[K12OSN] K12OSN Digest, Vol 81, Issue 16

[Sean Harbour]

>On 11/28/10 3:24 PM, Steven Santos wrote:
>> Can our networks be set up using a series of VM's?
>>
>> Is this the future of our networks?
>>
>> - Pre-configured LDAP VM.  Script to edit the domain name used, tools for
>> managing it.
>> - Pre-configured LAN Services VM.  Gets some basic config from LDAP, tools
>> for managing DNS/NFS/CUPS/etc
>> - Pre-configured email VM.  Setup uses defaults set in LDAP VM, users
>> managed via LDAP
>> - Pre-configured MySQL Database server VM. Setup uses defaults set in LDAP
>> VM.  Managed via LDAP
>> - Pre-configured RBDL server VM (one for each arch?).  Clients and server
>> users controlled via LDAP
>> - Pre-configured LTSP server.  Setup uses defaults set in LDAP VM.  Managed
>> via LDAP
>> - Pre-configured KOHA server.  Setup uses defaults set in LAN VM.  Managed
>> via LDAP
>>
>> This sets up an ecosystem whereby VM's can be moved around as needed. you
>> rely on one or two VM's (LDAP and LAN services) that would be built on LTS
>> builds.  Other services, being VM's, can be updated as needed.
>>
>> Apps can be added as appliances, using remote X sessions.  Resource hungry
>> apps can be done as local VM's on clients.
>>
>> Thoughts?

>There's a substantial performance hit for running in VMs.  I could see it for
>specialized things like the LDAP server, although if ClearOS adds replication to
>theirs that runs out of the box, it might make more sense to run ClearOS on one
>server for most network services and home directories.

>-- 
  > Les Mikesell
  >   lesmikesell at gmail.com

Splitting services out over more VMs means more servers to manage, and possibly enough performance hit to noticeably affect latency sensitive services such as thin client hosting. Using tools like Spacewalk and Puppet to auto deploy, configure and manage servers and services considerably lessens the advantages of a virtualized infrastructure. Of course, you can use those tools to manage VMs as well, letting you mix and match as you like.

I would like to see a guide on using the above mentioned tools or similar to deploy/manage LTSP Cluster. Does anybody have any leads?

Thanks,

Sean Harbour
Senior Network Engineer
Northwest Regional Education Service District
Hillsboro, OR 97124
sharbour at nwresd.k12.or.us
503-614-1448