ceph/doc/rbd/qemu-rbd.rst
Josh Durgin f586add47b doc: extend QEMU/RBD docs
Describe running a vm from RBD, cache options, and discard support.

Signed-off-by: Josh Durgin <josh.durgin@inktank.com>
2012-09-26 17:41:03 -07:00

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==============
QEMU and RBD
==============
Ceph integrates with the QEMU virtual machine. For details on QEMU, see
`QEMU Open Source Processor Emulator`_. For QEMU documentation, see
`QEMU Manual`_.
.. important:: To use RBD with QEMU, you must have a running Ceph cluster.
Installing QEMU on Ubuntu 12.04 Precise
---------------------------------------
QEMU packages are incorporated into the Ubuntu 12.04 precise distribution. To
install QEMU on precise, execute the following::
sudo apt-get install qemu
Installing QEMU on Earlier Versions of Ubuntu
---------------------------------------------
For Ubuntu distributions 11.10 oneiric and earlier, you must install
the 0.15 version of QEMU or later. To build QEMU from source, use the
following procedure::
cd {your-development-directory}
git clone git://git.qemu.org/qemu.git
cd qemu
./configure --enable-rbd
make; make install
Creating RBD Images with QEMU
-----------------------------
You can create an RBD image from QEMU. You must specify ``rbd``,
the pool name, and the name of the image you wish to create. You must also
specify the size of the image. ::
qemu-img create -f rbd rbd:{pool-name}/{image-name} {size}
For example::
qemu-img create -f rbd rbd:data/foo 10G
Resizing RBD Images with QEMU
-----------------------------
You can resize an RBD image from QEMU. You must specify ``rbd``,
the pool name, and the name of the image you wish to resize. You must also
specify the size of the image. ::
qemu-img resize -f rbd rbd:{pool-name}/{image-name} {size}
For example::
qemu-img resize -f rbd rbd:data/foo 10G
Retrieving RBD Image Information with QEMU
------------------------------------------
You can retrieve RBD image information from QEMU. You must
specify ``rbd``, the pool name, and the name of the image. ::
qemu-img info -f rbd rbd:{pool-name}/{image-name}
For example::
qemu-img info -f rbd rbd:data/foo
Running QEMU with RBD
---------------------
QEMU can pass a block device from the host on to a guest, but since
QEMU 0.15, there's no need to map an RBD image as a block device on
the host. Instead, QEMU can access an RBD image as a virtual block
device directly via ``librbd``. This performs better because it avoids
an additional context switch, and can take advantage of `RBD caching`_.
You can use ``qemu-img`` to convert existing virtual machine images to RBD.
For example, if you have a qcow2 image, you could run::
qemu-img convert -f qcow2 -O rbd debian_squeeze.qcow2 rbd:data/squeeze
To run a virtual machine booting from that image, you could run::
qemu -m 1024 -drive format=raw,file=rbd:data/squeeze
Using `RBD caching`_ can significantly improve performance.
Since QEMU 1.2, QEMU's cache options control RBD caching::
qemu -m 1024 -drive format=rbd,file=rbd:data/squeeze,cache=writeback
If you have an older version of QEMU, you can set the RBD cache
configuration (like any Ceph configuration option) as part of the
'file' parameter::
qemu -m 1024 -drive format=raw,file=rbd:data/squeeze:rbd_cache=true
.. _RBD caching: ../../config-cluster/rbd-config-ref/#rbd-cache-config-settings
Enabling discard/TRIM
---------------------
Since Ceph version 0.46 and QEMU version 1.1, RBD supports the discard
operation. This means that a guest can send TRIM requests to let RBD
reclaim unused space. This can be enabled in the guest by mounting
ext4 or xfs with the ``discard`` option.
For this to be available to the guest, it must be explicitly enabled
for the block device. To do this, you must specify a
discard_granularity associated with the drive::
qemu -m 1024 -drive format=raw,file=rbd:data/squeeze,id=drive1,if=none \
-device driver=ide-hd,drive=drive1,discard_granularity=512
Note that this uses the IDE driver. The virtio driver does not
support discard.
.. _QEMU Open Source Processor Emulator: http://wiki.qemu.org/Main_Page
.. _QEMU Manual: http://wiki.qemu.org/Manual