Virtual Machine Deployment¶

Deploy Omakase in a virtual machine for flexibility and easy management.

Overview¶

VM deployment provides isolation and flexibility while sharing hardware resources.

Advantages: - Easy snapshots and backups - Hardware abstraction - Easy migration - Can run alongside other VMs - Test environment on same hardware

Disadvantages: - Virtualization overhead (~5-10%) - Requires hypervisor - More complex setup

Supported Hypervisors¶

VMware ESXi / Workstation
Proxmox VE (see Proxmox LXC for container option)
KVM/QEMU (libvirt)
VirtualBox
Hyper-V

VM Specifications¶

Minimum¶

vCPU: 4 cores
RAM: 8GB
Disk: 250GB (thin provisioned)
Network: Bridged or NAT with port forwarding

Recommended¶

vCPU: 8 cores
RAM: 16GB
Disk: 500GB NVMe/SSD
Network: Bridged for direct LAN access

VM Creation¶

VMware Example¶

Create New VM:
Guest OS: Linux → Ubuntu 64-bit
Processors: 8 cores
Memory: 16GB
Disk: 500GB (thin provision)
Network: Bridged
VM Settings:
Enable hardware virtualization (VT-x/AMD-V)
Paravirtualized SCSI controller
VMXNET3 network adapter
Install OS: Mount Ubuntu Server 24.04 ISO

Proxmox Example¶

# Create VM via CLI
qm create 100 \
  --name omakase \
  --memory 16384 \
  --cores 8 \
  --sockets 1 \
  --net0 virtio,bridge=vmbr0 \
  --scsi0 local-lvm:500 \
  --ide2 local:iso/ubuntu-24.04-server-amd64.iso,media=cdrom \
  --boot order=ide2 \
  --ostype l26

# Start VM
qm start 100

KVM/QEMU Example¶

# Create disk
qemu-img create -f qcow2 omakase.qcow2 500G

# Create VM
virt-install \
  --name omakase \
  --ram 16384 \
  --vcpus 8 \
  --disk path=omakase.qcow2,format=qcow2 \
  --network bridge=br0 \
  --graphics none \
  --console pty,target_type=serial \
  --location /path/to/ubuntu-24.04-server-amd64.iso \
  --os-variant ubuntu24.04 \
  --extra-args 'console=ttyS0,115200n8'

Operating System Installation¶

Follow Bare Metal Deployment guide for OS installation.

VM-Specific Configuration¶

Disk Configuration¶

Two-disk setup (recommended): - Disk 1 (100GB): OS and Docker - Disk 2 (500GB+): Data storage

# Format data disk
sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb

# Mount
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/storage
echo "/dev/sdb /mnt/storage ext4 defaults,noatime 0 2" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
sudo mount -a

Network Configuration¶

Bridged mode (recommended): - VM gets own IP on LAN - Direct access from network - Easy DNS setup

NAT mode:

# Port forwarding required
# Host: 8080 → Guest: 80
# Host: 8443 → Guest: 443

Guest Tools¶

VMware Tools:

sudo apt install open-vm-tools

QEMU Guest Agent:

sudo apt install qemu-guest-agent
sudo systemctl enable qemu-guest-agent
sudo systemctl start qemu-guest-agent

VirtualBox Guest Additions:

sudo apt install virtualbox-guest-utils virtualbox-guest-dkms

Performance Optimization¶

Paravirtualized Drivers¶

Use virtio drivers for better performance: - Disk: VirtIO SCSI - Network: VirtIO Net - Balloon: VirtIO Balloon (memory management)

CPU Configuration¶

# Enable CPU passthrough features
cpu: host

Allocate dedicated cores if possible.

Memory¶

Enable ballooning for dynamic allocation
Set minimum memory reservation
Disable memory overcommit in production

Storage¶

Use SSD/NVMe backed storage
Enable TRIM/UNMAP for thin provisioning
Use virtio-scsi over IDE

Snapshots and Backups¶

VM Snapshots¶

Before major changes:

# Proxmox
qm snapshot 100 pre-update

# VMware
vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.create VM_ID snapshot_name

# KVM
virsh snapshot-create-as omakase pre-update

Restore if needed:

# Proxmox
qm rollback 100 pre-update

# KVM
virsh snapshot-revert omakase pre-update

VM Backup¶

Full VM backup: - Proxmox: Built-in backup (vzdump) - VMware: VM clone or export to OVA - KVM: virsh dombackup

Data-only backup: Use Omakase's built-in Restic backup for application data.

High Availability¶

VM-Level HA¶

Proxmox HA:

# Enable HA for VM
ha-manager add vm:100

VMware HA: Configure in vSphere cluster settings.

Replication¶

Proxmox:

# Set up replication
pvecm add <node-ip>

Migration¶

Live Migration¶

Proxmox:

qm migrate 100 target-node

VMware vMotion: Right-click VM → Migrate → Change host

Cold Migration¶

Shut down VM
Export VM (OVA/OVF)
Import on target hypervisor
Update network configuration
Start VM

Resource Management¶

CPU Allocation¶

# Proxmox
cores: 8
cpu: host
cpu-units: 1024  # Default priority

Memory Allocation¶

memory: 16384
balloon: 8192  # Minimum guaranteed

Disk QoS¶

# Limit disk I/O if needed
mbps_rd: 100  # MB/s read limit
mbps_wr: 100  # MB/s write limit

Monitoring¶

Hypervisor Monitoring¶

Monitor VM resources from hypervisor: - CPU usage - Memory usage - Disk I/O - Network throughput

Guest Monitoring¶

Use Omakase's built-in monitoring stack.

Troubleshooting¶

VM Performance Issues¶

Check resource allocation: - Enough vCPUs assigned? - Memory ballooning aggressive? - Disk on SSD?

Check host load: - Other VMs consuming resources? - Host swap usage?

Network Issues¶

Bridged mode not working: - Check bridge configuration - Verify promiscuous mode enabled

Can't reach VM: - Check firewall on guest - Verify network adapter connected - Check DHCP/static IP configuration

Disk Full¶

# Inside VM
df -h

# Thin provisioned disk full?
# Expand disk in hypervisor
# Then expand filesystem
sudo growpart /dev/sda 1
sudo resize2fs /dev/sda1

Best Practices¶

Use paravirtualized drivers - Better performance
Regular snapshots - Before updates/changes
Monitor resource usage - Adjust allocation as needed
Use SSD storage - Significant performance boost
Bridged networking - Simpler than NAT
Install guest tools - Better integration
Allocate adequate resources - Don't overcommit
Regular VM backups - Complement data backups