I’ve let this blog flounder for too long. I’ll be spending some time in the next couple of weeks updating the look and feel, as well as adding tons of new content. I got pretty busy with client work, and personal projects, and really stopped working on this site. I feel it’s time to kick it into high gear and make a contribution to the virtualization and dedicated server community. I’m also going to put some time into new graphics. I’m no designer, but I should be able to come up with something…
I really like linux and the various BSDs as a server platform, so I’m going to focus mainly on that. I’ll still talk about virtualization, but not working with vmware everyday anymore has made me lose interest. This blog is going back to my roots, web programming, unix administration, and solving obscure problems. That’s what I do best.
If you need some work done on a server, or want to host a site with a provider that is exclusive and knowledgeable, drop me an email at michael [at] venturehosting.net and I can probably help you. I am very selective about who I work for, but if I decide to work with you, I’m sure you’ll be pleased with the results. If I decide not to work with you, don’t take it personally, I’m a unix geek, we do that sometimes.
I was reading about various virtualization solutions today and saw that VirtualBox has a Mac OS X version available. I downloaded the newest version, 1.4.1 beta 2. I installed it, and configured a standard ubuntu server. Installation is dead simple, and the look of the program is nice. About the same as Parallels 3. I like the wizards they use to create a new virtual machine as well as the virtual disk manager, that’s a nice touch. For a free product it’s very polished and nice looking.
Installing Linux was just as easy as it is on Parallels, with the same issues I’ve had with the kernel in Ubuntu Server edition. I figured out how to fix that on Parallels and the same thing applies here, simply install the generic kernel after you install the base OS and you’re good to go. VirtualBox doesn’t support Intel’s VT-x technology, so it doesn’t run quite as nicely as Parallels. As a matter of fact it pegs my CPU usage at close to 100% while any disk activity is happening. This is not a good sign for hardcore use. The performance difference between VirtualBox and Parallels is noticeable. VirtualBox is lacking some functions on OS X, including host networking. Due to VMware and Parallels I’ve come to expect certain functions and features from a virtualization solution, and that puts VirtualBox at a disadvantage.
VirtualBox has potentional to be a good competitor but it lacks performance and features that others have. Reading their website one of the best features they offer in the closed-source version is a built-in RDP server. That is a very interesting and useful feature. That could seriously hurt VMware and Parallels both if VirtualBox can only catch up on the other features. The high cpu usage issue I had would make running multiple virtual machines too much of a strain on a system. I’m optimistic that if they can get their features in line with the competition they will be a major player in the virtualization arena. I’m looking forward to the next release, but I am not going to be using VirtualBox on a regular basis yet.
I sent this to consumerist.com already but I’ll make a post here about it as well. Apple replaced my macbook last week. They took the smashed up pieces of my old one in trade for a brand new one. I’m very happy now, Apple has regained my loyalty. Some people call me a sellout, but I really like the product, my only issue was the service. Now that they’ve corrected the mistake, I’ll gladly convert friends and family. They were very nice and polite, and didn’t require me to remove my video or sign anything at all to make the replacement happen. They even transferred my applecare warranty from the old macbook to the new one. Although it took 6 months to happen, I am happy with the resolution of this issue.
Every flame is just proof that jealousy is an ugly beast. I got flamed for making the video, and I’m getting flamed for getting my issue resolved, and I’m even getting flamed for saying I might actually try a letter instead of a sledgehammer next time I have an issue. I still refuse to associate with the asshat fanboys who tried to make this personal, but Apple did right by me in the end, so they deserve my loyalty.
As promised, but quite later than anticipated, here is the video of me sledging my macbook. I’ve posted about this before, and I’m not really in the mood to write more about it. Here’s the video.
Well, I had to take a long break from this blog due to my move to Vegas. While I was busy with other stuff the server went down and didn’t come back up. Everything is squared away now and I’m ready to continue with this site. I apologize to the few regular readers we had, but there was not much I could do about it. A little later today I’ll post the promised video of me destroying my Macbook, it was uploaded to youtube.com today.
This post is about an idea I had working for a dedicated server provider. Each server recycle took 1-3 hours depending on the OS the new customer requested. This seriously hurt our ability to step up production in response to increased demand. Using VMware server running on a stripped down Linux OS, it would be possible to reduce the provision time on a server to 30-45 minutes, no matter what OS the customer requests. You can dedicate all of the machine’s resources to the single virtual machine, as well as almost all of the hard drive space. This would make recycling a server a simple process of removing the “old” virtual machine and copying the “new” one into place, then booting it and doing post-install configuration.
Running a stripped-down-to-bare-essentials version of Linux is simple to either script, or just image using normal linux tools. You can use a reference machine, with Linux, and VMware Server installed and configured. Provisioning a server would be as simple as booting from a cdrom and running some commands. Using tools like dd, gzip, and netcat you could load the Linux partition onto the new server, ready to run. Rebooting into the OS, you could set a serial number for VMware server, and then copy a compressed virtual machine onto it, and boot it as normal. Once it’s booted you can configure the new virtual machine OS however you would normally on a new install. This process could mostly be scripted to almost completely automate the entire task.
The amount of time this process could save would more than make up for the initial labor of getting all the pieces into place for production. This process could be expanded, with tools written that would allow it to be generic enough to use for almost any sort of setup you’d like. For instance, you could include two nics with every server, but only give the virtual machine guest OS access to one nic. The second nic you could configure for an internal subnet, in the host OS, and allow VPN access to clients for remote administration if something happens to the network config on the guest OS. You can use virtual network cards to allow a customer to use 2 virtual machines to firewall the dedicated server without having to add any other hardware. The possibilities are really endless.
I actually tried to implement using Norton Ghost and partition images to speed up the recycle process. That was a huge mistake. Mainly because at the time I perfected this solution for production, our hardware moved from IDE to SATA. Ghost doesn’t do SATA at all from what I could determine. They may have fixed this issue in recent releases, but at the time I was using it, SATA was not an option. Because of this I spent some time thinking about this issue, and then VMware released Server for free. I had a bit of a flash of inspiration and pitched the idea to the boss. Being established with the policies and procedures that were in place, he wasn’t inclined to make this type of jump. I don’t blame him, but I needed more. I left my position once I figured out I would never be more than a glorified PC tech, doing reinstalls, and provisioning new servers.
I had never even heard of VirtualBox before they went Open Source. I downloaded and installed the Windows version to have a look. It’s actually pretty nice. It’s a bit on the unpolished side, but it has some potential. The performance is actually close to VMware or Parallels. It lacks the bells and whistles that VMware and Parallels include with their product, but it’s free. I was very suprised to see the VM perform better without Vx-t enabled. This product has a lot of promise for the future, and I’ll be keeping tabs on their development.
Installation was fairly straightforward, as was creating and installing a new virtual machine. The list of supported guest OSes is a bit short but they have the basics covered. Manually creating an iso to mount to a Vista machine to install drivers for the NIC was a bit unorthodox, but I managed. They really should offer a mini-iso of the drivers from their page, rather than forcing you to create it yourself, but I can’t complain, it’s free. The guest OS runs very well, and I didn’t hit any major snags on Vista, XP, or Ubuntu. The interface is easy to use, and reminds me a bit of the VMware Server Console. VirtualBox isn’t quite up to my current standards yet, but I’m sure now that it’s Open Source, many more people will add to it. Being able to see the internal workings of the code as well as the finished product is going to accelerate virtualization across the board. This product could end up being a VMware killer if enough people decide to jump on board and make it truly great…
Microsoft Virtual Server actually works pretty well for a Windows based solution. I won’t go into too much detail here but we do run several virtual servers on this platform. Performance is acceptable for mid-sized loads. I learned the hard way today that MSVS will happily over allocate resources if you don’t configure it correctly. If you are running anything in production on this platform, I highly recommend you tune your configuration to avoid a problem we experienced. When setting your resource allocations, make sure you set every virtual server to use less than 100% of any particular resource. If you set it at 100% or more for any single server, that server can (and will) be a greedy little Windows pig and slurp it all up. This is a problem when the other virtual server is under any sort of load and can’t allocate the resources it needs. I recommend not setting any server over 90% of your cpu, and 80% of your ram. You’ll thank me when one client runs a cpu intensive batch job and your other client’s DON’T call you with complaints.