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Re: [tlug] Xen advice, please




On Jan 10, 2007, at 4:57 PM, Curt Sampson wrote:

I know people using Xen with production NetBSD systems; it works fine.

You might want to think carefully about why you want to use it, though.
It essentially partitions your memory and disk space, so it reduces
sharing of resources and makes resource planning harder. You'd have to
a reason counterbalancing this to use Xen instead of just running more
applications on a single server.

True. I was thinking that having all my servers virtualized would make management easier. I would be able to test things out buy just copying a virtual server and screwing it up irrevocably, etc. The freedom such an arrangement could afford is really seducing. It is more of a luxury, though. Our system is minimal, and the present setup is sufficient, so duplicating things as they are on new hardware would probably be easier and safer.


I have only one case that might necessitate a virtual server - our database intranet app. It is PHP4 on RHEL3, and it is built on an outdated version of a very early web framework (one of the very first, years before Rails) in which even the original developer is no longer interested. But we are heavily invested in it, difficult to maintain and modify though it is.

I thought that a virtual machine would be wonderful. If the present server can be replaced with a hosted vm, I can then copy the vm on the same host, test modifications before enacting them, and then make the same modifications on the app if there are no problems. But perhaps that is asking for luxury, too. I am sure that the test machine could be an old test box, for that matter, or a Parallels VM on a workstation.

I guess that, having researched it and listened to tluggers' opinions, it seems that I don't have an overwhelming reason to use Xen for production servers, since its maturity is still in question. The need does not justify the risk.

I would still like to hear more from Xen users, and if I am wrong about the above judgement, please tell me so.




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