KVM

OpenStack is an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform that allows you to create and manage virtual environments. Chameleon provides an installation of OpenStack Xena using the KVM virtualization technology at the KVM@TACC site. Since the KVM hypervisor is used on this cloud, any virtual machines you upload must be compatible with KVM.

This documentation provide basic information about how to use the OpenStack web interface and provides some information specific to using OpenStack KVM on Chameleon. The interface is similar to the bare metal sites CHI@TACC and CHI@UC. However, the resources that you are using are virtual, rather than being tied to physical nodes. Familiarity with some concepts, such as Key Pairs are also required for KVM.

Note

GPU Access on KVM

We have GPUs available NOW on KVM@TACC. Launching an instance on a GPU-enabled flavor requires a reservation, similar to bare metal resources on Chameleon. But, unlike bare metal reservations, VM reservations require selecting a particular GPU-enabled flavor, rather than a physical resource type. In the documentation for KVM topics, we explicitly call out, where relevant, the different steps needed for creating GPU-enabled instances. KVM access for non-GPU instances is still available without a reservation.

KVM Topics

• Work with KVM using the GUI
  • Creating Leases for VMs with GPUs
  • Launching Instances
  • Managing Virtual Machine Instances
  • Associating a Floating IP Address
  • Key Pairs
  • Security Groups
  • Adding a Security Group to an Instance
• Load Balancer as a Service
• Work with KVM using the CLI