xenserver.update.082708.txt

Ok, after giving it as much hopeful effort as possible, I have decided that it isn't worth the effort at this point to try and fit XenServer into our enterprise environment. I had my concerns with no support for FC and the lack of NIC bonding since 4.0 with Xensource. I patiently awaited 4.1 and have recently finished testing the latest beta to host the new XenApp 4.5 farm.

Problems:
It takes way to long to load an initial Windows 2003 OS without the PV drivers in order to make the first template.

NIC Bonding and Trunking.. seriously, I would think this is equivalent to "anti-virus" for any product with the word "Enterprise" in the name. So why is it so difficult? VMware has a very easy to use section during the gui install that clearly lets you define the VLAN that the management interface will reside on. This indicates that they already assume you will be trunking (802.1q) if you enter something here.

In XenServer world, this is all after the fact.. it is a pain tweaking switch settings while simultaneously modifying configurations within XenCenter in order for the connection not to timeout when going from "switchport mode access" to "switchport mode trunk".. likewise when you enable channel-groups.

So, after getting somewhat of a process down to get a bond0+1 with the management interface in the proper vlan, I decide to bring up host two and create a resource pool.. oh no, that isn't possible if the management nic is in a bond or vlan.. ok, undo everything I just did and setup the master of the resource pool... Good, now redo the bonding and vlans, great.. add the second server.. nope.. looses connectivity because it inherits the bonds and vlans.. so I guess I'd need to be making those switch changes at the same time, but bottom line is that it was more than I cared to document for anyone else to try and follow.. Getting past EtherChannel and dot1q is enough for anyone to tackle without all of the added headaches.. and btw, it just works under VMware and there is no special technote article telling you to match up UUID's that are much longer than WWNs anyday :)

Also, the ISO issue was a pain.. I didn't want to setup a CIFS or NFS store, I just wanted to boot from a Windows 2003 Ent Svr R2 iso and get my os installed.. in VMware land that is just "connect/disconnect".. so I setup a local iso repository using the iso-mount folder, found a few document inconsistencies and got through it. Still.. more trouble than it is worth.

All in all, I would say that Xen will contribute greatly to the fall of VMware over time, but in the mean time, I have a XenApp farm that wants to come to life! Thank you VMware for releasing the free ESXi.. I have no problems managing each host individually with the VI client.. afterall, the real management of the farm will be within the Citrix Access Management Console and if the servers are dense enough I wouldn't really be interested in a VMotion or XenMotion..

Oh yeah, and the LVM stuff is still concerning me.. I'd still like to understand why a filesystem that is documented many times on the net as not being cluster aware is being used by XenServer? Not that big of a deal, but not sure why GFS or something made for that purpose wasn't used instead of somehow making LVM work in a clustered environment. If it wasn't that big of a deal, I'd like to see active contributions back to the open source community for LVM to help advertise it as cluster aware.. seeing as how Citrix didn't license RHEL and chose to use CentOS for their "service console" I don't think they should have a problem saying you don't need GFS for an enterprise cluster-aware filesystem. Now, VMware gets all of the marketing flack about VMFS3 as it is "proprietary"... I think those folks need to look back at NTFS from Microsoft and realize a proprietary filesystem right in front of them. It's still not too easy to get a read/write driver for Linux for NTFS!

mindtouch.deki.update.082408.txt

-mindtouch deki enterprise purchased (http://www.mindtouch.com)

-using 8.05.2 version in their VM for best support

-will focus on esx vm-based replication (possibly with vReplicator) for db/attachment sync

-there is really no need to get mysql replication and rsync for filesystem syncronication because it only scales for this one app.. vm-based replication would scale better and across all systems.

-cost per year versus sharepoint (5:1 savings)

- doesn't integrate like office/sharpoint does, but how many "work in progress" docs need to be in word vs. an html wysiwyg editor?

xenserver.update.082408.txt

ok, while starting to building the new xenapp 4.5 farm (knowing 5.0 is right around the corner) I've decided not to scrap XenServer Enterprise and give the latest beta with NIC bonding and SAN FC multipathing a shot for our XenApp VMs along with Citrix PVS 5.0 (btw, Dell Flexible Computing has updated their download site) http://www.dell.com/flexiblecomputing

Right now I don't have a problem saying we'll use XenCenter to manage the XenApp hosts running XenServer since the PVS servers are running in VMware ESX 3.5 along with the rest of the backend infrastructure..

I thought I would be stuck with no room for any shared storage since the SAN is fully carved with vmfs3 volumes and place from a Xen LVM but with Provisioning Server I can just stream the vDisks to the XenApp servers without a need for any hdd being visible to those VMs.

On a side note, the VNC-based implementation for the console in XenCenter is not so cool.. it "feels" like VNC versus a guest running VM Tools with VMware. If you know what I mean by the way it "feels" you'll understand.. otherwise continue clicking along.

The XenApp prep tool for PVS works good and it doesn't take long for the server to show back up in the farm after a reboot.. I haven't timed it, but I haven't tweaked it yet either.

whatsnew.081608.txt

Hmm.. I think there was a bit a lag between this post and my last!

I have come to the conclusion that there is a major bottleneck between the thoughts in my head and my hands composing blog entries.

So as typical, with no ryhme or reason, here is what is going on..

- drop MBA, pursuing MPA at AppState - first semester done.

- drop XenServer Enterprise, transition to ESX 3.5 U2 (with time-bomb patch!!) - completed.

- analyze all app streaming/virtualization offerings determine best for rollout
---purchased thinstall, then new features once vmware re-released as thinapp 4.0
---overlooked citrix app streaming feature in 4.5 (stuck in 4.0 farm with time constraints)
---now pursing citrix app streaming, trying to figure out how complete offline mode users will run and not eat a full enterprise license.. that would spell bad news for citrix's offering and put thinapp right back at the top.

-implementing MS EA, so getting MS app virtualization thrown in.. we'll see about it..

-it is hard to believe that citrix had the streaming profiler 1.1 for over a year with no updates compared to what I've seen with the build release schedule with thinstall/thinapp. Makes you wonder if they just got it right, or there is ALOT of work to be done.. time will tell for me, others that have been using it for while can chime in.

-need to transistion ISA 2004 enterprise array to 2006 and move to vm environment

-enjoying zune pass.. I'm glad it is a little known secret, just wish I had known about it sooner, could have saved some more spent on albums. would like to see the zune 2.5 software on the pc have real fullscreen playback had to tweak settings on the tv to "hide" the bottom zune bar. also, what is the point to have media player 11 and zune from the same company? seems like alot of cross-development

-wanting to implement mindtouch deki as a replacement for our wiki.. ok with the debian backend, but really would like to see a good rsync (for file attachments) and mysql replication walkthrough. That or support sql 2005 express so I can use their replication

-finished 70-290, 70-291 tests.. it's amazing how I used to dread the last couple of chapters on performance monitoring with the NT 4.0 MSCE stuff and now that I use it in an out, that is really the main thing I care about.. need to read up further on the article that says alot of the perfmon metrics (ie: disk queue length, etc) are ineffective under a vm environment

-still tired on MS and the cell carriers not upgrading their smartphones to support the lastest windows mobile version and just assume you want to buy a replacement phone.. I think blackberry showed us this was the wrong way to go about it... plus it looks like you really need to by a windows mobile 6.1 to really "compete" enterprise class with blackberry.. although I don't really care for the additional dependency on the BES and blackberry servers to get my email.

-still want to run an esx cluster on 2-3 mac minis with a time capsule running nfs or iscsi as the shared datastore. if I see a post on it, I'll just assume they got the idea from here.

there is plently more but as I said earler, the hands are not fast enough to get the data out and it's time to move to other thoughts now...