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Xen or other virtual platform?


mattb37
27-02-2010, 12:52
Quote Originally Posted by Myatu
Yikes, on an EG? OVH should have enabled that already (it's a simple BIOS setting). Sorry to hear it
Agree its a simple BIOS setting but I don't have a kvm to sort it out myself. I have placed a ticket with "24/7 support" but so far it seems like they don't work weekends. Ticket placed at 01:47 as critical because it is "preventing" my server working as I need it to but still no reply or even an acknowledgement from OVH staff to say they are doing something about it.

I got clients asking when the server is going to be back online but I can only fob them off with waiting for a third party. Their frustration is being passed to me and that will be going to OVH either via "support" ticket or forum. I have servers in another data centre and this sort of issue would have been fixed by their technical support within the hour if it did occur.

Myatu
27-02-2010, 12:35
Yikes, on an EG? OVH should have enabled that already (it's a simple BIOS setting). Sorry to hear it

mattb37
27-02-2010, 04:18
I went with a Proxmox reinstall on my EG-SSD server today replacing Windows 2003. So far epic fail for Windows! I didn't want to order a new box deciding I didn't need it. I allocated a 4 hour downtime window to my clients, installed Proxmox and loaded the web interface to find VT is probably disabled preventing KVM module loading.

I assumed VT would be enabled but seems like it isn't, on my server at least, so I am waiting on technical support to fix it. If anyone else is going to do this make sure VT/SVM is enabled before you attempt the installation in the early hours when no technical support is within quick reach.

mattb37
23-02-2010, 19:39
I do already have a box with ovh running plenty of game servers, only game I have lag on is Call of Duty based games. It would be nice if ovh could offer a low latency addition to their network as a professional option, another data centre I use offer that type of upgrade and it works much better than the regular network.

makno
22-02-2010, 18:58
another word of caution..
do you allready run game servers on ovh machines? i run 2 america's army 2.x servers and although some of the players have contant excellent latency, others in a country neighbouring france are having constant lag spikes

mattb37
22-02-2010, 18:40
Proxmox it is! Thanks for the recommendations. Order will be placed soon now I have also heard back from OVH regarding Windows licensing.

Thanks to all
Matt.

jonlewi5
22-02-2010, 16:02
Quote Originally Posted by yatesco
A few words of caution:

- Using Xen isn't particularly easy if you aren't very familiar with Linux
- XenServer is much easier to administer on the client, but uploading your ISOs to the server requires some hoop jumping
- guest performance isn't terrific - virtualisation has a cost, particularly for disk IO (although you can install paravirtualisation drivers, you will still pay a penalty)

I have tried ESXi, XenServer, Xen and proxmox, and I would strongly recommend proxmox for a couple of reasons:

- it is based on a standard Linux distro (debian) as oppose to a cut down version
- backups are *trivial* (quite literally a tick box)
- performance has been no slower than XenServer or ESXi in my experiments as all my VMs were IO bound
- GUI is pretty simple
- support for clustering (High Availability is coming in v2)
- rock solid for the last 6 months for me

Finally - if you are thinking of moving from an SSD to a SATA disk system, again, beware the IO performance. Even with hardware RAID 1 the performance of an EG system isn't great

I almost wonder whether you wouldn't be better off installing Windows natively and then running VMWare player on top....

I would experiment and see what works best for you - you can re-install OSs through the excellent control panel.

One other word of caution - don't believe the numbers in the 1 hour/72 hour boxes, they don't mean a thing
Totally agree.

Proxmox is a fantastic piece of software!

yatesco
22-02-2010, 15:58
Proxmox supports both KVM (full virtualisation) or containers (openvz). I have a single EG machine running about 8 linux containers and a couple of windows machines.

mattb37
22-02-2010, 13:13
First of all I never take the available servers as the truth. I pre-ordered my EG SSD and it took forever to be delivered nearly costing my dearly.

Does Proxmox support the virtualisation of both Windows and Linux simultaneously, I thought it was only Linux or am I thinking for Virtuozzo?

While VMWare probably would give my Windows best performance I dont Windows installed natively because my websites must keep running and I think the Windows might need frequent restarts to begin with, I have a lot of compilers to install on it.

Thanks for recommending Proxmox, I will probably use this as it does look the best side by side with other OVH VMs

Regards,
Matt.

yatesco
22-02-2010, 10:03
A few words of caution:

- Using Xen isn't particularly easy if you aren't very familiar with Linux
- XenServer is much easier to administer on the client, but uploading your ISOs to the server requires some hoop jumping
- guest performance isn't terrific - virtualisation has a cost, particularly for disk IO (although you can install paravirtualisation drivers, you will still pay a penalty)

I have tried ESXi, XenServer, Xen and proxmox, and I would strongly recommend proxmox for a couple of reasons:

- it is based on a standard Linux distro (debian) as oppose to a cut down version
- backups are *trivial* (quite literally a tick box)
- performance has been no slower than XenServer or ESXi in my experiments as all my VMs were IO bound
- GUI is pretty simple
- support for clustering (High Availability is coming in v2)
- rock solid for the last 6 months for me

Finally - if you are thinking of moving from an SSD to a SATA disk system, again, beware the IO performance. Even with hardware RAID 1 the performance of an EG system isn't great

I almost wonder whether you wouldn't be better off installing Windows natively and then running VMWare player on top....

I would experiment and see what works best for you - you can re-install OSs through the excellent control panel.

One other word of caution - don't believe the numbers in the 1 hour/72 hour boxes, they don't mean a thing

mattb37
21-02-2010, 19:05
Thank you for a great reply addressing my thoughts.

I have been part of the running since the gaming group was established 13 months ago and so far we have been waiting for 1000 members to be registered before we begin asking for donations. The addition of the required games needs at least 5 GB RAM so I must use the EG series at least. Currently I am at a reasonable amount for the gaming community having a side business to it helping to keep the hole in my pocket from getting any bigger but recent announcements from game publishers have pretty much began the shutting down of small GSP's like myself hence the shift in target audience.

From what one of my game developers has been telling me the MMO's use a combination of Microsoft compilers that must be used on a regular basis so for their ease I am going to put Windows onto it much to my peril.

I have placed a support ticket asking about the licensing and hopefully someone will reply to that or here within a decent amount of time. This project is getting time critical now and I am telling my members we will be ready within a week.

I am a regular visitor to this forum and like many others you have helped me out Myatu.

Thanks,
Matt.

Myatu
21-02-2010, 18:31
Quote Originally Posted by mattb37
If I have Xen installed on it am I correct thinking I can install CentOs and Windows 2003 as guest operating systems?
It's indeed possible, yes. The same is true for the other virtualisation software options that OVH provides.

I am part of a gaming organisation and the majority dont like to pay towards the servers so I need to keep my costs as low as possible.
Not sure how your members pay, but the one I frequent solely relies on donations. Even the tiniest amount that a member is willing to part, helps the cause

With the Xen server, how is Windows licensed, can I put my own license on there or must it come from OVH?
You're best to ask OVH Support/Sales about this; Opinions differ about this, so it's best to cover your rear end and have an official answer.

Does OVH provide access to ISO images with Xen or do I have to use my own?
OVH does not provide any ISO image directly.

Is my proposed idea to running this possible or must I use something different? Any suggestions for different methods?
Perfectly possible. There are plenty of people / companies that use a mixture of, or multiple Windows VMs. Gaming does add extra performance demands, but if it's only a Centos and Windows VM on an EG, I doubt you have any serious issues in that area.

Another possibility is to investigate if it's possible to compile using WINE, or alternatively if it is built for .NET, whether it supports compilation under Mono.

Hope that helped

mattb37
21-02-2010, 17:22
Hi,

I run several game servers and am looking to move more of my services to OVH after hitting a brick wall regarding IP addresses with a data centre I am currently in. I need to move my web server VPS to a new host. I am planning to buy another EG SSD for this as I already have one of these and I am more than impressed with it or go for an EG Best of giving me the extra disk space. If I have Xen installed on it am I correct thinking I can install CentOs and Windows 2003 as guest operating systems? I am exploring a new venture with a gaming organisation branching out to MMORPG games which require Windows to be complied and run.

I am part of a gaming organisation and the majority dont like to pay towards the servers so I need to keep my costs as low as possible. With the Xen server, how is Windows licensed, can I put my own license on there or must it come from OVH? The web server side of the server only needs to be small. My current VPS uses less than 16GB disk with 512 RAM.

Can Xen be used in this manner to host both Linux and Windows without requiring an expensive Windows license? Does OVH provide access to ISO images with Xen or do I have to use my own?

Is my proposed idea to running this possible or must I use something different? Any suggestions for different methods?

Regards,
Matt.