----- Original Message ----- | On 1/28/2011 3:55 AM, carlopmart wrote: | > Hi all, | > | > I need to install a virtual machine acting as a virtual storage | > server under | > CentOS 5.x (using kvm, xen, virtualbox or vmware). This virtual | > storage machine | > needs to server storage to another ESXi server and at the same time | > to the host | > where is installed. | > | > This is due to the limitations of hardware I have available. Both | > hosts needs to | > server several machines. | > | > It is very important that the virtual machine consumes the least | > resources | > possible (host has 5GB RAM and i need to run three virtual machines | > minimum, | > including this storage server as a virtual machine). | | What's the point of adding an extra virtual layer compared to an nfs | or | iscsi share from the host (nfs if it is shared, iscsi if it is the VM | image store)? This seems like it would be more efficient if you run | exsi on the hardware with centos and the others as guests anyway. | | -- | Les Mikesell | lesmikesell at gmail.com | _______________________________________________ | CentOS mailing list | CentOS at centos.org | http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos There are some advantages that I can see in that if your hardware dies you can migrate the entire host and disks over to another VMWare hosts. If your NFS host is not H/A a loss of the host would take down the virtual machines too. Additionally, virtualization offers the ability to migrate the VM and disk to newer hardware somewhat transparently allowing you to take advantage of the latest/greatest/buggy tech. Just my 2c ;) -- James A. Peltier IT Services - Research Computing Group Simon Fraser University - Burnaby Campus Phone : 778-782-6573 Fax : 778-782-3045 E-Mail : jpeltier at sfu.ca Website : http://www.sfu.ca/itservices http://blogs.sfu.ca/people/jpeltier