[sdnog] help with virtualization configuration

[Nishal Goburdhan]

On 31 Aug 2015, at 11:01, Philip Paeps wrote:

> 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]

and you can probably get to all of this from KRT ..  ;-)
(c/f https://twitter.com/sara_alamin_h/status/638423741165367297)


sara,

what are your expectations?  that you can simply shut down a VM, then 
move the entire image to another server (say a different server in a 
different location) and then just restart that?  or do you need to be 
able to start a VM in almost real-time on another server?   all of this 
will factor into your design.
to migrate VMs, you need to worry about where and how, the VM stores its 
data.  so, if everything is stored on the same machine, and the box 
catches fire, well…
similarly, to perform “zero-downtime” migration, you will probably 
need a storage location that you can get to, if your site goes down/you 
lose connection/etc.

i don’t think you’ll find an answer that says “this is better than 
that” … open-source has gained a lot of ground in the past few 
years, and is a more than credible opposition to the well known 
proprietary behemoth.  perhaps if you could explain your requirements, 
in detail, it could help others chime in (and make for a good case study 
later).

—n.