[Ubuntu-US-NM] Ubuntu-US-NM OpenSource VMWare ESX

[Eric Krieger]

Started building this morning.  I have things up and running in a rough 
test environment and work as theorized...so far.

Test environment.

Storage server:
----------------------------------------
OS: Ubuntu 7.04 Server
CPU: P4 2ghz
RAM: 256megs ram
Storage:  2x120gig drives in a Raid0
Shared Storage:  Exporting via NFS /var/vms

Front End Server 1:
----------------------------------------
OS: Ubuntu 7.04 Server
CPU: P4 2ghz
RAM: 2gigs ram
Storage:  40gig hd
Network Storage: Mounted Via NFS /var/vms from storage server.
Vmware Server version 1.04 with vmware-mui installed

Frontend Server 2:
----------------------------------------
OS: Ubuntu 7.04 Server
CPU: Core Duo2 1.6ghz
RAM: 2gigs ram
Storage:  80gig hd
Network Storage: Mounted Via NFS /var/vms from storage server.
Vmware Server version 1.04 with vmware-mui installed


Network: GigE via Netgear G608 v2 GigE Switch
                GigE cards in all Servers.

Installed two test VM's one Windows 2003 Server the other Ubuntu linux 
7.04.  A single VM was powered on each of the frontend servers.  I was 
able to power off one frontend server and recover the VM to the online 
frontend server without issue simply by the powering on vm to the online 
frontend server .


- Eric



Eric Krieger wrote:
> Interesting...  "People may find this hard to believe, but the 
> performance over NFS is actually better than FC or iSCSI not only in 
> terms of throughtput but also in terms of latency" ...and this coming 
> from a NetApp Engineer.
>
> http://storagefoo.blogspot.com/2007/09/vmware-over-nfs.html
>
> Eric
>
>
> DThomas at metrocourt.state.nm.us wrote:
>>
>> Keeo me in the loop on your testing, sounds fun.
>>
>>
>> *Eric Krieger <unmlobo at gmail.com>*
>> Sent by: ubuntu-us-nm-bounces at lists.ubuntu.com
>>
>> 11/01/2007 04:33 PM
>> Please respond to
>> Ubuntu US-New Mexico Team <ubuntu-us-nm at lists.ubuntu.com>
>>
>>
>>     
>> To
>>     Ubuntu NM <Ubuntu-us-nm at lists.ubuntu.com>
>> cc
>>     
>> Subject
>>     Ubuntu-US-NM OpenSource VMWare ESX
>>
>>
>>
>>     
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> I've been thinking about trying to recreate an ESX like environment with
>> the freeware version of VMWare server and Ubuntu. In theory if you...
>>
>> 1 - Install Ubuntu Server on a backend server that has a ton of storage
>> which will be the "shared" storage server.
>>
>> 2 - Use NFS to share out big chunks of storage from the backend server.
>>
>> 3 - Install Ubuntu Server and VMWAre on the "frontend" servers (2 or
>> More).
>>
>> 4 - Mount the shared NFS storage shares on all frontend servers
>>
>> 5 - When creating VM's create them on the NFS shares.
>>
>> 6 - Power up a VM on a single frontend server but point all the frontend
>> VM servers at all VM's.  This way if a frontend server dies you can
>> recover to one of the other frontend servers.
>>
>> It should work.  Mind you having GigE network is sort of a must. Even
>> better Dual NIC's in the servers with separate GigE Switches or VLANs
>> (one for storage the other for data).
>>
>> =)
>>
>> - Eric
>>
>> ----------------------------------------
>> Eric J. Krieger
>> email: unmlobo at gmail.com
>>
>>
>> Random Quote:
>>
>> "There's never a cop around when you need
>> one!"
>>        -A. Capone
>>
>> Thu Nov 1 15:39:26 MDT 2007
>> 15:39:26 up 7:01, 7 users, load average: 0.18, 0.28, 0.15
>> #1 SMP Sun Oct 14 23:05:12 GMT 2007 GNU/Linux
>>
>> -- 
>> Ubuntu-us-nm mailing list
>> Ubuntu-us-nm at lists.ubuntu.com
>> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-us-nm
>>
>