On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 7:21 PM, John Summerfield <
[email protected]> wrote:

> Andrew Wiley wrote:
>
>
>> Secondly, if I couldn't get VM with the mainframe (which is looking pretty
>> likely), would it be better to run separate LPAR's of linux, a single LPAR
>> of linux with linux-vserver (http://linux-vserver.org/), or a combination
>> of
>> both?
>>
>
> That would need some testing:
> http://linux-vserver.org/Paper#Non_Intel_i386_Hardware
>
>
>  If you haven't heard of linux-vserver (I didn't until recently), it's an
>> OS
>> level virtualization system for linux that basically lets a single kernel
>> run multiple isolated userspaces. The developers say it only adds a 1% to
>> 2%
>> performance overhead, so it looks like a good solution to me.
>>
>
> Always, when considering such things, wonder whether it works on your
> specific hardware. This is one of those things that could be
> architecture-specific, so you need an answer.
>
> The above link says it's supported, but hints it might not be tested.


I had a discussion with some of the devs on IRC in which they said that
while linux-vserver has no architecture-dependent code, and so far it's been
proven to be platform-agnostic, it hasn't been tested on this platform. They
did make it quite clear, however, that they would work to resolve any
glitches the platform change might cause. As you say though, it could be a
problem. If there's no way of getting an actual copy of the VM OS, though, I
think it's probably the best alternative.

>
>
> Some questions:
> 1. How many users do you anticipate?


I know that I expect to run, at most, about 20 VM's. That number may rise in
the coming years, but I doubt it will ever get above 50. The users on those
VM's will probably be about 30 to start out, and I doubt the total will pass
100 in the coming years.

2. How many simultaneous users?


That will vary quite a bit, but I'm going to guess the peak with the 30
starting users will probably be around 20.

3. What would they be doing?
>

Each VM will probably have a webserver hosting SVN and Trac, there will
probably be some sort of build system as well, and students will be
periodically running network server code to test stability and allow a
centralized testing location for wider scale applications.

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