VM Administration Policy

From MyWiki

The CSD virtual server farm is a resource available to CSD staff and projects associated with CSD.

There are a few non-CSD VMs that are grandfathered in.

It is important to note that these machines are not production servers. There is no 24x7 support coverage, no guarantees of availability, reliability, performance, etc. There should be no expectation of quick resolution of problems when they do occur. Support is provided on a best effort basis, and as time permits.

If you need production-level support and services, you should contact PI.

Roles and Responsibilities

VM Administrators

The VM administrators provide:

• Server hardware and host O/S configuration
• VMware software and configuration
• Limited assistance with foundational elements within the VMs. Examples include automatic yum updates, tivoli backups, kerberos authentication.

VM administrators are not responsibile for anything inside the VMs. The "limited assistance" listed above is service that is provided to the VM System Owner.

VM administrators reserve the right to shut down any VM for any reason, the canonical case being a VM gets compromised.

For additional information: VM_Support

VM System Owners

Each VM has a person designated as System Owner. System Owners are identified at: VM_Servers

The System Owner has overall responsibility for what goes on within it.

System Owners have root within the VM, and can authorize others for root access.

The VMs are exclusively "owned" by the System Owners and they can do anything they want inside them (normal caveats re university equipment, etc., apply, of course).