1 |
The 06/07/11, Grant wrote: |
2 |
> >> After a frustrating experience with a Linksys WRT54GL, I've decided to |
3 |
> >> stick with Gentoo routers. This increases the number of Gentoo |
4 |
> >> systems I'm responsible for and they're nearing double-digits. What |
5 |
> >> can be done to make the management of multiple Gentoo systems easier? |
6 |
> >> I think identical hardware in each system would help a lot but I'm not |
7 |
> >> sure that's practical. I need to put together a bunch of new |
8 |
> >> workstations and I'm thinking some sort of server/client arrangement |
9 |
> >> with the only Gentoo install being on the server could be appropriate. |
10 |
> > |
11 |
> > I maintain multiple Gentoo we mostly use as KVM hosts systems (and |
12 |
> > coming embedded routers). As KVM hosts, some of them are very sensible. |
13 |
> > Due to the contracts to our customers, I have to do with various update |
14 |
> > strategies on top of various hardware. |
15 |
> |
16 |
> Thanks to everyone for some very juicy tidbits. I'm rearranging my |
17 |
> thinking on all of this. I think the key for me may be to combine |
18 |
> systems with separate functions in the same physical location into a |
19 |
> single system. Does the KVM thing work well? |
20 |
|
21 |
KVM itself works very well here, even with advanced features such as KSM |
22 |
pages sharing. |
23 |
|
24 |
The difficulties come with Microsoft products for both good integration |
25 |
and perfomance (I would recommend RAW format, iSCSI or plain physical |
26 |
partition instead of qcow2, for example). That beeing said, I finally |
27 |
have all working well for XP, NT2003 and 2008 servers. |
28 |
|
29 |
I use libvirt on top of KVM which is in the way to become very good AFA |
30 |
you don't rely on libvirt's API which tend to move a lot. |
31 |
|
32 |
> Running a bunch of |
33 |
> workstations as nothing more than wireless KVM setups on the same |
34 |
> system? I should be able to cut my Gentoo systems down to just a few. |
35 |
> Basically one at each physical location. |
36 |
|
37 |
I would be much sceptical for both workstations and wireless guests than |
38 |
for servers: |
39 |
|
40 |
1) For workstations, things are currently changing with the very recent |
41 |
and "not much usable with Gentoo, yet" spice software. I expect a lot of |
42 |
improvments in the coming months for this use case. I would say it's not |
43 |
ready for production, yet. |
44 |
|
45 |
2) About wireless virtualization it's highly depending on what you aim |
46 |
to do, especially if you intend to use the PCI passthrough feature to |
47 |
give your wireless card to a guest. For this to work, you MUST have your |
48 |
hardware (CPU, motherboard and PCI card) VT-d compatible which is |
49 |
currently NOT a piece of cake, today. It relies on industry and |
50 |
manufacturers moving not as fast as software. I would expect more widely |
51 |
VT-d cards in the coming _years_. |
52 |
|
53 |
Now, if you intend to use the wireless card from you hosts and share |
54 |
networks using bridge utilities it _MAY_ be OK: Linux bridging does not |
55 |
always work with all wireless cards (see http://tinyurl.com/ylcutwv for |
56 |
more information). |
57 |
|
58 |
|
59 |
In a more general approach, when I hear "routers" and "wireless" I'm |
60 |
more thinking _embedded_. KVM/qemu would only help you to build your |
61 |
target systems. |
62 |
|
63 |
|
64 |
For embedded (or tiny, at least) systems, I would not use LXC. |
65 |
|
66 |
The drawback with Gentoo is that the current official uclibc stage3 for |
67 |
embedded/tiny systems is obsolete and marked as experimental. In facts, |
68 |
it's very _hard_ if not impossible to use it these days. Making your own |
69 |
cross-compilation environment is not a piece of cake (too), even with |
70 |
dedicated tools such as crossdev. This topic would ask its own book. |
71 |
So, if you want to try Gentoo embedded save your time by working on |
72 |
unofficial stage3. |
73 |
|
74 |
-- |
75 |
Nicolas Sebrecht |