[OpenAFS] AFS server and VMWare ESX

Neulinger, Nathan nneul@umr.edu
Wed, 26 Mar 2003 14:41:04 -0600


I don't really see much benefit to running more than one afs server per
physical machine during normal operations, except if you want to have 3
DB servers running right now, without having to worry about ip changes
later. (i.e. run three virtual db servers so that when you DO have real
hardware, you can easily move a db server to real hardware without any
client changes.)

Since you can move volumes around at will, running the extra servers
will just cost you performance most likely.=20

Other than that - should work fine, although you'd probably see better
performance running the fileserver directly on the native hardware.=20

-- Nathan

------------------------------------------------------------
Nathan Neulinger                       EMail:  nneul@umr.edu
University of Missouri - Rolla         Phone: (573) 341-4841
Computing Services                       Fax: (573) 341-4216

-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Huntley [mailto:bhuntley@clarkson.edu]=20
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 2:37 PM
To: Neulinger, Nathan; openafs-info@openafs.org
Subject: RE: [OpenAFS] AFS server and VMWare ESX



Thanks for your comments, Nathan!=20

We have several other projects that are on the way and each will require
its own hardware.  Our hope was to keep our physical server count (and
associated costs) down by getting fewer, larger systems and running VM's
on them.  Thus, 3 large systems will actually support 3 or 4 3-tiered
(web, application, database) applications, plus at least 3 AFS servers.=20

Thanks again!=20
-Brian=20
--
Brian T. Huntley, Systems Administrator
Office of Information Technology
Clarkson University
bhuntley@clarkson.edu=20
"UNIX *is* user friendly. It's just selective about who its friends
are."





"Neulinger, Nathan" <nneul@umr.edu>=20
Sent by: openafs-info-admin@openafs.org=20
03/26/2003 03:29 PM To"Brian Huntley" <bhuntley@clarkson.edu>,
<openafs-info@openafs.org>=20
cc
SubjectRE: [OpenAFS] AFS server and VMWare ESX







Any particular reason for doing that? OpenAFS server should run just
fine in that environment, but it seems like you'll just be creating a
lot more headache for yourself than anything.

What do you propose to gain by running the servers on virtual machines
instead of real hardware?

-- Nathan

------------------------------------------------------------
Nathan Neulinger                       EMail:  nneul@umr.edu
University of Missouri - Rolla         Phone: (573) 341-4841
Computing Services                       Fax: (573) 341-4216

-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Huntley [mailto:bhuntley@clarkson.edu]=20
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 2:03 PM
To: openafs-info@openafs.org
Subject: [OpenAFS] AFS server and VMWare ESX



Good day everyone...=20

We are preparing a project plan to migrate our current Transarc AFS cell
living on Sun and IBM UNIX systems to a Linux-based OpenAFS environment.


We are contemplating creating the AFS servers (3-6 of them) as vm's on 2
or 3 physical platforms  using VMWare's ESX server.  Has anyone ever
tried to run an AFS server on a VM?  We are wondering specifically how
well AFS will cope with the virtual disk space it will have available,
vs. being able to access the hardware directly, as it would normally
expect.  Any thoughts or experiences would be greatly appreciated!=20
TIA!=20

Best regards,=20
Brian=20
--
Brian T. Huntley, Systems Administrator
Office of Information Technology
Clarkson University
bhuntley@clarkson.edu
"UNIX *is* user friendly. It's just selective about who its friends
are."
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