Michael,
Re your question on Ubuntu. Yes it works fine, I was testing with
Ubuntu 15.10 server. I actually only provisioned 1GB memory to the guest,
and a 10GB disk... leaving plenty of space for AstLinux itself. Though I
did provision 2 vCPU's so thats over committing a bit. In real life I'm
looking forward to getting a PcEngines APU2 with 4 cores and 4GB ram. On
it I would allocate 3GB memory and 2 vCPU's to the guest, guaranteeing no
overcommit.
As for performance... its all going to depend on what you use it for. Run
a workload that requires more memory than you provision and you will start
running into issues. However Lonnie's php-benchmark script (which only
uses one vCPU) runs at essentially the same speed as on the native
AstLinux. Network performance... Ive measured between 900 and 970 Mbps
over my gigabit wired LAN using iperf3 (set MTU to 9000, use virtio
drivers). iperf3 between the Ubuntu guest and AstLinux host measures in
excess of 1.5Gbps.
You do need a custom build, including a custom kernel build, and I've still
got to document that. If you are keen to try it let me know and I'll get
to work documenting it. Rudimentary instructions are in the QEMU package
at astlinux SVN (see Config.in and the qemu.init script).
David
On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 1:54 PM, Michael Keuter <li...@mksolutions.info>
wrote:
>
> Am 16.03.2016 um 18:06 schrieb David Kerr <da...@kerr.net>:
>
> > To me the value of AstLinux is that it combines a
> gateway/router/firewall/voice PBX all in one compact package. I can place
> it on a low-cost box an connect it directly to the internet and my local
> LAN.
> >
> > Running AstLinux inside a VM might make sense for the Voice PBX part,
> and then as others have pointed out only if you have control of the
> underlying h/w to manage overcommit. But if doing that you might as well
> just run a standard Linux distro with standard Asterisk. Or consider
> Asterisk inside a Docker Container on a standard distro. And there are
> other complications... I really don't want Asterisk behind a NAT, I want it
> facing the internet directly. Most SOHO and SMB are not going to be able
> to do that from a VM environment (my cable provider for example is not
> going to issue me two public IP addresses, only one). Placing Asterisk on
> the gateway/router gives the best of both worlds... directly connect to
> internet and directly connect to the internal network. If all you need
> your Voice PBX for is internal phone devices then maybe the NAT issue isn't
> an issue.
> >
> > Another case for AstLinux in a VM is testing / prototyping and for that
> it is useful.
>
> I see the upper part the same way as David.
> I have a few customers running AstLinux as a VMWare vSphere VM for many
> years, but they are all using ISDN via an external berofix box, so NAT was
> no issue there.
> It can be interesting to run AstLinux on the new Beronet appliance as
> guest, we have to test that out in the near future.
>
> I also had some customers in the past asking for a multi-tenant (or
> multi-customer) Cloud-solution based on AstLinux.
>
> > Let me turn this discussion on its head. As Lonnie knows I've been
> playing with making AstLinux itself work as a KVM host. The bits to do
> this are all in the SVN but you need a custom build. It works really
> well. I can run Ubuntu server in a VM on top of AstLinux on a PcEngines
> APU1 and it is very usable. Why would I want to do that? Well my current
> use case is to run the UniFi Controller s/w for their WiFi AP's --
> something that I think is quite relevant in an AstLinux environment.
> >
> > I have even proven that we can run AstLiunx in a VM on top of AstLinux
> as a KVM host (complete with multiple network interfaces)
>
> Interesting, and that (Ubuntu) does work fine with 2 GB RAM only?
> I could also imagine a small KVM guest with a MySQL server to make it
> possible to use some enhanced functions of FOP2 (FOP2 Manager, Addressbook,
> Recording interface, etc).
> Since FOP2 is not able (yet) to use our SQLite database.
>
> > I personally think that AstLinux should stick to its roots as a bare
> metal / appliance environment. But as such devices get more capable should
> look beyond Voice PBX as "applications" that run on it / along side it...
> but rather than pick specific applications, provide an environment that
> would support "anything" so, for example Docker Containers host or KVM
> host. That would make for a powerful and expandable environment.
> >
> > [sidebar... I don't know if Docker is viable on a busybox but if it
> is... we could start by moving Asterisk into a container]
> >
> > David
> >
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 6:59 AM, Michael Knill <
> michael.kn...@ipcsolutions.com.au> wrote:
> > My 2 cents worth:
> > 1)
> > Bare Metal Pros:
> > - A known and reliable quantity.
> > - Simple architecture
> > - A router or firewall replacement
> >
> > Bare Metal Cons:
> > - More expensive if a VM Host exists
> > - Redundancy is harder
> >
> >
> > VM Pros:
> > - Simple redundancy
> > - Simple deployment (can build a template)
> > - Ability to run some other apps e.g. Ubiquity Controller alongside
> Astlinux
> >
> > VM Cons:
> > - I think that most customers would not like their VM Host Internet
> facing even though Virtual Switches should be secure. My only VM I have
> deployed has a Public IP Address but sits behind a firewall
> > - The constant concerns of a virtualised appliance passing Real Time
> traffic. Resource management is important and features like Snapshots and
> VMotion can cause unacceptable delays.
> >
> > 2) Im sorry but I really don’t see the point of using a small host to
> run a VM. Most advantages of virtualisation is reaped through economies of
> scale. Realistically I am seeing less and less onsite servers for
> businesses. This is the beauty of Astlinux. One box onsite to provide all
> your communications needs and you can have a NAS if you have slow Internet.
> Why bother with anything else?
> >
> > 3) Yep as above for VM Cons.
> >
> > Don’t get me wrong here, I really see a huge future for Astlinux in VM
> but I only plan on using it in a controlled environment with guaranteed
> resources.
> > Give me a dedicated APU2 anytime with plenty of resources to spare!
> >
> > Regards
> > Michael Knill
> >
> >
> > On 16/03/2016, 3:15 PM, "Lonnie Abelbeck" <li...@lonnie.abelbeck.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > Brainstorming...
> >
> > Time to time it is good to take a forest view of the landscape, so I
> would like everyone reading this to offer their insights, brainstorming
> rules, no bad ideas.
> >
> > Background:
> > =========
> > It seems x86 platforms to run AstLinux has never been better, for
> example the PC Engines new APU2 appears to be a great match, as well as
> Virtual Machine solutions.
> >
> > One recently released appliance is based on a Xen hypervisor - beroNet
> Telephony Appliance 2.0
> > http://www.beronet.com/products/telephony-appliance/
> >
> > Our new AstLinux 'genx86_64-vm' board type should work well with that
> beroNet appliance, or alternatively an enterprising integrator could put
> Proxmox VE or XenServer on Jetway's new Celeron J1900 based 4x NIC network
> appliance and offer a similar solution. CPU support for Intel VT-x /
> AMD-v virtualization is quite common anymore.
> >
> > Questions:
> > ========
> > 1) When should AstLinux be bare-metal and when should it run as a guest
> VM ?
> >
> > 2) For SOHO and SMB deployments using VM's, what kind of guest VM's
> would run along side AstLinux ? Would these be typically Windows Server
> situations that would need more than a 2 GHz J1900 or are there other Linux
> based services that could efficiently offer an office full of solutions ?
> >
> > 3) Would you trust your edge network router/firewall to be running as a
> guest VM ? Possibly dependent on the deployment size ?
> >
> > Please discuss...
> >
> > Lonnie
>
> Michael
>
> http://www.mksolutions.info
>
>
>
>
>
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