[NTLUG:Discuss] NTLUG workshops

Sat Mar 26 14:13:16 CDT 2011

I may have slightly misspoke, the VMWare HCL now lists over 400 compatible
network cards... way up from when I was playing with it.

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?action=search&devic
eCategory=io&productId=1&advancedORbasic=advanced&maxDisplayRows=50&key=&rel
ease%5B%5D=148&datePosted=-1&partnerId%5B%5D=-1&ioTypeId%5B%5D=6&manufacture
r%5B%5D=-1&vid=&did=&svid=&ssid=&rorre=0

This includes a couple of the common Broadcom chips.  You can use a Linux
live CD and check what driver is being loaded... See if something ON the
list uses the same driver, that's _probably_ going to work.  Among the
common drivers included are: be2net, bnx2x, e1000/e1000e, igb, tg3. Note
that this doesn't include the Marvell chips, so the NetGear, D-Link and
Linksys GigE NICs won't work.

I used the Intel Gigabit CT Desktop Adapter which is dirt cheap (under $30)
from NewEgg.

You are also going to want to use decent hard drives, not that 3 year old
clunker lying around.  Why?  Because they run 24x7x365, which isn't within
spec for consumer-grade drives back then.  I have had a drive fail, luckily
it was the smaller of the two, the one I used to hold my collection of ISO
disks for building virtual machines.

RAID needs to be real, hardware RAID, not FakeRAID.  Or just ordinary disk.
Again, check the HCL.

I've built two - one is a Intel Engineering Sample with dual 3.2GHz procs I
bought for $20 at 1st Saturday. The other is an ordinary quad-core. Both
have been really stable (except for the disk drive failure, which I can't
blame on VMware).

FYI- Xen and Kvm (and VirtualBox) run under a Linux OS.  Not bare-metal like
VMWare, HyperX or XenServer.  If you can't/don't want to dedicate a box to
being the headless home of VMs, ESXi is NOT for you. It's going to sit there
day-after-day with an old 15" monitor, mocking you by doing "nothing
useful".

-----Burton

-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces at ntlug.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at ntlug.org] On Behalf
Of CoryC
Sent: Friday, March 25, 2011 10:06 PM
To: discuss at ntlug.org
Subject: Re: [NTLUG:Discuss] NTLUG workshops

> Well... 11am - 2pm is probably not all that great... but
> it's something.  Could
> be difficult time wise.

Figure we're going to need at least 4 hours, so 9-1:30 would give us time to
answer questions and get everything put away. 

> ESXi 4, as others have mentioned is VERY VERY VERY VERY
> hardware specific (Xen
> and kvm are much much much much less so).  Would Cory
> be willing to do one on
> Xen or kvm (not RHEV-H though)?

Sorry, don't know anything about those technologies, only the ESXi that I
use for my day job.

> However, a truly "enterprising" idea would be to test/spec
> an AVAILABLE piece of
> hardware (or more than one)... so that attendees could also
> obtain a requisite
> box for the ESXi "class".  The VMware community
> whitebox/other HCL isn't always
> the most up to date.  Nice to know what already made
> machines will handle ESXi
> well (just remember that VMware HAS been known to make the
> next
> UPDATE... yes... UPDATE... not work when not using official
> HCL equipment, which
> means the community HCL isn't normally recommended for
> serious stuff).

Not opposed to the idea but prefer to not have that going on while trying to
teach the workshop as we wouldn't get done in our time constraints. I
suggest this happen the month before the actual workshop so that we know
beforehand who has equipment that will work. Any machine being tested would
need 2GB of ram minimum and probably not older than 2-3 years. 

> I'll admit... ESXi... might be one of the toughest ones to
> do for successful in
> class installs.  ESXi 3.5 works better... apparently
> it's still available.  Not
> saying it will work well either... just better chance with
> more hardware (just
> not with the very very latest hardware).

I've actually had worse luck with 3.5 than I have 4.1.

I have VMWare test lab with two ESXi hosts that I can bring consisting of:
Intel BOXDQ45CB LGA 775 Intel Q45 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor 
2 x Kingston ValueRAM 4GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) 
HP V165w 8GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive Model P-FD8GBHP165-EF
250GB internal hard-drive

I have an mini-ITX NFS server for centralized storage.

I envision the workshop running as such:
1. One person for every 1.5GB of ram in VMWare host.
2. Use provided CD to install ESXi to thumbdrive on host. 
3. Configure host IP address, root password, & management NIC.
4. Split up individually and install VMWare client software on Windows
laptops (or virtual box VM running on Linux laptop).
5. Connect to assigned host with client software, login as root. 
6. One person from group adds NFS server to groups assigned host. 
7. Each person creates a virtual machine on local storage (if present) and
installs software from ISO stored on NFS server. 
8. Each person creates a virtual machine on central NFS server and installs
software from ISO stored on NFS server. 

I wouldn't try to explain VCenter, VMotion, Fault Tolerance, or any of the
other bells and whistles of VMWare that actually cost money as time would be
short. Anybody wishing to discuss in-depth virtualization concepts,
hardware, technologies, etc. would need to be referred to someone with more
experience as I really only know how to use it and don't necessarily
understand how it all works. 

There's probably something I'm missing but as long as people didn't stray
from the workshop roadmap then it shouldn't take too long. 

Thanks,

Cory 

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