Completely agree, with the addition that we found NFS to perform better than iSCSI (YMMV). In fact if you have SAN/NAS and VirtualCenter, you don't even need local disks in the ESXi servers, you can PXEboot or use a USB key!
Jonathan On Jan 21, 2010, at 7:21 PM, Edward Ned Harvey wrote: > There is just one problem with ESXi. How do you make your disks > redundant? > > If you have something like a RAID controller card, you can configure > the > disk redundancy in BIOS. But then if a disk goes bad and you need to > reassign the global hotspare ... there is no built-in or 3rd party > utility > you can use to do that. You have to shutdown into BIOS briefly to > configure > your disks... > > The best way to run ESXi is to have manageable redundant storage > available > as iSCSI target. Then ESXi can simply be the iSCSI initiator, and > let some > other machine manage the RAID. This of course comes with some > performance > and cost concerns. > > > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: discuss-boun...@lopsa.org [mailto:discuss-boun...@lopsa.org] On >> Behalf Of Ryan Pugatch >> Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2010 6:19 PM >> To: Dustin Puryear >> Cc: discuss@lopsa.org >> Subject: Re: [lopsa-discuss] virtualizing XP under Linux and remote >> IEtesting >> >> Yeah, I think my plan will be to throw ESXi on a nice shiny new >> PowerEdge R710 :) >> >> >> Dustin Puryear wrote: >>> Assuming you have recent and non-homebrew Intel hardware, you can >>> probably run ESXi, although VMware Server will work. (Although I >> heavily >>> suggest using ESXi over VMware Server where possible.) >>> >>> >>> >>> ESXi is a snap, quite fast, and I've never had an issue running XP >>> or >>> any Windows boxen under it. >>> >>> >>> >>> It's also free as in beer. >>> >>> >>> >>> --- >>> Puryear IT, LLC - Baton Rouge, LA - http://www.puryear-it.com/ >>> Active Directory Integration : Web & Enterprise Single Sign-On >>> Identity and Access Management : Linux/UNIX technologies >>> >>> Download our free ebook "Best Practices for Linux and UNIX Servers" >>> http://www.puryear-it.com/pubs/linux-unix-best-practices/ >>> >>> >>> >>> *From:* discuss-boun...@lopsa.org [mailto:discuss-boun...@lopsa.org] >> *On >>> Behalf Of *Dan Parsons >>> *Sent:* Thursday, January 21, 2010 3:17 PM >>> *To:* r...@linux.com >>> *Cc:* discuss@lopsa.org >>> *Subject:* Re: [lopsa-discuss] virtualizing XP under Linux and >>> remote >>> IEtesting >>> >>> >>> >>> If your hardware doesn't support ESXi, I suggest trying "VMware >> Server", >>> also free. It doesn't run on the "bare metal", but it does run very >> well >>> and works with almost any Linux distribution: >>> >>> >>> >>> http://www.vmware.com/products/server/ >>> >>> >>> >>> I've successfully used it to virtualize WinXP systems in the past, >>> specifically for Mac web developers to test on, actually. It has a >>> pretty nifty web management interface. >>> >>> Dan >>> >>> On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 6:45 AM, Ryan Pugatch <r...@linux.com >>> <mailto:r...@linux.com>> wrote: >>> >>> Edward Ned Harvey wrote: >>>> >>>> I find that Xen is great for virtualization of linux inside of >> linux >>> ... And >>>> for nothing else. In fact, whenever I have a non-linux guest >> inside >>> of Xen, >>>> I find Xen is unstable. I have a server with windows & linux >> guests >>> inside >>>> of xen on RHEL5 host ... and about once per month, xen will lose >> its >>> mind, >>>> and the memory of one machine becomes the memory of another. >>> Solution is to >>>> reboot all the guests and host. And yes, performance is terrible, >> except >>>> for linux in linux. >>>> >>>> For either linux or mac hosts ... Sun Virtualbox is a pretty good >> choice. >>>> It has some bugs here and there ... but it does in fact have >> "guest >>>> extensions" or whatever they call it ... So the guest stability >> and >>>> performance is very good. >>>> >>>> If you only use your virtual machine casually, you can't beat the >>> price of >>>> virtualbox. But if you use it all day every day, such as I do ... >> I run >>>> windows inside of mac every day, and I also run windows inside of >> ubuntu >>>> every day ... Then I find virtualbox is just simply too buggy and >> kloogy. >>>> >>>> On the mac, either parallels or vmware fusion is the professional >> way >>> to go. >>>> In fusion, you must remember to install VMWare Tools, and in >>> parallels, you >>>> must remember to install Parallels Extensions. If you do this, >>> performance >>>> is near 100%. I personally prefer fusion for performance and >> reliability >>>> reasons, but parallels is slightly more featureful. Both are good >>> choices, >>>> with neither having a large edge over the other in any way. >>>> >>>> On linux, VMWare Workstation is the professional way to go. >> Beware >>> versions >>>> though. Check the vmware compatibility guide. I find VMWare >>> Workstation is >>>> typically only compatible with hosts a rev behind ... For example >> ... >>>> Workstation works fine on ubuntu 904, but not 910. But by the >> time 1004 >>>> comes out, I think 910 will be supported. >>>> >>> >>> I agree that Linux inside Linux with Xen is good. I definitely need >> a >>> solution to virtualize Windows on a server rather than having the >> devs >>> virtualize on their local machines. I regularly use Virtualbox >> locally >>> and like it and have thought about setting up a server with a group >> of >>> headless VMs under it, but I am unsure of how Virtualbox performs in >>> that setup. Definitely looking for a server rather than workstation >>> solution so perhaps VMWare Server may be the way to go. >>> >>> Thanks for your thoughts. >>> >>> Ryan >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Discuss mailing list >>> Discuss@lopsa.org <mailto:Discuss@lopsa.org> >>> http://lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss >>> This list provided by the League of Professional System >> Administrators >>> http://lopsa.org/ >>> >>> >>> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Discuss mailing list >> Discuss@lopsa.org >> http://lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss >> This list provided by the League of Professional System >> Administrators >> http://lopsa.org/ > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > Discuss@lopsa.org > http://lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators > http://lopsa.org/ _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lopsa.org http://lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
