[lugip] vmware?
Edward M. Corrado
ecorrado at ecorrado.us
Tue Nov 25 11:48:49 EST 2008
It looks like VMware ESXi is now available for free (with, of course,
support available for a fee). Has anyone looked at that instead of ESX?
While I may get a budget in the future, at this point for testing I
don't have one to speak of. I'll be lucky if I can get a new server:-(.
Edward
John Martinetti wrote:
> yes - you are correct. I was confused, most likely due to low caffiene
> levels.
> We've piloted both Centos and the free Vmware Server package along side of
> the paid "ESX" for that particular customer, on the production hardware
> (white boxes with supermicro main-boards).
> Still - we're awaiting the customers decision and have strongly urged him to
> consider purchasing ESX for production servers mainly for the support. As
> far as our pilot is concerned, the performance for both configurations
> (CentOS/Vmware server free vs. ESX) was satisfactory.
>
> I think our biggest mistake from this case study was the whitebox
> hardware...it was cheap and the customer wanted 2 servers per location with
> one acting as a hot spare. This actually worked quite well with custom
> scripting to snapshot the vm's and rysnc them across both physical
> machines....so that's something to keep in mind.
>
> One last thought about the latest versions of Vmware server, they changed
> the GTK based GUI mangement application to a web-based application and
> removed an number of the command-line tools, which I found disappointing.
> The web based GUI management application is slick and has new features (esp
> regarding snapshots), but it's slow and cumbersome over WAN lines that
> aren't up to par.
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 11:02 AM, Brian Jones <bkjones at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Hey John, what do you mean moving to CentOS and ESX? If you're running
>> ESX, there is no host OS -- ESX *is* the base OS. The only OSes you
>> install are in the VMs themselves.
>>
>> As for Ubuntu, it's listed in the VMWare Server Admin Guide as being a
>> supported host OS. In addition, you can actually install vmware server
>> on ubuntu straight from the Canonical commercial software repository.
>> When it comes to VMWare, I really do advocate looking at all of the
>> documentation even before you purchase the product, because there's a
>> lot of information to digest, and if you don't read it, especially for
>> hardware and host OS compatibility, you're likely to make an error in
>> your deployment plan that'll cost you a lot of time (at least).
>>
>> If you have some budget for this project, I would *strongly* recommend
>> going with ESX for production boxes, perhaps using the free server for
>> prototyping and testing new VM builds that can then be migrated to an
>> ESX server and launched into production. I'll leave out the VMotion
>> details, since that requires an enormous budget and probably hardware
>> purchases on top of that :)
>>
>> My experience with ESX has been unbelievably good, and all of you who
>> know me know I don't say that much. ;-P They release updates in a
>> timely manner and performing updates in my experience has been dead
>> easy, and flawless, and has never affected the stability of anything
>> running on it. I've run both Windows and Linux on ESX (on the same
>> hardware, in fact). It "just works".
>>
>> Good luck!
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 10:44 AM, Edward M. Corrado
>> <ecorrado at ecorrado.us> wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks for relaying your experiences. This si the type of thing I need
>>> to know. I have used vmware for desktop purposes and it has worked
>>> great, but when you are talkign about servers, it is a whole diffeent
>>> ball of wax.
>>>
>>> I'm not sure if it would be any better then the desktop edition with
>>> VMware, but for the record, Ubuntu does have a server edition. I
>>> generally agree about the issue of running an install designed for a
>>> desktop as a server. I have been playing with xubuntu for servers. You
>>> get a little bit of graphic-goodness and it doesn't require a great deal
>>> of overhead.
>>>
>>> Edward
>>>
>>> John Martinetti wrote:
>>>
>>>> well, if you want opinion, do *NOT* use Ubuntu.
>>>> My opinion is based upon experience having 22 production servers in the
>>>> field running Ubuntu with Vmware Server (the free version) hosting
>>>>
>> Windows
>>
>>>> 2000 Server images.
>>>> We're currently in the planning and testing phase of a project to
>>>>
>> replace
>>
>>>> Ubuntu with CentOS and the *paid* version of VMWare, ESX server. It's
>>>>
>> nice
>>
>>>> being able to open a trouble ticket with Vmware when you're out of
>>>>
>> options.
>>
>>>> Main reasons for my displeasure? Stability. Ubuntu was not playing
>>>>
>> nicely
>>
>>>> with Vmware after running updates. On multiple occasions we had to move
>>>>
>> the
>>
>>>> working Windows image over the the "hot-spare" server hardware in the
>>>>
>> branch
>>
>>>> location due to an administrator running updates on the Ubuntu host.
>>>> Now - keep in mind...our host machines were not bare-bones Ubuntu
>>>>
>> systems,
>>
>>>> much to my dismay, my cohorts insisted upon having full blown Gnome
>>>>
>> Desktops
>>
>>>> on each machine so we could access them over crappy WAN lines using
>>>> NoMachines' NX client/server remote control package. And it's also
>>>> arguable, that we really didn't take a good hard look at all the
>>>>
>> packages
>>
>>>> installed on the servers that really weren't necessary....so there ya
>>>>
>> have
>>
>>>> it. Still -in the long run...I'd advise against Ubuntu, it's a desktop
>>>> OS...not a server. For those people who think it can be molded into a
>>>> reliable server platform..that's great....but for actually geting stuff
>>>> done, you want a distro that's suitable for the task, not one that
>>>>
>> *could
>>
>>>> be* after you've fscked with it for a month.
>>>>
>>>> Another thing to keep i mind about Vmware, definitely pay careful
>>>>
>> attention
>>
>>>> to the hardware compatibility list. Dont go thinking you can use just
>>>>
>> any
>>
>>>> old white-box....that's a reciped for disaster and sleepless nights.
>>>>
>> Stick
>>
>>>> to a proven hardware platform straight from the list or your liable to
>>>> experince Vmware's wonderful "pink-screen-of-death". Seen it? It's
>>>> alarming...and it definitely means you'll need a mop. Surpisingly, Dell
>>>>
>> has
>>
>>>> *many* options on the Vmware hardware compatibility list and also
>>>>
>> surpising
>>
>>>> to me, not nearly as many HP/Compaq choices, although the standard DL
>>>>
>> and ML
>>
>>>> series are well represented. We're waiting for approval on a project
>>>>
>> now to
>>
>>>> completely virtualize a small engineering firm with Dell hardware and
>>>>
>> Vmware
>>
>>>> running their Windows server images on top of ESX. Using vizioncore's
>>>> VRangerPro utility, you can snapshot each Windows image daily and sync
>>>>
>> them
>>
>>>> across all hardware, so in the event that one piece of hardare fails,
>>>> recovery is trivial and pretty quick with little to no data loss - so
>>>>
>> there
>>
>>>> are some interesting niches for Vmware now that weren't really viable
>>>>
>> until
>>
>>>> recently.
>>>>
>>>> That's my $.02 - good luck with your decision. Consider CentOS....for
>>>>
>> that
>>
>>>> matter...consider CentOS for *any* Linux Server application over a
>>>>
>> desktop
>>
>>>> distribution.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 10:04 AM, Edward M. Corrado <
>>>>
>> ecorrado at ecorrado.us>wrote:
>>
>>>>
>>>>> I would like to start using VMware for some of our servers. The guest
>>>>> operating system on these will normally be some form of Linux at this
>>>>> point. I would like to have a stable platform for the underlying host
>>>>> and am considering Ubuntu 8.04 because of the long term support. What
>>>>> are other people using? Is there a reason to use something other than
>>>>> Ubuntu as the host? It seems that they Also, what version of VMware
>>>>>
>> are
>>
>>>>> you using? I was looking at the free VMware server, but I know there
>>>>>
>> are
>>
>>>>> other options.
>>>>>
>>>>> How about other virtualzation products?
>>>>>
>>>>> Edward
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Lugip mailing list
>>>>> Lugip at lugip.org
>>>>> http://www.lugip.org/mailman/listinfo/lugip
>>>>>
>>>>> LUG/IP Hardware Sig meets first Tuesday of the month at the Hamilton
>>>>>
>> Public
>>
>>>>> Library at 7pm
>>>>>
>>>>> LUG/IP meets Second Wednesday of the month at the Lawrence Headquarters
>>>>> Branch of the Mercer County Library at 7pm
>>>>>
>>>>> LUG/IP Coffee Klatch meets on the fourth Sunday of the month at the
>>>>>
>> Panera
>>
>>>>> Bread in West Windsor near Target at 8am
>>>>>
>>>>> For more information go to http://www.lugip.org
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
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>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Lugip mailing list
>>>> Lugip at lugip.org
>>>> http://www.lugip.org/mailman/listinfo/lugip
>>>>
>>>> LUG/IP Hardware Sig meets first Tuesday of the month at the Hamilton
>>>>
>> Public Library at 7pm
>>
>>>> LUG/IP meets Second Wednesday of the month at the Lawrence Headquarters
>>>>
>> Branch of the Mercer County Library at 7pm
>>
>>>> LUG/IP Coffee Klatch meets on the fourth Sunday of the month at the
>>>>
>> Panera Bread in West Windsor near Target at 8am
>>
>>>> For more information go to http://www.lugip.org
>>>>
>>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Lugip mailing list
>>> Lugip at lugip.org
>>> http://www.lugip.org/mailman/listinfo/lugip
>>>
>>> LUG/IP Hardware Sig meets first Tuesday of the month at the Hamilton
>>>
>> Public Library at 7pm
>>
>>> LUG/IP meets Second Wednesday of the month at the Lawrence Headquarters
>>>
>> Branch of the Mercer County Library at 7pm
>>
>>> LUG/IP Coffee Klatch meets on the fourth Sunday of the month at the
>>>
>> Panera Bread in West Windsor near Target at 8am
>>
>>> For more information go to http://www.lugip.org
>>>
>>>
>>
>> --
>> Brian K. Jones
>> Python Magazine http://www.pythonmagazine.com
>> My Blog http://www.protocolostomy.com
>>
>>
>>
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> _______________________________________________
> Lugip mailing list
> Lugip at lugip.org
> http://www.lugip.org/mailman/listinfo/lugip
>
> LUG/IP Hardware Sig meets first Tuesday of the month at the Hamilton Public Library at 7pm
>
> LUG/IP meets Second Wednesday of the month at the Lawrence Headquarters Branch of the Mercer County Library at 7pm
>
> LUG/IP Coffee Klatch meets on the fourth Sunday of the month at the Panera Bread in West Windsor near Target at 8am
>
> For more information go to http://www.lugip.org
>
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