XenOrchestra XOSAN...a pic is worth 1000 words

DustinB3403

@KOOLER the reason I say that support is only smart for consumers is that if software is free (open source) there doesn't have to be a massive investment in that purchase.

But paying for support, because 99.999% of everyone is not an expert on said solution, really truly does need support.

Even if it's only an hour a month. That times N is a very large customer base.

DustinB3403

@FATeknollogee said in XenOrchestra XOSAN...a pic is worth 1000 words:

@KOOLER said in XenOrchestra XOSAN...a pic is worth 1000 words:

XOSAN is a paid option? If yes - good luck, both HALizard and Starwind VSA for Xen are (will be?) free. if XOSAN is free - very cool!

I don't think one can compare XOA + XOSAN to Starwind VSA or HALizard.

First, XOSAN is not available as a standalone product.
Second, XOA + XOSAN offer a lot of things that Starwind & HAL don't. It doesn't make XOA/XOSAN better just different.

XOA includes XOSAN by default, mostly because it's a very early release.

XO can also include XOSAN, it's something I was working on figuring out today. But has the major issue of being completely unsupported. I'd doubt if @olivier and company would even answer any questions about it. And with just reason.

It has to be supported by the people that developed it.

Danp

@KOOLER said in XenOrchestra XOSAN...a pic is worth 1000 words:

XOSAN is a paid option?

This hasn't been announced yet.

@DustinB3403 said in XenOrchestra XOSAN...a pic is worth 1000 words:

Which I was working on figuring out today for anyone who's willing to go that route.

I would suggest an XOA trial instead so that your testing is meaningful while XOSAN is in beta.

olivier

Hi there,

XOSAN beta is meant to be done on XOA only because it uses mechanism related to xen-orchestra.com (you need a valid account there, with a valid token). So it's not possible to try XOSAN via XO on the sources.

It's still in a really early phase right now, so before going further we'll validate all the Phases explained in the blog post.

About the StarWind thing, I don't know the product at all, but on our side it's:

XenServer only
Thin provisioned
Pool wide, ie working from 2 nodes up to 16 (well in theory more, but it's pool-wide not across pools)
Uses Duplication/Triplication but also Disperse mode, depending of your need
Auto heal (when a host/node is coming back online, it fetches all the missing data)
Easy install/deploy (thanks to XOA)
And more (basically, everything you can do with GlusterFS but "in a box", so think about HDD+SSD caching, complex disks usage to avoid any hardware RAID etc.)

FATeknollogee

Hope to start playing around in the next day or so!

olivier

Just made some benchmarks recently: https://xen-orchestra.com/blog/new-xosan-benchmarks/

DustinB3403

@olivier Will the community members get to test XOSAN?

olivier

It's available in XOA Free, so you can test it without restrictions

DustinB3403

@olivier So no lol.

olivier

It's completely free and easy to use XOSAN deployement process is complex, rely on various bricks and linked to xen-orchesra.com, so that would have require a lot of effort to make it available directly from the sources in a usable way.

But if you want to do it yourself, it's also possible:

create a VM in each host of your pool you want to have in the cluster
install gluster server in each, create the cluster
install gluster client in XS
modify the file SM driver into XenServer to fit with Gluster
restart the toolstack
mount it

This way, you could also bench it

olivier

Not a published blog post (still in draft) but here is some bench done, please follow this link and keep it for yourself

We hope to make it for the end of the month (phase II) with a robust health status and flexibility (XOSAN full diagnostic, allow to replace in one click any faulty node, and everything auto heal itself).

Also, we'll try to release the Gluster driver in Open Source for those who want to connect XenServer to an existing Gluster or create their own XOSAN manually.

XOSAN will be an extra product of Xen Orchestra (but you can purchase even in XOA Free), including the turnkey side (and believe me it's not trivial) with full diag status and health + flexibility, including pro support on it obviously.

We'll try to make a Phase III before the official release, with tiering capabilities (HDD + SSD cache to get best of both world).

We started to create the official doc here: https://xen-orchestra.com/docs/xosan.html

Remember the goals of XOSAN:

protect your data thanks to replication of data on multiple (from 2 to 16) hosts
provide XenServer high availability without buying a NAS or a SAN
give you flexibility to grow your storage by adding new nodes
work on all kind of hardware, from HDDs to SSDs
fully monitored solution

Alex Sage

@olivier Very Impressed! Nice work

DustinB3403

@olivier Very nice numbers there, and I'm excited you're looking to release XOSAN to the community!

olivier

@dustinb3403 It won't be XOSAN to the community. XOSAN is like XOA, a turnkey packaged solution.

You'll be able to mount a gluster volume when we'll open the Gluster driver (which allows to create a SR of Gluster type in short). Then you can do whatever you want with that, but you'll need to monitor it yourself, and understand how Gluster works. Something you won't require by using XOSAN

Also a trial version of XOSAN will be available for people who want to test it and bench it quickly (literally in few clicks)

DustinB3403

@olivier Two comments, these links don't work

Lastly, if you are converting your native language to English have you considered a translation or proofing service?

olivier

Doc is not completed because the product isn't. Consider it as a draft.
Blog post is still a draft

junaidmehmood

I wants to make Virtual Storage Area Network (VSAN) or XOSAN on my XCP-ng Please guide me all its steps etc. thankyou!!

DustinB3403

@junaidmehmood said in XenOrchestra XOSAN...a pic is worth 1000 words:

I wants to make Virtual Storage Area Network (VSAN) or XOSAN on my XCP-ng Please guide me all its steps etc. thankyou!!

Are you using XOA or XO from Source?

Edit: Assuming you're using the XO from Source - https://github.com/xcp-ng/xcp/wiki/XOSAN

junaidmehmood

yes i am using xoa with xcp-ng now i need to install the xosanv2. please guide how to deploy on it?

DustinB3403

@junaidmehmood said in XenOrchestra XOSAN...a pic is worth 1000 words:

yes i am using xoa with xcp-ng now i need to install the xosanv2. please guide how to deploy on it?

If you have XOA, the Bates team would be the best source of information to help you get this deployed.