Morning Everyone, I'm busy doing a rebuild of my home server and am tossing between VMware and KVM for this build. I already have experience with ESX, we use it at work, but I'm debating trying out KVM for a while. The server itself is a budget build using a Supermicro X8SAX board w/ i7-950 & 12GB RAM, LSI 3081 SAS RAID (1068e based), rolled into a NorcoTek 16 Bay SAS case. Not fancy but also decent enough for home use. I don't expect high performance out of this unit so unless the gear is hopelessly outclassed, I'm not in a position to entertain upgrading. Right now forking over $1000-$1500 on a $2000 system for a pair of higher end LSI/3ware/Acreca controller just isn't in the budget. ;-) My question to everyone are these: -How well does KVM support Windows Guests? I'm already running a Server 2008r2 and WHS 2011 (based on 08r2) machines at home which I want to consolidate into this box. -Does KVM have a concept of virtual switches and and are they tied to physical NICs? ESXi allows me to create a vSwitch that isn't tied to a physical NIC so I can create a DMZ that exists solely within the host system. I'd like to replicate that if possible. I know these are probably questions that I could answer on my own by RTFM but I have already, and never really got the answers I needed. Pretty much every how-to assumed I'd be doing basic stuff and not dabbling with advanced stuff. I also know that what's written doesn't always match what's in the field and you folks are the field. And with CentOS 6 just around the corner (no flame wars please, my nomex pants are at the cleaners :-P ) I'm wanting to know if it's worth holding off another month or so on finalizing my build. Thanks, -- Drew "Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood." --Marie Curie
Hi.... Answer your questions: -How well does KVM support Windows Guests? I'm already running a Server 2008r2 and WHS 2011 (based on 08r2) machines at home which I want to consolidate into this box. Yes... In fact, I have some server running KVM with Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise. This VM's work together in a Cluster Enviroment... So, this work well! -Does KVM have a concept of virtual switches and and are they tied to physical NICs? ESXi allows me to create a vSwitch that isn't tied to a physical NIC so I can create a DMZ that exists solely within the host system. I'd like to replicate that if possible. Yes... You can use VirtManager to work with this feature... 2011/5/18 Drew <drew.kay at gmail.com>:> Morning Everyone, > > I'm busy doing a rebuild of my home server and am tossing between > VMware and KVM for this build. I already have experience with ESX, we > use it at work, but I'm debating trying out KVM for a while. The > server itself is a budget build using a Supermicro X8SAX board w/ > i7-950 & 12GB RAM, LSI 3081 SAS RAID (1068e based), rolled into a > NorcoTek 16 Bay SAS case. Not fancy but also decent enough for home > use. I don't expect high performance out of this unit so unless the > gear is hopelessly outclassed, I'm not in a position to entertain > upgrading. Right now forking over $1000-$1500 on a $2000 system for a > pair of higher end LSI/3ware/Acreca controller just isn't in the > budget. ;-) > > My question to everyone are these: > > -How well does KVM support Windows Guests? I'm already running a > Server 2008r2 and WHS 2011 (based on 08r2) machines at home which I > want to consolidate into this box. > > -Does KVM have a concept of virtual switches and and are they tied to > physical NICs? ESXi allows me to create a vSwitch that isn't tied to a > physical NIC so I can create a DMZ that exists solely within the host > system. I'd like to replicate that if possible. > > I know these are probably questions that I could answer on my own by > RTFM but I have already, and never really got the answers I needed. > Pretty much every how-to assumed I'd be doing basic stuff and not > dabbling with advanced stuff. I also know that what's written doesn't > always match what's in the field and you folks are the field. And with > CentOS 6 just around the corner (no flame wars please, my nomex pants > are at the cleaners :-P ) I'm wanting to know if it's worth holding > off another month or so on finalizing my build. > > Thanks, > > > -- > Drew > > "Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood." > --Marie Curie > _______________________________________________ > CentOS-virt mailing list > CentOS-virt at centos.org > http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos-virt >-- Gilberto Nunes
On 18.5.2011 14:58, Drew wrote:> -Does KVM have a concept of virtual switches and and are they tied to > physical NICs? ESXi allows me to create a vSwitch that isn't tied to a > physical NIC so I can create a DMZ that exists solely within the host > system. I'd like to replicate that if possible.A switch is basically a bridge built in hardware, isn't it ? Configure /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-brX and in the kvm config for the virtual machine do <interface type='bridge'> ... <source bridge='brX'/> ... </interface> -- Kind Regards, Markus Falb -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 307 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: <http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/attachments/20110518/7ef8abb8/attachment-0005.sig>
On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 1:58 PM, Drew wrote:> > My question to everyone are these: > > -How well does KVM support Windows Guests? I'm already running a > Server 2008r2 and WHS 2011 (based on 08r2) machines at home which I > want to consolidate into this box.They run well enough for me. Don't have any benchmarks as I am not using any other full virt solutions, but don't see much difference between VMs and bare metal. On the other hand I try not to use windows servers for anything serious so they're hardly ever stressed.> > -Does KVM have a concept of virtual switches and and are they tied to > physical NICs? ESXi allows me to create a vSwitch that isn't tied to a > physical NIC so I can create a DMZ that exists solely within the host > system. I'd like to replicate that if possible.No and I don't think it's the hypervisor's job to do that. Even in ESXi I don't think it's the "hypervisor" itself that does that. You could try however to mess with Openvswitch if you insist on such features, at least until someone decides to package all this in one fancy solution (rhev?). Lucian
On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 8:58 PM, Drew <drew.kay at gmail.com> wrote:> My question to everyone are these:> -Does KVM have a concept of virtual switches and and are they tied to > physical NICs? ESXi allows me to create a vSwitch that isn't tied to a > physical NIC so I can create a DMZ that exists solely within the host > system. I'd like to replicate that if possible.http://bitbud.com/2008/08/20/how-to-setup-a-private-network-for-virtual-guests-in-kvm-2/