[geeks] Virtualization Smackdown

[JP Hindin]

On Wed, 15 Oct 2014, Mark Benson wrote:
> > We use a combination of CLI management (mostly for exporting/importing)
> > and XenCenter which you apparently can get free licencing for. XC has its
> > quirks, and we're running it primarily on Windows RDP servers (running on
> > the Xen hosts, no less) for getting console and the VM creation which we
> > then netboot/puppet to complete the software package installations.
>
> If you use XenCenter does that mean you use XAPI tools to manage the dom0
> rather than Xen's linux default (is it xm??)?

I had to ask about this one - I only _use_ it, I don't _maintain_ it :)

XenCenter uses the XAPI calls to manage the host. The Linux tool we use is
'xe', which we suspect also uses XAPI behind the scenes, too.

Generally I do everything in XC (creation, snapshot, deletion, console,
network management, et al). The only thing I fall to 'xe' for is
import/export, because it's about 75% faster than exporting to the Windows
host that runs XC.

I should mention using SR-IOV monkeys with how Xen maintains the
networking stuff, and so you end up having to manage the network from the
CLI, because XC can't control it anymore. Unless you're planning on really
hammering the network, that's probably an unnecessary complication.

We used to run the disk store off Nexentas which allows live-migration of
guests, but we had a string of bad luck with Nexentas and moved to local
storage on all the Xens. It's a PITA when we're moving things due to
failing hardware, but it happens sporadically enough we haven't taken the
step to move back to centralised storage.


 - JP