Re: Virtualisation

["Martyn Wendon" <martynwendon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Wayne,

I ran into HD issues with the latest ESXi too, but resolved them following
the info at http://tinyurl.com/49xg3p

Currently experimenting on an old P4 3.6G box with 4 GB ram in it, just to
get to grips with ESXi before I splash some cash on a "big iron"
server.  My
theory (hopefully) is that one monster server should use less electricity
than 4 or 5 P4 machines running 24/7.

There's some really great buys on eBay at the moment too - you can pick up
Quad Xeon 3G servers for about 400 notes (There's even a 10-way Xeon 3G
with
10GB ram at the moment for just over a grand!).  Obviously won't be as
power
efficient as a more modern Quad-Core, but a lot cheaper initial outlay and
should still save on electricity once the other boxes are migrated!?!

ESXi is also really picky about network cards too, I had to dig out an old
Intel e100 to get the networking to work.


Martyn

----- Original Message -----
From: "Wayne" <Wayne@xxxxxxx>
To: <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, May 04, 2009 5:30 PM
Subject: Re: [ukha_d] Virtualisation


> Hiya David,
>
> That may be my problem at the min then... I've only got 1gb of ram :(
> The processor is a dual core 2ghz - as supplied as standard in the
dell
> sc440 (in fact the only thing I'm not doing so far is using both the
> disks (the other has os (ahem) x on it :) )
>
> Saying that - the pc/server that I'm converting only has 256mb of ram
in
> there - it is a really old box!
>
> I'm in the process of running a new Ubuntu server install on it at the
> min, which seems to be going ok - I've got ESXi 'update2' on it at the
> min. I did try 4 but it didnt recognise my hd's!
>
> I'll have to visit crucial.com me thinks then :)
>
> Cheers
> Wayne.
>
>
> David Balharrie wrote:
>> Hi Wayne,
>> Memory is the most important thing with virtualisation. I would
recommend
>> 8GB of ram, but you might be able to get away with 4GB if you're
only
>> going to put 3-4 VM's on there.  For processors look at Core 2 Duo
or
>> Quad. Again depending on how many VM's your going to have and what
they
>> will be doing.
>>
>> I currently use VMware Server on Windows Server 2003 standard
64bit, but
>> I'm looking to move to ESXi. It's still free as is the Converter.
ESXi is
>> picky about the hardware it will run on, but as it's a bare metal
>> installation it has better performance.  There is a whitebox list
here to
>> help with what will work with ESXi http://ultimatewhitebox.com/index
>>
>> The first few % of the VMware Converter  process is normally when
it
>> creates the virtual disk files to copy the server to.  The log
should
>> indicate what it has got stuck on.  I have only done P2V's on
Windows
>> boxes before so I don't know how well the process works on Linux.
>> Another option would be to use a product like Acronis TrueImage. 
You can
>> take a system image and restore this back to a new VM.  If you
still have
>> trouble drop me a email offlist and I will try to help.
>>
>> Dave
>>
>> From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
>> Wayne
>> Sent: 03 May 2009 20:33
>> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
>> Subject: Re: [ukha_d] Virtualisation
>>
>> Guys,
>>
>> Which versions of VMWare are you using here? - This thread has
sparked
>> me into cranking up my dell server that has ESXi running on it -
not
>> that I am having any great success with it!
>>
>> I've got a lowly 486 that's been running Asterisk pbx on Linux for
near
>> on 5 years - I bought a dell server for a while ago (2gh dual core
>> pentium - way ample!) to replace it but I've not got around to
>> configuring it up yet. I was going to just have it as a new
Asterisk box
>> but thought I would have a play with ESXi when VMware were giving
away
>> licences for it (I think they still are tbh?). I'm getting stuck
at
>> virtualising the linux box. Managed to grab a copy of VMWare
Converter
>> (again a freebee) - it just gets stuck at 1% (after 20mins or
so!)...
>>
>> If you have any tips - :)
>>
>> Cheers!
>> Wayne.
>>
>> David Balharrie wrote:
>>
>>> I would expect this to put around 15% CPU load onto a single
core box as
>>> it's just needing to record the MPEG stream. It would be
interesting to
>>> hear if anyone on the list has one of these. Sadly there
doesn't appear
>>> to be a cable or satellite version for the UK yet.
>>>
>>> Dave
>>>
>>> From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
>>> [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>]
On
>>> Behalf Of Martyn Wendon
>>> Sent: 01 May 2009 19:03
>>> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
>>> Subject: Re: [ukha_d] Virtualisation
>>>
>>> Thanks Dave, the HDHomeRun looks viable, although I wonder
what load
>>> "recording" puts on the host PC? I currently use
GBPVR on a Windows 2003
>>> server machine with 2 freeview and 1 cable tuner cards and
recording 2
>>> freeview transport streams and 1 program on the cable tuner
>>> simultaneously
>>> puts neglible load on the machine.
>>>
>>> Martyn
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "David Balharrie"
>>> <davidj@xxxxxxx<mailto:davidj%40creativeview.co.uk><mailto:davidj%40creativeview.co.uk>>
>>> To:
>>> <ukha_d@xxxxxxx<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com><mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>>
>>> Sent: Friday, May 01, 2009 1:45 PM
>>> Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Virtualisation
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> Hi Martyn,
>>>> I have virtualised the severs I have with VMware Server
and had great
>>>> success. The only issues I have had is with Geovision
& DTV capture
>>>> cards.
>>>> I'm going to try out a IP server box to allow me to remove
Geovision.
>>>> For
>>>> DTV capture cards I'm looking at this device HDHomeRun -
>>>> http://tinyurl.com/c5xz6w
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>> Dave
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
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