VM Experts Please - Learning machine to functional


grandprix

Recommended Posts

Short and sweet.  I currently don't know jack about VM, other than what VM's do on the most basic level.  I'm reading, however, I am a hands on learner.  Once I get my hands dirty, there's no stopping me.  Usually.

 

That said.  I'm putting together a machine in which to learn on; however, given the hardware (not -the- best, but still nice I believe some would agree), I'd like for it to become a functioning machine, once I've learned how to implement things.  (i.e. am not so darned ignorant to VM'ing).

 

But, in an attempt to ensure I don't get anything that will not work to serve the functions that I'm ultimately after, I figured I'd run things by the resident VM experts first.

 

TL;DR - I have hardware and may need additional hardware but don't wish to purchase it being ignorant of "VM'ing"

 

Here is a list of hardware I have available to me:

 

Xeon E3-1240v3

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116905

 

(2) WD VelociRaptor 10k RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236244

 

(2) Crucial 16GB ECC DDR3 1600 RAM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148770

 

SuperMicro MBD-X10SLM-F-O Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182820

 

(6) HP 146GB 10K 2.5" SAS Drive

http://www.ebay.com/itm/170752457055

 

Intel I350-T4 Quad Port 1GB NIC

http://www.ebay.com/itm/380952837015

 

 

What I ultimately would like to do:

 

I'd like to run the following servers or environments:

 

1. Minecraft Server for the neighborhood kids/military base housing community (one that is as clean as in language and fun as possible)

 

2. Sickbeard, Couchpotato, SABNZBD

 

3. EQEMu (EverQuest Emulator) to toy around on, perhaps 30 old school EQ friends at most I suppose

 

4. Web server for statistics/information of the server overall or at least for Minecraft stats (I assume they have this, admittedly I am ignorant to Minecraft - my son asked me to set one up and of course as any good Dad would do I said "Of course son, I'll do that!"), etc.

 

Did I chomp off more than I could chew?  Probably, but, promising my son something is more than enough motivation even IF I didn't want to learn all this for myself (and to one day do some VM on the unRAID box).

 

The SuperMicro has "software" RAID, the performance of which, I dunno.  I never used a motherboard RAID before.  And while I have used some "hardware" RAID, it's never been in a VM environment.  Lucky me I know.

 

So in closing, I ask, given the "servers"/environments/VM I wish to run, with the hardware I currently have, what RAID cards should I be looking at to make it all happen?  Is the motherboard RAID "worth it"?  Or can an eBayed $100-200 solution offer better and a more ideal solution?  Without knowing how to configure a VM, much less which HyperVisor (I got that right, right?) should I go with?  Then there is this bare metal, DOM this, etc, etc.  That's fine, I'll learn that as I go, I'm not afraid to do my homework.. but, again, I want to ensure I'm going to learn all this with AT LEAST the proper hardware for the desired end results.

 

Any and ALL help is greatly appreciated.  I hope all the typing didn't shy too many away from this thread.  Much less perhaps, the required typing needed to respond.  Please help me help my son (and myself).

 

 

Link to comment

All depends on how deep your pockets are in reality.

 

Now as far as the mobo and nic card. I know that SuperMicro has other boards out there that has more than 2 ethernet ports.

 

I will get back with you on seeing everything you have configured.

 

Well, the money does not runneth over in my pockets at the moment.  However, what I listed is what I actually have on hand, right now at this moment.  The quad NIC I have from what I've read is very nice for multiple VM's, why precisely I'm sure I read, it simply wasn't understood (completely) when I read it, to be truthful of the matter.  That said, are you recommending that I nix the mobo/nic combination in favor of a motherboard with more nic ports incorporated into it?  Or rather, that I would need to?  As you said, when you have more time to review my post you'll reply, so I'll patiently await that reply.  Thank you for your time.

 

Link to comment

I believe that model (and the 340T) allow for each port to be passed through individually as there is a controller for each port on the card. The VT, PT and others have multiple ports as well, but I believe the limitation is they have one controller for each pair of ports. So when you pass them through they need to be teamed up and not passed through one at a time. That's not an issue typically on bare metal, but in a VM it helps to be able to use each one when PCIE ports are limited.

Link to comment

Well, (at least to me) you should actually start with the software as VMs are only software.

 

Are you going to run ESXi? Use your favorite search engine for "ESXi white box" to find a whole world of people doing just that.

 

Are you going to run KVM? Check out proxmox, opennode, and ovirt.

 

I think the hardware you listed (own) is awesome, but I wonder what you are going to do with all those little hard drives. For simplicity you might think of just using a SSD.

Link to comment

Well, (at least to me) you should actually start with the software as VMs are only software.

 

Are you going to run ESXi? Use your favorite search engine for "ESXi white box" to find a whole world of people doing just that.

 

Are you going to run KVM? Check out proxmox, opennode, and ovirt.

 

I think the hardware you listed (own) is awesome, but I wonder what you are going to do with all those little hard drives. For simplicity you might think of just using a SSD.

 

I'm old school I guess, I'm not convinced of using SSD's (non-SLC) for RAID.  Maybe it's ignorance too, but, I'm familiar with SAS drives.  I was thinking of using a RAID card with fan out to something like:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994147

 

Perhaps.  Sure there is nothing stopping me from familiarizing myself with the software, but, how much trial and error may be done, only to find out I don't have the hardware I should have to accomplish my goal.  That's the premise of this post really, I suppose.  As for which HV, I was strongly considering ESXi as it seems quite popular, but, the recent changes to their GUI configuration (System Center?) where it ceases to work without a license ($3k for the "cheapest") after, what is, 60 days I believe turned me off.

 

Finding information isn't the problem, the "problem" (for me at least) is there is just so much information.  It's much like when my mother used to insist (many moons ago) that I look up a word in the dictionary (before www) how to spell a word.  Searching for a needle in a haystack made up of needles.

 

Besides, research on the software is "free" (well it costs "time" but I can live with that), whereas hardware is not.  I just want to ensure I have the proper hardware to achieve my goals.  That's what I'm hoping someone can either tell me outright, or at least lead me to additional hardware (hopefully fully utilizing/taking into consideration what I have at this moment).

 

1. Minecraft - will require a NIC port, would prefer it be on a RAID 0, at least for performance.  I don't imagine the databases for it being too awfully large, so perhaps a nightly backup to some "common drive" (all VM's have access to it, which I -believe- is referred to as pass-through ?)  From my reading, it is highly reliant on clock speed, RAM (dictating how many it can support) and upstream throughput (this box will be on a 175/175 line -- and will only be for local neighborhood of say, 30 players, maybe more if they invite school friends, I am going to limit it to 40 regardless).  Naturally like any software, it would benefit from a decently performing file system, hence the RAID desire.  8GB RAM should be enough, assuming http://canihostaminecraftserver.com/ is even somewhat accurate.

 

2. Couchpotato, Sickbeard, SABNZBD - would require a NIC port and could realistically function all on one drive, that is the OS, software and saves (media) - this all should run under a linux flavor (probably Ubuntu as I'm mostly familiar with that) with 4GB RAM.

 

3. EQEMu - is a RAM monster, depending on configuration, I'm figuring on allotting 16GB of RAM for this and the MariaDB/mySQL would benefit from a RAID as well.  It too would need a NIC port.  The linux port of this is more focused on Debian, or better said, that is the flavor of Linux that they used for porting of the linux version (if I'm not mistaken).

 

The motherboard has two NIC ports, whether or not pass-through is covered I don't know, as the NIC port count is only three and I have that quad port NIC, so I honestly didn't bother researching whether or not the two in it support pass-through.  I -think- the Intel I217-LM in it is fully VM compatible, whereas there is something about the Intel I210-AT port that is a little less ideal (perhaps thats backwards).

 

I know of and have bookmarked reference material for ESXi, KVM and XEN, I will check out proxmox, opennode and ovirt as you suggested never-the-less.  Though I'm still hopeful someone could tell me if my current hardware will do what I hope to accomplish before I dig too deep in reading about any or all HV's.  I'm thinking at the -least- I'm going to need a RAID controller.  But because I don't know jack about handling of RAID under a VM much less using a HV, well.. <grin>

 

I appreciate your reply and please do tell me what you think about my train of thought.

Link to comment

Ok, at least in regards to the 60 day limit of ESXi, that I only briefly read about, this thread seems to clear the air about ESXi.  So long as I stick to v8 virtual machines, I'll be good to go.  Or do I still lose GUI configuration ability even with v8 machines?  The thread suggests I won't.  Since I have no need for a powerful GPU (will be using the one built into the mobo and IPMI for anything else), and since I only have 32GB (that limit seems to have been lifted anyway), seems 5.5 is a viable option.

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=30394.0

Link to comment

Pass-through RAID is what I'm after I believe.  I was initially confusing "software" and "hardware" RAID, I believe.

 

So, I'll be wanting a "hardware" raid, which passes through to the VM, letting the hardware handle all RAID logic.  That said, I guess I'll be wanting a card with RAID 10, offers pass-through and as an added bonus (for performance and safety) a BBU or "super" capacitor (I guess just a high microfarad/farad electrolytic capacitor). NOT for JBOD like is normally done with unRAID (as it handles the "RAID" logic).

 

Or am I all sorts of wrong? lol

 

Link to comment

I was looking at the m5015 for the cache and BBU (the 512 MB cache version, as the 256 is 32bit + 8ecc, whereas the 512 is 64 bit + 8ecc), but it seems that the added layer of the SAS2108 chip between the OS and HDD(s) is a performance hindrance.

 

If I want write-back I'll need a card with cache (and therefore a BBU/capacitor).  The 5015 seems battery based (and I've found that buying used batteries result in maybe a year of operation, at least has been my luck), whereas the 5016 is capacitor based.. I believe.

 

For VM #2 (Couchpotato, etc.) I could just use an onboard SATA in pass-through, right?

 

Now I have to find if I do one RAID controller with cache/write-back or two?  The quad port NIC occupies one PCIe slot (likely the 3.0 x8, in  x8/lanes), leaving the 3.0 x16 slot (in x8) and the 2.0 x4 (in x8).  I'll have to see how many lanes the NIC needs, but I have a feeling it is going to need that 3.0 x8.  Not a concern if both VM #1 (MC server) and VM #3 (EQEmu server) can use one RAID controller, granted, performance would take a toll if I did this I gather, then again, I don't think MC server is as I/O intensive as EQEMu is.

 

I will say, once I get straightened out with the correct hardware, that this learning process is going to FUN and that is meant without sarcasm.  I'm itching to get my hands dirty, so that I can take what I learn and finally VM'ize my unRAID box (or dockerize it, that too I'm completely ignorant about, but that is for another thread which I'm sure exists once I get down and dirty in that forum) so that I can finally move my PMS off from a separate i7-3770k box (in an attempt to reduce the ole electricity bill a tad).

 

Keep it coming guys.  Highly motivated at the moment.  And besides, I need to stop replying to my own thread so much. lol

 

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.