ClearFoundation

What are the current or future plans for virtualization and 6.1 and beyond? Currently under 5 I have VMWare Server v2.0 running, however VMWare has long ceased support or development for the Server line. Correct me if I'm wrong but v6.1 is now based off Red Hat, which uses KVM? or is it Xen (can't keep track anymore).

Looking forward to 6.1 release, but will definitely need some virtualization options to fully utilize the hardware. I seem to remember some blurb way back when about integration into ClearOS, but that was so long ago I don't know if this is still planned. Short of that would options outside the official release could we consider?

That... is a good question. We have discussions on this topic on a regular basis, but nothing beyond geek chatter. It is certainly a high priority feature and we'll likely see some results coming from the development team in 2012. One of the roadblocks is that the usual suspects - VMware, KVM, VirtualBox, Xen(?) - all have some serious drawbacks.



We build a good chunk of ClearOS with source code from Red Hat (I always have to be careful with using the phrase "based on"!). KVM is "native" to the upstream vendor so it should work just fine out of the box.

I'd prefer a kvm/qemu based solution. But with libvirt you are basically pretty free on what to use as backend. Only problem I currently see is, that there is no windows client or webadminpanel for it, afaik.

Also, I would like to see some X/fb running a vnc viewer on a console (ctrl+alt+F7-F12) connected to the vnc "displays" of the running virtual machines. Like, you switch to vt7 and see a the windows screen of a vm, or another linux. I have no clue if this is possibly but from my experience I know that there will be a time when one needs a direct access to the vm, because of networking failure.

Stefan Garthe wrote:
I'd prefer a kvm/qemu based solution. But with libvirt you are basically pretty free on what to use as backend. Only problem I currently see is, that there is no windows client or webadminpanel for it, afaik.

I haven't seen such clients, though I haven't checked in quite some time.

Peter Baldwin wrote:
That... is a good question. We have discussions on this topic on a regular basis, but nothing beyond geek chatter. It is certainly a high priority feature and we'll likely see some results coming from the development team in 2012. One of the roadblocks is that the usual suspects - VMware, KVM, VirtualBox, Xen(?) - all have some serious drawbacks.

Code:

Correct me if I'm wrong but v6.1 is now based off Red Hat, which uses KVM?

We build a good chunk of ClearOS with source code from Red Hat (I always have to be careful with using the phrase "based on"!). KVM is "native" to the upstream vendor so it should work just fine out of the box.

Unfortunately VMWare has ceased development of the Server platform at v2, which I am currently running on ClearOS 5.2. It works, though certainly not as optimized as it should. Desktop version of course needs a GUI. Too bad because VMWare Server really does offer some good tools to manage both the VMs and environment (although you primarily have to use IE to connect, although people did figure out how to use the vSphere client). At this point I don't think VMware offers anything that could be of use, they are either ESX or desktop clients.

One of the biggest limitations I have seen in the past was how you connect to a VM, and more importantly how you manage the virtual environment server itself. I know there was a web app for Virtualbox, but from what I remember that had serious issues (I don't think anyone got it working). I am really unfamiliar these days with KVM and Xen, do either offer any time of web app or native OSX/Windows client to manage the server and VMs?

Have you taken a look at Proxmox?

AndyL wrote:
Have you taken a look at Proxmox?

Can you run Proxmox under ClearOS? I thought that was a full dedicated OS install.

Ah ... here's where my argument falls to the ground. You are, of course right.

Time for some Threadnecromancy!

Now that we are up and running, what are the options in 6.2 Community release?

Anything with access via web or windows client?

I am currently running it on citrix xenserver 6.0.2 using centos 6 templates

Install runs fine but the issue had been I either have to just into the vm webconfig from the external lan which is fine. Then configure the internal lan that way. I had been using the ftp installation option on 5.2 which works brilliantly since you configure the lan / wan configuration during setup.

Currently I would like to get some form of xen pv drivers added so its xen ready out of the box. Given the limited testing I found that under xen it was an order of magnitude faster than vmware same box localized storage same workload

kfox seems to be the only other person having success with the 5.2 on xen not sure what he thinks of 6.2 yet

I may even switch over to centos 6 based DOM0 and run the more open version of xen.

On the subject of KVM I hear that RH are pretty much leaving support for xen and focusing on KVM and RHEV

Would be nice if someone could do up a decent template for clearos with a production ready kernel

As far as management goes you can user xen center (windows only) open xen center (linux, mac using macports) or ms SCVMM or as I intentionally misspell it SCUMM