[sdnog] help with virtualization configuration

[Philip Paeps]

On 2015-08-31 09:21:54 (+0200), Sara Alamin <sara.alamin at sudren.edu.sd> 
wrote:
> I have 5 server with 1T storage for each , and I want to install a 
> hypervisor software that gives me these features :
> - can manage these server from one administrator console
> - if I faced any problem  can easily migrate the VMs form one server 
> to other .
> - easily way to have a backup for the virtual machines that will be 
> created.

Hopefully, anything that's labelled "hypervisor" can do all of the 
above. :)
For different values of "easily", of course.

> My questions are :
> - what is the suitable hypervisor software? (can I find open source 
> software?)
> - do I need a specific configuration before I install the hypervisor 
> software?

I quite like FreeBSD's bhyve, which is included by default in FreeBSD 
releases
since 10.0-RELEASE.  The hypervisor is an ordinary FreeBSD installation 
and you
manage virtual machines using simple command line tools.

There is extensive documentation available:

   https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/virtualization-host-bhyve.html
   https://wiki.freebsd.org/bhyve
   https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=bhyve
   [many useful links in each of the above]

I keep my virtual machines' storage in ZFS, so I can easily use 'zfs 
send' and
'zfs receive' to migrate virtual machines between machines.  As far as I 
know,
bhyve does't do "live" migration (i.e.: without turning the guest system 
off),
but that has never been a requirement for me.

Good luck!

Philip

-- 
Philip Paeps
Senior Reality Engineer
Ministry of Information