“Stream a desktop? What is that?” Well, it’s something like making an image and then deploying it (ala Norton Ghost). The cool thing is that clients *ALWAYS* PXE boots from the image, nothing is installed locally. So you can make… Continue Reading
Once you have Openfiler going with iSCSI (read my notes here), then try serving up iSCSI storage with Openfiler to XenServer. You need shared storage, like iSCSI, to enable some of the “enterprise” features like XenMotion, where you can move… Continue Reading
I have access to a couple of different storage arrays, so I decided to see if Openfiler lags them significantly in performance. Turns out Openfiler does just fine. In fact, against a Dell/Equallogic PS5000E entry level array, my Openfiler install… Continue Reading
I’ve been doing a lot of work with Openfiler, a well regarded Open Source Storage Appliance Software package. With Openfiler, you can take “any old” server you have laying around and make a iSCSI, CIFS or NFS file server easily… Continue Reading
Take a little proxy server and add some hacking, and you get the Upside-Down-Ternet. Or Kittenwar. Or Blurry-Net. I have to try this.
I lost a drive in my iSCSI array, so I snapped a few pics as I replaced the drive. If you’ve never seen what using an array looks like, read on… (It’s the black 3U on top, the HP gizmo… Continue Reading
I took the VCP410 exam for VCP4 on 25 Nov 2009 and passed! Here’s my thoughts on the test and how I prepared for it.
Shared storage is a way to virtualize storage. Use a shared storage device (a storage area network) like a Fibre Channel or iSCSI array, and never buy a hard drive in a server again. Just like virtualization allows you to… Continue Reading
Wherever I have worked, there’s a lot of servers laying around that aren’t doing a whole lot. A fundamental benefit of virtualization is better utilization of resources. In a virtualized environment, you *DON’T* have a bunch of unused capacity. Hardware… Continue Reading
XenServer is free. vSphere is pricey, or so they say. You really need to compare feature by feature. Some of the key features that virtualization users want are: Hypervisor (XenServer or vSphere) Central multi-hypervisor management (XenCenter or vCenter) If a… Continue Reading