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Xen/Pizzbox Server Testimonial Request
rbroemeling at gmail
May 11, 2005, 12:57 PM
Post #1 of 9 (1985 views)
Permalink
At the company where I presently work, we are looking at getting new
1U (pizza-box) servers, which would be dual-processor affairs that we
want to run Xen on (with one domU pinned to each CPU). They'd be of
typical server stats... fairly high-end processors, a decent amount of
RAM, and so forth.

Up until a week ago, the fore-runner was Dell, with their PowerEdge
line of Xeon-based servers. However, in the past week/two-weeks I
have seen a fair number of complaints about Dell/making them work with
Xen, and so forth. Now, I am sure there are workarounds, and ways to
make things work, and so on... but we haven't purchased (or committed
to purchase) anything yet, and ideally I would like for what we do
purchase to work as easily and stably as possible.

So, I thought I would ask: what are people "out there" running
Xen/Linux on? What is the easiest 1U server (dual-processor, 1-2GB of
RAM, etc.) that you can think of to get Xen/Linux to run (and run
_well_) on, with a minimum of playing with this module/upgrading that
program or library, and so forth.

If it matters, we run Debian in-house, so we'll be setting these boxes
up with Debian Sarge.

Note that we aren't necessarily looking for Intel processors... if
there are some good AMD servers out there that work exceptionally well
with Xen/Linux, then we'd be happy to consider them.

Thanks for whatever insights and/or suggestions you can offer on this.

-- Remi Broemeling

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Re: Xen/Pizzbox Server Testimonial Request [ In reply to ]
amathes at backnine
May 11, 2005, 1:02 PM
Post #2 of 9 (1966 views)
Permalink
running two dual CPU (3.2) dell 1650's with Xen, debian, running great for
a week, just had to get networking up ;) (i had a few problems ... look
back in posts)

i didn't do any "workarounds" for the dell side of things at all.

On Wed, 11 May 2005, Remi Broemeling wrote:

> At the company where I presently work, we are looking at getting new
> 1U (pizza-box) servers, which would be dual-processor affairs that we
> want to run Xen on (with one domU pinned to each CPU). They'd be of
> typical server stats... fairly high-end processors, a decent amount of
> RAM, and so forth.
>
> Up until a week ago, the fore-runner was Dell, with their PowerEdge
> line of Xeon-based servers. However, in the past week/two-weeks I
> have seen a fair number of complaints about Dell/making them work with
> Xen, and so forth. Now, I am sure there are workarounds, and ways to
> make things work, and so on... but we haven't purchased (or committed
> to purchase) anything yet, and ideally I would like for what we do
> purchase to work as easily and stably as possible.
>
> So, I thought I would ask: what are people "out there" running
> Xen/Linux on? What is the easiest 1U server (dual-processor, 1-2GB of
> RAM, etc.) that you can think of to get Xen/Linux to run (and run
> _well_) on, with a minimum of playing with this module/upgrading that
> program or library, and so forth.
>
> If it matters, we run Debian in-house, so we'll be setting these boxes
> up with Debian Sarge.
>
> Note that we aren't necessarily looking for Intel processors... if
> there are some good AMD servers out there that work exceptionally well
> with Xen/Linux, then we'd be happy to consider them.
>
> Thanks for whatever insights and/or suggestions you can offer on this.
>
> -- Remi Broemeling
>
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-users mailing list
> Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
>

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Re: Xen/Pizzbox Server Testimonial Request [ In reply to ]
thomas at cs
May 11, 2005, 2:12 PM
Post #3 of 9 (1968 views)
Permalink
On Wed, 2005-05-11 at 13:02 -0700, andrew mathes wrote:
> running two dual CPU (3.2) dell 1650's with Xen, debian, running great for
> a week, just had to get networking up ;) (i had a few problems ... look
> back in posts)
>
> i didn't do any "workarounds" for the dell side of things at all.

Same here. We use a dual-cpu (3.06) Dell PE 2650, CentOS 4.0 with no
problems. It hasn't gone in production yet, but I did a couple of heavy
CPU and/or I/O tests on it and haven't had any of the Dell-specific
problems.

By the way, has anyone seen/made suitable Xen RPMs for CentOS 4.0?


Greetings, Thomas

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Re: Xen/Pizzbox Server Testimonial Request [ In reply to ]
sean at xensource
May 11, 2005, 2:36 PM
Post #4 of 9 (1968 views)
Permalink
Remi Broemeling wrote:
> So, I thought I would ask: what are people "out there" running
> Xen/Linux on? What is the easiest 1U server (dual-processor, 1-2GB of
> RAM, etc.) that you can think of to get Xen/Linux to run (and run
> _well_) on, with a minimum of playing with this module/upgrading that
> program or library, and so forth.
>

QA is currently playing with some Dell 1425's. No issues to speak of.
I am not a Dell fan, but I have never had issues getting their servers
to work with Linux -- be it RH, Debian, what have you.

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Re: Xen/Pizzbox Server Testimonial Request [ In reply to ]
paul at marchex
May 11, 2005, 3:28 PM
Post #5 of 9 (1967 views)
Permalink
> At the company where I presently work, we are looking at getting new
> 1U (pizza-box) servers, which would be dual-processor affairs that we
> want to run Xen on (with one domU pinned to each CPU). They'd be of
> typical server stats... fairly high-end processors, a decent amount of
> RAM, and so forth.
>
> Up until a week ago, the fore-runner was Dell, with their PowerEdge
> line of Xeon-based servers. However, in the past week/two-weeks I
> have seen a fair number of complaints about Dell/making them work with
> Xen, and so forth. Now, I am sure there are workarounds, and ways to
> make things work, and so on... but we haven't purchased (or committed
> to purchase) anything yet, and ideally I would like for what we do
> purchase to work as easily and stably as possible.
>
> So, I thought I would ask: what are people "out there" running
> Xen/Linux on? What is the easiest 1U server (dual-processor, 1-2GB of
> RAM, etc.) that you can think of to get Xen/Linux to run (and run
> _well_) on, with a minimum of playing with this module/upgrading that
> program or library, and so forth.
>
> If it matters, we run Debian in-house, so we'll be setting these boxes
> up with Debian Sarge.
>
> Note that we aren't necessarily looking for Intel processors... if
> there are some good AMD servers out there that work exceptionally well
> with Xen/Linux, then we'd be happy to consider them.
>
> Thanks for whatever insights and/or suggestions you can offer on this.
>
> -- Remi Broemeling
>

We run a mix of dell 1750's and ASA Computers Supermicro boxes for our
QA lab, we like the ASA systems because the stock xen kernel works with
them and they have 6 memory slots and 4 SCA drive bays, my definite
preference over the Dells- here's the barebones system link on their
site-
http://asacomputers.com/product.asp?pf_id=ASA%5F6013P%2DT



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Re: Xen/Pizzbox Server Testimonial Request [ In reply to ]
mark.williamson at cl
May 11, 2005, 3:42 PM
Post #6 of 9 (1968 views)
Permalink
> On Wed, 2005-05-11 at 13:02 -0700, andrew mathes wrote:
> > running two dual CPU (3.2) dell 1650's with Xen, debian, running great
> > for a week, just had to get networking up ;) (i had a few problems ...
> > look back in posts)
> >
> > i didn't do any "workarounds" for the dell side of things at all.
>
> Same here. We use a dual-cpu (3.06) Dell PE 2650, CentOS 4.0 with no
> problems. It hasn't gone in production yet, but I did a couple of heavy
> CPU and/or I/O tests on it and haven't had any of the Dell-specific
> problems.

PE 2650s work good for some of the test machines in Cambridge. Plus some
Precision workstation / server machines I forget the model numbers of. None
of these are 1U boxes tho...

Cheers,
Mark

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RE: Xen/Pizzbox Server Testimonial Request [ In reply to ]
robert at gonkgonk
May 11, 2005, 3:49 PM
Post #7 of 9 (1970 views)
Permalink
Paul Petersen <paul@marchex.com> wrote:



> We run a mix of dell 1750's and ASA Computers Supermicro boxes for our

> QA lab, we like the ASA systems because the stock xen kernel works



I'll second the recommendation for Dell, Supermicro, and ASA Computers. In
production, I run Dells for the "core" servers and Supermicros from ASA for
the front-end servers. The lab is mostly Supermicros, some bought as
barebones and some bought from ASA, though there are a few old Dells in
there, too.



Supermicro makes a wonderful variety of high quality motherboards, chassis,
and (combined together) barebones machines. You can buy them from many
vendors, should any particular vendor become an issue. From what I've
heard, they respond excellently to RMA requests and such from vendors, too.



Word on the street is that Supermicro will have Opteron solutions out at
some point; if I remember right, I heard January, so not "that" soon,
unfortunately, but it is better than nothing.



robert



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Re: Xen/Pizzbox Server Testimonial Request [ In reply to ]
kip.macy at gmail
May 11, 2005, 9:37 PM
Post #8 of 9 (1973 views)
Permalink
Might as well add my 2 cents - I've been happy with my dual opteron
boxes from penguin computing that I got a year ago.

-Kip


On 5/11/05, Mark Williamson <mark.williamson@cl.cam.ac.uk> wrote:
> > On Wed, 2005-05-11 at 13:02 -0700, andrew mathes wrote:
> > > running two dual CPU (3.2) dell 1650's with Xen, debian, running great
> > > for a week, just had to get networking up ;) (i had a few problems ...
> > > look back in posts)
> > >
> > > i didn't do any "workarounds" for the dell side of things at all.
> >
> > Same here. We use a dual-cpu (3.06) Dell PE 2650, CentOS 4.0 with no
> > problems. It hasn't gone in production yet, but I did a couple of heavy
> > CPU and/or I/O tests on it and haven't had any of the Dell-specific
> > problems.
>
> PE 2650s work good for some of the test machines in Cambridge. Plus some
> Precision workstation / server machines I forget the model numbers of. None
> of these are 1U boxes tho...
>
> Cheers,
> Mark
>
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-users mailing list
> Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
>

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Re: Xen/Pizzbox Server Testimonial Request [ In reply to ]
ledj at dcmedia
May 12, 2005, 12:25 AM
Post #9 of 9 (1962 views)
Permalink
> So, I thought I would ask: what are people "out there" running
> Xen/Linux on? What is the easiest 1U server (dual-processor, 1-2GB of
> RAM, etc.) that you can think of to get Xen/Linux to run (and run
> _well_) on, with a minimum of playing with this module/upgrading that
> program or library, and so forth.
>
> If it matters, we run Debian in-house, so we'll be setting these boxes

We run Xen on Debian Sarge on a Supermicro Dual 3.06 64 bit and 4 GB RAM,
though not using 64 bit yet which is mainly because of Xen but also because
of the scsi-driver that isn't 64 bit clean for the scsi-onboard-controller
which is bad luck! I don't understand why the reseller sell a combination of
64 bit hardware which isn't working with the scsi-controller on linux.

Anyway the Supermicro with Xen runs a fairly big website with about 30-60K
unique visitors each month on a filebacked domU with 1 GB RAM.
Surveilance checks every 5 minutes for a responsetime from three different
physical locations and triggers an alarm if it goes above 5000 ms. It has run
almost for a month and no alarms :) And a weekly newsletter to about 20K
subscribers is also sent from this domU.

--
Med venlig hilsen / Best regards
Lars E. D. Jensen - DCmedia
ledj@dcmedia.biz - http://dcmedia.biz
PGP PUBLIC KEY: http://dcmedia.biz/fileadmin/pub/ledj.asc

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