On 5/16/06, Ira Abramov <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
You know how it is you're planning for months to play with something new in case a client ever steps up and asks for it and then one day BOOM, it's being asked for and yuou barely have time to install a pilot?
This is the fun of freelance consulting....
Well, I talked a client into consolidating their collection of odd Linux porting machines into a single server. right now they have one RHEL3 machine, another dual-booting RHEL4 and CentOS3 and a third dual booting RH 7.2 and 7.3. they need to port their product to each and more flavors to come for various clients. I offered to consolidate so they can save on hardware, duplicate VMs easely and so forth.
Disclaimer: I am a VMware reseller. VMware EXP (the next version of GSX, which is now in beta and is provided free of change) seems to the most appropriate interim solution to such a platform, until such a time as Intel and AMD provide VT for the masses. VMware is easier for chicken installation (insert CD and press next, next next). XEN provides (and requires) more configuration options.
I'm thinking, I'll install Debian unstable as the host, which comes with Xen 3 via APT, and then figure out a way to transfer the current machines' filesystems into Xen machines, because I hear installing 7.2 directly as a Xen machine is not exactly supported out of the box :)
I use Debian stable and XEN sources. With etch being pushed to production, it will be a fast moving target in the next few months.
it means I have to patch old redhats' kernels to support boothing off Xen, right?
You will need a XEN kernel for any distribution.
Is that a good course of action or would you suggest a more correct route? They decided to do it much sooner than I expected (Sunday) and I don't have time for too many trials and errors and RTFM till I get to the right procedure. Pointers appreciated.
Moving a Linux distribution from XEN to VMware and back is no worse then moving between machines.
also, if I'm completely wrong and Xen is not the way (yet) because of all the backports of Xen patches and kernel recompiles, I would consider the VMWare option for such an odd setup. Less headache for the setup stage and maybe a nicer control interface for the client, whose employees are MS oriented anyway.
VMware has a shinier gui.
Thoughts? -- Now playing in theaters Ira Abramov http://ira.abramov.org/email/ ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
-- Gil Freund, Systems Analyst ------------------------------------------- Sysnet consulting [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.sysnet.co.il voice: +972-54-2035888, Fax: +972-8-9356026
