==================
Compute schedulers
==================

Compute uses the ``nova-scheduler`` service to determine how to dispatch
compute requests. For example, the ``nova-scheduler`` service determines on
which host a VM should launch.  In the context of filters, the term ``host``
means a physical node that has a ``nova-compute`` service running on it.  You
can configure the scheduler through a variety of options.

Compute is configured with the following default scheduler options in the
``/etc/nova/nova.conf`` file:

.. code-block:: ini

   scheduler_driver_task_period = 60
   scheduler_driver = nova.scheduler.filter_scheduler.FilterScheduler
   scheduler_available_filters = nova.scheduler.filters.all_filters
   scheduler_default_filters = RetryFilter, AvailabilityZoneFilter, ComputeFilter, ComputeCapabilitiesFilter, ImagePropertiesFilter, ServerGroupAntiAffinityFilter, ServerGroupAffinityFilter

By default, the ``scheduler_driver`` is configured as a filter scheduler, as
described in the next section. In the default configuration, this scheduler
considers hosts that meet all the following criteria:

* Have not been attempted for scheduling purposes (``RetryFilter``).

* Are in the requested availability zone (``AvailabilityZoneFilter``).

* Can service the request (``ComputeFilter``).

* Satisfy the extra specs associated with the instance type
  (``ComputeCapabilitiesFilter``).

* Satisfy any architecture, hypervisor type, or virtual machine mode properties
  specified on the instance's image properties (``ImagePropertiesFilter``).

* Are on a different host than other instances of a group (if requested)
  (``ServerGroupAntiAffinityFilter``).

* Are in a set of group hosts (if requested) (``ServerGroupAffinityFilter``).

The scheduler caches its list of available hosts; use the
``scheduler_driver_task_period`` option to specify how often the list is
updated.

.. note::

   Do not configure ``service_down_time`` to be much smaller than
   ``scheduler_driver_task_period``; otherwise, hosts appear to be dead while
   the host list is being cached.

For information about the volume scheduler, see the `Block Storage section
<https://docs.openstack.org/admin-guide/blockstorage-manage-volumes.html>`_ of
OpenStack Administrator Guide.

The scheduler chooses a new host when an instance is migrated.

When evacuating instances from a host, the scheduler service honors the target
host defined by the administrator on the :command:`nova evacuate` command.  If
a target is not defined by the administrator, the scheduler determines the
target host. For information about instance evacuation, see `Evacuate instances
<https://docs.openstack.org/admin-guide/
compute-node-down.html#evacuate-instances>`_ section of the OpenStack
Administrator Guide.

.. _compute-scheduler-filters:

Filter scheduler
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The filter scheduler (``nova.scheduler.filter_scheduler.FilterScheduler``) is
the default scheduler for scheduling virtual machine instances.  It supports
filtering and weighting to make informed decisions on where a new instance
should be created.

When the filter scheduler receives a request for a resource, it first applies
filters to determine which hosts are eligible for consideration when
dispatching a resource. Filters are binary: either a host is accepted by the
filter, or it is rejected. Hosts that are accepted by the filter are then
processed by a different algorithm to decide which hosts to use for that
request, described in the :ref:`weights` section.

**Filtering**

.. figure:: /figures/filteringWorkflow1.png

The ``scheduler_available_filters`` configuration option in ``nova.conf``
provides the Compute service with the list of the filters that are used by the
scheduler. The default setting specifies all of the filter that are included
with the Compute service:

.. code-block:: ini

   scheduler_available_filters = nova.scheduler.filters.all_filters

This configuration option can be specified multiple times.  For example, if you
implemented your own custom filter in Python called ``myfilter.MyFilter`` and
you wanted to use both the built-in filters and your custom filter, your
``nova.conf`` file would contain:

.. code-block:: ini

   scheduler_available_filters = nova.scheduler.filters.all_filters
   scheduler_available_filters = myfilter.MyFilter

The ``scheduler_default_filters`` configuration option in ``nova.conf`` defines
the list of filters that are applied by the ``nova-scheduler`` service. The
default filters are:

.. code-block:: ini

   scheduler_default_filters = RetryFilter, AvailabilityZoneFilter, ComputeCapabilitiesFilter, ImagePropertiesFilter, ServerGroupAntiAffinityFilter, ServerGroupAffinityFilter

Compute filters
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The following sections describe the available compute filters.

AggregateCoreFilter
-------------------

Filters host by CPU core numbers with a per-aggregate ``cpu_allocation_ratio``
value. If the per-aggregate value is not found, the value falls back to the
global setting.  If the host is in more than one aggregate and more than one
value is found, the minimum value will be used.  For information about how to
use this filter, see :ref:`host-aggregates`. See also :ref:`CoreFilter`.

AggregateDiskFilter
-------------------

Filters host by disk allocation with a per-aggregate ``disk_allocation_ratio``
value. If the per-aggregate value is not found, the value falls back to the
global setting.  If the host is in more than one aggregate and more than one
value is found, the minimum value will be used.  For information about how to
use this filter, see :ref:`host-aggregates`. See also :ref:`DiskFilter`.

AggregateImagePropertiesIsolation
---------------------------------

Matches properties defined in an image's metadata against those of aggregates
to determine host matches:

* If a host belongs to an aggregate and the aggregate defines one or more
  metadata that matches an image's properties, that host is a candidate to boot
  the image's instance.

* If a host does not belong to any aggregate, it can boot instances from all
  images.

For example, the following aggregate ``myWinAgg`` has the Windows operating
system as metadata (named 'windows'):

.. code-block:: console

   $ openstack aggregate show MyWinAgg
   +-------------------+----------------------------+
   | Field             | Value                      |
   +-------------------+----------------------------+
   | availability_zone | zone1                      |
   | created_at        | 2017-01-01T15:36:44.000000 |
   | deleted           | False                      |
   | deleted_at        | None                       |
   | hosts             | [u'sf-devel']              |
   | id                | 1                          |
   | name              | test                       |
   | properties        |                            |
   | updated_at        | None                       |
   +-------------------+----------------------------+

In this example, because the following Win-2012 image has the ``windows``
property, it boots on the ``sf-devel`` host (all other filters being equal):

.. code-block:: console

   $ openstack image show Win-2012
   +------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
   | Field            | Value                                                |
   +------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
   | checksum         | ee1eca47dc88f4879d8a229cc70a07c6                     |
   | container_format | bare                                                 |
   | created_at       | 2016-12-13T09:30:30Z                                 |
   | disk_format      | qcow2                                                |
   | ...

You can configure the ``AggregateImagePropertiesIsolation`` filter by using the
following options in the ``nova.conf`` file:

.. code-block:: ini

   # Considers only keys matching the given namespace (string).
   # Multiple values can be given, as a comma-separated list.
   aggregate_image_properties_isolation_namespace = <None>

   # Separator used between the namespace and keys (string).
   aggregate_image_properties_isolation_separator = .

.. _AggregateInstanceExtraSpecsFilter:

AggregateInstanceExtraSpecsFilter
---------------------------------

Matches properties defined in extra specs for an instance type against
admin-defined properties on a host aggregate.  Works with specifications that
are scoped with ``aggregate_instance_extra_specs``.  Multiple values can be
given, as a comma-separated list.  For backward compatibility, also works with
non-scoped specifications; this action is highly discouraged because it
conflicts with :ref:`ComputeCapabilitiesFilter` filter when you enable both
filters.  For information about how to use this filter, see the
:ref:`host-aggregates` section.

AggregateIoOpsFilter
--------------------

Filters host by disk allocation with a per-aggregate ``max_io_ops_per_host``
value. If the per-aggregate value is not found, the value falls back to the
global setting.  If the host is in more than one aggregate and more than one
value is found, the minimum value will be used.  For information about how to
use this filter, see :ref:`host-aggregates`. See also :ref:`IoOpsFilter`.

AggregateMultiTenancyIsolation
------------------------------

Ensures that the tenant (or list of tenants) creates all instances only on
specific :ref:`host-aggregates`. If a host is in an aggregate that has the
``filter_tenant_id`` metadata key, the host creates instances from only that
tenant or list of tenants. A host can be in different aggregates. If a host
does not belong to an aggregate with the metadata key, the host can create
instances from all tenants. This setting does not isolate the aggregate from
other tenants. Any other tenant can continue to build instances on the
specified aggregate.

AggregateNumInstancesFilter
---------------------------

Filters host by number of instances with a per-aggregate
``max_instances_per_host`` value. If the per-aggregate value is not found, the
value falls back to the global setting.  If the host is in more than one
aggregate and thus more than one value is found, the minimum value will be
used.  For information about how to use this filter, see
:ref:`host-aggregates`.  See also :ref:`NumInstancesFilter`.

AggregateRamFilter
------------------

Filters host by RAM allocation of instances with a per-aggregate
``ram_allocation_ratio`` value. If the per-aggregate value is not found, the
value falls back to the global setting.  If the host is in more than one
aggregate and thus more than one value is found, the minimum value will be
used.  For information about how to use this filter, see
:ref:`host-aggregates`.  See also :ref:`ramfilter`.

AggregateTypeAffinityFilter
---------------------------

This filter passes hosts if no ``instance_type`` key is set or the
``instance_type`` aggregate metadata value contains the name of the
``instance_type`` requested.  The value of the ``instance_type`` metadata entry
is a string that may contain either a single ``instance_type`` name or a
comma-separated list of ``instance_type`` names, such as ``m1.nano`` or
``m1.nano,m1.small``.  For information about how to use this filter, see
:ref:`host-aggregates`.

AllHostsFilter
--------------

This is a no-op filter. It does not eliminate any of the available hosts.

AvailabilityZoneFilter
----------------------

Filters hosts by availability zone. You must enable this filter for the
scheduler to respect availability zones in requests.

.. _ComputeCapabilitiesFilter:

ComputeCapabilitiesFilter
-------------------------

Matches properties defined in extra specs for an instance type against compute
capabilities. If an extra specs key contains a colon (``:``), anything before
the colon is treated as a namespace and anything after the colon is treated as
the key to be matched.  If a namespace is present and is not ``capabilities``,
the filter ignores the namespace. For backward compatibility, also treats the
extra specs key as the key to be matched if no namespace is present; this
action is highly discouraged because it conflicts with
:ref:`AggregateInstanceExtraSpecsFilter` filter when you enable both filters.

.. _ComputeFilter:

ComputeFilter
-------------

Passes all hosts that are operational and enabled.

In general, you should always enable this filter.

.. _CoreFilter:

CoreFilter
----------

Only schedules instances on hosts if sufficient CPU cores are available.  If
this filter is not set, the scheduler might over-provision a host based on
cores. For example, the virtual cores running on an instance may exceed the
physical cores.

You can configure this filter to enable a fixed amount of vCPU overcommitment
by using the ``cpu_allocation_ratio`` configuration option in ``nova.conf``.
The default setting is:

.. code-block:: ini

   cpu_allocation_ratio = 16.0

With this setting, if 8 vCPUs are on a node, the scheduler allows instances up
to 128 vCPU to be run on that node.

To disallow vCPU overcommitment set:

.. code-block:: ini

   cpu_allocation_ratio = 1.0

.. note::

   The Compute API always returns the actual number of CPU cores available on a
   compute node regardless of the value of the ``cpu_allocation_ratio``
   configuration key. As a result changes to the ``cpu_allocation_ratio`` are
   not reflected via the command line clients or the dashboard.  Changes to
   this configuration key are only taken into account internally in the
   scheduler.

DifferentHostFilter
-------------------

Schedules the instance on a different host from a set of instances.  To take
advantage of this filter, the requester must pass a scheduler hint, using
``different_host`` as the key and a list of instance UUIDs as the value. This
filter is the opposite of the ``SameHostFilter``.  Using the
:command:`openstack server create` command, use the ``--hint`` flag. For
example:

.. code-block:: console

   $ openstack server create --image cedef40a-ed67-4d10-800e-17455edce175 \
     --flavor 1 --hint different_host=a0cf03a5-d921-4877-bb5c-86d26cf818e1 \
     --hint different_host=8c19174f-4220-44f0-824a-cd1eeef10287 server-1

With the API, use the ``os:scheduler_hints`` key. For example:

.. code-block:: json

   {
       "server": {
           "name": "server-1",
           "imageRef": "cedef40a-ed67-4d10-800e-17455edce175",
           "flavorRef": "1"
       },
       "os:scheduler_hints": {
           "different_host": [
               "a0cf03a5-d921-4877-bb5c-86d26cf818e1",
               "8c19174f-4220-44f0-824a-cd1eeef10287"
           ]
       }
   }

.. _DiskFilter:

DiskFilter
----------

Only schedules instances on hosts if there is sufficient disk space available
for root and ephemeral storage.

You can configure this filter to enable a fixed amount of disk overcommitment
by using the ``disk_allocation_ratio`` configuration option in the
``nova.conf`` configuration file.  The default setting disables the possibility
of the overcommitment and allows launching a VM only if there is a sufficient
amount of disk space available on a host:

.. code-block:: ini

   disk_allocation_ratio = 1.0

DiskFilter always considers the value of the ``disk_available_least`` property
and not the one of the ``free_disk_gb`` property of a hypervisor's statistics:

.. code-block:: console

   $ openstack hypervisor stats show
   +----------------------+-------+
   | Field                | Value |
   +----------------------+-------+
   | count                | 1     |
   | current_workload     | 0     |
   | disk_available_least | 14    |
   | free_disk_gb         | 27    |
   | free_ram_mb          | 15374 |
   | local_gb             | 27    |
   | local_gb_used        | 0     |
   | memory_mb            | 15886 |
   | memory_mb_used       | 512   |
   | running_vms          | 0     |
   | vcpus                | 8     |
   | vcpus_used           | 0     |
   +----------------------+-------+

As it can be viewed from the command output above, the amount of the available
disk space can be less than the amount of the free disk space.  It happens
because the ``disk_available_least`` property accounts for the virtual size
rather than the actual size of images.  If you use an image format that is
sparse or copy on write so that each virtual instance does not require a 1:1
allocation of a virtual disk to a physical storage, it may be useful to allow
the overcommitment of disk space.

To enable scheduling instances while overcommitting disk resources on the node,
adjust the value of the ``disk_allocation_ratio`` configuration option to
greater than ``1.0``:

.. code-block:: none

   disk_allocation_ratio > 1.0

.. note::

   If the value is set to ``>1``, we recommend keeping track of the free disk
   space, as the value approaching ``0`` may result in the incorrect
   functioning of instances using it at the moment.

ExactCoreFilter
---------------

Only schedules instances on hosts if host has the exact number of CPU cores.

ExactDiskFilter
---------------

Only schedules instances on hosts if host has the exact amount of disk
available.

ExactRamFilter
--------------

Only schedules instances on hosts if host has the exact number of RAM
available.

.. _ImagePropertiesFilter:

ImagePropertiesFilter
---------------------

Filters hosts based on properties defined on the instance's image.  It passes
hosts that can support the specified image properties contained in the
instance. Properties include the architecture, hypervisor type, hypervisor
version (for Xen hypervisor type only), and virtual machine mode.

For example, an instance might require a host that runs an ARM-based processor,
and QEMU as the hypervisor.  You can decorate an image with these properties by
using:

.. code-block:: console

   $ openstack image set --architecture arm --property hypervisor_type=qemu \
     img-uuid

The image properties that the filter checks for are:

``architecture``
  describes the machine architecture required by the image.  Examples are
  ``i686``, ``x86_64``, ``arm``, and ``ppc64``.

``hypervisor_type``
  describes the hypervisor required by the image.  Examples are ``xen``,
  ``qemu``, and ``xenapi``.

  .. note::

     ``qemu`` is used for both QEMU and KVM hypervisor types.

``hypervisor_version_requires``
  describes the hypervisor version required by the image.  The property is
  supported for Xen hypervisor type only.  It can be used to enable support for
  multiple hypervisor versions, and to prevent instances with newer Xen tools
  from being provisioned on an older version of a hypervisor. If available, the
  property value is compared to the hypervisor version of the compute host.

  To filter the hosts by the hypervisor version, add the
  ``hypervisor_version_requires`` property on the image as metadata and pass an
  operator and a required hypervisor version as its value:

  .. code-block:: console

     $ openstack image set --property hypervisor_type=xen --property \
       hypervisor_version_requires=">=4.3" img-uuid

``vm_mode``
  describes the hypervisor application binary interface (ABI) required by the
  image. Examples are ``xen`` for Xen 3.0 paravirtual ABI, ``hvm`` for native
  ABI, ``uml`` for User Mode Linux paravirtual ABI, ``exe`` for container virt
  executable ABI.

IsolatedHostsFilter
-------------------

Allows the admin to define a special (isolated) set of images and a special
(isolated) set of hosts, such that the isolated images can only run on the
isolated hosts, and the isolated hosts can only run isolated images.  The flag
``restrict_isolated_hosts_to_isolated_images`` can be used to force isolated
hosts to only run isolated images.

The admin must specify the isolated set of images and hosts in the
``nova.conf`` file using the ``isolated_hosts`` and ``isolated_images``
configuration options. For example:

.. code-block:: ini

   [filter_scheduler]
   isolated_hosts = server1, server2
   isolated_images = 342b492c-128f-4a42-8d3a-c5088cf27d13, ebd267a6-ca86-4d6c-9a0e-bd132d6b7d09

.. _IoOpsFilter:

IoOpsFilter
-----------

The IoOpsFilter filters hosts by concurrent I/O operations on it.  Hosts with
too many concurrent I/O operations will be filtered out.  The
``max_io_ops_per_host`` option specifies the maximum number of I/O intensive
instances allowed to run on a host.  A host will be ignored by the scheduler if
more than ``max_io_ops_per_host`` instances in build, resize, snapshot,
migrate, rescue or unshelve task states are running on it.

JsonFilter
----------

The JsonFilter allows a user to construct a custom filter by passing a
scheduler hint in JSON format. The following operators are supported:

* =
* <
* >
* in
* <=
* >=
* not
* or
* and

The filter supports the following variables:

* ``$free_ram_mb``
* ``$free_disk_mb``
* ``$total_usable_ram_mb``
* ``$vcpus_total``
* ``$vcpus_used``

Using the :command:`openstack server create` command, use the ``--hint`` flag:

.. code-block:: console

   $ openstack server create --image 827d564a-e636-4fc4-a376-d36f7ebe1747 \
     --flavor 1 --hint query='[">=","$free_ram_mb",1024]' server1

With the API, use the ``os:scheduler_hints`` key:

.. code-block:: json

   {
       "server": {
           "name": "server-1",
           "imageRef": "cedef40a-ed67-4d10-800e-17455edce175",
           "flavorRef": "1"
       },
       "os:scheduler_hints": {
           "query": "[>=,$free_ram_mb,1024]"
       }
   }

MetricsFilter
-------------

Filters hosts based on meters ``weight_setting``.  Only hosts with the
available meters are passed so that the metrics weigher will not fail due to
these hosts.

NUMATopologyFilter
------------------

Filters hosts based on the NUMA topology that was specified for the instance
through the use of flavor ``extra_specs`` in combination with the image
properties, as described in detail in the `related nova-spec document
<http://specs.openstack.org/openstack/
nova-specs/specs/juno/implemented/virt-driver-numa-placement.html>`_.  Filter
will try to match the exact NUMA cells of the instance to those of the host. It
will consider the standard over-subscription limits each cell, and provide
limits to the compute host accordingly.

.. note::

   If instance has no topology defined, it will be considered for any host.  If
   instance has a topology defined, it will be considered only for NUMA capable
   hosts.

.. _NumInstancesFilter:

NumInstancesFilter
------------------

Hosts that have more instances running than specified by the
``max_instances_per_host`` option are filtered out when this filter is in
place.

PciPassthroughFilter
--------------------

The filter schedules instances on a host if the host has devices that meet the
device requests in the ``extra_specs`` attribute for the flavor.

.. _RamFilter:

RamFilter
---------

Only schedules instances on hosts that have sufficient RAM available.  If this
filter is not set, the scheduler may over provision a host based on RAM (for
example, the RAM allocated by virtual machine instances may exceed the physical
RAM).

You can configure this filter to enable a fixed amount of RAM overcommitment by
using the ``ram_allocation_ratio`` configuration option in ``nova.conf``. The
default setting is:

.. code-block:: ini

   ram_allocation_ratio = 1.5

This setting enables 1.5 GB instances to run on any compute node with 1 GB of
free RAM.

RetryFilter
-----------

Filters out hosts that have already been attempted for scheduling purposes.  If
the scheduler selects a host to respond to a service request, and the host
fails to respond to the request, this filter prevents the scheduler from
retrying that host for the service request.

This filter is only useful if the ``scheduler_max_attempts`` configuration
option is set to a value greater than zero.

SameHostFilter
--------------

Schedules the instance on the same host as another instance in a set of
instances. To take advantage of this filter, the requester must pass a
scheduler hint, using ``same_host`` as the key and a list of instance UUIDs as
the value.  This filter is the opposite of the ``DifferentHostFilter``.  Using
the :command:`openstack server create` command, use the ``--hint`` flag:

.. code-block:: console

   $ openstack server create --image cedef40a-ed67-4d10-800e-17455edce175 \
     --flavor 1 --hint same_host=a0cf03a5-d921-4877-bb5c-86d26cf818e1 \
     --hint same_host=8c19174f-4220-44f0-824a-cd1eeef10287 server-1

With the API, use the ``os:scheduler_hints`` key:

.. code-block:: json

   {
       "server": {
           "name": "server-1",
           "imageRef": "cedef40a-ed67-4d10-800e-17455edce175",
           "flavorRef": "1"
       },
       "os:scheduler_hints": {
           "same_host": [
               "a0cf03a5-d921-4877-bb5c-86d26cf818e1",
               "8c19174f-4220-44f0-824a-cd1eeef10287"
           ]
       }
   }

.. _ServerGroupAffinityFilter:

ServerGroupAffinityFilter
-------------------------

The ServerGroupAffinityFilter ensures that an instance is scheduled on to a
host from a set of group hosts. To take advantage of this filter, the requester
must create a server group with an ``affinity`` policy, and pass a scheduler
hint, using ``group`` as the key and the server group UUID as the value.  Using
the :command:`openstack server create` command, use the ``--hint`` flag. For
example:

.. code-block:: console

   $ openstack server group create --policy affinity group-1
   $ openstack server create --image IMAGE_ID --flavor 1 \
     --hint group=SERVER_GROUP_UUID server-1

.. _ServerGroupAntiAffinityFilter:

ServerGroupAntiAffinityFilter
-----------------------------

The ServerGroupAntiAffinityFilter ensures that each instance in a group is on a
different host. To take advantage of this filter, the requester must create a
server group with an ``anti-affinity`` policy, and pass a scheduler hint, using
``group`` as the key and the server group UUID as the value.  Using the
:command:`openstack server create` command, use the ``--hint`` flag. For
example:

.. code-block:: console

   $ openstack server group create --policy anti-affinity group-1
   $ openstack server create --image IMAGE_ID --flavor 1 \
     --hint group=SERVER_GROUP_UUID server-1

SimpleCIDRAffinityFilter
------------------------

Schedules the instance based on host IP subnet range.  To take advantage of
this filter, the requester must specify a range of valid IP address in CIDR
format, by passing two scheduler hints:

``build_near_host_ip``
  The first IP address in the subnet (for example, ``192.168.1.1``)

``cidr``
  The CIDR that corresponds to the subnet (for example, ``/24``)

Using the :command:`openstack server create` command, use the ``--hint`` flag.
For example, to specify the IP subnet ``192.168.1.1/24``:

.. code-block:: console

   $ openstack server create --image cedef40a-ed67-4d10-800e-17455edce175 \
     --flavor 1 --hint build_near_host_ip=192.168.1.1 --hint cidr=/24 server-1

With the API, use the ``os:scheduler_hints`` key:

.. code-block:: json

   {
       "server": {
           "name": "server-1",
           "imageRef": "cedef40a-ed67-4d10-800e-17455edce175",
           "flavorRef": "1"
       },
       "os:scheduler_hints": {
           "build_near_host_ip": "192.168.1.1",
           "cidr": "24"
       }
   }

Cell filters
~~~~~~~~~~~~

The following sections describe the available cell filters.

DifferentCellFilter
-------------------

Schedules the instance on a different cell from a set of instances.  To take
advantage of this filter, the requester must pass a scheduler hint, using
``different_cell`` as the key and a list of instance UUIDs as the value.

ImagePropertiesFilter
---------------------

Filters cells based on properties defined on the instance's image.  This
filter works specifying the hypervisor required in the image metadata and the
supported hypervisor version in cell capabilities.

TargetCellFilter
----------------

Filters target cells. This filter works by specifying a scheduler hint of
``target_cell``. The value should be the full cell path.

.. _weights:

Weights
~~~~~~~

When resourcing instances, the filter scheduler filters and weights each host
in the list of acceptable hosts. Each time the scheduler selects a host, it
virtually consumes resources on it, and subsequent selections are adjusted
accordingly. This process is useful when the customer asks for the same large
amount of instances, because weight is computed for each requested instance.

All weights are normalized before being summed up; the host with the largest
weight is given the highest priority.

**Weighting hosts**

.. figure:: /figures/nova-weighting-hosts.png

If cells are used, cells are weighted by the scheduler in the same manner as
hosts.

Hosts and cells are weighted based on the following options in the
``/etc/nova/nova.conf`` file:

.. list-table:: Host weighting options
   :header-rows: 1
   :widths: 10, 25, 60

   * - Section
     - Option
     - Description
   * - [DEFAULT]
     - ``ram_weight_multiplier``
     - By default, the scheduler spreads instances across all hosts evenly.
       Set the ``ram_weight_multiplier`` option to a negative number if you
       prefer stacking instead of spreading. Use a floating-point value.
   * - [DEFAULT]
     - ``scheduler_host_subset_size``
     - New instances are scheduled on a host that is chosen randomly from a
       subset of the N best hosts. This property defines the subset size from
       which a host is chosen. A value of 1 chooses the first host returned by
       the weighting functions. This value must be at least 1.  A value less
       than 1 is ignored, and 1 is used instead.  Use an integer value.
   * - [DEFAULT]
     - ``scheduler_weight_classes``
     - Defaults to ``nova.scheduler.weights.all_weighers``.  Hosts are then
       weighted and sorted with the largest weight winning.
   * - [DEFAULT]
     - ``io_ops_weight_multiplier``
     - Multiplier used for weighing host I/O operations. A negative value means
       a preference to choose light workload compute hosts.
   * - [DEFAULT]
     - ``soft_affinity_weight_multiplier``
     - Multiplier used for weighing hosts for group soft-affinity.  Only a
       positive value is meaningful. Negative means that the behavior will
       change to the opposite, which is soft-anti-affinity.
   * - [DEFAULT]
     - ``soft_anti_affinity_weight_multiplier``
     - Multiplier used for weighing hosts for group soft-anti-affinity.  Only a
       positive value is meaningful. Negative means that the behavior will
       change to the opposite, which is soft-affinity.
   * - [metrics]
     - ``weight_multiplier``
     - Multiplier for weighting meters. Use a floating-point value.
   * - [metrics]
     - ``weight_setting``
     - Determines how meters are weighted. Use a comma-separated list of
       metricName=ratio. For example: ``name1=1.0, name2=-1.0`` results in:
       ``name1.value * 1.0 + name2.value * -1.0``
   * - [metrics]
     - ``required``
     - Specifies how to treat unavailable meters:

       * True - Raises an exception. To avoid the raised exception, you should
         use the scheduler filter ``MetricFilter`` to filter out hosts with
         unavailable meters.
       * False - Treated as a negative factor in the weighting process (uses
         the ``weight_of_unavailable`` option).
   * - [metrics]
     - ``weight_of_unavailable``
     - If ``required`` is set to False, and any one of the meters set by
       ``weight_setting`` is unavailable, the ``weight_of_unavailable`` value
       is returned to the scheduler.

For example:

.. code-block:: ini

   [DEFAULT]
   scheduler_host_subset_size = 1
   scheduler_weight_classes = nova.scheduler.weights.all_weighers
   ram_weight_multiplier = 1.0
   io_ops_weight_multiplier = 2.0
   soft_affinity_weight_multiplier = 1.0
   soft_anti_affinity_weight_multiplier = 1.0
   [metrics]
   weight_multiplier = 1.0
   weight_setting = name1=1.0, name2=-1.0
   required = false
   weight_of_unavailable = -10000.0

.. list-table:: Cell weighting options
   :header-rows: 1
   :widths: 10, 25, 60

   * - Section
     - Option
     - Description
   * - [cells]
     - ``mute_weight_multiplier``
     - Multiplier to weight mute children (hosts which have not sent
       capacity or capacity updates for some time).
       Use a negative, floating-point value.
   * - [cells]
     - ``offset_weight_multiplier``
     - Multiplier to weight cells, so you can specify a preferred cell.
       Use a floating point value.
   * - [cells]
     - ``ram_weight_multiplier``
     - By default, the scheduler spreads instances across all cells evenly.
       Set the ``ram_weight_multiplier`` option to a negative number if you
       prefer stacking instead of spreading. Use a floating-point value.
   * - [cells]
     - ``scheduler_weight_classes``
     - Defaults to ``nova.cells.weights.all_weighers``, which maps to all
       cell weighers included with Compute. Cells are then weighted and
       sorted with the largest weight winning.

For example:

.. code-block:: ini

   [cells]
   scheduler_weight_classes = nova.cells.weights.all_weighers
   mute_weight_multiplier = -10.0
   ram_weight_multiplier = 1.0
   offset_weight_multiplier = 1.0

Chance scheduler
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As an administrator, you work with the filter scheduler.  However, the Compute
service also uses the Chance Scheduler,
``nova.scheduler.chance.ChanceScheduler``, which randomly selects from lists of
filtered hosts.

Utilization aware scheduling
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is possible to schedule VMs using advanced scheduling decisions.  These
decisions are made based on enhanced usage statistics encompassing data like
memory cache utilization, memory bandwidth utilization, or network bandwidth
utilization. This is disabled by default.  The administrator can configure how
the metrics are weighted in the configuration file by using the
``weight_setting`` configuration option in the ``nova.conf`` configuration
file.  For example to configure metric1 with ratio1 and metric2 with ratio2:

.. code-block:: ini

   weight_setting = "metric1=ratio1, metric2=ratio2"

.. _host-aggregates:

Host aggregates and availability zones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Host aggregates are a mechanism for partitioning hosts in an OpenStack cloud,
or a region of an OpenStack cloud, based on arbitrary characteristics.
Examples where an administrator may want to do this include where a group of
hosts have additional hardware or performance characteristics.

Host aggregates are not explicitly exposed to users.  Instead administrators
map flavors to host aggregates.  Administrators do this by setting metadata on
a host aggregate, and matching flavor extra specifications.  The scheduler then
endeavors to match user requests for instance of the given flavor to a host
aggregate with the same key-value pair in its metadata.  Compute nodes can be
in more than one host aggregate.

Administrators are able to optionally expose a host aggregate as an
availability zone. Availability zones are different from host aggregates in
that they are explicitly exposed to the user, and hosts can only be in a single
availability zone. Administrators can configure a default availability zone
where instances will be scheduled when the user fails to specify one.

Command-line interface
----------------------

The :command:`nova` command-line client supports the following
aggregate-related commands.

nova aggregate-list
  Print a list of all aggregates.

nova aggregate-create <name> [<availability-zone>]
  Create a new aggregate named ``<name>``, and optionally in availability zone
  ``[<availability-zone>]`` if specified. The command returns the ID of the
  newly created aggregate. Hosts can be made available to multiple host
  aggregates. Be careful when adding a host to an additional host aggregate
  when the host is also in an availability zone. Pay attention when using the
  :command:`nova aggregate-set-metadata` and :command:`nova aggregate-update`
  commands to avoid user confusion when they boot instances in different
  availability zones.  An error occurs if you cannot add a particular host to
  an aggregate zone for which it is not intended.

nova aggregate-delete <aggregate>
  Delete an aggregate with its ``<id>`` or ``<name>``.

nova aggregate-show <aggregate>
  Show details of the aggregate with its ``<id>`` or ``<name>``.

nova aggregate-add-host <aggregate> <host>
  Add host with name ``<host>`` to aggregate with its ``<id>`` or ``<name>``.

nova aggregate-remove-host <aggregate> <host>
  Remove the host with name ``<host>`` from the aggregate with its ``<id>``
  or ``<name>``.

nova aggregate-set-metadata <aggregate> <key=value> [<key=value> ...]
  Add or update metadata (key-value pairs) associated with the aggregate with
  its ``<id>`` or ``<name>``.

nova aggregate-update [--name <name>] [--availability-zone <availability-zone>] <aggregate>
  Update the name and/or availability zone for the aggregate.

nova host-list
  List all hosts by service. It has been depricated since microversion 2.43.
  Use :command:`nova hypervisor-list` instead.

nova hypervisor-list [--matching <hostname>] [--marker <marker>] [--limit <limit>]
  List hypervisors.

nova host-update [--status <enable|disable>] [--maintenance <enable|disable>] <hostname>
  Put/resume host into/from maintenance. It has been depricated since
  microversion 2.43. To enable or disable a service,
  use :command:`nova service-enable` or :command:`nova service-disable` instead.

nova service-enable <id>
  Enable the service.

nova service-disable [--reason <reason>] <id>
  Disable the service.

.. note::

   Only administrators can access these commands. If you try to use these
   commands and the user name and tenant that you use to access the Compute
   service do not have the ``admin`` role or the appropriate privileges, these
   errors occur:

   .. code-block:: console

      ERROR: Policy doesn't allow compute_extension:aggregates to be performed. (HTTP 403) (Request-ID: req-299fbff6-6729-4cef-93b2-e7e1f96b4864)

   .. code-block:: console

      ERROR: Policy doesn't allow compute_extension:hosts to be performed. (HTTP 403) (Request-ID: req-ef2400f6-6776-4ea3-b6f1-7704085c27d1)

Configure scheduler to support host aggregates
----------------------------------------------

One common use case for host aggregates is when you want to support scheduling
instances to a subset of compute hosts because they have a specific capability.
For example, you may want to allow users to request compute hosts that have SSD
drives if they need access to faster disk I/O, or access to compute hosts that
have GPU cards to take advantage of GPU-accelerated code.

To configure the scheduler to support host aggregates, the
``scheduler_default_filters`` configuration option must contain the
``AggregateInstanceExtraSpecsFilter`` in addition to the other filters used by
the scheduler. Add the following line to ``/etc/nova/nova.conf`` on the host
that runs the ``nova-scheduler`` service to enable host aggregates filtering,
as well as the other filters that are typically enabled:

.. code-block:: ini

   scheduler_default_filters=AggregateInstanceExtraSpecsFilter,RetryFilter,AvailabilityZoneFilter,ComputeCapabilitiesFilter,ImagePropertiesFilter,ServerGroupAntiAffinityFilter,ServerGroupAffinityFilter

Example: Specify compute hosts with SSDs
----------------------------------------

This example configures the Compute service to enable users to request nodes
that have solid-state drives (SSDs). You create a ``fast-io`` host aggregate in
the ``nova`` availability zone and you add the ``ssd=true`` key-value pair to
the aggregate. Then, you add the ``node1``, and ``node2`` compute nodes to it.

.. code-block:: console

   $ openstack aggregate create --zone nova fast-io
   +-------------------+----------------------------+
   | Field             | Value                      |
   +-------------------+----------------------------+
   | availability_zone | nova                       |
   | created_at        | 2016-12-22T07:31:13.013466 |
   | deleted           | False                      |
   | deleted_at        | None                       |
   | id                | 1                          |
   | name              | fast-io                    |
   | updated_at        | None                       |
   +-------------------+----------------------------+

   $ openstack aggregate set --property ssd=true 1
   +-------------------+----------------------------+
   | Field             | Value                      |
   +-------------------+----------------------------+
   | availability_zone | nova                       |
   | created_at        | 2016-12-22T07:31:13.000000 |
   | deleted           | False                      |
   | deleted_at        | None                       |
   | hosts             | []                         |
   | id                | 1                          |
   | name              | fast-io                    |
   | properties        | ssd='true'                 |
   | updated_at        | None                       |
   +-------------------+----------------------------+

   $ openstack aggregate add host 1 node1
   +-------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
   | Field             | Value                                            |
   +-------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
   | availability_zone | nova                                             |
   | created_at        | 2016-12-22T07:31:13.000000                       |
   | deleted           | False                                            |
   | deleted_at        | None                                             |
   | hosts             | [u'node1']                                       |
   | id                | 1                                                |
   | metadata          | {u'ssd': u'true', u'availability_zone': u'nova'} |
   | name              | fast-io                                          |
   | updated_at        | None                                             |
   +-------------------+--------------------------------------------------+

   $ openstack aggregate add host 1 node2
   +-------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
   | Field             | Value                                            |
   +-------------------+--------------------------------------------------+
   | availability_zone | nova                                             |
   | created_at        | 2016-12-22T07:31:13.000000                       |
   | deleted           | False                                            |
   | deleted_at        | None                                             |
   | hosts             | [u'node1', u'node2']                             |
   | id                | 1                                                |
   | metadata          | {u'ssd': u'true', u'availability_zone': u'nova'} |
   | name              | fast-io                                          |
   | updated_at        | None                                             |
   +-------------------+--------------------------------------------------+

Use the :command:`openstack flavor create` command to create the ``ssd.large``
flavor called with an ID of 6, 8 GB of RAM, 80 GB root disk, and 4 vCPUs.

.. code-block:: console

   $ openstack flavor create --id 6 --ram 8192 --disk 80 --vcpus 4 ssd.large
   +----------------------------+-----------+
   | Field                      | Value     |
   +----------------------------+-----------+
   | OS-FLV-DISABLED:disabled   | False     |
   | OS-FLV-EXT-DATA:ephemeral  | 0         |
   | disk                       | 80        |
   | id                         | 6         |
   | name                       | ssd.large |
   | os-flavor-access:is_public | True      |
   | ram                        | 8192      |
   | rxtx_factor                | 1.0       |
   | swap                       |           |
   | vcpus                      | 4         |
   +----------------------------+-----------+

Once the flavor is created, specify one or more key-value pairs that match the
key-value pairs on the host aggregates with scope
``aggregate_instance_extra_specs``. In this case, that is the
``aggregate_instance_extra_specs:ssd=true`` key-value pair.  Setting a
key-value pair on a flavor is done using the :command:`openstack flavor set`
command.

.. code-block:: console

   $ openstack flavor set --property aggregate_instance_extra_specs:ssd=true ssd.large

Once it is set, you should see the ``extra_specs`` property of the
``ssd.large`` flavor populated with a key of ``ssd`` and a corresponding value
of ``true``.

.. code-block:: console

   $ openstack flavor show ssd.large
   +----------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
   | Field                      | Value                                     |
   +----------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
   | OS-FLV-DISABLED:disabled   | False                                     |
   | OS-FLV-EXT-DATA:ephemeral  | 0                                         |
   | disk                       | 80                                        |
   | id                         | 6                                         |
   | name                       | ssd.large                                 |
   | os-flavor-access:is_public | True                                      |
   | properties                 | aggregate_instance_extra_specs:ssd='true' |
   | ram                        | 8192                                      |
   | rxtx_factor                | 1.0                                       |
   | swap                       |                                           |
   | vcpus                      | 4                                         |
   +----------------------------+-------------------------------------------+

Now, when a user requests an instance with the ``ssd.large`` flavor,
the scheduler only considers hosts with the ``ssd=true`` key-value pair.
In this example, these are ``node1`` and ``node2``.

XenServer hypervisor pools to support live migration
----------------------------------------------------

When using the XenAPI-based hypervisor, the Compute service uses host
aggregates to manage XenServer Resource pools, which are used in supporting
live migration.
