ubuntu/linux gurus?

[PeaShooter]

Anybody on here have Ubuntu/linux experience? Especially setting up virtual machines on Ubuntu (windows SBS2011Essentials as a guest)? I am setting up a server for my company and would like to use ubuntu as the host and then virtualize SBS2011Essentials to actually run the domain. We have had issues with hardware migration on our current server, so I was hoping that by virtualizing the windows server, there would be a disconnect between the physical hardware and the OS, so it would be more portable for hardware upgrades. Just curious if anyone has experience with a setup like this, and would be willing to help me out with a couple of questions or pointers/helpful hints?

 

[PistolBob]

What are you going to use to virtualize the Windows Server?

 

[PeaShooter]

I have installed ubuntu server 12.04 LTS. I am trying to just use KVM and the built in virt-install and virt-manage commands to set up the VM for the windows server. I have a purchased copy of SBS2011Essentials OEM that I have made an .iso file of.

 

[PeaShooter]

anyone?

 

[lizerdking]

I'm a VMWare guy, But Hyper-V is free anymore.. As long as your not married to Ubuntu, it's worth checking out. I'd trust it more for running a server level OS.

Small Business Server 2011 and Server Virtualization #ITCamp #HyperV #SBS2011 - KeithMayer.com - IT Pros ROCK! - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=3512




Virtualbox is what I've run client type OS's under Ubuntu on, Not positive if server OS is supported, but it should be.

 

[squidvt]

I'm a VMWare guy, But Hyper-V is free anymore.. As long as your not married to Ubuntu, it's worth checking out. I'd trust it more for running a server level OS.

Small Business Server 2011 and Server Virtualization #ITCamp #HyperV #SBS2011 - KeithMayer.com - IT Pros ROCK! - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

Download Microsoft® Hyper-V? Server 2008 R2 from Official Microsoft Download Center




Virtualbox is what I've run client type OS's under Ubuntu on, Not positive if server OS is supported, but it should be.

Virtualbox is useful for testing. I prefer to use KVM/libvirtd for VM's.

OP. It looks like you are pretty well setup. Make sure your host has the hardware. How much traffic will the SBS server be getting? You should be able to handle quite a bit, but make sure you allocate the proper amount of RAM and CPU to the Windows systems.

I also have a setup where I work that allows migration between two KVM hosts with no interruption of service.

PM me if you have an specific questions and I will do my best to help you out.

 

[PeaShooter]

I have purchased 2 HP Proliant ML310e servers, one to configure, and a second as a spare. I have 3 WD-red 1TB drives in a raid 1 configuration (2+hot backup). The server specs are as follows:

Product: HP ProLiant ML310e Gen8 Server - Smart Buy
Processor : 4-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor E3-1230v2 (3.30 GHz, 69W)
Memory : HP 8GB (2x4GB) Dual Rank x8 PC3-12800E Memory
Microsoft Windows Operating Systems: NONE
Storage controller : HP Embedded B120i SATA Controller
Drive cage: HP 4-Bay Large Form Factor Drive Cage
Multimedia drive: HP Half-Height SATA DVD RW Drive

Power supply: HP 350W microATX Power Supply

We are a small company and have been running sbs2k3 on desktop hardware for 10yrs. This is mostly a file server and domain controller, as I have offloaded the exchange portion of the system to office365.com. It won't see heavy use. We are small enough that i was debating even having a server. But centralized management and antivirus is pretty handy.

 

[lizerdking]

If you're not a linux guru yourself, patching and securing your os might be a bit bothersome. I run it a couple flavors of linux at home for my servers, but I wouldn't want to rely on them for business. Opensource is awsome, but I can't see it being a good solution.

Hyper-V is going to be supported/patched by MS for a long time. Newer versions will be easy to transition to as they are released. And there is a massive business market for it. If I walked into my CIO's office and said I wanted to install linux on our network he'd look at me crosseyed.

Hardware wise I'd say get that other server up and running, and find a way to do shared storage rather than local. Then you have the flexibility of migrating your VM's across both servers. Small business says you're not going to do fiberchannel, iscsi is probably a little pricey too but, more uptime.

 

[squidvt]

If you're not a linux guru yourself, patching and securing your os might be a bit bothersome. I run it a couple flavors of linux at home for my servers, but I wouldn't want to rely on them for business. Opensource is awsome, but I can't see it being a good solution.

Hyper-V is going to be supported/patched by MS for a long time. Newer versions will be easy to transition to as they are released. And there is a massive business market for it. If I walked into my CIO's office and said I wanted to install linux on our network he'd look at me crosseyed.

Hardware wise I'd say get that other server up and running, and find a way to do shared storage rather than local. Then you have the flexibility of migrating your VM's across both servers. Small business says you're not going to do fiberchannel, iscsi is probably a little pricey too but, more uptime.

With Ubuntu and Debian it's pretty easy and there is also professional support for Ubuntu. I don't run ANY windows servers at work for anything. We also push more data though out systems. Also Linux is used a lot more then you think. I use DRBD, and OCFS to keep two partitions in sync and able to migrate easily. I have SSH keys to migrate over SSH, it's a bit easier then setting up qemu to migrate directly.

@lizerdking, if you can't see Linux as a solution then that's your issue. At work our VM team hates Hyper-V. I also have more a script to let me know that they have been up more then 6months. We also don't have to reboot save a hardware failure or kernel update. Also you have to look at the cost of Windows, and support for Windows. I would not bet on M$ supporting Hyper-V for ever.

 

[lizerdking]

With Ubuntu and Debian it's pretty easy and there is also professional support for Ubuntu. I don't run ANY windows servers at work for anything. We also push more data though out systems. Also Linux is used a lot more then you think. I use DRBD, and OCFS to keep two partitions in sync and able to migrate easily. I have SSH keys to migrate over SSH, it's a bit easier then setting up qemu to migrate directly.

@lizerdking, if you can't see Linux as a solution then that's your issue. At work our VM team hates Hyper-V. I also have more a script to let me know that they have been up more then 6months. We also don't have to reboot save a hardware failure or kernel update. Also you have to look at the cost of Windows, and support for Windows. I would not bet on M$ supporting Hyper-V for ever.

Ouch?


I've barely run Hyper-V, but I've heard it has improved vastly from it's earlier incarnations, and it's easy for a layperson to use (also, it's free). I've also never run KVM, I'm just guessing a small business doesn't have the time and knowledge necessary to upkeep on a completely new system they are unfamiliar with. I've been running esxi since it was just esx, it's what I know, but a small business simply can't afford that. I know we all love to hate on microsoft, but there's a reason it's running half the world. It's easy.



Best of luck peashooter, wasn't trying to upset the die hard *nix fans, I am one as well, my home apache/sendmail/mythtv/samba servers couldn't exist without it.

 

[revsaxon]

There is a debian based distro designed to make what your doing super easy. Home

Installing a windows server vm is as easy as installing proxmox, logging into the web gui and clicking 4 buttons (most of them next). Plus it scales up as you need it to, going to clustering, multipathed network filesystems etc.

I use it at work in a 200 dom0 environment, running about 300 windows KVM instances, and in the neighborhood of 2k centos containers.

If you choose to go that route I can help via PM if you need more info, if not... well, I can try to help you anyway, but my knowledge is less fresh there.

(Linux System Engineer for about a decade at this point)

 

[squidvt]

There is a debian based distro designed to make what your doing super easy. Home

Installing a windows server vm is as easy as installing proxmox, logging into the web gui and clicking 4 buttons (most of them next). Plus it scales up as you need it to, going to clustering, multipathed network filesystems etc.

I use it at work in a 200 dom0 environment, running about 300 windows KVM instances, and in the neighborhood of 2k centos containers.

If you choose to go that route I can help via PM if you need more info, if not... well, I can try to help you anyway, but my knowledge is less fresh there.

(Linux System Engineer for about a decade at this point)

I have not used Proxmox. Sounds like something I will have to look in to.

 

[revsaxon]

One piece of advise if you choose to go that route, make sure to use one version on all your nodes. Mixing and matching doesnt end well.

 

[squidvt]

I will remember that. I'm going to run it on a couple of my x346's to see if it's worth while to bring up to work.

 

[danbb]

If you're only looking for a domain controller and file server, why not look into installing samba4 on your ubuntu server? Free, and will act as a primary domain controller with little issues. I have run KVM on a linux host, but used a linux guest as well, just took a little mucking around trying to get the network bridge to work correctly, but very stable and useable.

 

[Mad Macs]

We have run Proxmox on one of these:

Super Micro Computer, Inc. - 2U Twin^2 Solutions

for over a year now and having 4 hosts in 2U rocks when you have datacenter costs. We can go up to 12 cores and 500GB of ram in EACH host. We use a Nexenta SAN for our storage via 4 GB links and NFS. Been rock solid with about 24 VM's on them, various CentOS, Windows Servers, and even a few XP clients running old apps. Been a great solution for us.

 

[Kagnew]

The Ubuntu? They're from Kenya, aren't they?

 

[PeaShooter]

I am at the point that I will pay someone to come in to my office in the Noblesville area. Everytime I try to do something, I run into another brick wall. If you have linux/ubuntu experience, in the Noblesville area, and would like to moonlight for some cash, let me know.

 

[PeaShooter]

No one wants to make some extra money for X-Mas?

 

[squidvt]

I would be willing to but I just cant make it down to Nobelsville on a dime. PM me the issues and I will see if there is anything else I can do to help out.