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Like Michael, I use KVM with LVM with the same naming convention
although I use just the hostname and my platform is Fedora. I
created a template 20GB volume and installed my standard packages
(configured), users, and SSH keys. Just before I need a new VM, I
will run update, then create a new empty LVM volume and clone the
template VM. One of my VMs has a variety of collaborative tools
including Twiki and I maintain pages describing the setup and
configuration of each VM as well as a network topology with links to
each machine and device on the network. Each entry has the
hostname, IP, mac address, version/platform, its purpose, and in the
case of device - its version and firmware release. Someday I would
like to learn how to create kickstart scripts to automatically
recreate each type of VM.<br>
<br>
I have used Xen, VMWare, and KVM. So far I like KVM the best and it
keeps getting better. And it upgrades along with the OS. I like
the GUI and the command line capabilities. virt-manager is nice.
The consoles are nice when your networking is messed up. I like
being able to dump the XML configuration to save, backup and
modify. I even ran into a problem once trying to get Asterisk to
run as a VM (PIAF/Centos). It was generating "lost some interrupts"
errors that could be resolved using the HPET BIOS flag. The KVM
development team responded fairly quickly saying the beta release
had introduced an HPET BIOS feature (using the XML configuration)
that allowed resolving of the problem.<br>
<br>
I have another VM running OpenVPN with a port forward from my
firewall. Some of my VMs mount LVM volumes (ext4) defined on the
host. This is easily done using the system-config-lvm and the
virt-manager GUIs. I am currently working (unsuccessfully so far)
on a VM that uses Amanda and a mounted volume to backup all my other
VMs :). My problems however are related to understanding Amanda
than KVM.<br>
<br>
But as Brian mentioned you do need the new virtualization hardware.
The quad-core Phenom II are relatively inexpensive. I run two with
8GB each (cheap memory). The VMs do not need that much memory
(256MB-512MB) unless you are running Java (1GB-2GB).<br>
<br>
Fred<br>
<br>
On 11/06/2010 12:10 PM, Michael Trausch wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:AANLkTi=W5=zQ1-EuYHF8xahUfZgcLXZPDLnD70zeAdAg@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<p>I don't know if this will help you out at all, but I will
describe what I use for virtualization on my home system.</p>
<p>What I use is actually a combination of two things: LXC, for
lightweight containers, and KVM for when I need a full VM. I
have the system setup with Ubuntu Server on the bare metal. At
the present moment in time, I only have LXC containers running.
I create them by hand for now, but I am in the process of
creating a set of scripts to manage them to make my life easier.
My goal is to be able to easily provision a new VM with just a
single command, using either LXC or KVM, depending on what the
underlying OS in the VM needs to be.</p>
<p>For storage, my VMs are using filesystems stored in LVM logical
volumes. The LVM volumes are named after the systems that they
are for, so that I don't have to remember things like mapping
/dev/sdc42 to a particular VM. Instead, I can look at the name
and know what it is for; for example, /dev/data/<a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://vm.spicerack.trausch.us">vm.spicerack.trausch.us</a>
would be the volume for the filesystem for <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://spicerack.trausch.us">spicerack.trausch.us</a>.</p>
<p>Also, using LVM makes it possible to easily grow, shrink, and
snapshot the volumes for various tasks.</p>
<p>I also use logical volumes for whole VMs running in KVM. Though
managing those can sometimes be more difficult since instead of
housing a filesystem, they house what ends up being a whole
drive from the VM's point of view. That can make things a bit
hairy depending on the OS installed in the VM.</p>
<p>I have really liked using LXC. Being that it is in the
mainline kernel, and being that it is supported upstream and
that it does things like namespace parts of the system (such as
the network stack), it makes it more useful than something like
OpenVZ (because you don't have to go outside the container to do
things like set up IP tunnelling, each LXC container can do that
in its own network stack), life is easier. You can also use the
Linux cgroup system to do things like limit which CPUs a VM (or
group of VMs) run on, and limit resources like consumption of
CPU cycles and memory and so forth.</p>
<p>In any event, there are a great many systems out there... LXC
and KVM are both in the vanilla kernel, though, and that is the
main reason that I use them.</p>
<p>--<br>
Sent from my Android-powered G2.</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Nov 6, 2010 11:02 AM, "Joshua Kite"
<<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:jwkite@gmail.com">jwkite@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br type="attribution">
> Hello all,<br>
> <br>
> I am looking for advice on how to set up some virtual
environments for use<br>
> at home.<br>
> <br>
> I have a server, and I want it to have two distinct
functions. One is<br>
> network filtering, etc. using squid and some other
applications. The other<br>
> is my basic web/file/print server. I may want to play with
something else<br>
> in the future, so virtualization seems like the right
choice.<br>
> <br>
> The hardware that I have available is a dual xeon
hyperthreaded 32 bit<br>
> machine. And that's the problem. I would like to run a
bare-metal<br>
> hypervisor, but all of the current ones seem to be for
64-bit only. That<br>
> makes sense, but it doesn't work for me. I actually
installed the previous<br>
> version of VMWare's ESXi only to find out that the free
license will only<br>
> allow me to make use of one of the processors once the
trial period is up.<br>
> <br>
> So the next option appears to be a light OS for a host
system with a<br>
> hypervisor running inside of it. I have run Ubuntu for both
desktop and<br>
> server for the past 5 or so years, but I am willing to
consider other<br>
> distributions for both host and guest for the network
filtering OS. I'll<br>
> probably use Ubuntu for the web/file/print functionality
since I'm most<br>
> familiar with it.<br>
> <br>
> I have been fighting with my home server for weeks after a
crash, and I'm<br>
> kind of tired of playing with it, so I am looking for a
very dumbed down,<br>
> easy solution with step by step instructions for
installation and automatic<br>
> startup of guests.<br>
> <br>
> Do any of you have recommendations?<br>
> <br>
> Thank you very much,<br>
> <br>
> Josh Kite<br>
</div>
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