Personal computing discussed
Moderators: renee, JustAnEngineer
flip-mode wrote:Big 10-4 on free ESXi for 32 GB or less. Any CPU limitations there? I could look it up, but since I'm here typing...
flip-mode wrote:Another big 10-4 on Windows Server Datacenter as a possible host OS and just limit it to 1 CPU. Still, that's a good $3000 more expensive than Debian + Worstation if I'm doing the math approximately right.
flip-mode wrote:The idea of VMware Workstation on Debian with zero CPU or RAM limitations and coming in at a very low cost is still sounding like a very credible solution. Actually, it's sounding like the solution to beat at the moment, unless I'm missing something.
Beelzebubba9 wrote:Don't do this. There are plenty of more widely supported options that are designed to run business critical assets with the reliability they need for cheap or free, and WMware Workstation or KVM* aren't it.
kc77 wrote:If power isn't too much of a concern I would strongly suggest looking at AMD for 2P builds.
flip-mode wrote:Work needs a virtualization server. Needs to happen in the next month or so. I have several questions, and probably more to come.
First, here are the requirements:
* Budget: Let's say $5000, with some wiggle room if it's absolutely worth it.
* Run up to 10 low intensity Windows Server 2012 VMs, but realistically, the typical load will be more like 5 VMs. VMs will provide low intensity services: domain authentication and software license services for 15-20 people.
* I figure most VMs will run on 4 GB of memory allocation. One or two may need 8 GB. I figure 64 GB will be enough to supply all guests.
* Disk performance is probably not important. Disk allocation of 30 GB per VM sounds reasonable, for a start. I think I'll be able to run all VMs on the same array. My initial guess is that RAID 5 of four 3 TB disks will do the trick for the guest storage array. A separate RAID 1 array of two 3 TB disks for the host seems like a good conversation starter.
* This is a very small business oriented virtualization solution that will provide very basic network services.
Questions:
1) Host OS. Honestly, my first instinct is to run VMware Workstation on Debian. This will let non-technical people interact with the virtualization platform, which is going to be necessary. It would be great to be able to use remote desktop to access the host. Can one get remote desktop like access to a Debian OS from Windows and Mac machines?
2) AMD or Intel. On the desktop, the answer is clear to me, but I'm in murky territory on this one.
3) Build, barebones, or buy? Supermicro makes some nice barebones solutions that aren't too pricey. The machine needs to fit in a rack.
4) Which motherboard and CPU? If a full build, which rack-compatible case that is also compatible with the motherboard? I know things can get stupidly nonstandard in this area.
5) Which RAID card or just use software RAID? Any decent on-motherboard hardware RAID out there? If using an add-in card, any motherboard incompatibilities to worry about? How painful is it to set up software RAID on Debian and replace a faulty disk?
lonleyppl wrote:If you're more comfortable with Windows, and don't want to futz around much with licensing, Hyper-V Server 2012 is free from MS. It just installs the Hyper-V role with PowerShell and the Windows command line. It's not too bad to use, and can be managed remotely every easily through the Remote Server Administration Tool. Anecdote alert, but I've found it to be solid and use Hyper-V across all my machines (VirtualBox reminders to upgrade got really annoying).
flip-mode wrote:Yeowza. I'm easily impressed, but I got XenServer 6.2 installed on a test machine and XenCenter installed on my workstation. Coming from ESXi 4.1, the install process and the XenCenter are painless. The XenCenter is friggin quick and doesn't lag one bit.
Anyone with XenServer experience, I'd love to hear more about high points and low points. Is it true that this totally free thing doesn't have any features clipped? I guess the more direct question is what does a standard install of XenServer 6.2 NOT do? Are there "plugins" or anything that are recommended? It looks like it can do live migration and server pools and such. Does do anything like scheduled system backups and scheduled VM backups (I don't even know if any hypervisors do that stuff, but backup and disaster recovery is extremely important to me, and the fact that I can set up live migration really tickles me - last I checked it cost some money to get that feature on the VMware platform, but maybe that's changed.).
flip-mode wrote:Work needs a virtualization server. Needs to happen in the next month or so. I have several questions, and probably more to come.
First, here are the requirements:
* Budget: Let's say $5000, with some wiggle room if it's absolutely worth it.
* Run up to 10 low intensity Windows Server 2012 VMs, but realistically, the typical load will be more like 5 VMs. VMs will provide low intensity services: domain authentication and software license services for 15-20 people.
* I figure most VMs will run on 4 GB of memory allocation. One or two may need 8 GB. I figure 64 GB will be enough to supply all guests.
* Disk performance is probably not important. Disk allocation of 30 GB per VM sounds reasonable, for a start. I think I'll be able to run all VMs on the same array. My initial guess is that RAID 5 of four 3 TB disks will do the trick for the guest storage array. A separate RAID 1 array of two 3 TB disks for the host seems like a good conversation starter.
* Graphics power is not important
* This is a very small business oriented virtualization solution that will provide very basic network services.
Questions:
1) Host OS. Honestly, my first instinct is to run VMware Workstation on Debian. This will let non-technical people interact with the virtualization platform, which is going to be necessary. It would be great to be able to use remote desktop to access the host. Can one get remote desktop like access to a Debian OS from Windows and Mac machines?
2) AMD or Intel. On the desktop, the answer is clear to me, but I'm in murky territory on this one.
3) Build, barebones, or buy? Supermicro makes some nice barebones solutions that aren't too pricey. The machine needs to fit in a rack.
4) Which motherboard and CPU? If a full build, which rack-compatible case that is also compatible with the motherboard? I know things can get stupidly nonstandard in this area.
5) Which RAID card or just use software RAID? Any decent on-motherboard hardware RAID out there? If using an add-in card, any motherboard incompatibilities to worry about? How painful is it to set up software RAID on Debian and replace a faulty disk?
Alternatively, I could run VMware Workstation on regular desktop hardware, I guess. I'm in relatively unfamiliar territory.
Edit:
Here's an interesting Supermicro barebones: http://www.serversdirect.com/Solutions/ ... D-6027TR-D