[ale] Small Clusters for VMs

[DJ-Pfulio]

I use libvirt and virt-manager to create/manage the VMs from a
workstation - can be local or around the world thanks to ssh tunnels
(built-into the virt-manager interface). This makes it feel like
virtualbox for creating VMs. Storage and networking layers are setup
outside libvirt and it sees them.
ssh in or x2go into a remote desktop systems. I treat VMs like physical
servers for pretty much everything else. Simple that way.

Use whatever distro you like. Don't think it matters, but I try not to
overload the VM host with desktop stuff. My VM hosts don't run any GUI.

-jd (dj-pfulio is my rapper name)  <--- is was supposed to be a joke!


On 10/28/2016 12:08 PM, Scott Plante wrote:
> DJ, I meant to ask on the other thread, but how do you run KVM? I know
> XenServer and I believe ESXi get installed on the bare metal. XenServer
> is a kind of stripped down Linux distribution of it's own. I know you
> *can* run Xen and KVM on openSUSE, CentOS and some other general
> distributions.
> 
> So is there a KVM "optimized" or KVM specific distribution if you're
> setting up a server just to run KVM, or if not, what distro do you
> recommend for KVM? Or would you just recommend whatever distro we're
> already familiar with (that supports KVM)?
> 
> Scott
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From: *"DJ-Pfulio" <DJPfulio at jdpfu.com>
> *To: *"Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts" <ale at ale.org>
> *Sent: *Friday, October 28, 2016 10:49:14 AM
> *Subject: *Re: [ale] Small Clusters for VMs
> 
> Thanks for responding.
> 
> Sheepdog is the storage backend. This is the way cloud stuff works on
> the cheap. Not a NAS.  It is distributed storage with a minimal
> redundancy set (I'm planning 3 copies).  Sheepdog only works with qemu
> according to research, which is fine.
> 
> Sure, I could setup a separate storage NAS (I'd use AoE for this), but
> that isn't needed. I already have multiple NFS servers, but don't use
> them for hosting VMs today. They are used for data volumes, not redundancy.
> 
>        >> Opinions follow (danger if you love what I don't) <<
> 
> Won't be using oVirt (really RHEL only and seems to be 50+ different
> F/LOSS projects in 500 different languages [I exaggerate] ) or XenServer
> (bad taste after running it 4 yrs).  I've never regretted switching from
> ESX/ESXi and Xen to KVM, not once.
> 
> And won't be dedicating the entire machines just to being storage or VM
> hosts, so proxmox clusters aren't an option.  The migration from plain
> VMs into sheepdog appears pretty straight forward (at least on youtube).
> 
> Just doing research today. Need to sleep on it. Probably won't try
> anything until Sunday night.
> 
> 
> On 10/28/2016 10:23 AM, Beddingfield, Allen wrote:
>> Will you have shared storage available (shared LUN or high performance
> NFS for the virtual hard drives that all hosts can access?)
>> If so, the easiest free out of the box setup is XenServer or oVirt.
>  I'm familiar with XenServer, but there are some oVirt fans on here, I know.
>>
>> --
>> Allen Beddingfield
>> Systems Engineer
>> Office of Information Technology
>> The University of Alabama
>> Office 205-348-2251
>> allen at ua.edu
>>
>> On 10/28/16, 9:17 AM, "ale-bounces at ale.org on behalf of DJ-Pfulio"
> <ale-bounces at ale.org on behalf of DJPfulio at jdpfu.com> wrote:
>>
>>     I'm a little behind the times.  Looking to run a small cluster of VM
>>     hosts, just 2-5 physical nodes.
>>    
>>     Reading implies it is pretty easy with 2-5 nodes using a mix of
>>     sheepdog, corosync and pacemaker running on qemu-kvm VM hosts.
>>    
>>     Is that true?  Any advice from people who've done this already?
>>    
>>     So, is this where you'd start for small home/biz redundant VM cluster?
>>    
>>     I've never done clustering on Linux, just Unix with those expensive
>>     commercial tools and that was many years ago.
>>