[PLUG] 32 bit retirement Zimbra KVM was RE: Linux Today Posting: Google Sues The US Government

["John Karr" <brainbuz@brainbuz.org>]

It doesn't make sense sticking with 32 bit for any server you are building
today. The desktop system where I have virtualization (currently vmware's
free server) running is running a 64 bit OS. Even as vendors of desktop
applications still lag in 64 bit support, server applications are losing 32
bit support. If you are running virtualization on your desktop and you have
apps that don't work in 64 bit the solution is to virtualize a 32 bit
desktop and run a 64 bit kernel on the host.

I'm in the process of setting up a KVM Server, and I'm evaluating Zimbra for
my own use. A motherboard, 8gb of ram, and an AMD Quad Core (Propus) chip
all came in at a little over $300 and I didn't buy the cheapest. If you go
to an AMD 2 or 3 core chip and go with a cheaper motherboard and only take
4gb of RAM you can get your cost under $200 (and many of the 3 core chips
can be unlocked to 4 cores), add about $50 for a case with PS (I spent about
$80 to get a better PS). If you want new storage you can get 7200 rpm sata
drives as low as about $50, TB for $100 or less. There is no excuse for not
running on a 64bit/VT platform. 

What took the most time on getting KVM up to the point where I think it is
working is bridged networking (after I had set it up correctly repository
virt-manager wasn't recognizing it) and the fact that if you want a gui you
must build virt-manager from source.

I'm pasting in my current notes on KVM/Virt-Manager below as they might be
helpful to the next person who tries. My platform is Ubuntu 10.04.1 x64 and
the hardware described above. 

========================================

== Virt-Manager ==

Remove repository packages before trying to build new version.

download virtinst and virt-manager from
http://virt-manager.org/download.html
 cd into virtinst untarred
 ./autobuild.sh
 python setup.py build
 python setup.py install 
 cp . /usr/share/pyshared/ -R
 now cd to virt-manager untarred
 ./configure
 make install

== Bridged Interface ==

modify /etc/network/ as follows. FYI this must be an ethx adapter not a wifi
adapter.

 # The primary network interface
 auto eth0
 iface eth0 inet manual
 
 auto br0
 iface br0 inet static
 address 192.168.100.99
 network 192.168.100.0
 netmask 255.255.255.0
 broadcast 192.168.100.255
 gateway 192.168.100.1
 bridge_ports eth0
 bridge_stp off
 bridge_fd 0
 bridge_maxwait 0

Install packages libvirt kvm qemu libcap2-bin bridge-utils (there were more
packages I installed along the way and some notes about them that aren't in
here but should be).

restart networking: /etc/init.d/networking-restart

ifconfig should report something like:

 br0       Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx  
          inet addr:192.168.100.99  Bcast:192.168.100.255
Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
   
 eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx  
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
   
 lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
 
 virbr0    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 02:26:5d:92:42:fe  
          inet addr:192.168.122.1  Bcast:192.168.122.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
 
 vnet0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx  
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

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