I might be needing to utilize one of the provided virtualization packages either in a headless console only setup of CentOS or on my desktop. I havent used anything but ESXi in ages except virtualbox which I did not like at all. Most of the guests which I will need to run will be wnidows based and last I looked at this a few years ago, windows guests ran pathetic. What are some more current opinions on how windows guests run on the available packages compared to ESXi?
The version numbers between the rhel virtio-win drivers and the publicly available ones are significantly different, and it looks like you need a rhel sub for theirs. Anyone know the state of the ones on the fedora repo?
Has kvm made snapshots (without lvm) as slick as vmware yet?
Thanks for the suggestions, jlc
On 04/13/12 8:25 PM, Joseph L. Casale wrote:
I might be needing to utilize one of the provided virtualization packages either in a headless console only setup of CentOS or on my desktop. I havent used anything but ESXi in ages except virtualbox which I did not like at all. Most of the guests which I will need to run will be wnidows based and last I looked at this a few years ago, windows guests ran pathetic. What are some more current opinions on how windows guests run on the available packages compared to ESXi?
I would only use KVM for a predominately Linux guest workload.
On Fri, Apr 13, 2012 at 9:03 PM, John R Pierce pierce@hogranch.com wrote:
On 04/13/12 8:25 PM, Joseph L. Casale wrote:
I might be needing to utilize one of the provided virtualization packages either in a headless console only setup of CentOS or on my desktop. I havent used anything but ESXi in ages except virtualbox which I did not like at all. Most of the guests which I will need to run will be wnidows based and last I looked at this a few years ago, windows guests ran pathetic. What are some more current opinions on how windows guests run on the available packages compared to ESXi?
I would only use KVM for a predominately Linux guest workload.
Windows doesn't run badly under KVM. Depends on your storage speeds it seems.
Joseph L. Casale writes:
I might be needing to utilize one of the provided virtualization packages either in a headless console only setup of CentOS or on my desktop. I havent used anything but ESXi in ages except virtualbox which I did not like at all. Most of the guests which I will need to run will be wnidows based and last I looked at this a few years ago, windows guests ran pathetic. What are some more current opinions on how windows guests run on the available packages compared to ESXi?
The version numbers between the rhel virtio-win drivers and the publicly available ones are significantly different, and it looks like you need a rhel sub for theirs. Anyone know the state of the ones on the fedora repo?
I've been using those drivers from Fedora for quite a while now for M$ guests, they work fine for what I need.
Has kvm made snapshots (without lvm) as slick as vmware yet?
Nope, you will have to use lvm; a small price to pay to be "free" ;-)
-- Sent from the Delta quadrant using Borg technology!
Nux! www.nux.ro
On 04/14/2012 05:04 AM, nux@li.nux.ro wrote:
Joseph L. Casale writes:
I might be needing to utilize one of the provided virtualization packages either in a headless console only setup of CentOS or on my desktop. I havent used anything but ESXi in ages except virtualbox which I did not like at all. Most of the guests which I will need to run will be wnidows based and last I looked at this a few years ago, windows guests ran pathetic. What are some more current opinions on how windows guests run on the available packages compared to ESXi?
The version numbers between the rhel virtio-win drivers and the publicly available ones are significantly different, and it looks like you need a rhel sub for theirs. Anyone know the state of the ones on the fedora repo?
I've been using those drivers from Fedora for quite a while now for M$ guests, they work fine for what I need.
Has kvm made snapshots (without lvm) as slick as vmware yet?
Nope, you will have to use lvm; a small price to pay to be "free" ;-)
-- Sent from the Delta quadrant using Borg technology!
Nux! www.nux.ro
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but ...
I create my images to be used for virtual machines like this (here's one for a virtual server called "fred"):
qemu-img -f qcow2 fred.img 10G
When I want a snapshot, I power off the server (not sure if I really need to do that first) and create a snapshot called "joe" like this:
qemu-img snapshot -c joe fred.img
To revert back to it:
qemu-img snapshot -a joe fred.img
And to list all the snapshots for my image:
qemu-img snapshot -l fred.img
I hope this helps, Charlie
I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but ...
/snip
Yeah, that helps. Frankly, my use of vcenter has spoiled me, thinking I might try and find a way to utilize my desktop for esxi and work off a laptop...
A colleague has kvm running so I will look at it...
Thanks everybody, jlc
On Sun, Apr 15, 2012 at 12:11 AM, Joseph L. Casale jcasale@activenetwerx.com wrote:
I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but ...
/snip
Yeah, that helps. Frankly, my use of vcenter has spoiled me, thinking I might try and find a way to utilize my desktop for esxi and work off a laptop...
A colleague has kvm running so I will look at it...
If you like ESXi and have a windows box to run the client, why not use the free version? In any case I would probably use a 'native' remote access method (freenx/NX for linux, VNC or remote desktop for windows) instead of the client console once everything is installed. Or for occasional use, VMware player is OK - again using native remote access methods since it ties the client console to the host.
If you like ESXi and have a windows box to run the client, why not use the free version?
Under the original use case where I had to use the desktop to work also, I couldn't.
In any case I would probably use a 'native' remote access method (freenx/NX for linux, VNC or remote desktop for windows) instead of the client console once everything is installed. Or for occasional use, VMware player is OK - again using native remote access methods since it ties the client console to the host.
I'm comfortable doing everything I need to via ssh into the esxi server so I don't need the client really. All the Linux guests are console based, and for the windows guests I certainly use rdp if need be.
The kvm option proposed earlier is surely a backup.
Thanks! jlc
On 04/15/12 9:28 AM, Joseph L. Casale wrote:
I'm comfortable doing everything I need to via ssh into the esxi server so I don't need the client really. All the Linux guests are console based, and for the windows guests I certainly use rdp if need be.
how do you install a windows guest on ESXi without the console provided by the GUI vSphere Client ?
how do you install a windows guest on ESXi without the console provided by the GUI vSphere Client ?
Painfully:) Actually its not that bad,
1. Setup a firewall rule for a port range to utilize multiple vnc consoles. 2. Take a copy of an existing platform compatible guests vmx, edit and create the new vmdk, give it a unique vnc port, name, max boot wait etc. 3. Register it: vim-cmd solo/registervm <path_to_vmx> 4. Boot it: vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on <id> 5. Get the waiting message: vim-cmd vmsvc/message <id> 6. Answer the message: vim-cmd vmsvc/message <id> _vmx1 <#> 6. Connect via vnc.
Works for me:) jlc
-
Charlie Brune -
Dean Jones -
John R Pierce -
Joseph L. Casale -
Les Mikesell -
nux＠li.nux.ro