Provisioning
Provisioning is where you set up what researchers can run. It covers the hosts that virtual machines run on, the VM images and hardware setups researchers choose from, and the Slurm clusters that run batch jobs.
Provisioning provides the machines. It does not give you access to what runs on them. An administrator pairs a VM image with the cores, memory and devices a machine gets in a hardware setup, and a researcher then builds a VM configuration from it. From then on, the running machine belongs to whoever started it, and the administrator who set up the image and hardware cannot see inside it.
Provisioning contains the following functionality
- Images & Hardware: register VM images and ISO images, review hardware profiles and VM configurations, and build the hardware setups researchers select.
- Infrastructure: review realms, and register libvirt hosts, storage pools, volumes, and devices.
- Building VM Images: build and prepare the Linux and Windows images that hardware setups reference.
- Slurm: review Global Slurm, decide which VMs may use each partition, monitor nodes, jobs and worker VMs, and set Slurm accounts.
The provisioning chain
Each layer depends on the one before it, and a researcher only ever sees the last.
| Layer | What it defines | Managed in |
|---|---|---|
| Realm | Binds compute, storage, and networking into one logical zone | Realms |
| Libvirt host | A physical or virtual server that runs VMs | Libvirt Hosts |
| Storage pool | The backend that encrypted drives are allocated from | Storage Pools |
| VM image | The operating system and pre-installed software a machine boots from | VM Images |
| Hardware profile | The CPUs, memory, and devices a Libvirt host offers, assigned to the host when it is registered | Hardware Profiles |
| Hardware setup | An image with the cores, memory, and devices each VM gets, which is the unit researchers choose | Hardware Setups |
Infrastructure
Realms
Logical groupings that bind hosts, storage, and networking.
Libvirt Hosts
Physical or virtual servers that run VMs.
Storage Pools
Storage backends that VM drives are allocated from.
Libvirt Volumes
Individual storage volumes within pools.
Devices
Names and quota tags for the device types hosts report.
Images and hardware
VM Images
Operating system images that VMs boot from.
Hardware Profiles
The CPUs, memory, and devices each Libvirt host offers.
Hardware Setups
An image with the cores, memory, and devices researchers choose.
ISO Images
ISO files available to mount inside VMs.
ISO Volumes
ISO files found in the Libvirt storage pools, ready to register.
VM Configurations
Review the saved configurations researchers have built.
Building Images
Create and prepare Linux and Windows images from scratch.
Batch computing
Slurm Configuration
Review the Global Slurm configuration.
Partition Assignments
Decide which teams, projects, and VM configurations may use each partition.
Nodes
View the state and resources of Slurm compute nodes.
Worker VMs
View the VMs Global Slurm starts for batch jobs.
VM Accounts
Set the Slurm account and fair share of each VM configuration.
User Accounts
Review per-user Slurm share and usage.