RE: [Xen-users] Stability of Image Files

["Geoff Wiener" <gwiener@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Simon;

Xen won't transfer the image file for you.  In order to support
migration you are going to need to implement shared storage like an
iSCSI or Fibre Channel SAN.  Have a look at IET (iSCSI Enterprise
Target) - this is an excellent open source iSCSI implementation.  As for
"all your eggs in one basket" putting all your VM image files on a
shared storage device is exactly that.  There are methods, however, of
replicating your data between devices in order to create a redundant
copy.  DRBD is a really good solution for this.  These projects play
well together and they are both Open Source.  The people running both
projects are really responsive and for DRBD you can purchase support
from LinBit, the company that runs the project.  And of course the
members of the IET list are amazing (Hi Ross!) ;-).

I hope that helps to get you started.

Best Regards

Geoff


-----Original Message-----
From: xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Simon Dean
Sent: 09 June 2008 12:29 PM
To: xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Xen-users] Stability of Image Files

Hi,

I think I've nearly evaluated all choices for which Virtualisation 
option to go to. Disappointed so far that I can't get my PCI Cards 
visible in a guest, but never mind.

On the same hardware (2 Gig RAM, AMD Athlon 64 3500 and a Fedora Core 8 
i386 install), OpenVZ has a tendency to "freeze" up every now and again 
in SSH.KVM/Qemu seem to slow, Xen seems really quite brilliant.

If I convert my main server to an image file, what happens if that image

file gets corrupted? Does such a thing happen? Seems a bit awkward to me

placing all your eggs in one basket. Or am I overly concerned about
nothing?

Additionally, the main thing I wanted to do with Virtualisation was to 
be able to migrate to another host at a drop of a hat should I need to 
shutdown the host. That's also a bit difficult with an image file? 600 
Meg file takes 60 seconds for me, so, even a 5 Gig image file would 
take? What? 8 minutes? Does it transfer the image file or the contents? 
It's probably still quite silly if I think about the OpenVZ and 
transferring at minimum 2.2 Gig for a decent install.

Cheers
Simon

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