VMmanager: Administrator guide

Main features

An administrator of VMmanager can perform the following operations: 

• create virtual machines; 
• reboot, enable and disable a virtual machine;
• clone a virtual machine; 
• create disk images for virtual machines based on the configured server;
• manage networks;
• group cluster nodes into logical clusters; 
• create clusters and add servers into clusters;

• receive detailed information about every cluster node and virtual machine. 

VMmanager architecture

VMmanager architecture is based on Docker allowing to create and manage containers. A Docker container is an isolated environment where an application is running and the required environment is configured.

A docker image is required for running a docker-container. It defines the processes that will run in a container, its parameters, and environment settings.  E.g. the image can contain an operating system with the pre-installed webserver and corresponding network settings.  It is not possible to change the docker image of a running container. 

VMmanager consists of three docker containers:

• vm_box — the main container with the services for the platform;
• vm_input_1 — container with nginx web server.Provides access to all platform services;
• vm_auth_back_1, vm_auth_back4_1 — services for user registration and authorization in VMmanager. They process profile settings and SSH-keys;
• vm_validator_1 — POST query content check service;
• carbon_clickhouse — aggregator of VM and cluster node usage metrics;
• clickhouse_server — database of VM and cluster node usage metrics;
• graphite_clickhouse — service for converting metrics to graphite format;
• carbonapi — API service for transferring metrics to Grafana and platform interface;
• mysql — the container for the database management system MySQL;
• vm_ipmgr_1 — IPmanager service container;
• plugin — plugins container;
• registrator — the container for dynamic creation of new containers for nginx;
• consul — the container for Consul service detection system. Read more about Consul in the official documentation;
• vm_metric_collection_1 — VMmanager metrics collection service;
• grafana — grafana monitoring visualization container;
• vm_dns_proxy_1 — PowerDNS integration plugin container;
• alert — container for platform notifications settings service;

• scheduler — container for VMs backup schedule;

• telegram-srv — container responsible for sending notifications to Telegram messenger;
• vm_msgsender_1 — container for sending emails to VMmanager users. E.g., after the virtual machine is successfully created or the operating system is reinstalled;
• vm_ldap_1 — container for synchronization with the LDAP directory.

More information about the VMmanager structure in the article VMmanager structure.

The platform is accessed via the HTTPS protocol. Communication between the platform and the cluster nodes is organized using the SSH protocol. 

Product operation logic