Re: [Xen-users] New to Xen, looking for advice regarding system configuration

[Tim Bearden <tim.bearden@xxxxxxxxx>]

I can't speak much about Xen... yet!  But I can give "some" insight on hardware.


>> Would it make sense to spend extra bucks on a multi processor motherboard 
>> rather than going with a single Core i7 or the like?  I think there are i/o 
>> bandwidth benefits with multi processor boards,


the Intel i7 processor is not single core, it is 4 - 6 cores, each
core is hyper-threaded so the OS will see 8 - 12 processors!  i7 is by
far the best processor to get for a workstation and will more than
handle multiple VMs.  If you're planning to run 2 - 3 VMs, you could
give each VM multiple [logical] processors and still have a few left
over for the VM host.  If you go with an i7, I think your hard disk
read/write will be the bottleneck.

--
Tim Bearden
OpenSource / Linux Enthusiast


On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 9:08 AM, Fajar A. Nugraha <list@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 7:59 PM, Braindead <Braindead@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> My main purpose would be to support my software development and consulting 
>> work.  So I need to be able to run various OS's.  I don't develop games so 
>> no need for any fancy graphics.  I'm used to the limitations of virtual 
>> machines (use VMWare a lot for dev purposes) and I'm fairly sure Xen can do 
>> everything I need.
>>
>
> You haven't said why you want to move away from vmware. If we know
> what your priorities are, we might be able to give better advice. For
> example, if you're used to vmware-style GUI, but want an open-source
> license, XCP might be a better choice. But it you want something you
> can tinker, or use bleeding-edge technology, then starting with a
> distro that includes Xen would be a better choice.
>
>> I expect to have 2-3 virtual machines running most of the time, possibly 2 
>> working hard (for example restoring a gig+ database backup on one while 
>> programming/doing other tasks on another).  I'll be purchasing 2 identical 
>> machines one as a backup, so I don't need any extra 'robustness' that a 
>> server motherboard/system would provide.  Which leads into the following 
>> question.
>>
>> Would it make sense to spend extra bucks on a multi processor motherboard 
>> rather than going with a single Core i7 or the like?  I think there are i/o 
>> bandwidth benefits with multi processor boards,
>
> Is there?
>
> IIRC the main selling point of server-grade motherborad used to be the
> ability to use ECC RAM. But now some motherboards for i7 support ECC
> RAM and SATA III.
>
>> however due to a lot of database grinding I tend to do I suspect that disk 
>> i/o is a limiting factor in my case which I'll try to deal with somewhat by 
>> RAID0 over 4-5 fast drives.  I don't need any redundancy as all variable 
>> data (code and the like) is on remote servers and already fully backed up.
>
> ... which brings another point. If you know you're I/O-starved anyway,
> why not use SSD? Pure SSD implementation can easily give 10-100x IOPS
> of HDD. And since you say you'll have an identical machine as backup,
> if you're worried about SSD lifetime, you can have HDD on the backup
> machine.
>
> Another option would be using SSD as cache, with something like
> facebook's flashcache. This setup would reduce the possibility of data
> loss (since SSD will only be cache), and have the additional benefit
> of higher capacity (compared to pure SSD setup), but is also more
> complex and (depending on how you look at it) "experimental".
>
>>
>> Do folks generally install X11 on Dom0 so they can get a gui VNC/remote 
>> desktop into Windows DomU machines?  Or is there some other mechanism 
>> available?
>
> Generally speaking you don't need full-blown X desktop on dom0. It can
> be headless with "minimum" software installed. VNC console of domU is
> provided by QEMU, not by X desktop on dom0.
>
> --
> Fajar
>
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>

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