Server Virtualization
Techcity Cloud Virtual Environment is based on Debian GNU/Linux and uses a custom Linux Kernel.
Using Techcity Cloud software guarantees full access to all functionality, as well as a high level of reliability and security.
Read more about the Proxmox technology
Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM)
KVM is the industry-leading Linux virtualization technology for full virtualization. It’s a kernel module, that’s merged into the mainline Linux kernel, and it runs with near-native performance on all x86 hardware with virtualization support—either Intel VT-x or AMD-V.
With KVM you can run both Windows and Linux in virtual machines (VMs), where each VM has private, virtualized hardware: a network card, disk, graphics adapter, etc. Running several applications in VMs on a single system, enables you to save power and reduce costs, while at the same time, giving you the flexibility to build an agile and scalable software-defined data center, that meets your business demands.
Techcity Cloud has included KVM support since the beginning of the project.
Container-based Virtualization
Container-based virtualization technology is a lightweight alternative to full machine virtualization, because it shares the host system’s kernel.
Linux Containers (LXC)
LXC is an operating-system-level virtualization environment for running multiple, isolated Linux systems on a single Linux control host. LXC works as a userspace interface for the Linux kernel containment features. Users can easily create and manage system or application containers with a powerful API and simple tools.
Central Management
While many Company start with a single node, Techcity Cloud Virtual Environment can scale out to a large set of clustered nodes. The cluster stack is fully integrated and ships with the default installation. To manage all tasks of your virtual data center, you can use the central, web-based management interface.
Web-based management interface
Techcity Private Cloud is easy to use. You can do all management tasks with the integrated graphical user interface (GUI), there is no need to install a separate management tool. The central web interface is based on the ExtJS JavaScript framework and can be accessed from any modern browser. In addition to management tasks, it also provides an overview of the task history and system logs of each node. This includes running backup tasks, live migration, software-defined storage, or HA triggered activities. The multi-master tool allows you to manage your whole cluster from any node of your cluster; you don’t need a dedicated manager node.
Unique multi-master design
To simplify the management of a cluster, you can carry out maintenance tasks cluster wide, from any node. The integrated web-based management interface gives you a clean overview of all your KVM guests and Linux containers across your cluster. You can easily manage your VMs and containers, storage or cluster from the GUI. There is no need to install a separate, complex, and pricey management server.
Techcity Cloud Cluster File System (pmxcfs)
Techcity Cloud uses the unique Techcity Cloud Cluster File System (pmxcfs), a database-driven file system developed.
The pmxcfs enables you to synchronize configuration files across your cluster. By using Corosync, these files are replicated in real time to all cluster nodes. The file system stores all data inside a persistent database on disk, nonetheless, a copy of the data resides in RAM. The maximum storage size is currently 30MB – more than enough to store the configuration of several thousands of VMs.
Techcity Cloud is the only virtualization platform using this unique cluster file system pmxcfs.
Live/Online Migration
With the integrated live/online migration feature, you can move running virtual machines from one Techcity Cloud cluster node to another, without any downtime or noticeable effect from the end-user side.
Administrators can initiate this process from either the web interface or the command line. This enables you to minimize downtime, in case you need to take the host system offline for maintenance.
Command Line Interface (CLI)
For advanced users who are used to the comfort of the Unix shell or Windows Powershell, Techcity Private Cloud provides a command line interface to manage all the components of your virtual environment. This command line interface has intelligent tab completion and full documentation in the form of UNIX man pages.
REST API
Techcity Private Cloud uses a RESTful API. We chose JSON as the primary data format, and the whole API is formally defined using JSON Schema. This enables fast and easy integration for third party management tools, such as custom hosting environments.
Role-based Administration
You can define granular access to all objects (like VMs, storage, nodes, etc.) by using the role-based permission management system. This allows you to define privileges and helps you to control access to objects. This concept is also known as access control lists: Each permission specifies a subject (a user group, or API token) and a role (set of privileges) on a specific path.
Authentication Realms
Techcity Private Cloud supports multiple authentication sources, including Microsoft Active Directory, LDAP, Linux PAM standard authentication and the built-in Techcity Private Cloud authentication server.
Techcity Private Cloud High Availability (HA) Cluster
A multi-node Techcity Private Cloud Cluster enables the creation of highly available virtual servers. The Techcity Private CloudHA Cluster is based on proven Linux HA technologies, providing stable and reliable HA service.
Techcity Private Cloud HA Manager
The resource manager, Techcity Private Cloud HA Manager, monitors all VMs and containers in the cluster and automatically comes into action if one of them fails. The Techcity Private Cloud HA Manager works out-of-the-box. Zero configuration is needed. Additionally, the watchdog-based fencing dramatically simplifies deployment.
The entire Techcity Private Cloud HA Cluster can be easily configured from the integrated web-based user interface.
Techcity Private Cloud HA Simulator
Techcity Private Cloud includes a HA Simulator. This allows you to test the behavior of a real-world 3 node cluster with 6 VMs.
Read more about the Proxmox VE High Availability
Techcity Private Cloud uses a bridged networking model. Each host can have up to 4094 bridges.
Bridges are like physical network switches, implemented in software on the Techcity Private Cloud host. All VMs can share one bridge, as if virtual network cables from each guest were all plugged into the same switch. For connecting VMs to the outside world, bridges are attached to physical network cards assigned a TCP/IP configuration.
For further flexibility, VLANs (IEEE 802.1q) and network bonding/aggregation are possible. In this way, it is possible to build complex, flexible, virtual networks for the Techcity Private Cloud hosts, leveraging the full power of the Linux network stack.
In case you have more specific needs, Techcity Private Cloud also supports Open vSwitch (OVS) as an alternative to Linux bridges, bonds, and VLAN interfaces. OVS provides advanced features, such as RSTP support, VXLANs and OpenFlow, and also support multiple VLAN on a single bridge.
Flexible Storage Options
The Techcity Private Cloud storage model is very flexible. VM images can either be stored on one or several local storage devices or on shared storage like NFS and SAN. There are no limits. You can configure as many storages as you like, and can use all storage technologies available for Debian GNU/Linux. The benefit of storing VMs on shared storage is the ability to live-migrate running machines without any downtime.
Read more on the Proxmox VE Storage Model
In the Techcity Private Cloud web interface, you can add the following storage types:
Network storage types supported
- LVM Group (network backing with iSCSI targets)
- iSCSI target
- NFS Share
- CIFS
- Ceph RBD
- Direct to iSCSI LUN
- GlusterFS
- CephFS
Local storage types supported
- LVM Group
- Directory (storage on an existing filesystem)
- ZFS
Software-Defined Storage with CEPH
CEPH is an open-source distributed object store and file system designed to provide excellent performance, reliability and scalability. Techcity Private Cloud Virtual Environment fully integrates CEPH, giving you the ability to run and manage CEPH storage directly from any of your cluster nodes.
CEPH provides two types of storage, RADOS Block Device (RBD) and CephFS. An RBD provides block level storage, for content such as disk images and snapshots. CephFS implements a POSIX-compliant filesystem using a Ceph storage cluster to store its data.
Benefits of CEPH with Techcity Private Cloud
- Easy setup and management through the GUI and CLI
- Self-healing
- Scalable to the exabyte level
- Setup pools with different performance and redundancy characteristics
- Runs on economical commodity hardware
Read more:
- Hyper-converged infrastructure: How to deploy a hyper-converged Proxmox VE Ceph Cluster
- Benchmark: Proxmox VE Ceph Benchmark 2020/09
Backup and Restore
Backups are a basic requirement for any sensible IT environment. The Techcity Private Cloud platform provides a fully integrated solution, using the capabilities of each storage and each guest system type. Backups can be easily started with the GUI or with the vzdump backup tool (via command line). These backups are always full backups – containing the configuration of VMs and container, and all data.
The integrated backup tool (vzdump) creates consistent snapshots of running containers and KVM guests. It basically creates an archive of the VM or container data and also includes the configuration files.
Scheduled Backup
Backup jobs can be scheduled so that they are executed automatically on specific days and times, for selectable nodes and guest systems.
Backup Storage
KVM live backup works for all storage types including VM images on NFS, iSCSI LUN, and Ceph RBD. The Proxmox VE backup format is optimized for storing VM backups quick and effectively (accounting for sparse files, out of order data, minimized I/O).
Read how to configure Proxmox VE Backup and Restore
Techcity Private Cloud Backup Server Integration
Techcity Private Cloud Backup Server is our enterprise-class backup solution, that is capable of backing up VMs, containers, and physical hosts. Support for this is fully integrated into Techcity Private Cloud, meaning you can seamlessly back up and restore guests using the same common interface that the other storage types use.
These backups are incremental, only transferring newly changed data over the network. This is highly beneficial in terms of network bandwidth and backup job run time. Data can also be easily encrypted on the client side, so that your backed up data is inaccessible to attackers.
Single-file Restore
Oftentimes, only a single file or directory is needed from a backup. From the Techcity Private Cloud web interface, you can securely search for and restore individual files or directories from a VM or container backup.
Live-Restore
Restoring large backups can take a long time and be a major source of downtime in case of disaster. However, for VM backups that are stored on a Techcity Private Cloud Backup Server, the live-restore feature minimizes this downtime, allowing the VM to start as soon as the restore begins. In this case, the data is continuously copied in the background, prioritizing chunks that the VM is actively accessing.
Techcity Private Cloud Firewall
The built-in Techcity Private Cloud Firewall provides an easy way to protect your IT infrastructure. The firewall is completely customizable, allowing complex configurations via the GUI or CLI.
You can set up firewall rules for all hosts inside a cluster, or define rules for virtual machines and containers only. Features like firewall macros, security groups, IP sets and aliases help to make that task easier.
Distributed Firewall
While all configuration is stored in the cluster file system, the iptables-based firewall runs on each cluster node, and thus provides full isolation between virtual machines. The distributed nature of this system also provides much higher bandwidth than a centralized firewall solution.
IPv4 and IPv6
The firewall has full support for IPv4 and IPv6. IPv6 support is fully transparent, and we filter traffic for both protocols by default. Thus, there is no need to maintain a different set of rules for IPv6.
Read more about the Proxmox VE Firewall