[CentOS] VMWare GSX Server and CentOS

[Ross S. W. Walker]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: centos-bounces at centos.org 
> [mailto:centos-bounces at centos.org] On Behalf Of Ross S. W. Walker
> Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 12:07 AM
> To: CentOS mailing list
> Subject: RE: [CentOS] VMWare GSX Server and CentOS
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: centos-bounces at centos.org 
> > [mailto:centos-bounces at centos.org] On Behalf Of John R Pierce
> > Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 11:53 PM
> > To: CentOS mailing list
> > Subject: Re: [CentOS] VMWare GSX Server and CentOS
> > 
> > Joshua Gimer wrote:
> > > Has anyone had experience (good or bad) with VMWare GSX 
> > Server running 
> > > CentOS as a VM under high load?
> > >
> > > Here is the situation. We are planning on rolling out some 
> > new boxes 
> > > to replace an existing box. Currently this box (Sun V860) 
> > is running 
> > > web services, database services, mail for students, and is an 
> > > instructional box for compiling code, and web scripting 
> among other 
> > > things.
> > >
> > > We are planning on doing one of two things, either using 
> VMWare and 
> > > splitting up the services or using Solaris Zones. The 
> > box(s) has to be 
> > > able to access data stored on the SAN (Fiber Channel HBA's). The 
> > > boxes(VM's), or Zones would be split up accordingly:
> > >
> > > Database box: Oracle, Postgres, and  MySQL
> > > Mail: Sendmail, POPS, and IMAPS (roughly 25,000 mailboxes)
> > > Web: Apache, PHP, mod_ssl
> > > Interactive Logins: Compilers and such.
> > >
> > > Any information about any experiences with VMWare and 
> CentOS, under 
> > > similar load would be helpful. I will probably make this 
> > same post on 
> > > the Sun Solaris Mailing List, and VMWare's forums. Thanks 
> > in advance!
> > 
> > I dunno, but I'm curious why you want to run so many VMs' or 
> > zones?    
> > the database/mail/web stuff would probably all run most 
> > efficiently in 
> > the 'host' OS... I can see some advantages to running student 
> > interactive logins in a VM or zone for security isolation.
> > 
> > 
> > its that, or I'd put the infrastructure things (email, school web, 
> > school databases) on a dedicated and secure hardware 
> > platform, then put 
> > all the instructional stuff on a seperate hardware platform.  
> >  I don't 
> > like having too many eggs in one basket.
> 
> I agree keep the infrastructure stuff physically separate from the
> student stuff. That said, say a 4 node cluster for 
> infrastructure stuff
> running VMs on each node in a scenario where the other nodes can take
> over VMs from a failed node. Have them run to Fiber storage 
> or some kind
> of SAN and you should be all set.
> 
> For student stuff you can run a separate cluster using VMs 
> for different
> courses, maybe Vmware, maybe Xen whichever works for you.
> 
> CentOS should be able to handle all that very well, it is 
> after all RHEL
> and has been tuned for heavy duty workloads.
> 
> -Ross

Actually re-reading my post let me say the infrastructure cluster can
run the database/mail/web on the host OS as the previous poster said and
gain significant performance. Have the host services fail-over in the
cluster for continuity.

Xen/Vmare VMs for student course work is probably best as they can be
rapidly deployed and varied in configuration.

-Ross


-Ross

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