Xen Orchestra on Ubuntu 15.10 - Complete installation instructions
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@hobbit666 said in Xen Orchestra on Ubuntu 15.10 - Complete installation instructions:
So I've gone through this thread but still a bit confused on Backups.
My plan is to run 7-8 VM's over two XenServers and Starwinds free VSAN. But I want to "backup" the VM's (well at least 3) to a NAS, is this done via the "snapshot" option?
Interesting, why are you using Starwind which requires a Windows VM, on top of the hypervisor, on each node.. that's a lot of Windows overhead and stuff, when XenServer does this natively itself with no need for VMs, licensing or anything. Would be faster and more stable doing it the native way unless you need Starwind features that XS doesn't provide.
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@scottalanmiller said in Xen Orchestra on Ubuntu 15.10 - Complete installation instructions:
@hobbit666 said in Xen Orchestra on Ubuntu 15.10 - Complete installation instructions:
So I've gone through this thread but still a bit confused on Backups.
My plan is to run 7-8 VM's over two XenServers and Starwinds free VSAN. But I want to "backup" the VM's (well at least 3) to a NAS, is this done via the "snapshot" option?
Interesting, why are you using Starwind which requires a Windows VM, on top of the hypervisor, on each node.. that's a lot of Windows overhead and stuff, when XenServer does this natively itself with no need for VMs, licensing or anything. Would be faster and more stable doing it the native way unless you need Starwind features that XS doesn't provide.
Wasn't aware XenServer could do VSAN/Replication so will look into this thanks Scott.
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@hobbit666 said in Xen Orchestra on Ubuntu 15.10 - Complete installation instructions:
Wasn't aware XenServer could do VSAN/Replication so will look into this thanks Scott.
It's called DRBD and is fully automated if you use HA-Lizards' HA system for XenServer.
It's not VSAN, VSAN is conceptually a fallback for when things like DRBD do not exist. This is native RAIN. Full replication at the lowest level of the stack, and presented as local storage, not SAN, on each host. So there is never a network block storage protocol to get in the way like a VSAN has to use.
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The difference is that DRBD does not do scale out, you need Starwind for that. But for two node mirrored replication, it's unbeatable. It's the same technology we use for storage clustering on all Linux systems.
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@scottalanmiller said in Xen Orchestra on Ubuntu 15.10 - Complete installation instructions:
The difference is that DRBD does not do scale out, you need Starwind for that. But for two node mirrored replication, it's unbeatable. It's the same technology we use for storage clustering on all Linux systems.
Yeah I think we are never going to go over 2 hosts for the Citrix farm. So that will do.
Thx again Scott. -
DRBD is used as the base for HA in many NAS storage systems.
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@hobbit666 said in Xen Orchestra on Ubuntu 15.10 - Complete installation instructions:
@scottalanmiller said in Xen Orchestra on Ubuntu 15.10 - Complete installation instructions:
The difference is that DRBD does not do scale out, you need Starwind for that. But for two node mirrored replication, it's unbeatable. It's the same technology we use for storage clustering on all Linux systems.
Yeah I think we are never going to go over 2 hosts for the Citrix farm. So that will do.
Thx again Scott.Just wondering, why do you need shared storage for a Citrix farm? Doesn't that kind of defeat the farm part?
Now that I think about my question more, I guess the shared storage is less about the farm, and more about your VM infrastructure.
But then I wonder, why are you limiting the VM infrastructure to potentially only two hosts?And is something like VSAN really needed to protect a Citrix farm? I thought Citrix farms were like ADDS servers, and typically we don't need VSAN to protect ADDS servers.
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@Dashrender said in Xen Orchestra on Ubuntu 15.10 - Complete installation instructions:
@hobbit666 said in Xen Orchestra on Ubuntu 15.10 - Complete installation instructions:
@scottalanmiller said in Xen Orchestra on Ubuntu 15.10 - Complete installation instructions:
The difference is that DRBD does not do scale out, you need Starwind for that. But for two node mirrored replication, it's unbeatable. It's the same technology we use for storage clustering on all Linux systems.
Yeah I think we are never going to go over 2 hosts for the Citrix farm. So that will do.
Thx again Scott.Just wondering, why do you need shared storage for a Citrix farm? Doesn't that kind of defeat the farm part?
I think that you are assuming that Citrix is a proxy word for XenApp, which it often is. But I suspect that it is not, here.
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@scottalanmiller said in Xen Orchestra on Ubuntu 15.10 - Complete installation instructions:
@Dashrender said in Xen Orchestra on Ubuntu 15.10 - Complete installation instructions:
@hobbit666 said in Xen Orchestra on Ubuntu 15.10 - Complete installation instructions:
@scottalanmiller said in Xen Orchestra on Ubuntu 15.10 - Complete installation instructions:
The difference is that DRBD does not do scale out, you need Starwind for that. But for two node mirrored replication, it's unbeatable. It's the same technology we use for storage clustering on all Linux systems.
Yeah I think we are never going to go over 2 hosts for the Citrix farm. So that will do.
Thx again Scott.Just wondering, why do you need shared storage for a Citrix farm? Doesn't that kind of defeat the farm part?
I think that you are assuming that Citrix is a proxy word for XenApp, which it often is. But I suspect that it is not, here.
Oh? You think he's calling a XS infrastructure a Citrix farm?
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The two server are for Citrix XenDesktop. Each server will have 4 VM's giving 250 users Desktop Sessions (not VDI more RDS). The idea for VSAN/Replication between the two is if one host goes down the remaining host can spin the 4 VM's up so we always have 8 VMs running until the host is fixed.
Is was just going to use XenServer as the Hypervisor as it's FREE and does a lot as @Scott and others keep mentioning
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Oh, @Dashrender is right then, why use shared storage for a XenDesktop farm? Or, more importantly why HA?
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@scottalanmiller said in Xen Orchestra on Ubuntu 15.10 - Complete installation instructions:
Oh, @Dashrender is right then, why use shared storage for a XenDesktop farm? Or, more importantly why HA?
Exactly, why are you using HA? That's supposedly the whole purpose of a Citrix farm, the farm is the HA. Just like multiple ADDS servers are the HA, you don't protect it at the hardware level, you protect it by putting it one 2+ hosts.
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Because no desktop means no sales and one sale could be £100K so we need all 8 VM's running during office hours.
Yes 4 VM's could I guess run all 250 users for a day but if there is a FREE method of ensuring the VM's are there ready to run in their latest state i'll take it
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@hobbit666 said in Xen Orchestra on Ubuntu 15.10 - Complete installation instructions:
Because no desktop means no sales and one sale could be £100K so we need all 8 VM's running during office hours.
But we aren't suggesting that you not have a desktop. We are just saying that HA doesn't add to the ability to have one. It just makes the ones that you have slower.
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@hobbit666 said in Xen Orchestra on Ubuntu 15.10 - Complete installation instructions:
Yes 4 VM's could I guess run all 250 users for a day but if there is a FREE method of ensuring the VM's are there ready to run in their latest state i'll take it
There is, and the platform layer isn't it. You are making things less available, rather than more available. You are fighting the platform. Remember, platform level HA exists for the exclusive times when application HA is not available. XenDesktop already provides a better mechanism. It should be the only one that you are using.
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@scottalanmiller said in Xen Orchestra on Ubuntu 15.10 - Complete installation instructions:
@hobbit666 said in Xen Orchestra on Ubuntu 15.10 - Complete installation instructions:
Yes 4 VM's could I guess run all 250 users for a day but if there is a FREE method of ensuring the VM's are there ready to run in their latest state i'll take it
There is, and the platform layer isn't it. You are making things less available, rather than more available. You are fighting the platform. Remember, platform level HA exists for the exclusive times when application HA is not available. XenDesktop already provides a better mechanism. It should be the only one that you are using.
OK understood
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See this is why I prefer this site to others:-
I posted a plan that seemed logical to me and instead of plain "that's wrong" or "or no IT man go home" it has been explained to me my my thoughts are flawed so to speak and sent on the correct line of thought(p.s. another reason for replicating was just to see how it worked
but I'll leave that for the lab)Thx people. Should get back on track on this thread now lol
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Woot!
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@hobbit666 It's what we do
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Things like HA-Lizard, with full platform replication and HA, are great for things that don't do HA on their own. It's super generic and powerful. But I think that most people are shocked to find that nearly all work loads that we use can do pretty insane levels of HA without anything fancy. Active Directory, for example, does HA out of the box by default (if you have two DCs or more.)
Good candidates for HA at the platform level are often simple web apps, but even there there are typically other options if you want ot get the ultimate up time.
