[openstack-dev] [nova][placement] Trying to summarize bp/glance-image-traits scheduling alternatives for rebuild

Matt Riedemann mriedemos at gmail.com
Wed May 2 14:07:02 UTC 2018


On 5/1/2018 5:26 PM, Arvind N wrote:
> In cases of rebuilding of an instance using a different image where the 
> image traits have changed between the original launch and the rebuild, 
> is it reasonable to ask to just re-launch a new instance with the new image?
> 
> The argument for this approach is that given that the requirements have 
> changed, we want the scheduler to pick and allocate the appropriate host 
> for the instance.

We don't know if the requirements have changed with the new image until 
we check them.

Here is another option:

What if the API compares the original image required traits against the 
new image required traits, and if the new image has required traits 
which weren't in the original image, then (punt) fail in the API? Then 
you would at least have a chance to rebuild with a new image that has 
required traits as long as those required traits are less than or equal 
to the originally validated traits for the host on which the instance is 
currently running.

> 
> The approach above also gives you consistent results vs the other 
> approaches where the rebuild may or may not succeed depending on how the 
> original allocation of resources went.
> 

Consistently frustrating, I agree. :) Because as a user, I can rebuild 
with some images (that don't have required traits) and can't rebuild 
with other images (that do have required traits).

I see no difference with this and being able to rebuild (with a new 
image) some instances (image-backed) and not others (volume-backed). 
Given that, I expect if we punt on this, someone will just come along 
asking for the support later. Could be a couple of years from now when 
everyone has moved on and it then becomes someone else's problem.

> For example(from Alex Xu) ,if you launched an instance on a host which 
> has two SRIOV nic. One is normal SRIOV nic(A), another one with some 
> kind of offload feature(B).
> 
> So, the original request is: resources=SRIOV_VF:1 The instance gets a VF 
> from the normal SRIOV nic(A).
> 
> But with a new image, the new request is: resources=SRIOV_VF:1 
> traits=HW_NIC_OFFLOAD_XX
> 
> With all the solutions discussed in the thread, a rebuild request like 
> above may or may not succeed depending on whether during the initial 
> launch whether nic A or nic B was allocated.
> 
> Remember that in rebuild new allocation don't happen, we have to reuse 
> the existing allocations.
> 
> Given the above background, there seems to be 2 competing options.
> 
> 1. Fail in the API saying you can't rebuild with a new image with new 
> required traits.
> 
> 2. Look at the current allocations for the instance and try to match the 
> new requirement from the image with the allocations.
> 
> With #1, we get consistent results in regards to how rebuilds are 
> treated when the image traits changed.
> 
> With #2, the rebuild may or may not succeed, depending on how well the 
> original allocations match up with the new requirements.
> 
> #2 will also need to need to account for handling preferred traits or 
> granular resource traits if we decide to implement them for images at 
> some point...

Option 10: Don't support image-defined traits at all. I know that won't 
happen though.

At this point I'm exhausted with this entire issue and conversation and 
will probably bow out and need someone else to step in with different 
perspective, like melwitt or dansmith.

All of the solutions are bad in their own way, either because they add 
technical debt and poor user experience, or because they make rebuild 
more complicated and harder to maintain for the developers.

-- 

Thanks,

Matt



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