KVM vs XenServer
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@scottalanmiller said in KVM vs XenServer:
@FATeknollogee said in KVM vs XenServer:
@Francesco-Provino We need a super-duper fancy looking web gui to manage KVM.
How come there is nothing like ProxMox or XOA for KVM?
I guess ProxMox is KVM!Scale? Nutanix?
KVM has loads of them. Just approached in a different way.
With this solutions you throw away some of the main advantages of KVM:
- Completely FLOSS. No license issue in any way, no cost, ever. As many spare hosts as you want;
- Every feature of the hypervisor is exploitable;
- It's not dependent on a particular distro, vendor, product;
- It's a core project developed by the biggest player in the OSS space, so no risk of abandonment, very high quality of the code etc.
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I think that the only thing I truly miss in KVM is not a fancy GUI, but instead a stateless host OS 'a la XenServer/ESXi' that I can safely deploy to a usb drive. Something like CentOS atomic host should be good, but focused on KVM instead of Docker.
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@black3dynamite said in KVM vs XenServer:
@stacksofplates said in KVM vs XenServer:
@FATeknollogee said in KVM vs XenServer:
@stacksofplates said in KVM vs XenServer:
@FATeknollogee said in KVM vs XenServer:
@Francesco-Provino Have you used oVirt?
I've used it in my home lab. It was slow. Took a while to clone. Interface was a little slow. KVM on CentOS 7 I can fully clone my template and start the clone in around 3-4 seconds.
Was it slow due to your hardware not being capable?
oVirt is Red Hat's virtualization management platform & it is supposed to be capable?
I did do the all in one install but it has 96GB RAM and 8 cores (16 vCPUs) and 10K SAS drives. I'd hope it would run decently well on that.
I thought the all in one is only available via their live cd version just to get an idea about it? Setting up a separate host for the engine and the other for the node works better.
Even so it shouldn't perform that badly. There isn't anything really changing that much. Cloning a VM doesn't take much resources.
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@Francesco-Provino said in KVM vs XenServer:
I think that the only thing I truly miss in KVM is not a fancy GUI, but instead a stateless host OS 'a la XenServer/ESXi' that I can safely deploy to a usb drive. Something like CentOS atomic host should be good, but focused on KVM instead of Docker.
You should be able to do a USB install and ship the logs off to somewhere else. Then just mount your disks/volume for the guests.
I've been thinking of trying that but been too busy/lazy.
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@stacksofplates said in KVM vs XenServer:
@Francesco-Provino said in KVM vs XenServer:
I think that the only thing I truly miss in KVM is not a fancy GUI, but instead a stateless host OS 'a la XenServer/ESXi' that I can safely deploy to a usb drive. Something like CentOS atomic host should be good, but focused on KVM instead of Docker.
You should be able to do a USB install and ship the logs off to somewhere else. Then just mount your disks/volume for the guests.
I've been thinking of trying that but been too busy/lazy.
Yes, just mount /var/log elsewhere should do the trick. But it will still lack the "statelessness" of a proper designed hypervisor-centric OS.
Fedora 26 seems like a good fit… -
@stacksofplates said in KVM vs XenServer:
@Francesco-Provino said in KVM vs XenServer:
I think that the only thing I truly miss in KVM is not a fancy GUI, but instead a stateless host OS 'a la XenServer/ESXi' that I can safely deploy to a usb drive. Something like CentOS atomic host should be good, but focused on KVM instead of Docker.
You should be able to do a USB install and ship the logs off to somewhere else. Then just mount your disks/volume for the guests.
I've been thinking of trying that but been too busy/lazy.
Not having a swap partition or swapfile on the USB too.
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@black3dynamite said in KVM vs XenServer:
@stacksofplates said in KVM vs XenServer:
@Francesco-Provino said in KVM vs XenServer:
I think that the only thing I truly miss in KVM is not a fancy GUI, but instead a stateless host OS 'a la XenServer/ESXi' that I can safely deploy to a usb drive. Something like CentOS atomic host should be good, but focused on KVM instead of Docker.
You should be able to do a USB install and ship the logs off to somewhere else. Then just mount your disks/volume for the guests.
I've been thinking of trying that but been too busy/lazy.
Not having a swap partition or swapfile on the USB too.
Ya didn't think of that. I wish there was an easy way to PXE boot RHEL/CentOS to a RAM disk.
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@stacksofplates said in KVM vs XenServer:
I wish there was an easy way to PXE boot RHEL/CentOS to a RAM disk.
Someone needs to make a small M.2 device with straight DDR4 on it. That would be sweet.
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@scottalanmiller said in KVM vs XenServer:
@stacksofplates said in KVM vs XenServer:
I wish there was an easy way to PXE boot RHEL/CentOS to a RAM disk.
Someone needs to make a small M.2 device with straight DDR4 on it. That would be sweet.
Intel Optane is trying to do something similar.
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@dafyre said in KVM vs XenServer:
@scottalanmiller said in KVM vs XenServer:
@stacksofplates said in KVM vs XenServer:
I wish there was an easy way to PXE boot RHEL/CentOS to a RAM disk.
Someone needs to make a small M.2 device with straight DDR4 on it. That would be sweet.
Intel Optane is trying to do something similar.
Kind of, but not quite RAM. Not AS fast or as cheap as RAM, but not volatile, either.
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A real RAM disk would be decently cheap and SO fast.
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@stacksofplates said in KVM vs XenServer:
@black3dynamite said in KVM vs XenServer:
@stacksofplates said in KVM vs XenServer:
@Francesco-Provino said in KVM vs XenServer:
I think that the only thing I truly miss in KVM is not a fancy GUI, but instead a stateless host OS 'a la XenServer/ESXi' that I can safely deploy to a usb drive. Something like CentOS atomic host should be good, but focused on KVM instead of Docker.
You should be able to do a USB install and ship the logs off to somewhere else. Then just mount your disks/volume for the guests.
I've been thinking of trying that but been too busy/lazy.
Not having a swap partition or swapfile on the USB too.
Ya didn't think of that. I wish there was an easy way to PXE boot RHEL/CentOS to a RAM disk.
Hrm... I don't see any technical reason to prevent someone from doing just this if they want. It's been a long time since I setup a PXE server, if I find the time I'll give it a shot
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@travisdh1 said in KVM vs XenServer:
@stacksofplates said in KVM vs XenServer:
@black3dynamite said in KVM vs XenServer:
@stacksofplates said in KVM vs XenServer:
@Francesco-Provino said in KVM vs XenServer:
I think that the only thing I truly miss in KVM is not a fancy GUI, but instead a stateless host OS 'a la XenServer/ESXi' that I can safely deploy to a usb drive. Something like CentOS atomic host should be good, but focused on KVM instead of Docker.
You should be able to do a USB install and ship the logs off to somewhere else. Then just mount your disks/volume for the guests.
I've been thinking of trying that but been too busy/lazy.
Not having a swap partition or swapfile on the USB too.
Ya didn't think of that. I wish there was an easy way to PXE boot RHEL/CentOS to a RAM disk.
Hrm... I don't see any technical reason to prevent someone from doing just this if they want. It's been a long time since I setup a PXE server, if I find the time I'll give it a shot
How do you configure the RAM disk though?
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@scottalanmiller said in KVM vs XenServer:
@travisdh1 said in KVM vs XenServer:
@stacksofplates said in KVM vs XenServer:
@black3dynamite said in KVM vs XenServer:
@stacksofplates said in KVM vs XenServer:
@Francesco-Provino said in KVM vs XenServer:
I think that the only thing I truly miss in KVM is not a fancy GUI, but instead a stateless host OS 'a la XenServer/ESXi' that I can safely deploy to a usb drive. Something like CentOS atomic host should be good, but focused on KVM instead of Docker.
You should be able to do a USB install and ship the logs off to somewhere else. Then just mount your disks/volume for the guests.
I've been thinking of trying that but been too busy/lazy.
Not having a swap partition or swapfile on the USB too.
Ya didn't think of that. I wish there was an easy way to PXE boot RHEL/CentOS to a RAM disk.
Hrm... I don't see any technical reason to prevent someone from doing just this if they want. It's been a long time since I setup a PXE server, if I find the time I'll give it a shot
How do you configure the RAM disk though?
Ya I have a PXE server playbook for our workstations. The hard part is how to get it to configure a ramdisk.
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@stacksofplates said in KVM vs XenServer:
@scottalanmiller said in KVM vs XenServer:
@travisdh1 said in KVM vs XenServer:
@stacksofplates said in KVM vs XenServer:
@black3dynamite said in KVM vs XenServer:
@stacksofplates said in KVM vs XenServer:
@Francesco-Provino said in KVM vs XenServer:
I think that the only thing I truly miss in KVM is not a fancy GUI, but instead a stateless host OS 'a la XenServer/ESXi' that I can safely deploy to a usb drive. Something like CentOS atomic host should be good, but focused on KVM instead of Docker.
You should be able to do a USB install and ship the logs off to somewhere else. Then just mount your disks/volume for the guests.
I've been thinking of trying that but been too busy/lazy.
Not having a swap partition or swapfile on the USB too.
Ya didn't think of that. I wish there was an easy way to PXE boot RHEL/CentOS to a RAM disk.
Hrm... I don't see any technical reason to prevent someone from doing just this if they want. It's been a long time since I setup a PXE server, if I find the time I'll give it a shot
How do you configure the RAM disk though?
Ya I have a PXE server playbook for our workstations. The hard part is how to get it to configure a ramdisk.
yeah, because you have to boot before you can make the RAMdisk to install to.
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@scottalanmiller said in KVM vs XenServer:
@stacksofplates said in KVM vs XenServer:
@scottalanmiller said in KVM vs XenServer:
@travisdh1 said in KVM vs XenServer:
@stacksofplates said in KVM vs XenServer:
@black3dynamite said in KVM vs XenServer:
@stacksofplates said in KVM vs XenServer:
@Francesco-Provino said in KVM vs XenServer:
I think that the only thing I truly miss in KVM is not a fancy GUI, but instead a stateless host OS 'a la XenServer/ESXi' that I can safely deploy to a usb drive. Something like CentOS atomic host should be good, but focused on KVM instead of Docker.
You should be able to do a USB install and ship the logs off to somewhere else. Then just mount your disks/volume for the guests.
I've been thinking of trying that but been too busy/lazy.
Not having a swap partition or swapfile on the USB too.
Ya didn't think of that. I wish there was an easy way to PXE boot RHEL/CentOS to a RAM disk.
Hrm... I don't see any technical reason to prevent someone from doing just this if they want. It's been a long time since I setup a PXE server, if I find the time I'll give it a shot
How do you configure the RAM disk though?
Ya I have a PXE server playbook for our workstations. The hard part is how to get it to configure a ramdisk.
yeah, because you have to boot before you can make the RAMdisk to install to.
I've seen examples but it's all System V based and using distros like Tiny Core.
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@scottalanmiller said in KVM vs XenServer:
Like your management layer or storage layer. Like if you want DRBD or Starwind, you bring your own. Or if you want a GUI or whatever on top.
Yup. We might consider brining in if not native Linux version than something being KVM or Xen native.
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Hi all, for example my server has 16 core & 64gb RAM.
Just wondering, how many active VM I can run on those core actually? assuming for each VM I allocate 1GB, can I run 64 active VM with 1 virtual core each?
Can memory be shared also between VM?
When i said active, it is online but not in heavy usage.
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@kuyaz said in KVM vs XenServer:
Hi all, for example my server has 16 core & 64gb RAM.
Just wondering, how many active VM I can run on those core actually? assuming for each VM I allocate 1GB, can I run 64 active VM with 1 virtual core each?
Can memory be shared also between VM?
When i said active, it is online but not in heavy usage.
It depends on the load, of course. Regarding the CPU, you can easily run 50+ VMs if they are idle. The CPU time is shared between the instance, so the overcommitment is very granular and efficient. Regarding the RAM, XenServer is not very good at RAM overcommitment by default; KVM instead can do a very nice job with similar instances, saving plenty of ram with KSM.
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@kuyaz said in KVM vs XenServer:
Hi all, for example my server has 16 core & 64gb RAM.
Just wondering, how many active VM I can run on those core actually? assuming for each VM I allocate 1GB, can I run 64 active VM with 1 virtual core each?
Can memory be shared also between VM?
When i said active, it is online but not in heavy usage.
I don't know what kind of processors your server has, and whether or not it's 2x 8-core CPUs, 1x 16-core CPU, or 4x 4-core CPUs.
But if it's a dual-CPU server with decent CPUs, you can easily run 50+ virtual machines at 1GB RAM each. Keep in mind your hypervisor will a small amount of RAM too.
It really depends on a lot of things. In one of my hypervisors, if I have a VM with 4x vCPUs assigned to it, and they are all at 100%, it is using up 2% of my hosts CPU power. That kinda tells me I can dish out 150+ vCPUs safely with them all running at 100%. That's never the case, so I'm sure I can safely assign well over 200 vCPUs. (so long as I have enough RAM for enough VMs it would take to use up 200 vCPUs)
