Which host system for nethserver virtualization should I use

,

Hi all together,
at this time I have Ubuntu with qemu in virt-manager as host system, this is not optimal. My virtual mashines are only one nethserver in productive use and two nethserver for tests.
My Hardware is a XEON E5506 and 6GB RAM.
What do you think about CentOS with qemu in virt-manager?

1 Like

All virtualization softwares are good, but I’d go with NethServer 7 with libvirt/qemu!

1 Like

What is about Virtual mashines manager in Software Center? Could it work with qemu?

Accordingly to their web sites, yes! :thumbsup:

This is the virtualization “stack”

1 Like

Another sound…you use ubuntu…what about proxmox…it is close because it is debian based.

2 Likes

no virtualization sw will run fine with only 6GB of ram… ubuntu’s footprint is quite big, a production machine can’t have less than 3 GB of ram…

moreover, other than ram, consider the disk I/O… if you need to use more VM at the same time, you need fast disks

my 2c

1 Like

Based on my (little) experience with Nethserver NG 6.8 virtualization:
If you have a server with sata disks in raid 1, you can virtualize only 1 or 2 guests that manage low I/O services. VM in this configuration are quite slow.
You should have a set of sas disks or ssd disks in raid.
Remember that Nethserver GUI doesn’t manage well “exotic” disks configuration.
You can’t make snapshots of the VM if the guests are turned on.
Webvirtmgr has some limitations (for example you can’t manage more than a cdrom or hd per guest).
If you want to have more customizations of VM guests, you must have a Linux machine with virt-manager installed.
Windows VM guests have some issues with clock.

3 Likes

Thanks for your answers.
@saitobenkei The server has 2 SAS drives in Raid 1 (Hardware).
@Stefano_Zamboni You are right, I try to get some more RAM.
@stephdl and @davidep I’m thinking about proxmox or CentOS with virt-manager which is based on libvirt.
Sorry, but I like graphical userinterfaces :joy:

well… I don’t know your budget but…
get one of this:

https://www.gekko-computer.de/Server/Rack-Server/Dell_Server_PowerEdge_R710_2x_QC_Xeon_E5520_226GHz_48GB_SFF_PERC_6/i_i91_15976_0.htm

a pair of good and supported disks, proxmox or ESXi and you’re done

(I’m not involved in any way with that site, I search there for 2nd hand enterprise hw)

Thanks for your work, but I have 4 old R710 with a single E5506 and 6 GB RAM. I would ask my boss for setting up 2 Servers with the available hardware, one for production and one for backup.

My personal favourite use is CentOS7 Minimal install, then groupinstall Virtualization, and then just use libvirt (virt-manager from a remote computer also works). This way, the hypervisor is barely eating any energy and all power can be transferred to the quests. Just make sure you also use a reliable image file to store the data. I’m using qcow2 now because it is easier to maintain, but RAW is somewhat faster. You can also use separate partitions if you want to.

2 Likes

Hi Michael, may I suggest that you have a look at the solution adopted on the following link: http://www.mbse.eu/linux/homeserver/network/virtualmachine/

1 Like

I bought a used R710 with 2 xeons, 2 sas disks in HW-RAID1 and 32 GB ram two week ago for testing proxmox as a virtualizationhost. Works great.
Proxmox is easy to setup and has a good wiki. I set up a NS7 instance and a Win7 machine without any problem. I really like it so far.

4 Likes

@Imre_Bertalan
Thanks for your answer. It’s a really good idea, but all my other mashines are based on Windows, I’ve found a workable viewer for vm’s based on libvirt, but no manager for Windows. Do you have an idea?
@dcoelho
Thanks to you too. It sounds interesting, because you need lower performed hardware, but is there a chance to do that with nethserver too? They say the host should be the same as the guests.

You can look for a management application here:
http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/Management_Tools

There might be one or two that is also available on Windows. But honestly, I don’t know.

@flatspin I think it’s fast, because you don’t have a gui, only per webaccess. Which resources did your host need?
@Imre_Bertalan Thanks, I’ll have a look.

I have just noticed. Why do you need a 3rd party application when NethServer has a built in manager @m.traeumner ?

I just asked for it at my second post, but it is not comfortable enough.

my 2c:
if you need a virtualization host just to make some tests, go for virtualbox and phpvirtualbox
if you need a virtualization host for production servers, go for dedicated hw and a dedicated virtualization solution like esxi or proxmox

4 Likes

ijust finished my 2th nethserver on proxmox :slight_smile:

ESXi i consider shitty… it lacks a descent web interface, and it only has a windows client.
Looking beyond that, i found proxmox a few years ago, and i fell in love with it ever since :slight_smile:

It’s Debian based, so rock solid, and its free! Although, if you want to support them folks, its not that expensive :slight_smile:

3 Likes