What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations
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@scottalanmiller said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
@hobbit666 said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
But I found HyperV there was a lot of messing to get a workstation to talk (especially if your on a different network/domain)
Did you try 5Nine?
For a single server and a lot of the basic config, it's great!
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@black3dynamite said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
@stacksofplates said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
@black3dynamite said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
@scottalanmiller said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
@black3dynamite said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
And since discovering Mangolassi, XenServer seems to be only popular here when Xen Orchestra is being used with it.
that's the only context in which it makes sense. That's its one main management tool.
But saying that, you could say the same kind of thing for Vmware ESXi... it's only popular with vSphere to manage it. Of course, you need something to manage anything. When you have a management tool that is free and really good, there is no need for anything else and/or the two just become associated. That XS is only popular with XO just makes sense, as it is open, free and very powerful. XS has to have some tool, and that one is so good that no one else tries to compete.
Besides not supported better file systems for vm storage especially when using thin storage. I'm never a fan XenCenter it gets the job done but I much rather do things via CLI. I really hope XenServer devs integrated XO soon.
I think they should focus on things like not using ext3 first.
Totally agree. They should really have two version of XenServer. One can be the current one. And the other will include things like ext4, xfs, LVM thin.
Just use CentOS/Fedora/OpenSuse with KVM for that...
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@hobbit666 said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
But I found HyperV there was a lot of messing to get a workstation to talk (especially if your on a different network/domain)
This might of gotten easier since the last time I tried HyperV
but it put me off.This! When I first switched to virtualization it was Hyper-V, and getting it to talk to my workstation was so unnecessarily difficult, I wanted so badly to just join it to the domain. 5Nine is awesome and totally remedied the awkward communication/credential problems. I ultimately bailed on Hyper-V and switched to XS around the same time I switched to Windows 10. We had just gotten a new virtual host and I wanted to try something new, and not paying the $350 a year for the 5nine license was a bonus.
I can't for the life of me get into XO though, XenCenter just works and does everything that I need it to do. Maybe I like it because I was used to 5Nine? I don't know. It seems to be a pain to log into the web interface and fumble around trying to find the stuff I need when I'm already used to XenCenter. I haven't given it a true chance though.
For what it's worth, I've had zero issues with XS since switching. For me, it's been a far better experience than Hyper-V was.
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@bnrstnr said
I can't for the life of me get into XO though, XenCenter just works and does everything that I need it to do. Maybe I like it because I was used to 5Nine? I don't know. It seems to be a pain to log into the web interface and fumble around trying to find the stuff I need when I'm already used to XenCenter. I haven't given it a true chance though.
Backups and easier patching are two big plusses.
I agree, though, that I find myself using XC for most tasks, and have had virtually no issues with XS. (Other than the recent one which I am sure is caused by older hardware.)
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@bnrstnr said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
@hobbit666 said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
But I found HyperV there was a lot of messing to get a workstation to talk (especially if your on a different network/domain)
This might of gotten easier since the last time I tried HyperV
but it put me off.This! When I first switched to virtualization it was Hyper-V, and getting it to talk to my workstation was so unnecessarily difficult, I wanted so badly to just join it to the domain. 5Nine is awesome and totally remedied the awkward communication/credential problems. I ultimately bailed on Hyper-V and switched to XS around the same time I switched to Windows 10. We had just gotten a new virtual host and I wanted to try something new, and not paying the $350 a year for the 5nine license was a bonus.
I can't for the life of me get into XO though, XenCenter just works and does everything that I need it to do. Maybe I like it because I was used to 5Nine? I don't know. It seems to be a pain to log into the web interface and fumble around trying to find the stuff I need when I'm already used to XenCenter. I haven't given it a true chance though.
For what it's worth, I've had zero issues with XS since switching. For me, it's been a far better experience than Hyper-V was.
XO is a single pane of glass, it is built to do everything that XC can do and more. Including the backups, restoration etc.
If you're not using XO for the backup capabilities, or any of the additional functionality, you're missing out on what it really shines at.
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@DustinB3403 said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
If you're not using XO for the backup capabilities, or any of the additional functionality, you're missing out on what it really shines at.
I'm not using it at all currently. I use Unitrends now for backups, and I don't think it's ideal, but it does work.
Not to totally derail the thread, but the backups and stuff is what confuses me about XO, do you have to pay the $70/month to get automated backups and access to the other important features?
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@bnrstnr said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
Not to totally derail the thread, but the backups and stuff is what confuses me about XO, do you have to pay the $70/month to get automated backups and access to the other important features?
All open source and free.
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@bnrstnr said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
@DustinB3403 said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
If you're not using XO for the backup capabilities, or any of the additional functionality, you're missing out on what it really shines at.
I'm not using it at all currently. I use Unitrends now for backups, and I don't think it's ideal, but it does work.
Not to totally derail the thread, but the backups and stuff is what confuses me about XO, do you have to pay the $70/month to get automated backups and access to the other important features?
Nope. And with the simple install found here on ML it's a piece of cake to set up.
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I prefer KVM/QEMU. It's worthwhile to invest time in learning all of the tools to manage everything from the CLI before trying to rely on any of the GUI based tools like virt-manager/virt-viewer.
I only interface with KVM on my home test environment now, but these are the tools I most frequently use. And aside from virsh, most of them are rarely used outside of a script.
- virsh
- qemu-img
- virt-clone
- virt-sysprep
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@bnrstnr said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
@DustinB3403 said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
If you're not using XO for the backup capabilities, or any of the additional functionality, you're missing out on what it really shines at.
I'm not using it at all currently. I use Unitrends now for backups, and I don't think it's ideal, but it does work.
Not to totally derail the thread, but the backups and stuff is what confuses me about XO, do you have to pay the $70/month to get automated backups and access to the other important features?
If you use the appliance (the one you download from xenorchestra.com) then yes you have to pay for those features.
If you use the community installed version (Install instructions here) then everything is completely free and open source.
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@RamblingBiped said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
I prefer KVM/QEMU. It's worthwhile to invest time in learning all of the tools to manage everything from the CLI before trying to rely on any of the GUI based tools like virt-manager/virt-viewer.
- virsh
- qemu-img
- virt-clone
- virt-sysprep
I'm starting to learn it and applied the same train of thought to it
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@bnrstnr said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
@hobbit666 said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
But I found HyperV there was a lot of messing to get a workstation to talk (especially if your on a different network/domain)
This might of gotten easier since the last time I tried HyperV
but it put me off.This! When I first switched to virtualization it was Hyper-V, and getting it to talk to my workstation was so unnecessarily difficult, I wanted so badly to just join it to the domain. 5Nine is awesome and totally remedied the awkward communication/credential problems. I ultimately bailed on Hyper-V and switched to XS around the same time I switched to Windows 10. We had just gotten a new virtual host and I wanted to try something new, and not paying the $350 a year for the 5nine license was a bonus.
I can't for the life of me get into XO though, XenCenter just works and does everything that I need it to do. Maybe I like it because I was used to 5Nine? I don't know. It seems to be a pain to log into the web interface and fumble around trying to find the stuff I need when I'm already used to XenCenter. I haven't given it a true chance though.
For what it's worth, I've had zero issues with XS since switching. For me, it's been a far better experience than Hyper-V was.
Believe it or not, managing Hyper-V via PowerShell is more straight forward than setting up the right permissions and settings in order to use Hyper-V Manager.
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Plus knowing how to manage your hypervisor without the need of a GUI will help a lot. Especially when you are unable to use GUI.
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@black3dynamite said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
Plus knowing how to manage your hypervisor without the need of a GUI will help a lot. Especially when you are unable to use GUI.
Yup, it's easier to keep a remote PowerShell open anyways. Makes things so much faster and easier, believe it or not.
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@scottalanmiller I've recently looked at the SLES installer and it seems it is able to support Xen. Not sure about opensuse.
My idea was: why use XS if I can install it on a minimal suse leap? I've never used xen so I do not know if XO is able to deal with Xen over suse.
This would be a nice way to go out of the really strict/limited apporach of XS. And anyway it would be way more close to what one does with centos minimal install + libvirt/kvm.Currently I'm using hyper-v + altaro. I've just setup a replica server using the build-in replica service and I'm going to test it (and write a little bit about the process). Altaro is great but hyper-v is really MS stuff:
- dynamic memory has frozed ALL of the VMs on my host (even win ones), leading me to go the static memory way.
- everytime I read about issues with a potential update a million of guys jump out of the blue with the wierds issues, scarrying me. I always pray when an update is to be installed.
- performance is not top notch (minor issue here)
- now and then the VM manager freezes...
- and honestly poweshell is way worst than unix-like apps + bash/sh
All in all it seems the classic lack of QA and NIH syndrome from MS. But for sure it does the job and the SW ecosystem is wide.
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@matteo-nunziati said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
@scottalanmiller I've recently looked at the SLES installer and it seems it is able to support Xen. Not sure about opensuse.
openSuse Leap has everything like SLES does. It's essentially a straight copy. Suse and openSuse have kept on supporting Xen since the very beginning. They never moved away from it.
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@matteo-nunziati said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
I've never used xen so I do not know if XO is able to deal with Xen over suse.
It's not Suse that's a factor. It's that XS has XAPI which is the extra API for management. To use XO, you need XAPI. So if you use Xen in any non-XS configuration, you have to add XAPI support yourself to get those kinds of things.
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You might want to test openSuse Tumbleweed, too, for the very latest features.
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@scottalanmiller said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
@matteo-nunziati said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
I've never used xen so I do not know if XO is able to deal with Xen over suse.
It's not Suse that's a factor. It's that XS has XAPI which is the extra API for management. To use XO, you need XAPI. So if you use Xen in any non-XS configuration, you have to add XAPI support yourself to get those kinds of things.
you mean build them from source?
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@matteo-nunziati said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
@scottalanmiller said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
@matteo-nunziati said in What Are the Latest Virtualization Platform Recommendations:
I've never used xen so I do not know if XO is able to deal with Xen over suse.
It's not Suse that's a factor. It's that XS has XAPI which is the extra API for management. To use XO, you need XAPI. So if you use Xen in any non-XS configuration, you have to add XAPI support yourself to get those kinds of things.
you mean build them from source?
I mean get them. RPM, Source, binary... whatever it takes. You need them from somewhere, though.
