Advice requested for low-tech mirrored server setup with virtual machines

[Hans Vos]

Hello,

I currently have 1 server which runs VMware for private development and
testing purposes. I have two identical servers ready at home that I would
like to replace my current server with. To be a bit more secure with my
data and minimize downtime risks I want to have the two servers mirror
each other (does not have to be a fancy real time fail-over setup).

I am looking for a solution where the image files of my virtual machines
are mirrored on both servers. In the event of a failure of one of the
servers I would like to be able to start the virtual machine on the second
server after migrating the IP address. This process doesn't have to be
automated. It will suffice for now to do this by hand.

A year ago I experimented a bit with CentOS and Xen. There was a good
tutorial I was able to find back then which used Xen as virtualization
technology and DRDB to mirror LVM volumes that functioned as the image
files for the virtual machines. I prefer using Ubuntu since it is my Linux
distro of choice at this time, but I cannot make my mind up as to what
would be a good setup for my wishes.

I hope you guys can provide some wisdom as what would work best using the
out-of-the-box features of Ubuntu. My knowledge level isn't high enough to
start using custom technologies and compile them myself. It is my
understanding that Ubuntu currently has KVM as its default virtualization
technology. Would a setup like the one described below work for me and are
there perhaps any good management tools (perhaps web based) to manage and
monitor such a setup?

- Two servers with Ubuntu
- Identical partition layout with LVM to use for images for the virtual
machines
- KVM as virtualization technology
- DRBD to mirror the LVM volumes

I look forward to hear your suggestions. It might be something completely
different as I mentioned here. But I would only like to work with packages
available in Ubuntu (no custom compiling). I want to be able to keep my
system up to date using Aptitude. Adding a custom repository would be
alright also but not preferable. Perhaps there even is some all-in-one
solution for my request?

Kind regards,

Hans Vos