Xen users - Feb 2011 - Easier managment interface, XCP or similar?

I am evaluating our current setup and seeing if we can improve it in any 
way. Right now we have two servers running Centos 5.5 with xen4.0 via 
the gitco repo. Each server has multiple nics that are bonded and have 
raw vlans passing over it so I can assign various domu''s to various 
vlans. Each server is setup to use local storage currently and uses LVM 
for domu disks. We now have a Dell MD3200i iscsi SAN that we need to 
throw in the mix along with 2 more servers. As it stands we only have 
one "production" xen server and one "test" xen server. They
share no
storage or anything currently. I need everything we currently have to 
keep working but need a better management interface and the ability to 
have HA domu''s.

I have looked around and found a few projects that may work but I think 
I have ruled most out:
OpenQRM: way too convoluted to setup and not great documentation
ECP: runs KVM and the "community" version is so limited it is pitiful
Proxmox: also runs KVM and/or OpenVZ containers. While this one is 
promising and has a nice GUI with "clustering", it still lacks the HA 
features I want and is a pain to get the san to talk on more than one IP 
range (following dells recomendation to put the 4 ports of each 
controller on a separate /24)

I already have my xen dom0''s setup properly with the vlan trunks and 
bond interfaces. What I need is a way to centrally manage the various 
machines with a graphical interface. Reason being is it will be easier 
to teach my fellow co-workers how to do that than to have them wrap 
their head around 4 different machines and all the command line 
operations to do various tasks. In the event that something happens to 
me I need them to be able to administer the cluster.

We do understand that adding the bonded interfaces and vlans with the 
SAN will complicate things, but this can''t be a bridge that no one else
has crossed before. I would like your input on how to manage this setup 
centrally. Also note we must do it for free as we have no spendable IT 
budget.

Donny B.

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On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 7:16 PM, Donny Brooks <dbrooks@mdah.state.ms.us>
wrote:
> I am evaluating our current setup and seeing if we can improve it in any
> way. Right now we have two servers running Centos 5.5 with xen4.0 via the
> gitco repo. Each server has multiple nics that are bonded and have raw
vlans
> passing over it so I can assign various domu''s to various vlans.
Each server
> is setup to use local storage currently and uses LVM for domu disks. We now
> have a Dell MD3200i iscsi SAN that we need to throw in the mix along with 2
> more servers. As it stands we only have one "production" xen
server and one
> "test" xen server. They share no storage or anything currently. I
need
> everything we currently have to keep working but need a better management
> interface and the ability to have HA domu''s.
>
> I have looked around and found a few projects that may work but I think I
> have ruled most out:
> OpenQRM: way too convoluted to setup and not great documentation
> ECP: runs KVM and the "community" version is so limited it is
pitiful
> Proxmox: also runs KVM and/or OpenVZ containers. While this one is
promising
> and has a nice GUI with "clustering", it still lacks the HA
features I want
> and is a pain to get the san to talk on more than one IP range (following
> dells recomendation to put the 4 ports of each controller on a separate
/24)
>
> I already have my xen dom0''s setup properly with the vlan trunks
and bond
> interfaces. What I need is a way to centrally manage the various machines
> with a graphical interface. Reason being is it will be easier to teach my
> fellow co-workers how to do that than to have them wrap their head around 4
> different machines and all the command line operations to do various tasks.
> In the event that something happens to me I need them to be able to
> administer the cluster.
>
> We do understand that adding the bonded interfaces and vlans with the SAN
> will complicate things, but this can''t be a bridge that no one
else has
> crossed before. I would like your input on how to manage this setup
> centrally. Also note we must do it for free as we have no spendable IT
> budget.
>
We have a collection of management tools here:
http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenManagementTools

If we are missing anything let us know.

Also, you mention XCP, there are projects around that as well:
http://wiki.xen.org/xenwiki/XCP_Projects

Some more information on XCP: http://www.xen.org/products/cloudxen.html

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On 2/16/2011 2:14 PM, Todd Deshane wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 7:16 PM, Donny
Brooks<dbrooks@mdah.state.ms.us>  wrote:
>> I am evaluating our current setup and seeing if we can improve it in
any
>> way. Right now we have two servers running Centos 5.5 with xen4.0 via
the
>> gitco repo. Each server has multiple nics that are bonded and have raw
vlans
>> passing over it so I can assign various domu''s to various
vlans. Each server
>> is setup to use local storage currently and uses LVM for domu disks. We
now
>> have a Dell MD3200i iscsi SAN that we need to throw in the mix along
with 2
>> more servers. As it stands we only have one "production" xen
server and one
>> "test" xen server. They share no storage or anything
currently. I need
>> everything we currently have to keep working but need a better
management
>> interface and the ability to have HA domu''s.
>>
>> I have looked around and found a few projects that may work but I think
I
>> have ruled most out:
>> OpenQRM: way too convoluted to setup and not great documentation
>> ECP: runs KVM and the "community" version is so limited it is
pitiful
>> Proxmox: also runs KVM and/or OpenVZ containers. While this one is
promising
>> and has a nice GUI with "clustering", it still lacks the HA
features I want
>> and is a pain to get the san to talk on more than one IP range
(following
>> dells recomendation to put the 4 ports of each controller on a separate
/24)
>>
>> I already have my xen dom0''s setup properly with the vlan
trunks and bond
>> interfaces. What I need is a way to centrally manage the various
machines
>> with a graphical interface. Reason being is it will be easier to teach
my
>> fellow co-workers how to do that than to have them wrap their head
around 4
>> different machines and all the command line operations to do various
tasks.
>> In the event that something happens to me I need them to be able to
>> administer the cluster.
>>
>> We do understand that adding the bonded interfaces and vlans with the
SAN
>> will complicate things, but this can''t be a bridge that no one
else has
>> crossed before. I would like your input on how to manage this setup
>> centrally. Also note we must do it for free as we have no spendable IT
>> budget.
>>
> We have a collection of management tools here:
> http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenManagementTools
>
> If we are missing anything let us know.
>
> Also, you mention XCP, there are projects around that as well:
> http://wiki.xen.org/xenwiki/XCP_Projects
>
> Some more information on XCP: http://www.xen.org/products/cloudxen.html
>
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-users mailing list
> Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Has anyone had any dealings recently with the cloud frontends as 
follows: Eucalyptus, OpenNebula, or Nimbus? Reading their sites I see 
some pros and cons but I would like to hear first hand experience of 
users if possible. I know I can (and probably will) ask on their lists 
but I would like an unbiased review hence why I ask here. Two points I 
would like to hear on is: 1. How well do they handle HA setups with a 
SAN and such. 2. How do they work with existing setups (remember I have 
spent months perfecting the bond + vlan trunk etc on our setup).

Thanks in advance.

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