BRRABill's Field Report With XenServer
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Back to Hyper-V! LOL, just kidding, I'll give it a chance.
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@BRRABill said:
So for right now, there is really nothing to do. It will eventually alert me through XenCenter that updates are ready.
There is no way to force it update?
right, I think that you are expecting complications and imagining that it will be hard when it is probably ready to go already. Make a VM and start to play!
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OK, next question.
How do I get a file onto my XenServer? Say I wanted to copy something over to it?
Or something I would like to try is to take my existing VHD and see if it will use it.
I get the gist I can import the VHD, but can you simply "store" stuff on the XenServer?
The equivalent in Windows of opening File Explorer and just copying a file to a folder on a drive.
Also, can it access files on a USB drive I plug in?
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You have to have an ISO repo that XS can access and boot your VM ISO from.
This could be a Windows Share or you can build a local ISO repo right into XenServer.
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@BRRABill said:
OK, next question.
How do I get a file onto my XenServer? Say I wanted to copy something over to it?
Or something I would like to try is to take my existing VHD and see if it will use it.
I get the gist I can import the VHD, but can you simply "store" stuff on the XenServer?
The equivalent in Windows of opening File Explorer and just copying a file to a folder on a drive.
Also, can it access files on a USB drive I plug in?
You would never want to do this... not really ever. If you want a file server make a VM. If you want to import a VHD use the proper tools to do it.
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@coliver said:
You would never want to do this... not really ever. If you want a file server make a VM. If you want to import a VHD use the proper tools to do it.
Gotcha.
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Where is that "single pane of glass" to manage XenServer & Hyper-V
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@FATeknollogee said:
Where is that "single pane of glass" to manage XenServer & Hyper-V
For Xen and XenServer that would be Xen Orchestra or Xen Orchestra Appliance.
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@FATeknollogee said:
Where is that "single pane of glass" to manage XenServer & Hyper-V
XO for XenServer is totally free and epically good. More single pain that anything anyone else has. Backups, replication, multiple machines, etc. all in one pain. Hyper-V you have to buy tools to get just part of that. XO is open source and fully free. So awesome. AND their team is active here and might attend MangoCon too!
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@BRRABill said:
OK, next question.
How do I get a file onto my XenServer? Say I wanted to copy something over to it?
Or something I would like to try is to take my existing VHD and see if it will use it.
I get the gist I can import the VHD, but can you simply "store" stuff on the XenServer?
The equivalent in Windows of opening File Explorer and just copying a file to a folder on a drive.
Also, can it access files on a USB drive I plug in?
You can't for a reason. You can't on Vmware either. This is not what this is for. This is your hypervisor. It has one singular role, to run your VMs. If you need storage, that goes in a VM!
If you do this with HyperV, you violate your licensing, by the way. Using it as a file server would not fall under the HV license.
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@FATeknollogee said:
Where is that "single pane of glass" to manage XenServer & Hyper-V
Hyper-V has the Hyper-V manager built into Windows. If you want more then that SCVMM is really decent but costs money.
XenCenter is decent single pane management, but so is Xen Orchestra which is just fantastic.
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@FATeknollogee said:
Where is that "single pane of glass" to manage XenServer & Hyper-V
I hit send before I was done, I meant to "tag" @olivier & add a
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@FATeknollogee said:
Not to side track this thread (apologies to @BRRABill ), what is the "hyperconverged" equivalent in the XenServer world?
To all you XS experts, what is the "hyperconverged" equivalent in the XenServer world?
Similar to Starwind in the Windows world
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Any hyperconverged hardware that is capable of running XenServer would be....
So any of them?
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@FATeknollogee said:
@FATeknollogee said:
Not to side track this thread (apologies to @BRRABill ), what is the "hyperconverged" equivalent in the XenServer world?
To all you XS experts, what is the "hyperconverged" equivalent in the XenServer world?
Is Scale an example of hyperconverged? I don't think there is a single vendor that does that with XenServer.
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Hyperconverged just seems like a marketing term to me.
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I would like to run a test of restoring my failing server to XenServer, but doing it without putting it on the network.
This possible with Hyper-V. You simply remove the network connection, and the can ... RDP I guess? ... on the local server into the VM.
Is this possible with XenServer?
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@scottalanmiller said:
@BRRABill said:
@JaredBusch said:
While I highly recommend Hyper-V for most SMB, it is because they are alreadyused to managing Windows stuff and it is a similar workflow.
Yeah once I got into XenCenter, my first thought was .... OK, NOW what? Wither HYper-V (granted, installed as a role) I knew exactly what to do.
Make a VM? What make XenServer different? What was the trigger for one that told you to start making your first VM and the other did not?
Because he probably installed Hyper-V inside a full Windows 2012 R2 install, and not the stand alone Hyper-V 2012 Server. So by installing Hyper-V, it's kinda obvious (as a windows admin) that you would need to find the tool that manages Hyper-V - well that's Hyper-V manager, which would be installed right along with Hyper-V being installed.
But Hyper-V when setup using this method is the only hypervisor that does this. EXSi and XS both require one to connect to the host via a web browser to download the Windows client, install it, then use it to mange the hypervisor.
I think the console on ESXi tells you to do this, go to a web browser, browse to the IP of the server - not sure if XS does this or not?
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@BRRABill said:
I would like to run a test of restoring my failing server to XenServer, but doing it without putting it on the network.
This possible with Hyper-V. You simply remove the network connection, and the can ... RDP I guess? ... on the local server into the VM.
Is this possible with XenServer?
Yes, it is basically the same thing just don't give the VM a network connection and then use the VM Console in XenServer or XO to access it.
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@BRRABill said:
I would like to run a test of restoring my failing server to XenServer, but doing it without putting it on the network.
This possible with Hyper-V. You simply remove the network connection, and the can ... RDP I guess? ... on the local server into the VM.
Is this possible with XenServer?
Yes you can import the VM into Xenserver and remove the NIC from it.
You'd then administer the VM from within XenCenter or Xen Orchestra, it's simply disconnected from the network.
Just like if the cord was unplugged.
