OpenVZ
From Newlug
08/14/2008
An email from Robb...
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<snip>
It was a pleasure to meet with the group - I hope to attend future meetings!
Attached is my outline from the meeting. Also, here I the link to the article from HP that I mentioned a few times: http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2007/HPL-2007-59.pdf
Also, http://www.openvz.org has some really neat information and a great form page.
<snip>
Thanks, again, for giving me the time with your group!
Sincerely,
Robb D. Myers - http://www.netsonic.net
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Here is Robb's outline from the meeting: http://wisconsinlinux.org/notwiki/newlug/NEWLUG_Presentation_14aug08.pdf
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Ross Larson's notes from the meeting:
August 14th, 2008
In attendance- Brad Bingham, Bob Waldron, Andy Mclean, John Carnell, Tim Bolz, Robb Myers, Ross Larson, Tom Scott, Ken Ebert.
Chit chat- barcamp-Early October- free! everyone is welcome! http://barcampmilwaukee.com/
John Carnell gave a quick heads up regarding the upcoming October 9th meeting at Thrivent- it will be a video conference, presenting from the Twin Cities, and broadcast to Appleton.
Main Presenter: Robb Myers- Account Manager, Netsonic
Started in 1996 from one man's bedroom, Netsonic started small, in GB- they now have the largest commercial datacenter in Northeastern WI.
Redundant Internet connections-above and below ground UPS for everything- There is a backup generator that have 4 days worth of fuel- tested every Wednesday to see if it operates. 9000 sq foot datacenter-currently at about 50% capacity. robb@Netsonic.net If you are a web developer, and are in the mood to redevelop the Netsonic web page, some free server space may be in the cards for you! Contact Robb if you have any questions!
They are dedicated to 24 hour support. They are not the biggest, but they do have a lot of flexibility that comes from not having to deal with big company beaurocracy.
This brings us up to virtualization-"a broad term that refers to the abstraction of computer resources"
Netsonic's role in virtualization. They just started working with virtualized servers in 2008. Early on, Virtualization had gotten a bad rep because of sleazy providers that put too many vitual servers on the same machine, causing major performance problems. There are still opportunities for consolidation with virtualization-not every server runs at peak all the time. OpenVZ has allowed Netsonic to provide "crash-resistant" servers that are much less likely to crash (and crash other virtual servers on the same physical box) OpenVZ is free, and allows them to monitor each server separately. They can even run reports on the system, and give reports on the resources that are being used by the system without having to snoop on the server itself. Robb will provide a link on that.
Before virtualized containers, overuse of resources would crash the system, cause a support call, and cause Netsonic to reboot the server. Virtualization allows the virtual container to be managed, acting as a parent that can kill processes and control resources, so that the machine doesn't overrun itself. Virtualization allows an alert to be sent to Netsonic to explain what is happening to the resources.
Xen info- Robb will send a link about performance on physical versus virtual services. Xen is slower than OpenVZ for what Netsonic does. OpenVZ is linux specific, which is fine with them right now. Some highly technical users object to being managed, but the reality is that high end users crash their boxes more often than most other users. The virtualization allows more uptime and reduces risk of physical damage to the servers.
You'd be surprised how few people back up their servers, until something breaks or goes down. They don't currently have off-site backup, but they do have seven days worth of daily backups of every virtual system. That allows them to immediately roll back to any stored image in case of failure.
Virtual Private servers are fun. They run as dedicated servers, but they can change the amount of resources that are available as hosting needs either increase or decrease, instead of being stuck with a huge server that is way more than you need. Virtual swaps to dedicated environments are an easy switch- it takes about 20 minutes. They have also started to offer migration services to limit downtime and make things easier on their side.
In conclusion, OpenVZ has opened a lot of doors on the hosting side, allowing clients to make small changes and keep focus on their passion instead of the nuts and bolts of managing everything else.
Robb opened to question, and thanked us for our time.
