Virtualization

[Hightower]

We're looking at implementing a Virtual Backend like this:

(see attachment)

Sorry for the cruddy diagram. Anyways, I believe Hyper-V does this with Server 2008 but does anyone know any alternatives?

I have found Xen but not sure if it does what i want

[somabc]

You want a 'Type 1' Hypervisor -

this requires a CPU that has the right virtulisation extensions.

Welcome to xen.org, home of the Xen hypervisor, the powerful open source industry standard for virtualization.
Windows Server 2008 Virtualization with Hyper-V: Home
VMware ESXi, Hypervisor for Server Virtualization - VMware

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infoce...ayvservers.htm

Xen is linux based and might be pretty complicated, I don't know I have never used it . Hyper-V on Windows 2008 seems to work well, and should be pretty easy if you are used to Server edition. VMWare ESXi is now free but it used to be their big flagship virtuliastion software. I would try out VMWare first as a test to see how easy mangemnt is and either Xen (if you prefer linux) or Hyper-V (if you prefer Windows).

[Hightower]

Your diagram looks like it has 3 OS installs on one server. Is that right because if so, that's not what I'm looking for.

I'm looking for one OS (or more) spread (so the work is balanced) accross 2 or more servers..

[CyberNerd]

Xen is pretty solid and has some nice tools now, it will certainly do all you need. There will also be a good migration path for KVM.
here is a good link for a xen setup:
Red Hat Magazine | Automated failover and recovery of virtualized guests in Advanced Platform

[localzuk]

That isn't virtualising, that is clustering as far as I can tell.

[tmcd35]

Are you looking for virtualisation or clustering?

Virtualisation - Running multiple instances of the same OS, or running multiple OS's on a single peace of hardware.

Cluster - Running one OS accross multiple hardware boxes

I believe Windows Server includes clustering services to load balance work loads between multiple servers.

[Hightower]

Call it what you will. All I know is I've been asked to research this and EduGeek is the place to do it. Surely it still needs some virtualization as there may be 2 OS's spread accross the servers?

[tmcd35]

Start from the begining, what exactly are you trying to achieve? Are you thinking of load balancing workloads, or are you looking for redundancy like vMotion in VMWare were if 1 server dies the OS runs on the other, or are you after something else entirely?

[CyberNerd]

That isn't virtualising, that is clustering as far as I can tell.

the virtual machines hosts live in a cluster if you want live migration

[somabc]

I don't understand?

How many physical servers do you have and how many OS's do you want to run on them?

[Hightower]

Sorry, my bad.... from the start.

Lets say we have 3 physical servers. And we want 2 independant OS's. How do I get both the OS's to work independantly across all 3 servers? Yes, as a way of load balancing but also for redundancy ie we might want to take the 3rd server down for maintenance but nothing is affected as the OS's are still working perfectly across the 2 remaining servers (albeit a bit slower).

[tmcd35]

The best I know of is a VMWare cluster, but it's expensive for so few machines. I believe Xen may also support this (for free?).

Basically, with VMWare, you run ESX server on the three servers and run your OS's as Virtual machines. VMWare has a solution called vMotion that live migrates and loadbalances Virtual Machines across availble physical ESX servers.

[CyberNerd]

Sorry, my bad.... from the start.

Lets say we have 3 physical servers. And we want 2 independant OS's. How do I get both the OS's to work independantly across all 3 servers? Yes, as a way of load balancing but also for redundancy ie we might want to take the 3rd server down for maintenance but nothing is affected as the OS's are still working perfectly across the 2 remaining servers (albeit a bit slower).

The link I posted is a walkthrough to do all those things except automatic load balancing.
Its free if you use Centos.

[Hightower]

Or, is it possible to do it with Windows clustering perhaps, then add some VM's?

[powdarrmonkey]

Xen will do it, but only with a SAN and I think an Enterprise license. VMware will do it but I don't know anything about it.

For three physicals and two virtuals, it's going to be hideously expensive though, the SAN alone will set you back something in the region of £10k.