Tag Archive: virtual

SCVMM? errr…System Center Virtual Machine Manager and HyperV whining :)

Posted Jun.10, 2011 under News, Servers

Couple of days ago I installed SCVMM  in order to test it out, since we are developing our IAAS solution. Everything seemed great until I found out that SVCMM doesnt have any API which can be used to create/turn on/off  new machines.  Yes, I know everything can be scripted thru Powershell, but it sucks that we need to create separate applicatons that will give us that feature. Imagine a solution where PRTG, Nagios or any other tools monitors your server… sees that the CPU load went up ( or any other condition) and starts up a new virtual machine  using API?

Its funny how the guys at MS fails to see the basic requirements for a modern cloud solution; do I have to mention that after years of HyperV being RTM-ed, we still dont have an option to limit a machines uplink speed!? Come on guys…SERIOUSLY!?!?

 

I know that you already have this  little piece of software created, release it…pretty please!? I know that Microsoft sees HyperV in some giant corporation where they dont have a need to limit the uplink of a virtual machine, but IMHO, hosters are having a bigger “market” share  than big corporations, think about us, pretty please with sugar on top :) .

Oh, what about promiscous mode for network cards? You  have no idea how much would I like to use SNORT on my HyperV virtual switch, but…I cant :(

What about the limit on only 4 cores per virtual machine? This is a VERY limiting factor. I’m in a situation where i have a 2x six core, 48 GB ram server which I want to turn into ONE virtual machine ( live migrations, scaling, etc…), but I cant…I can only turn it into a 4 core, 44 GB machine, effectively, wasting other 8 cores!?

I would really love to get in touch with someone from Microsoft Virtualization team and send them a list of must-have changes :D Someone knows some insiders? :D

Let me make one thing clear, I love Microsoft, but lets face it, there is lots of work that needs to be done. Admit it or not, the guys at the “Linux Camp” have much more options and features regarding virtualization. I really, really love HyperV, but some limitations are just plain unlogical/stupid.

Sorry for a bitter post, but I had to throw out my frustrations :)

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
1 Comment

HyperV+ISCSI+Windows 2008 – yes..it works like a charm :)

Posted Oct.21, 2009 under News, Servers, Windows and Powershell

Today, me and my collegaue managed to configure ISCSI on some backup server we had at the office. Iscsi target is based on OpenSolaris and ZFS . ZFS is a combined file system and logical volume manager designed by Sun Microsystems. The features of ZFS include support for high storage capacities, integration of the concepts of filesystem and volume management, snapshots and copy-on-write clones, continuous integrity checking and automatic repair, RAID-Z and native NFSv4 ACLs. ZFS is implemented as open-source software, licensed under the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL). The ZFS name is a trade mark of Sun.

Requirements for running any OS in HyperV that will be stored on Iscsi server are:

1. Iscsi target, obviously :)

2.Iscsi initiator software ( bundled in Windows 2008 Server)

3. High speed network, atleast 1Gbit.

4. Drive that you connect to the HyperV machine MUST stay in offline mode.

5. Tons of time to configure it :)

Will you will be able to read more details about configuring OpenSolaris and ZFS on my collegaues blog : toic.org  – linux geek blog

So, like we already know, the disk on that we want to install the OS has to be offline  ( hint: disk2 ).

diskovi

hyperv

Next step is the creation of the virtual machine that will use the disk.  I have recorded that process, so you can see how simple it is :) .

All that you have to do is to install the OS…I didnt do that to the end in the video.

Tommorow we have planned to create a failover cluster with two Windows 2008 servers and see what will happen when one server suddenly get disconnected..ups :)

Bye, Alesandro

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Leave a Comment

Is your server stable enough?

Posted Oct.13, 2009 under Servers, Windows and Powershell

How many time did you find yourself in a situation where you need a reliable, stable and strong server? How to even determine if your server is stable enough? How to know what kind of continous load can it handle? Will it crash if it gets under heavy load for a couple of hours?  Well, today, I’ve found myself in a situation like that. I have installed HyperV on some server we have at the office and wanted to see how it will perfom under extreme heavy load and how stable everyhing was .

By extreme heavy load I assume about 200 concurent users clicking every 1-3 seconds on a random page that is being served on the server . When you look at the number of 200 concurrent users, you can say: ” Hey, 200 users isnt that big of a number for a server to handle” …and you would be absolutely right :) … if the server i was trying to “kill” didnt have 1 cpu core and 1 gb of ram assigned to it :) .

So..the point was to simulate real life conditions as much as possible. To do that, once more, I turned to Linux and the little piece of awesome software called “Siege”. You can download it here.  The software is able to simulate almost real user like behavior on a web page.  It can randomly open link in a specified interval, simulate 200+ users at the same time without any problems and so on.

To do some proper testing I’ve installed some php+mysql and asp.net+sql2008 applications to simulate a real-life scenario as much as possible. As we all know, one of pretty hungry applications for Linux is Joomla for the PHP+MYSQL combination and DotNetNuke for ASP.Net and MSSql combination. All cacheing  techniques on the application and the IIS were turned off so we can maximize the load to the server.

The server is based on Windows 2008 Server R2 Standard Edition and SQL Express 2008 .

I’ve told Siege to simulate 100 users on the Joomla site and 100 users on the ASP.Net site for 24 hours.  At this moment, tests are running for 6 hours and everything seems to be in perfect order. Here’s a couple of pictures :)

processcpu

As we like to say it..BURN BABY BURN! About 16 more hours to go under 100% cpu :) Results are coming soon…in about 20 hours :) more or less ….

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Leave a Comment

Here we go….

Posted Sep.28, 2009 under Windows and Powershell

Powershell?

Microsoft Windows PowerShell command line shell and scripting language helps IT professionals achieve greater control and productivity. Using a new admin-focused scripting language, more than 130 standard command line tools, and consistent syntax and utilities, Windows PowerShell allows IT professionals to more easily control system administration and accelerate automation. Windows PowerShell is easy to adopt, learn, and use, because it works with your existing IT infrastructure and existing script investments, and because it runs on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2003. Windows PowerShell is now included as part of Windows Server 2008 and can be evaluated in Windows Server 2008 Beta 3. Exchange Server 2007, System Center Operations Manager 2007, System Center Data Protection Manager V2, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager also leverage Windows PowerShell to improve administrator control, efficiency, and productivity.

Tags: , , , ,
Leave a Comment