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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 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
                                  • scottalanmiller
                                    scottalanmiller @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.

                                    RAID 5 is a no no on spinning rust. The things that rule it out for traditional Winchester drives do not impact it for SSDs. So it is the primary RAID option for SSD arrays.

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

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

                                      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.

                                      I asked about HBAs because in the MSFT world with Storage Spaces HBAs can be used for internal drives.

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

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

                                        I asked about HBAs because in the MSFT world with Storage Spaces HBAs can be used for internal drives.

                                        HBAs are hardware so there isn't an Windows world or anything. Are they just calling SAS adapters HBAs?

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

                                          They are not technically incorrect, you CAN call those things HBAs. But no one does. We normally use the term HBA to denote external connections only. Otherwise we'd always call them SAS adapters to avoid confusion. I think HBA only works as a term when it's for external connections.

                                          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_adapter

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                                          • FATeknollogee
                                            FATeknollogee last edited by

                                            HBAs: The LSI 9205-8i/9207-8i/93xx family of cards or flashing the LSI "IR" cards to "IT" mode.
                                            http://www.avagotech.com/products/server-storage/host-bus-adapters/#tab-overview

                                            scottalanmiller 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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