I’m interested in XenSource because they give me, a Linux and Xen novice, a simple way to play with Xen. Ignoring the fact that their CEO says “Since we are going after the Windows market, installation has to be absolutely simple, simple, simple…” (source) implied slant aside it is a very simple installation.

Since the management tools and virtualization platforms are where everyone is trying to get to I wanted to see what XenSource had done for Xen. I am aware of some other Xen management tools out there both open and closed but most of them require me to install and configure Xen seperately, and while I while I might be able to pull that off eventually, a couple trips down that road had me looking for something else. Then earlier this month I come across XenSource’s new XenExpress, a free version of their XenEnterprise product with some capacity limitations. You can get it here. 

Since I didn’t have a box I was going to wipe for a Xen test I wondered if I could get it running in virtualized environment. I’ve been to the “you can’t emulate an emulator” school but I thought I’d give it a go anyway. I could not get it going in any flavor of MS Virtual Server or Virtual PC, including the 07 beta. So I power up VMWare 5.5.3 on an Intel-VT enabled box, I don’t know that VT is required because I can turn it off and it still runs but I mention it anyway, the short of it is that it worked. Here’s what I did.

1. Create a new virtual machine using the recommended settings. 
2. Select Linux as the guest operating system and Other Linux 2.6.x kernel as the version 
3. Then you specify you disk capacity XenSource requires a 25GB minimum so I gave it 30GB and select Allocate all disk space now. 
4. Once that was done I gave it the required minimum 1GB Ram, and pointed the CD to the XenSource ISO.  

1. When it boots it goes through the normal hardware checks and give you a notice that it does not detect any hardware acceleration but it can in stall anyway. Presumably I won’t be able to get a Windows machine running on it but I haven’t tried yet. 
2. Once the install starts it is a simple (simple, simple) click wizard and about 13 minutes and a reboot later you are at the XenServer login prompt and your IP is presented.

1. After that all you do is install the client console form the ISO on your local machine or another virtual machine and point to the XenServer VM. 
2. I configured the Debian template and have been playing with that.

Now I have a XenServer running in a VM that I can play and test with as needed. Of course it does not perform like it does on native hardware or on a good IntelVT or AMDv enabled server and I concede there is no good reason (beyond testing) to do this but if you are cramped on hardware and want to run a Xen/XenSource test it does provide an option.

Well we owe a huge thanks to Andrew Dugdell (aka Dugie) over at Dugie's Pensieve for writing up his experience with our tool and basically putting it on radar. Thanks Dugie!

If you haven't read his post it is almost a step by step (he calls it a "Thumb in the air guide") for using the tool.

Thanks again Dugie for the great post, and sharing it with the community.

I may be oversimplifying things, but the concern over the “complexity of virtualization” confuses me. I recently read an article titled “Virtualization dangers and how to avoid them” published at Computerworld by a couple of Avanade guys. The article points out the risks of managing a data center, (the same risks we all know and love) but points to these risks as being heightened by using virtualization to consolidate your datacenter. Virtualization doesn’t add to these concerns. If you have a DC without an SLA, a data recovery plan and operational processes then you have problems with or without virtualization.

I’ve always thought of the virtual machines running in our environment as physical machines from a management and maintenance perspective. We use the same rules of patching, managing, deploying etc… we even use the same tools to do it, MOM and SMS in our case. So when people ask “how much more difficult is it to run virtual machines in production?” I usually reply by saying it’s not more difficult at all, it just takes less space. I imagine this to be abstraction. David is always telling me to “abstract it out” which I assume he means in the developer sense of reducing the details to focus on the manageable pieces one at a time. So to me, fifteen servers in three racks are just the same as 15 virtual machines in three servers. That is oversimplifying but it is a simpler conversation to have rather than starting with all the details and caveats.

The one thing the article does point out is the provisioning puzzle, understanding your hosts and how your guests are going to impact them is an art form and a detail you will want to address eventually but if your considering consolidating start by building a virtual machine and thinking of it as a server, that’s what the rest of us did.

Here’s the Computerworld article: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9005255&pageNumber=1

And another one (in Computerworld) which talks about how data center managers love virtualization:

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=112821

The industry must be moving into the tools and utilities phase of virtualization. Everyday someone introduces a new utility. This could be mostly pre and post VMWorld buzz but there are a lot of new players in the space, and this is a space that seems to have turned “commodity” overnight. Every tool or utility can be had for free somewhere and those that can’t are being integrated into a platform by somebody.

Platform or virtualization services are the only spaces where customer money is left. There will probably be some acquisitions of tool companies to get the investors a return but the platform, VMWare, Microsoft, Xen and even Parallels to some extent are the only true “pay me” plays left until the rest of us come up with a marketable service (besides consulting) to offer.

This week it is VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) which is just a re-visit of the virtual-lab managers we have out there but that’s a whole other thread.

Last week alone we had HP enter:

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2006/061108xa.html

WYSE enter:

http://www.wyse.com/about/news/pr/2006/1107_Pilot.asp

and NEC:

http://www.nec.co.jp/press/en/0611/0601.html

All this on top of the previous weeks Virtual Lab Manager buzz:

Where VMLogix signs in:

http://www.vmlogix.com/company/press_release_2006_11_06.php

With an “oh yeah” by VMWare:

http://www.vmware.com/news/releases/labmanager.html

All this in a space where Surgient pretends to be the only player:

http://www.surgient.com/news/20061002-v5.asp

In a space invented by Microsoft for their partners:

https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/ you’ll want to look at what they call Hands-On Labs Online (HOLO).