[K12OSN] Thinking about virtualization

[Carl Keil]

Thanks for responding Les.  You're a geyser of information.  I appreciate
you here and on the BackupPC list.

>> Does anyone know if K12LTSP can work as a virtual server along side
>> other
>> virtual servers?  It seems crazy, but I'd really like to consolidate all
>> my servers onto one monster (for me) box.  I'd like to include my
>> K12LTSP
>> box in my migration plan, but something tells me I'm better off with
>> dedicated hardware.  BTW - this is for my home network.  Around 5
>> clients.
>>  Right now I'm serving off a Pentium D 1.8, gig of RAM ATA disk.  I'm
>> thinking of going 4 cores, SCSI, (or SATA RAID) 2-4 gigs of RAM for the
>> virtual server host box.  My other server functions are very light,
>> mainly
>> web stuff, so a lot of the time the K12LTSP will have all that power, if
>> I
>> can configure it that way.
>
> The big reason for wanting to virtualize is you have to keep
> incompatible versions of things running at the same time.  On a small
> home network that's probably not the case and you might be able to run
> all your services on the same system - or run the things you use less
> often under vmware with the centos-based k12ltsp as the host.
>

Anyway, I really don't want to go this way.  Out of all my servers, the
K12LTSP one is the one that winds up needing a reboot or troubleshooting
most often.  I seriously don't blame K12LTSP for this, I think it's just a
factor that it's basically being used as a 5-way workstation, so it's
subject to more vagueries of existence.  I also tend to install new stuff
on it more often, etc.  I often trade uptime for more features, etc. on
this box.

I want to virtualize mainly to save money.  I want to lower my power bill
and I've got vast quantities of unused clock cycles and storage space
being unused on computers that are spun up all the time.  My K12LTSP disk
is 10% full, while my web/mp3 server is 60%, etc.

I'll think more about what you're suggesting though.

>> Also, what's the deal with VMWare server?  What's the license?  I can't
>> find that info on their site.  Are they the only game in town?  If I use
>> their free serial numbers are they going to cut me off down the line?  I
>> love the idea of all the turnkey appliances they offer, but I think I
>> want
>> to stay squarely in the realm of FOSS if I can.
>
> The beta releases of server had timeouts on the serial numbers but the
> current versions are supposed to be good forever.  Eventually xen may be
> better, especially on the newest 64-bit processors with hardware
> virtualization support but vmware is a safe bet now.
>

But what are the license terms?  I can't find it anywhere.

Thanks again for the quick response.