1. go to http://10.10.1.1 and login with root
2. Data Center → Storage → Add → LVM group
   • ID: drbd
   • Volume group: drbdvg
   • Shared: yes
3. Create VM (right top corner)
   1. choose appropriate settings for a new VM until Hard Disk tab
   2. Hard Disk → Storage: drbd
   3. Finish creation
4. DONE! Since now we can start VM, install operation system and play with online-migration

1. http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Proxmox_VE_2.0_Cluster
2. http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/DRBD