A server for virtualization. VMware? KVM? Virtualbox? other?

drescherjm · Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 6:42 pm Post subject:

Thanks. I will take a look at that.
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ianw1974 · Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 7:03 pm Post subject:

I'm using Xen if I use para-virtualised hosts. It's crap when using the qemu hypervisor as Windows is too slow.

KVM is great and fast, but as you can't have two hypervisors running at the same time, I either have to boot a kernel with kvm or boot the kernel with Xen. Meaning, you have to choose whether you want to use Xen or KVM permanently. Of course, also the same if you wanted Xen and VMware, for example, or any other.

VMware Server 2.0 RC1 is out, and runs nicely too. It has 32bit and 64 bit versions, compared to the VMware Server 1.x which was only 32 bit client. I can install 32 bit or 64 bit guest OS's.

VMware ESXi I have installed on a system running a Quad Core 2.4GHz, 8GB RAM, 4 x 500GB HDD's with 32MB cache, connected to a SAS1068 controller capable of Raid5/6 support, etc.

A para-virtualised host in Xen runs faster than VMware ESXi. Both machines are exactly identical hardware, except the SAS1068 versus an Adaptec Serial ATA II RAID 1430SA which shouldn't perform any quicker than the SAS1068 considering the cost comparison.

Hope that helps a bit.
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ianw1974 · Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 7:08 pm Post subject:

meulie · Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 7:11 pm Post subject:

ianw1974 · Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 7:14 pm Post subject:

meulie · Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 7:25 pm Post subject:

http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3.5/Whiteboxes_SATA_Controllers_for_ESX_3.5_3i.htm

ianw1974 · Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 7:36 pm Post subject:

There's two types of cards you can get. A true hardware raid like the SAS1068 or the software raid type like the Adaptec that I also have. Also known as fake raid, since they're not hardware raid as such. Now, if the file lists a controller that you're looking to get, that is software raid, then you can do it. You wouldn't be able to use software raid like mdadm within VMware ESXi of course. I can't remember the name of the file, but I can find out and put it here when I look at the CD tomorrow in the office.
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ianw1974 · Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 10:59 am Post subject:

OK, as promised.

If you open the VMware ESXi iso that you downloaded, you'll see some files. One is called binmod.tgz. You can then open this and go into the /etc/vmware directory and then view the simple.map file. Here is listed a load of files. There was another one you can look at as well, but I've forgotten the name of it. Anyway, this simple.map file lists storage and network controllers.
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satanskin · Guru Joined: 25 Apr 2005 Posts: 353

Here's the ESXi documentation with links to all their compatibility info.

http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vi_pages/vi_pubs_35_3i_i.html

ianw1974 · Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 7:11 pm Post subject:

Just one thing to bear in mind with VMware ESXi. There's a VI client to connect to the ESXi machine, and - there's only a Windows version. I tried to get it to work under wine, with no such luck so far. Then again, my system is x86_64 and I don't know if wine+x86_64 is the problem as to why it doesn't work.
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satanskin · Guru Joined: 25 Apr 2005 Posts: 353

There are some links to source code for what appears to be the VI Client. Perhaps it can be ported/compiled under linux. Either way, VMWare annouced at VMWorld 2008 that they will be releasing a linux version of it anyway. So not too much longer.

http://www.vmware.com/download/vi/open_source.html

ianw1974 · Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 6:44 pm Post subject:

Nice, thanks for that. I had been trying to find something before, but was only finding console scripts. Will give these a go on my system tomorrow and see how it works out.
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ianw1974 · Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 9:52 am Post subject:

Well, I downloaded, and it doesn't seem to include anything that relates to VI client. What it looks like is that it wants you to use and compile under RHEL3 to create a VMware ESXi server. I checked the sub-directories and found nothing relating to VI client. Seems it's a modified anaconda interface for installing stuff - so daren't try it in case it does something unpredictable.

Will wait for a Linux client to appear, probably easier

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LarryLeffa · n00b Joined: 12 May 2004 Posts: 24 Location: Germany

njcwotx · Guru Joined: 25 Feb 2005 Posts: 587 Location: Texas

As for ESX, the lic is one time but pricey in the 2-5K range depending on quantity and features, but then its worth it if you can run 60 servers on 5 8 way blades. Not to mention that alot of enterprise class software is pricier than that. If you want support they do charge a yearly fee, but its not required. We have been running years on ESX, and the V3 Virtual Infrastructure rocks and is well worth it. Its ultra stable and we run production database servers and every other type for that matter, vmotion, drs, ha are all well done. We are in the process of setting up a fail over site location. Once complete we can fail over an entire location within minutes if needed.

I dont know if any other product out there has a vmotion like component as I have not messed with any of the others (never had a need to as ESX has never once caused an issue for us), but being able to move a live running production server from one physical host to another while there are active connections without crashing is simply amazing. ESX truly divorces a production environment from its hardware.

I use the free vmware server on gentoo for testing and we once used it for production in the pre ESX days and found it adequate for any linux or winblows.
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satanskin · Guru Joined: 25 Apr 2005 Posts: 353

Treggats · n00b Joined: 04 Aug 2007 Posts: 46 Location: 127.0.0.1/24

I'm using kvm to install gentoo x86-64 in a virtual machine just to migrate when it's all done.
the host is an fedora 9 x86-64 laptop
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richard.scott · Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2008 12:37 pm Post subject:

Cr0t · l33t Joined: 27 Apr 2002 Posts: 944 Location: USA

richard.scott · Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 11:11 am Post subject:

ketjap · Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 1:04 pm Post subject:

ramsesxi · n00b Joined: 22 Nov 2008 Posts: 24 Location: Stockholm

I run Xen 3.3.0. First with 2.6.18, then 2.6.21, and now 2.6.27.

I have 4 guests on one machine and 2 on another. Live migration, costs, stability and performance is the main reasons till why i choosed Xen.

It was a little bit hard to set up at first, but after creating the first host with stage3 and portage-snapshot. I could make a snapshot of the host and "copy" it to the others. In the end I won a lot of time I think.

No guests run a graphical env, but I have tested it and it works quite well. A friend have also tried to run windows as a guest and was stunned by the fact that i was hard to notice that it was a guest except from the graphics, but I know there are soluitions to "solve" that.

richard.scott · Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 6:36 pm Post subject:

I'd like to use Xen, I just feel that Gentoo's support for xen is lacking in both ebuilds and documentation.

Does anyone have any pointers to either?

ramsesxi · n00b Joined: 22 Nov 2008 Posts: 24 Location: Stockholm

This article at /. may be interesting

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/15/019251

ramsesxi · n00b Joined: 22 Nov 2008 Posts: 24 Location: Stockholm