Determining resources for hypervisor
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I'm thinking through what I can reasonably do with this lab machine. My plan is to put it in colocation. Yes, I know I could do all of this cheaper with [insert service here] and [insert VPS provider here], but the point of the exercise to gain some experience managing something in colo.
Current hardware: Dell R310, 32 GB RAM, Xeon X430 quad core 2.4 ghz, two 2 TB SATA drives in RAID 1 running KVM (Fedora)
"Permanent" VMs
Fedora VM (firewall)
1 GB RAM
1 vcpu
20 GB diskFreePBX
1 GB RAM
1 vcpu
25 GB diskNextCloud
2 GB RAM
2 vcpu
500 GB diskZimbra
8 GB RAM
2 vcpu
50 GB diskVM for backups (which would replicate data to something like Backblaze)
2-4 GB RAM
1-2 vcpus
1200 GB diskRemaining RAM: ~16 GB
Remaining Disk: ~200 GBPotential other VMs
3-5 Windows VMs for various learning objectives, each with 2 GB RAM, 1 vcpu, and 30 GB disk space
If 5 additional VMs are deployed. . .
Remaining RAM: ~6 GB
Remaining Disk: ~50 GBDisk space isn't a great concern, since for about $290 I can get two more 2 TB drives, put them in a RAID 10 and have 4 TB of usable space. I'm more concerned with RAM. The "potential other VM" will be setup and destroyed as needed, so I can function with the hardware I have; however, I'm sure eventually I'll have projects which will become permanent VMs. This makes me consider contributing that $290 to an overall beefier server.
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Instead of using Fedora as a firewall VM, how about using VyOS?
https://wiki.vyos.net/wiki/User_Guide -
@black3dynamite said in Determining resources for hypervisor:
Instead of using Fedora as a firewall VM, how about using VyOS?
https://wiki.vyos.net/wiki/User_GuideI was thinking of that as well, since the OS for the ERLs.
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@eddiejennings said in Determining resources for hypervisor:
@black3dynamite said in Determining resources for hypervisor:
Instead of using Fedora as a firewall VM, how about using VyOS?
https://wiki.vyos.net/wiki/User_GuideI was thinking of that as well, since the OS for the ERLs.
It's what I'm using for my home lab box.
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@travisdh1 said in Determining resources for hypervisor:
@eddiejennings said in Determining resources for hypervisor:
@black3dynamite said in Determining resources for hypervisor:
Instead of using Fedora as a firewall VM, how about using VyOS?
https://wiki.vyos.net/wiki/User_GuideI was thinking of that as well, since the OS for the ERLs.
It's what I'm using for my home lab box.
I'd like to give VyOS a try for my lab... For reference, is it CLI only, or is there a web interface for it?
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Hi,
Noob question cause it is new idea for me
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How do you make the Fedora VM the firewall, and make the traffic controlled by it ? and you just use firewall-cmd or something with web interface ?
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Zimbra uses alot of RAM, huh that is normal ?
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@emad-r said in Determining resources for hypervisor:
Hi,
Noob question cause it is new idea for me
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How do you make the Fedora VM the firewall, and make the traffic controlled by it ? and you just use firewall-cmd or something with web interface ?
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Zimbra uses alot of RAM, huh that is normal ?
Each VM would be set to route via the Fedora VM (Firewall) as their gateway. If they all have a gateway pointing to the firewall VM, they will route traffic to that over the virtual network within the host to the Fedora VM, then out of the host via the Fedora VM.
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Interesting, I guess this raises another question Firewall virtual or physical, but its interesting approach
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@emad-r said in Determining resources for hypervisor:
Interesting, I guess this raises another question Firewall virtual or physical, but its interesting approach
Personally, i'd go physical. Virtual would be totally fine of course, I just like opening boxes with nice 'new kit' smell.
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@jimmy9008 said in Determining resources for hypervisor:
@emad-r said in Determining resources for hypervisor:
Interesting, I guess this raises another question Firewall virtual or physical, but its interesting approach
Personally, i'd go physical. Virtual would be totally fine of course, I just like opening boxes with nice 'new kit' smell.
One thing I forgot to mention, is that I’d be renting 1U of colo space; thus, virtual is my only option.
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@eddiejennings The colo would more than likely offer a firewall service, at an extra cost, that would sit between your box and the Internet. You could use that as a different option too.
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You could go a lot lower using LXD/LXC for many workloads, the tech is very mature. Use full VM only when you need to test a VM peculiar issue.
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What I do on my VMs is start with the minimum, and then slowly add until I get an acceptable level of performance.
Install the Zabbix agent or something to track the memory usage and then add RAM as necessary.
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@eddiejennings said in Determining resources for hypervisor:
I'm thinking through what I can reasonably do with this lab machine. My plan is to put it in colocation. Yes, I know I could do all of this cheaper with [insert service here] and [insert VPS provider here], but the point of the exercise to gain some experience managing something in colo.
Current hardware: Dell R310, 32 GB RAM, Xeon X430 quad core 2.4 ghz, two 2 TB SATA drives in RAID 1 running KVM (Fedora)
"Permanent" VMs
Fedora VM (firewall)
1 GB RAM
1 vcpu
20 GB diskFreePBX
1 GB RAM
1 vcpu
25 GB diskNextCloud
2 GB RAM
2 vcpu
500 GB diskZimbra
8 GB RAM
2 vcpu
50 GB diskVM for backups (which would replicate data to something like Backblaze)
2-4 GB RAM
1-2 vcpus
1200 GB diskRemaining RAM: ~16 GB
Remaining Disk: ~200 GBPotential other VMs
3-5 Windows VMs for various learning objectives, each with 2 GB RAM, 1 vcpu, and 30 GB disk space
If 5 additional VMs are deployed. . .
Remaining RAM: ~6 GB
Remaining Disk: ~50 GBDisk space isn't a great concern, since for about $290 I can get two more 2 TB drives, put them in a RAID 10 and have 4 TB of usable space. I'm more concerned with RAM. The "potential other VM" will be setup and destroyed as needed, so I can function with the hardware I have; however, I'm sure eventually I'll have projects which will become permanent VMs. This makes me consider contributing that $290 to an overall beefier server.
I'm not sure what your question is, but that all looks like a great (and fun) plan to me!
One thing I'd mention, if you are only planning to have 200GB free at the end of this, it may be worth it to put in the additional space and RAID10 now, rather than redo the whole thing later. Your 500GB NC space may fill up fast (if it's not just for testing, but for home production use), then you'll find yourself in an inconvenient situation where you either redo it all into a RAID10, or add a second RAID1 and move your VM virtual disks appropriately.
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Not a question as much as a point of discussion about whether or not a server that can support more RAM ought to be purchased. But like all ML discussions other things come up, such as the idea of using VyOS for the firewall.
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@tim_g
One thing I'd mention, if you are only planning to have 200GB free at the end of this, it may be worth it to put in the additional space and RAID10 now, rather than redo the whole thing later. Your 500GB NC space may fill up fast (if it's not just for testing, but for home production use), then you'll find yourself in an inconvenient situation where you either redo it all into a RAID10, or add a second RAID1 and move your VM virtual disks appropriately.
Yeah. I’m leaning the way of more storage, since even with my permanent and test VMs I still have some available RAM.
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@eddiejennings said in Determining resources for hypervisor:
Not a question as much as a point of discussion about whether or not a server that can support more RAM ought to be purchased. But like all ML discussions other things come up, such as the idea of using VyOS for the firewall.
Speaking of which, mine is running on 512MB of RAM. I could probably get by with just 256MB in all reality with VyOS.
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@eddiejennings said in Determining resources for hypervisor:
@black3dynamite said in Determining resources for hypervisor:
Instead of using Fedora as a firewall VM, how about using VyOS?
https://wiki.vyos.net/wiki/User_GuideI was thinking of that as well, since the OS for the ERLs.
EdgeOS and VyOS are cousins, both descended from Vyatta.
