Posts made by RamblingBiped

Server arrived early and everything was as expected. I've got XenServer installed and my first VM deployed. So little work required to configure everything. Install from the XenServer iso and most everything is done!

I spun up and configured an OpenVPN server on a CentOS 7 minimal install and had VPN connectivity to my home network in no time!

I must say I like XenCenter on Windows 10. I've previously been using virt-manager (when not using qemu-img and virsh at the console) with the KVM hypervisors I work with, but wow is XenCenter more polished.

As soon as I have time I'm going to sit down and deploy/configure a XenOrchestra VM and compare the functionality between XenCenter and XO firsthand. I also plan to get the backup vm backup script in place and setup. A near-future project may involve configuring an old HP Desktop to function as a BSD-based NAS for storing backups...

Anywho... Thanks again for all of the input, I'm pleased with the outcome thus far.

Try using BootRepair to fix your grub problems.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/boot-repair-cd/files/

@Nic Yeah thanks for the introduction to this... I had work to do!

@dafyre

FYI, in case you haven't seen it here is a decent rundown on installation of XO and a basic overview of it's featureset: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkqQg1C_ZT8

@Jason I just went through a similar issue when I finally sold/closed on my previous home. I drove 3 and a half hours and hand delivered/signed all of the documents and paperwork. It took me nearly 2 years to sell the house and I didn't care to leave anything AT ALL up to chance...

@DustinB3403 Ideally I'd like to find a good defacto go-to resource as a reference for this stuff. Best practices for implemening XenServer. Resource allocation, VM backups, etc...

For my home lab I'm planning on trying to run XenServer from an SD card off of the internal SD card module included specifically for this purpose. From your dom0 space warning I'm guessing I should probably opt for 32GB+ size for this?

@Dashrender Meh... I've already got handholding documentation for SFTP. If they can't download Filezilla and configure it exactly as my screenshot shows I might reconsider giving them thousands upon thousands of dollars of my hard earned money. In most cases you can just forward the information to their IT department and let them do the handholding.

What about temporarily setting up your own SFTP server and giving them access to it?

Curious to know if anyone has any documentation or resources in regards to managing XenServer and KVM hypervisors and VMs. Specifically in regards to Backups and system resource allocation.

I've seen LVM snapshots being recommended for VM backups, and I've recently seen responses saying that is not the appropriate way to manage VM backups with XenServer.

I'm mostly looking for clarity and a solid source to reference for an upcoming Hypervisor upgrade and possible overhaul... I'm currently using KVM at the office, and looking to implement XenServer at home in my test lab.

I previously worked for a credit union, and all of our financial documents were exchanged securely using what is now Citrix Sharefile. Whenever mortgage documents were needed we would have clients create temporary credentials and email them a link to securely upload their documents.

Before Sharefile, I believe they had an SFTP server in place and/or did everything over fax (sigh...).

Not all mortgage places do it wrong, just those that don't care about security and have yet to suffer because of their negligence.

@gjacobse I am not the one to give specifics, because I'm not nearly as versed in powershell as I would like to be. However, I would think that this would be a task best suited for powershell. I would look at constructing the script so that it checks for existing domain accounts that have been either disabled or inactive for a set period of time and then goes through the necessary steps to cleanly remove them from all systems that they have logged into and cached/established a local profile.

Aside from that you could just use thermite. I not-so-fondly remember the woes associated with managing roaming profiles with proprietary banking software at a previous employer.

Blech...

Good luck!

Update:

Pulled the trigger and went with this build: http://www.ebay.com/itm/231784944527

It has the H700 raid controller, a fair amount of memory, and an internal SD Card module. I purchased a ~$120 lot of 4 used 1TB disks for storage.

@Jason Good call, I don't know why that didn't initially occur to me... They have the 1TB drives for $34~, that seems reasonable enough for what I'm doing; and they seem to be readily available from numerous sources.

Thanks!

Thoughts on using 4 of these drives and saving a little cash? I don't need uber performance by any means, do you think these would be adequate?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236342

It was suggested that it is worthwhile to grab a server with the H700 raid controller over the PERC6i. Would this build be a better value then?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-PowerEdge-R710-2x-E5620-2-4GHz-Quad-72GB-H700-DVD-iDRAC6-2x-power-8x-trays-/221920398089?hash=item33ab7c8b09
And if so what drives would you suggest buying since this comes without storage.

@Dashrender Cuz I plan on playing with XenOrchestra once I have time to set it up. I already have XenCenter installed for testing purposes. And I have never used XenServer or XenCenter, so it will be a learning experience.

I've been using Linux for the last couple of years, so I'm shifting back to Windows to (eventually) try to pick up some powershell to complement what BASH experience I have. I've got a decent handle on using virsh, qemu-img, and virt-manager with KVM; I thought I'd take a slightly different approace to round things out with Xen.

I'm looking at getting a server to upgrade my home lab. I'm considering this refurbished Dell R710: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-PowerEdge-R710-2x2-26GHz-Quad-Core-E5520-32GB-2x1TB-PERC6-iDRAC6-4-Port-NIC-/171528441604?hash=item27efe44f04:g:epUAAOSwe-FU3OWV&autorefresh=true

I'm planning on running XenServer and (initially) using XenCenter on Windows 10 to manage it. I may look at upgrading memory down the road, and possibly processors if necessary. (I'll more than likely invest in a comparable second hypervisor before doing that)

This will primarily be used for testing out opensource applications, hosting my own private SVN and GIT repositories, working on application development using Java, Python, and Ruby, systems automation using Ansible, Vagrant, etc..., and more than likely supporting a couple of Docker Hosts. I want something that is beefy enough to run upwards of 20 VMs comfortably (primarily Linux/Unix).

Thoughts? Suggestions? Recommendations?

I'm having a Monday.

Still.

I think his points are valid and the same gotchas that seem to accompany any new technology that directly impacts an industry at such a scale.