[Novalug] virtualization anyone?

Chris Rogers chris@servercave.com
Wed Mar 18 11:06:04 EDT 2009


Heheheh, love the wet dishrag comment....

Use the Enterprise version of Citrix XenServer.  Yeah, I sound like a 
broken record, but it's FREE now.  Check it out:

http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/feature.asp?contentID=1686939

They have the paid version called Citrix Essentials that now integrates 
with HyperV and has a cool lab manager.  They've also really gotten 
their storage API down cold.

But yes, the free download includes live migration, VLANs, storage and 
resource pooling, and unlimited server resources and VMs.  Requirements 
are still a 64-bit system for any VMs, and a 64-bit VT chip system for 
Windows VMs.  Anything you've bought in the last two years should be 
fine.  Just make sure virtualization is enabled in your BIOS.

The GUI you want is XenCenter, is also free, and will install on any 
windows machine to access the Xen API (port 443 access from client ot 
server needed).  It's really just a handy interface to the Xen command line.

Agree with the comment below about the SAN.  Personally, I love my iSCSI 
SAN running on CentOS 5 with OpeniSCSI and a couple of kernel tweaks. 
Rock solid and inexpensive.  The most expensive bit other that the large 
number of drives is the RAID controller (3Ware).

For your CDP solution, use DRBD and replicate between disk arrays.  Make 
sure you export and backup your VM metadata once a week.  You'll have a 
rude surprise if you try to bring up VM's off the backup array and they 
have no metadata to configure themselves.

In terms of losing a drive, the 3Ware utility is VERY good about 
alerting you to issues.  Drive 2 dead?  Replace it, and it tells you all 
is well.

FYI.. HyperV IS Xen... Citrix/Xensource developed it for them.

-- 
Chris Rogers
President
ServerCave, Inc.
13800 Coppermine Road
Herndon, VA 20171-6163
(o) 703-547-8970
(c) 571-238-1808
(f) 703-286-7876
chris@servercave.com
http://www.servercave.com/
Citrix Gold Certified Solutions Adviser

Brandon Saxe wrote:
> "ESXi is as lame as a wet dishrag as far as being an OS goes."
> 
> I don't think it's designed to be a full OS, just a hypervisor. It has a GUI, you remote into it using their client.
> 
> ESX isn't really designed to host your storage. It's designed to run VMs. It is also designed to attach to storage using a SAN or NFS. Leave your storage to a storage OS, and leave your virtualization to the hypervisor.
> 
> My opinion is get a SAN first and plan your hypervisors around that.
> 
> "Is there a good live cd to boot an ESXi server to to do diagnostics on the hardware?"
> 
> You shouldn't need this if you purchase your hardware through a vendor like Dell or HP. In fact, Dell and HP sell ESXi boxes from what I've read. You tell them it's broken, they fix it.
> 
> --Brandon
> 
> 
> --- On Wed, 3/18/09, Anthony Soucek <monkeywrenchit@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> From: Anthony Soucek <monkeywrenchit@gmail.com>
>> Subject: [Novalug] virtualization anyone?
>> To: "Novalug" <novalug@calypso.tux.org>
>> Date: Wednesday, March 18, 2009, 6:28 AM
>> Hey, I am starting a new project that will host two Mission
>> critical
>> windows servers, I am thinking of buying 3 boxes Identical
>> with raid
>> 5, and using a continiuos data protection software
>> solution.  I was
>> thinking about using VMware ESXi, but it isnt really
>> supported by
>> vmware, inc. It might as well be  Virtual Iron or QEMU for
>> all the
>> support they lend to it.  If you open a shell on it you
>> break your
>> warranty.  My concern is that I am a linux noob at the
>> shell, so if
>> the raid array loses a drive, I guess I can boot to the
>> dell utility
>> partition or boot to a dell open manage cd to diagnose the
>> array, but
>> ESXi is as lame as a wet dishrag as far as being an OS
>> goes.
>> I wish there was a virtualization solution that had a
>> decent lean
>> secure GUI (or is that an oxymoron?).  I could shell out
>> for ESX, but
>> I am worried the VMDK files will get corrupt and eveyone
>> selling a
>> backup solution says the other guys backup solution will
>> cause corrupt
>> vmdk files.  I like the whole idea of XEN,  but I believe
>> Microsoft
>> doesnt do XEN.  Any ideas out there? (no I cant run these
>> apps on
>> linux servers, but I could run the microsoft server on a
>> linux vm
>> platform)  Is there a good live cd to boot an ESXi server
>> to to do
>> diagnostics on the hardware? Thanks
>>
>> -- 
>> Anthony Soucek
>> _______________________________________________
>> Novalug mailing list
>> Novalug@calypso.tux.org
>> http://calypso.tux.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/novalug
> _______________________________________________
> Novalug mailing list
> Novalug@calypso.tux.org
> http://calypso.tux.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/novalug



More information about the Novalug mailing list