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Re: [PLUG] cheapass VM host platform?
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Mike Sheinberg wrote:
> Just wanted to expand on my group question to get some feedback of
> whether anyone has used any other VM solutions that do not utilize
> Windows in any way? I just noticed that Red Hat released a platform
> and oddly enough you still need a Windows client to access the
> management console (yeah, bizarre I know.
> <http://www.redhat.com/virtualization/rhev/server/>). After digging
> around I came across the ConVirt <http://www.convirture.com/>
> management platform which manages KVM/Xen hosts and best part is the
> management console can be used from a Linux client. Does anyone have
> any production experience with such a setup? Everyone seems to have
> some experience with VMWare's platform but I have heard very little
> discussion from others regarding the production ready viability of
> other platforms. Which is understandable if they are not at this time,
> I'm just interested :)
I don't know the details, but Eucalyptus just announced integration with
Vsphere /ESXi 4
and Amazon AMI. So theoretically you can burst ( cloudburst ? ) your
existing Vsphere VM's
to Amazon if you need more capacity.
Eucalyptus is avaiable on Ubuntu 9.10 server CD's at install time.
I believe the Vmware integration is not Opensource, only Xen and KVM parts.
This is much more complicated than what your looking for , however.
Lee
>
> Thanks!
> Mike
>
> On Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 8:45 AM, Mike Sheinberg <m.sheiny@gmail.com
> <mailto:m.sheiny@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Lee,
>
> Thanks for your insight into the caveats of working with
> ghettoVCB. It sounds like from the way they've locked down the
> ESXi server that I won't get a free reliable backup solution
> without some serious hacking. I'm still concerned with pitching
> the costs of
> this to management but honestly the risk of not getting consistent
> backups utilizing our current VMWare Server is not good.
>
> From my end it also kinda sucks the level of Microsoft we have to
> deploy in order to get ESX running. Do you know if there are any
> performance concerns from utilizing the free SQL Express for VCenter?
>
> Does anyone also have any experience with getting a relatively
> inexpensive solution going with other Virtualization tech (such as
> KVM, Citrix, etc.) ? From past experience VMWare has been a really
> great platform but I'd like to weigh all my options when making
> the pitch for our VM infrastructure.
>
> Thanks again for your feedback Lee, I'm already glad I signed up
> for this group :)
>
> -Mike
>
>
>
> On Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 11:29 PM, Lee Marzke <lee@marzke.net
> <mailto:lee@marzke.net>> wrote:
>
> Mike Sheinberg wrote:
> > Anyone have any experience configuring (free) backups with
> ESXi 4?
> > Currently I'm working for a company utilizing VMWare Server
> which
> > really lacks a lot of the great features/performance I've
> seen in
> > previous ESX versions (3.5). Many VMware users on forums
> recommend the
> > 'ghettoVCB' script (following
> > http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-8760). Anyone have any
> > experience with this method or have any other suggestions
> for do it
> > yourself ESXi backups?
> >
> > Thanks!
> > Mike
> >
> Mike,
>
> I was forced to use Vmware server for a year until I got
> funding for
> VCenter/ESXi on 2 new DL-360 G5
> hosts and a SAN.
>
> The tradeoff, is that VCenter provides better use of RAM, VM
> Templates,
> thin provisioned disk that
> don't severely fragment the NFTS file system, and of course with
> Enterprise edition you get Vmotion
> and Storage Vmotion that allow you to move the machine to a
> new host, or
> move the storage to
> a new volume without shutting it down.
>
> Since a VM move/copy may take 2 to 6 hours or more, the
> Storage Vmotion
> feature will save a lot
> of downtime, as you can do that while the machine is running
> under light
> load.
>
> For backup on Vmware Server I have some scripts that automate the
> shutdown, copy, zip, and restart
> of the VM. However in practice ( with 4 hosts and 12 VM's )
> I found
> that one or more scripts/backups
> failed every day. The VM's were down for 3 or 4 hours each
> for the
> copy, and we had to stagger
> the copies. A single backup would also tie up the Vmware
> Server host's
> SATA disk so much that the
> other VM's would be unresponsive. If you want these scripts
> let me
> know off-line.
>
> So basically this strategy with moderate size VM ( 10 to 40G
> each ) just
> didn't work in practice.
>
> If you try to do the same using ghettoVCB I imaging the
> problems would
> be similar. Also just getting a
> command line prompt on ESXi voids your warrentee and support.
> On top of
> that, standard tools are not
> available ( only busybox ) and important files ( even crontab
> ) are
> overwritten at each boot - so anything
> you configure is wiped out on reboot.
>
> Yes, I've run some commands from ESXi command line, but for
> instance
> the ghettoVCB script is
> mostly parsing text configuration files, and running commands
>
> Sample portion of ghettoVCB:
>
> for VM_NAME in `cat "${VM_INPUT}" | sed '/^$/d' | sed -e
> 's/^[[:blank:]]*//;s/[[:blank:]]*$//'`;
> do
> VM_ID=`grep -E "\"${VM_NAME}\"" /tmp/vms_list | awk -F ";"
> '{print $1}' | sed 's/"//g'`
>
> This depends on the config file text format of that version of
> ESX, and
> overall is a very fragile way
> of controlling ESX. I think you would have just as many
> problems with
> this script
> ( and indeed the comments on the forums agree )
>
> If your running development or production on these machines,
> you really
> should invest in VCenter
> for all the advantages above.
>
> If you get the VMware Essentials Plus package, it includes a
> supported
> "Disaster Recovery" program
> that will do what you want. This includes VCenter, gives you
> template support, and the DR program
> for something like $2995 ( for up to 3 hosts with 2 CPU's each
> , and a
> free copy of Vsphere Essentials
> server, and the DR program )
>
> http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/buy/editions_comparison.html
> http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/buy/overview.html
>
> So spending a week setting up ghettoVCB, and then futzing with
> it, will
> already cost
> more than buying Essentials Plus. Plus you will have
> template support
> to help manage
> your VM rollouts.
>
> Also, I found that generally if you present the options to
> management
> with costs and reliability explained it is
> usually possible to get funding, because it just make sense,
> while
> spending a week of your time to
> get an unreliable solution does not make sense.
>
> Lee
>
> --
> "Between subtle shading and the absence of light lies the
> nuance of iqlusion..." - Kryptos
>
> Lee Marzke, lee@marzke.net <mailto:lee@marzke.net>
> http://marzke.net/lee/
> IT Consultant, VMware, VCenter, SAN storage, infrastructure, SW CM
> +1 800-393-5217 office +1 484-348-2230 fax
> +1 610-564-4932 cell sip://8003935217@4aero.com
> <mailto:8003935217@4aero.com> VOIP
>
>
>
> ___________________________________________________________________________
> Philadelphia Linux Users Group --
> http://www.phillylinux.org
> Announcements -
> http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
> General Discussion --
> http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> ___________________________________________________________________________
> Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org
> Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
> General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
>
--
"Between subtle shading and the absence of light lies the nuance of iqlusion..." - Kryptos
Lee Marzke, lee@marzke.net http://marzke.net/lee/
IT Consultant, VMware, VCenter, SAN storage, infrastructure, SW CM
+1 800-393-5217 office +1 484-348-2230 fax
+1 610-564-4932 cell sip://8003935217@4aero.com VOIP
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
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