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    XenServer 7: best practice: noob question

    IT Discussion
    xenserver 6.5 xenserver 7.0 best practice virtualization
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    • A
      Alex Sage @FATeknollogee last edited by

      @FATeknollogee Use a USB flash drive

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • FATeknollogee
        FATeknollogee last edited by

        Let me edit my orig post.

        DustinB3403 A 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • DustinB3403
          DustinB3403 @FATeknollogee last edited by DustinB3403

          @FATeknollogee said in XenServer 7: best practice: noob question:

          Let me edit my orig post.

          Use a USB flash drive, it's super simple to clone for backup purposes and easily replaced. Using fake RAID is completely worthless.

          With XenServer you could do RAID1 SSD, and then RAID10 (winchester) drives using MDADM. Hardware raid is recommended though.

          Why waste the money for SSDs for the boot device? USB is so CHEAP, and so simple to backup and clone.

          FATeknollogee 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
          • A
            Alex Sage @FATeknollogee last edited by

            @FATeknollogee You said you wanted best practice, then when I tell you what the best practice is you don't want to do it.....

            FATeknollogee 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
            • FATeknollogee
              FATeknollogee @Alex Sage last edited by

              @aaronstuder said in XenServer 7: best practice: noob question:

              @FATeknollogee You said you wanted best practice, then when I tell you what the best practice is you don't want to do it.....

              Alright, you got me...
              What size USB stick?

              A DustinB3403 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • A
                Alex Sage @FATeknollogee last edited by

                @FATeknollogee at least 32GB

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                • DustinB3403
                  DustinB3403 last edited by

                  1. Best practices dictates that you install to USB, and clone USB to "backup USB"
                  • No never use fake raid
                  1. Hardware RAID controllers are best practice, Software RAID (MDADM) would be the follow up.
                  • Production work-loads, hardware RAID is best practice
                  FATeknollogee 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • FATeknollogee
                    FATeknollogee @DustinB3403 last edited by

                    @DustinB3403 said in XenServer 7: best practice: noob question:

                    Use a USB flash drive, it's super simple to clone for backup purposes and easily replaced. Using fake RAID is completely worthless.

                    With XenServer you could do RAID1 SSD, and then RAID10 (winchester) drives using MDADM. Hardware raid is recommended though.

                    Why waste the money for SSDs for the boot device? USB is so CHEAP, and so simple to backup and clone.

                    I hear you on the fake RAID.

                    The RAID 1 or 10 you mentioned, it that for use as boot drive & VM storage?

                    I know USB is cheap, but I have a few small SSDs laying around.

                    DustinB3403 scottalanmiller 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • FATeknollogee
                      FATeknollogee @DustinB3403 last edited by

                      @DustinB3403 said in XenServer 7: best practice: noob question:

                      1. Best practices dictates that you install to USB, and clone USB to "backup USB"
                      • No never use fake raid

                      Using this method? http://mangolassi.it/topic/8537/how-to-clone-a-xen-usb-on-windows

                      A DustinB3403 FATeknollogee 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • A
                        Alex Sage @FATeknollogee last edited by

                        @FATeknollogee Yes 🙂

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • DustinB3403
                          DustinB3403 @FATeknollogee last edited by

                          @FATeknollogee said in XenServer 7: best practice: noob question:

                          @DustinB3403 said in XenServer 7: best practice: noob question:

                          Use a USB flash drive, it's super simple to clone for backup purposes and easily replaced. Using fake RAID is completely worthless.

                          With XenServer you could do RAID1 SSD, and then RAID10 (winchester) drives using MDADM. Hardware raid is recommended though.

                          Why waste the money for SSDs for the boot device? USB is so CHEAP, and so simple to backup and clone.

                          I hear you on the fake RAID.

                          The RAID 1 or 10 you mentioned, it that for use as boot drive & VM storage?

                          I know USB is cheap, but I have a few small SSDs laying around.

                          RAID1 if you were going to do a RAID'd boot partition. (huge waste of resources though) and RAID10 for the VM storage if your drives are "classic Winchester drives. Otherwise if you're using SSD for the VM storage RAID 5.

                          FATeknollogee 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                          • DustinB3403
                            DustinB3403 @FATeknollogee last edited by

                            @FATeknollogee said in XenServer 7: best practice: noob question:

                            @DustinB3403 said in XenServer 7: best practice: noob question:

                            1. Best practices dictates that you install to USB, and clone USB to "backup USB"
                            • No never use fake raid

                            Using this method? http://mangolassi.it/topic/8537/how-to-clone-a-xen-usb-on-windows

                            Yes.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • DustinB3403
                              DustinB3403 @FATeknollogee last edited by

                              @FATeknollogee said in XenServer 7: best practice: noob question:

                              @aaronstuder said in XenServer 7: best practice: noob question:

                              @FATeknollogee You said you wanted best practice, then when I tell you what the best practice is you don't want to do it.....

                              Alright, you got me...
                              What size USB stick?

                              Since XenServer 7 has now quadrupled the space available, 32GB would be the minimum.

                              FATeknollogee BRRABill 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • FATeknollogee
                                FATeknollogee @DustinB3403 last edited by

                                @DustinB3403

                                Any specific recommended brand/model of USB stick?

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • scottalanmiller
                                  scottalanmiller @FATeknollogee last edited by

                                  @FATeknollogee said in XenServer 7: best practice: noob question:

                                  1. Installing XS: I'd like to use 2x 80GB SSD mirrored (aka RAID1). **Do not want to use USB flash drive
                                  • Is it ok to use "fake RAID" on the motherboard (Intel or LSI)?
                                  • What is the best practice?

                                  FakeRAID is never recommended for anything in production, ever. It's conceptually a bad idea.

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                  • scottalanmiller
                                    scottalanmiller @FATeknollogee last edited by

                                    @FATeknollogee said in XenServer 7: best practice: noob question:

                                    1. For Virtual Machine storage:
                                    • Should the drives (assume multiple) be attached to a controller via RAID controller or HBA?
                                    • What is best practice?

                                    HBA is for external drives. XenServer only officially supports hardware RAID controllers but includes enterprise software RAID. Either are fine. But generally you want hardware RAID in the SMB space.

                                    FATeknollogee 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • scottalanmiller
                                      scottalanmiller @FATeknollogee last edited by

                                      @FATeknollogee said in XenServer 7: best practice: noob question:

                                      @DustinB3403 said in XenServer 7: best practice: noob question:

                                      Use a USB flash drive, it's super simple to clone for backup purposes and easily replaced. Using fake RAID is completely worthless.

                                      With XenServer you could do RAID1 SSD, and then RAID10 (winchester) drives using MDADM. Hardware raid is recommended though.

                                      Why waste the money for SSDs for the boot device? USB is so CHEAP, and so simple to backup and clone.

                                      I hear you on the fake RAID.

                                      The RAID 1 or 10 you mentioned, it that for use as boot drive & VM storage?

                                      I know USB is cheap, but I have a few small SSDs laying around.

                                      IF you go with booting XenServer off of the disks, then it should always be thrown onto the same array as the VM storage. Anything else is just throwing away speed and capacity from your VMs for no reason.

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                      • scottalanmiller
                                        scottalanmiller last edited by

                                        Booting from USB is good. Booting from the same large array as the VMs is good. The only scenario that really isn't okay is having a RAID set just for booting XenServer. And if you DO do that, the worst option is to use SSD. You would always use the slowest, cheapest disks that you could find, SSD would be the opposite. But you would never do that either way.

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • FATeknollogee
                                          FATeknollogee @DustinB3403 last edited by

                                          @DustinB3403 said in XenServer 7: best practice: noob question:

                                          RAID1 if you were going to do a RAID'd boot partition. (huge waste of resources though) and RAID10 for the VM storage if your drives are "classic Winchester drives. Otherwise if you're using SSD for the VM storage RAID 5.

                                          I thought RAID5 was a no-no. I'm pretty sure I've read that somewhere on these forums.

                                          DustinB3403 scottalanmiller 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • DustinB3403
                                            DustinB3403 @FATeknollogee last edited by

                                            @FATeknollogee said in XenServer 7: best practice: noob question:

                                            @DustinB3403 said in XenServer 7: best practice: noob question:

                                            RAID1 if you were going to do a RAID'd boot partition. (huge waste of resources though) and RAID10 for the VM storage if your drives are "classic Winchester drives. Otherwise if you're using SSD for the VM storage RAID 5.

                                            I thought RAID5 was a no-no. I'm pretty sure I've read that somewhere on these forums.

                                            RAID5 Winchester is a No-no because spinning drives (classic SATA) have all kinds of issues with RAID5 like URE issues.

                                            RAID5 with SSDs are perfectly safe.

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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