[gentoo-server] There should be a Handbook for installing Paravirtualized Gentoo Servers, do you agree?

[gentoo-server] There should be a Handbook for installing Paravirtualized Gentoo Servers, do you agree?

[Pandu Poluan]

Okay, I just completed installing my 11th Gentoo server. Now I have a
running total of 6 servers on VMware Cloud, and 5 servers on
XenServer. (Still more to come, no worries; consider these as pilot
project).

Fact is, I did all (or at least the early ones) that by pure (and
painful) trial-and-error. Especially so since many useful tidbits of
info on the 'net is sadly out-of-date.

Considering that virtualized data center is the 'in' thing today,
shouldn't there be a Handbook for that? Or would a wiki entry suffice?
And if the latter, is Gentoo-wiki a good quasi-authoritative site?

I want to volunteer to write the relevant howto, with one caveat: I
have experience only with VMware Cloud and Citrix XenServer. For other
server-virtualization hypervisors, I have zero experience.

Rgds,


-- 
--
Pandu E Poluan - IT Optimizer
My website: http://pandu.poluan.info/

Re: [gentoo-server] There should be a Handbook for installing Paravirtualized Gentoo Servers, do you agree?

[Kalin KOZHUHAROV]

Hello Pandu,

On Sat, May 28, 2011 at 21:17, Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> wrote:
> Okay, I just completed installing my 11th Gentoo server. Now I have a
> running total of 6 servers on VMware Cloud, and 5 servers on
> XenServer. (Still more to come, no worries; consider these as pilot
> project).
>
> Fact is, I did all (or at least the early ones) that by pure (and
> painful) trial-and-error. Especially so since many useful tidbits of
> info on the 'net is sadly out-of-date.
>
> Considering that virtualized data center is the 'in' thing today,
> shouldn't there be a Handbook for that? Or would a wiki entry suffice?
> And if the latter, is Gentoo-wiki a good quasi-authoritative site?
>
Gentoo-wiki is a good start, if you write it in an easy to read and use fashion,
I am sure the platform won't matter. A wiki is better for editing though.
If it is more convenient for you, use the wiki on your site, just make sure it
is picked up by Google et. al.

> I want to volunteer to write the relevant howto, with one caveat: I
> have experience only with VMware Cloud and Citrix XenServer. For other
> server-virtualization hypervisors, I have zero experience.
>
That is more than enough! Make a draft, other people can fill in
details as well.
I might have some notes on VirtualBox, but I'll need to dig them.

> Pandu E Poluan - IT Optimizer
Nice job title :-)


Cheers,
Kalin.

Re: [gentoo-server] There should be a Handbook for installing Paravirtualized Gentoo Servers, do you agree?

[Robert Bridge]

On Sat, May 28, 2011 at 1:17 PM, Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> wrote:
> I want to volunteer to write the relevant howto, with one caveat: I
> have experience only with VMware Cloud and Citrix XenServer. For other
> server-virtualization hypervisors, I have zero experience.

I think I will be voicing a common opinion when I say write what you
can and post it somewhere... Wiki is good because it is than easier
for others to edit it.

Yes, ideally a ful handbook might be nice, but that is a much bigger
commitment, so lets see how many people are interested before we worry
about it. :)

RobbieAB

Re: [gentoo-server] There should be a Handbook for installing Paravirtualized Gentoo Servers, do you agree?

[Drew]

> Okay, I just completed installing my 11th Gentoo server. Now I have a
> running total of 6 servers on VMware Cloud, and 5 servers on
> XenServer. (Still more to come, no worries; consider these as pilot
> project).
>
<snip>
>
> I want to volunteer to write the relevant howto, with one caveat: I
> have experience only with VMware Cloud and Citrix XenServer. For other
> server-virtualization hypervisors, I have zero experience.

I'd be happy to help you polish the Wiki once the rough draft is
available. I use vSphere at work and the free ESXi product at home so
know those products well enough. I also have a couple gentoo boxes
still waiting to virtualize because my couple test forays into ESXi w/
gentoo bombed pretty hard, mainly for lack of information out there.


-- 
Drew

"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood."
--Marie Curie

"This started out as a hobby and spun horribly out of control."
-Unknown

Re: [gentoo-server] There should be a Handbook for installing Paravirtualized Gentoo Servers, do you agree?

[Joost Roeleveld]

On Saturday 28 May 2011 19:17:18 Pandu Poluan wrote:
> Okay, I just completed installing my 11th Gentoo server. Now I have a
> running total of 6 servers on VMware Cloud, and 5 servers on
> XenServer. (Still more to come, no worries; consider these as pilot
> project).
> 
> Fact is, I did all (or at least the early ones) that by pure (and
> painful) trial-and-error. Especially so since many useful tidbits of
> info on the 'net is sadly out-of-date.
> 
> Considering that virtualized data center is the 'in' thing today,
> shouldn't there be a Handbook for that? Or would a wiki entry suffice?
> And if the latter, is Gentoo-wiki a good quasi-authoritative site?
> 
> I want to volunteer to write the relevant howto, with one caveat: I
> have experience only with VMware Cloud and Citrix XenServer. For other
> server-virtualization hypervisors, I have zero experience.
> 
> Rgds,

I use Xen (native, if you can call it that) and VirtualBox extensively.
Once the initial draft is up, I'll try to add the details necessary to cover 
the differences.

--
Joost

Re: [gentoo-server] There should be a Handbook for installing Paravirtualized Gentoo Servers, do you agree?

[Ramon van Alteren]

Hi

On Sat, May 28, 2011 at 14:17, Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> wrote:
> Okay, I just completed installing my 11th Gentoo server. Now I have a
> running total of 6 servers on VMware Cloud, and 5 servers on
> XenServer. (Still more to come, no worries; consider these as pilot
> project).
>
> Fact is, I did all (or at least the early ones) that by pure (and
> painful) trial-and-error. Especially so since many useful tidbits of
> info on the 'net is sadly out-of-date.

I was wondering why you found it painful and what was different
compared to a normal install ?

Ramon

Re: [gentoo-server] There should be a Handbook for installing Paravirtualized Gentoo Servers, do you agree?

[Pandu Poluan]

Hi all,

Sorry been very busy with office work. I'll see what I can do this week.

On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 14:32, Ramon van Alteren <ramon@vanalteren.nl> wrote:
> Hi
>
> On Sat, May 28, 2011 at 14:17, Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> wrote:
>> Okay, I just completed installing my 11th Gentoo server. Now I have a
>> running total of 6 servers on VMware Cloud, and 5 servers on
>> XenServer. (Still more to come, no worries; consider these as pilot
>> project).
>>
>> Fact is, I did all (or at least the early ones) that by pure (and
>> painful) trial-and-error. Especially so since many useful tidbits of
>> info on the 'net is sadly out-of-date.
>
> I was wondering why you found it painful and what was different
> compared to a normal install ?
>
> Ramon
>

With VMware, not too painful. Just have a booting kernel the first
time around, then whittle down the kernelconfig to the barest
necessity.

With XenServer ... there will be gnashing of teeth come time to reboot
if you forgot some things. Especially the 'transformation' of /dev/sda
into /dev/xvda (or xvdb). Or the fact that XenServer's pygrub is too
dumb to understand any kernel/initramfs compression except gzip.

Complexities will in addition arise when you want to ensure your VM to
be migratable between (physical) hosts. This bit me rather hard when I
first installed Gentoo in my Cloud Provider's VMware. A particular VM
failed to migrate, and I had to spend some time asking my CP to
shuffle it around before it will boot and I can see WTF went wrong in
the logs.

Rgds,
-- 
Pandu E Poluan
~ IT Optimizer ~
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