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Architecture

PaletteAI VM Launchpad is the recommended way to deploy a new Palette Virtual Machine Orchestrator (VMO) cluster on bare metal or Edge devices. The appliance uses a bootable ISO to install a preconfigured VMO environment on each node, so you can deploy and manage Virtual Machines (VMs) alongside containers in a Kubernetes host cluster. You can also deploy the Palette VMO pack as an add-on cluster profile on an existing data center or edge cluster.

Diagram that explains the architecture behind Palette VMO.

For more detailed information about the technical architecture of VMO, review the Spectro Cloud Resource Center. From the left main menu, select the Virtual Machines topic to find the latest version of the Palette VMO Reference Architecture.

Palette VMO Components​

By default, Palette VMO includes the following components:

  • Descheduler. Enables VM live migration to different nodes in the node pool when the original node is in maintenance mode.

  • Snapshot Controller. Enables you to create VM snapshots. This component is automatically installed when you initiate or schedule cluster backups.

    info

    Palette installs a snapshot controller into every cluster where backups are scheduled or have been created on-demand in the past. To prevent resource conflicts, ensure that the Volume Snapshot Controller pack is not a layer in your cluster profile before configuring VMO.

  • Spectro VM Dashboard. Enables you to create, manage, and monitor VMs from Palette. The dashboard becomes available once the VMO pack is successfully deployed as part of your cluster profile.

  • KubeVirt. This open source solution enables you to create and manage VMs within Kubernetes clusters. KubeVirt extends Kubernetes with additional virtualization resource types using Kubernetes Custom Resource Definitions (CRD) API.

    With KubeVirt, you can use the Kubernetes API to manage VM resources in the same way you would manage standard Kubernetes resources.

    info

    Palette VMO is pre-configured to use a number of KubeVirt feature gates out of the box, and you can configure additional feature gates as necessary. Review the Feature Gates section for more information.

  • KubeVirt CDI. Provides persistent storage for Kubernetes clusters and enables the use of Persistent Volume Claims (PVCs) as disks for KubeVirt VMs.

  • Volume Snapshot Controller. Watches VolumeSnapshot CRD objects and manages the creation and deletion of volume snapshots. A snapshot represents a point-in-time copy of a volume.

  • Multus CNI. Enables multiple network interfaces to attach to Kubernetes pods. In the context of VMO, Multus Controller Network Interface (CNI) automatically creates VLAN interfaces onto which you can place VMs.

Feature Gates​

Palette VMO includes the following KubeVirt feature gates by default:

  • LiveMigration
  • Snapshot
  • HotplugVolumes
  • VMExport
  • ExpandDisks
  • HotplugNICs
  • VMLiveUpdateFeatures
  • CPU Hotplug

For more information on KubeVirt feature gates, review the KubeVirt Activating feature gates guide.

MAC Address Management​

Palette automatically assigns unique Media Access Control (MAC) addresses to VMs when you create them through the Palette UI, API, or Terraform. The MAC address always starts with a prefix that is either 02, 06, 0A, or 0E. The next two octets are generated from a hash of the cluster GUID. Ensure the remaining three octets are unique for the scope of the VMO cluster. review this guide for more information on MAC address assignment in vCenter.

Specify a MAC Address​

You can set a VM MAC address by specifying a value in the YAML configuration file under the macAddress field.

warning

If you choose to assign a custom MAC address to a VM, ensure that it is unique and not already in use by any other VM in the cluster. Duplicate MAC addresses can cause network conflicts and connectivity issues.

spec:
  template:
    spec:
      domain:
        devices:
          interfaces:
            - macAddress: "REPLACE_WITH_MAC_ADDRESS"

Next Steps​

Now that you understand the architecture behind Palette VMO, you can continue exploring it by reviewing our Environment Setup and Create a VMO Profile pages.