[Xen-users] Re: Getting started with Xen

["Alan C. Oehler" <alan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Message: 2
>Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2006 18:00:48 +0400
>From: Jean-Michel Hiver <jhiver@xxxxxxxx>
>Subject: [Xen-users] Getting started with Xen
>To: xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Message-ID: <43DA2790.2010002@xxxxxxxx>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

>Hi List,

>Being very new to Xen I have a few generic questions for the list, I
>hope to grab some useful advice and pointers to documentation.

>I am evaluating Xen to consolidate a few existing servers into one
>appliance (mainly in order to reduce power consumption, heat, and
>hardware failure risks). I plan to have a SER router, an Asterisk LCR
>router, a voicemail server, a calling card server and maybe even a MySQL
>server, all in one box.

>In order to do this, I have ordered a dell poweredge 1850 bi-xeon, 4 gb
>ecc ram, and raid 1 SCSI disks. It also has dual power supplies and dual
>port network cards. The idea is to have redundancy wherever possible in
>order to lower the risk of server downtime.

>I would like to know if there is a "getting started" howto somewhere I
>could play with on a test server before my production server comes in.

 

See http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenDocs for links.

>Also I would like to know if there are known issues with the hardware I
>have ordered.

 

There are several instances of Dell 1850s in our database of machines that ran through all tests on the Xen 3 TestCD; take a look:

 

http://www.xensource.com/community/xen30testing/summary.php

 

>I plan to use debian sarge for the host and all the virtual servers,
>does it sound like a reasonable choice for Xen?

 

As far as I know.

>Is it possible to "migrate" a virtual machine to a completely different
>PC (with different hardware specs)? That would be a very useful feature
>to have for upgradability.

 

Yes, with some obvious limitations. Of course the remote PC must be running Xen. It also must be on the same subnet, and to live-migrate its storage must be mountable by both machines. It also needs to be able support the same configuration of the VM. For example, if the VM is using 512MB of RAM on a physical host with 1 GB, it's not going to work if the remote PC has too little RAM to allocate to it, e.g. 512 MB of physical memory -- less than that is available to the VM because of the Xen Dom0 and overhead.  

>Finally, are there consultants available for remote training and
>support? It would be handy to have someone who can help while I go
>through the process of getting Xen to work.

 

Contact XenSource, Inc. See http://www.xensource.com/support/

>Best Regards,
>Jean-Michel.

>--
>Jean-Michel Hiver - http://ykoz.net/
>Découvrez la Réunion des Technologies IP & Telecom
>TEL: +262 (0)262 55 03 98 - RCS 434 273 330 SAINT PIERRE

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