Re: [Xen-users] what hardware should I buy please?

[Tim Post <tim.post@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Chris, 

I recommend first leasing one co-located to make sure its what you want.
I've seen some data centers that are offering the newer VT enabled
boards (Intel and AMD) with pretty much every possible hardware
configuration you can think of.. and they cost about $120 / $150 USD a
month with a full 2 - 3 TB of included Tier 1 / BGP4 BW.

Most places also rent IPKVM for kernel tweaking, you shouldn't need one
for installing Xen unless something goes wrong .. typically $20 / $30
for a 24 hour rental period. 

Lease it first, make sure it works as you hope, then spend the money on
an identical board, copy your kernel / etc from the leased box and
you're done.

So many are complaining they purchased a system and were disappointed
with the HVM support. I think its sensible to first spend 150 - 200
bucks, be sure, then spend big bucks on something you *know* will work. 

I've had great luck with the new Amd Athalon 4200's (dual core), and
Pentium D 945's. VT just allows you to run fully virtualized guests (no
modification of the guest kernel needed) such as Windows XP/ Win2k3 and
others. Someone even reported getting Open VZ working in HVM.. I've yet
to try anything but OpenSSI fully virtualized, but that seems to be
working relatively well (so far, haven't put traffic to it yet).

If all you're doing is java stuff, I don't think you really need HVM
support .. and I highly recommend Amd Opterons or newer dual core
Athalons. But still, its wise to lease a co-lo first then buy .. servers
are so cheap now it makes good sense.

Hope this helps
-Tim

On Wed, 2006-10-25 at 16:46 +0200, Chris Fanning wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I'm about to buy a new server for Xen use. Amongs other things it will
> have multiple java developers working simultaneously on it.
> I am looking for as much power as I can get within my budget that
> shouldn't pass â1,500.
> 
> Until now I've been running domU's on 32bit pentium4 clone PC's and
> I'm still not too sure what all these new terms surrounding the new
> processors mean.
> 
> I was thinking along the lines of a dualcore (or two) processors.
> 
> What advantages to I get from VT, HVM?
> What motherboard and processor would you recommend me?
> 
> Thank you.
> Chris.
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
> 
> 


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