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Posted to dev@cloudstack.apache.org by Ian Duffy <ia...@ianduffy.ie> on 2013/07/19 01:56:24 UTC

Demo Lab - To rent or To buy

Hi,

I'm looking for peoples personal opinions.

I'm thinking about undertaking a project for a 2 month college assignment
sometime in the future to create an API wrapper and web front end with the
end goal of producing something like the rackspace or linode web-ui. I do
realise 'basic cloud' is a solved problem, but I'm not seeing any *open
source projects* that allow for user sign up, select a package offering,
billing, ticketing etc. along with basic instance/vm management.

The cost of setting up a demo lab seems somewhat expensive.

My idea was: 1 xenserver with 16gb+ ram make use of local storage, 1
cloudstack manager/secondary storage 2gb+ of ram, finally something to host
the wrapper and web app.

What hardware would you recommend for creating a budget, portable and quiet
demo lab?
Do you think I would be better of renting? If so are their any companies
you would suggestion?

Thanks,
Ian

Re: Demo Lab - To rent or To buy

Posted by Kelly Hair <ke...@routerlab.net>.
@Ian - which version of Fusion were you using?

According to
http://www.virtualizationadmin.com/blogs/lowe/news/vmware-fusion-5-enable-vt-xept-inside-a-virtual-machine-288.html,
it is supported on version 5.

I had a similar problem in Workstation when running nested ESXi VMs until I
upgraded.  Mine was due to Ivy Bridge incompatibilities so it was slightly
different but with asking...
On Jul 19, 2013 8:07 AM, "David Nalley" <da...@gnsa.us> wrote:

> So it's not ideal, particularly from a RAM perspective. But my
> personal, local demo lab is using Mac Mini Servers. Mac Mini's are
> small, quiet, don't draw a ton of power and can be repopulated with up
> to 16GB of RAM. The UEFI is somewhat painful for installing things
> that aren't OSX, but not impossible.
>
> --David
>
> On Fri, Jul 19, 2013 at 8:00 AM, Ian Duffy <ia...@ianduffy.ie> wrote:
> > @IIya - Thanks for the response.
> >
> > You dont need a server, a nicely loaded desktop or even large laptop
> would
> >> do the job.
> >
> >
> > I've currently been trying to do this on a late 2011 macbook pro with i7
> > processor, 16gb of ram, OS on SSD. I was running VMware fusion with an
> > xenserver VM and a Cloudstack Manager VM. It was tight for ram but did
> work
> > and VMware fusion did pass the VT technology through to xenserver
> providing
> > HVM capabilities.
> >
> > What is the budget like?
> >
> >
> > Somewhere between 1000 - 1200 eur. I looked at renting with hetzner but
> it
> > was coming out at being 500eur for setup costs and 300eur every month. I
> > have found two second hand dell servers with an Intel Xeon 2.6Ghz (4 dual
> > core processors with HT installed) and 32gb of ram(total of 83.2ghz and
> > 64gb of ram) but storage for them is posing to be an issue. (noisy/loud,
> > electricity cost, internet connection etc.)
> >
> > @Sebastien - That looks pretty interesting! Will take a better read of it
> > tonight.
> >
> > On 19 July 2013 09:39, Sebastien Goasguen <ru...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> On Jul 18, 2013, at 7:56 PM, Ian Duffy <ia...@ianduffy.ie> wrote:
> >>
> >> > Hi,
> >> >
> >> > I'm looking for peoples personal opinions.
> >> >
> >> > I'm thinking about undertaking a project for a 2 month college
> assignment
> >> > sometime in the future to create an API wrapper and web front end with
> >> the
> >> > end goal of producing something like the rackspace or linode web-ui.
> I do
> >> > realise 'basic cloud' is a solved problem, but I'm not seeing any
> *open
> >> > source projects* that allow for user sign up, select a package
> offering,
> >> > billing, ticketing etc. along with basic instance/vm management.
> >> >
> >>
> >> It's kinda of nice, but I think you have proven that you can tackle a
> much
> >> more challenging problem than this one.
> >>
> >> tackle this instead:
> >>
> >> https://github.com/Netflix/Cloud-Prize/wiki
> >>
> >>
> >> > The cost of setting up a demo lab seems somewhat expensive.
> >> >
> >> > My idea was: 1 xenserver with 16gb+ ram make use of local storage, 1
> >> > cloudstack manager/secondary storage 2gb+ of ram, finally something to
> >> host
> >> > the wrapper and web app.
> >> >
> >> > What hardware would you recommend for creating a budget, portable and
> >> quiet
> >> > demo lab?
> >> > Do you think I would be better of renting? If so are their any
> companies
> >> > you would suggestion?
> >> >
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> > Thanks,
> >> > Ian
> >>
> >>
>

Re: Demo Lab - To rent or To buy

Posted by David Nalley <da...@gnsa.us>.
So it's not ideal, particularly from a RAM perspective. But my
personal, local demo lab is using Mac Mini Servers. Mac Mini's are
small, quiet, don't draw a ton of power and can be repopulated with up
to 16GB of RAM. The UEFI is somewhat painful for installing things
that aren't OSX, but not impossible.

--David

On Fri, Jul 19, 2013 at 8:00 AM, Ian Duffy <ia...@ianduffy.ie> wrote:
> @IIya - Thanks for the response.
>
> You dont need a server, a nicely loaded desktop or even large laptop would
>> do the job.
>
>
> I've currently been trying to do this on a late 2011 macbook pro with i7
> processor, 16gb of ram, OS on SSD. I was running VMware fusion with an
> xenserver VM and a Cloudstack Manager VM. It was tight for ram but did work
> and VMware fusion did pass the VT technology through to xenserver providing
> HVM capabilities.
>
> What is the budget like?
>
>
> Somewhere between 1000 - 1200 eur. I looked at renting with hetzner but it
> was coming out at being 500eur for setup costs and 300eur every month. I
> have found two second hand dell servers with an Intel Xeon 2.6Ghz (4 dual
> core processors with HT installed) and 32gb of ram(total of 83.2ghz and
> 64gb of ram) but storage for them is posing to be an issue. (noisy/loud,
> electricity cost, internet connection etc.)
>
> @Sebastien - That looks pretty interesting! Will take a better read of it
> tonight.
>
> On 19 July 2013 09:39, Sebastien Goasguen <ru...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> On Jul 18, 2013, at 7:56 PM, Ian Duffy <ia...@ianduffy.ie> wrote:
>>
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > I'm looking for peoples personal opinions.
>> >
>> > I'm thinking about undertaking a project for a 2 month college assignment
>> > sometime in the future to create an API wrapper and web front end with
>> the
>> > end goal of producing something like the rackspace or linode web-ui. I do
>> > realise 'basic cloud' is a solved problem, but I'm not seeing any *open
>> > source projects* that allow for user sign up, select a package offering,
>> > billing, ticketing etc. along with basic instance/vm management.
>> >
>>
>> It's kinda of nice, but I think you have proven that you can tackle a much
>> more challenging problem than this one.
>>
>> tackle this instead:
>>
>> https://github.com/Netflix/Cloud-Prize/wiki
>>
>>
>> > The cost of setting up a demo lab seems somewhat expensive.
>> >
>> > My idea was: 1 xenserver with 16gb+ ram make use of local storage, 1
>> > cloudstack manager/secondary storage 2gb+ of ram, finally something to
>> host
>> > the wrapper and web app.
>> >
>> > What hardware would you recommend for creating a budget, portable and
>> quiet
>> > demo lab?
>> > Do you think I would be better of renting? If so are their any companies
>> > you would suggestion?
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> > Thanks,
>> > Ian
>>
>>

Re: Demo Lab - To rent or To buy

Posted by Ian Duffy <ia...@ianduffy.ie>.
@IIya - Thanks for the response.

You dont need a server, a nicely loaded desktop or even large laptop would
> do the job.


I've currently been trying to do this on a late 2011 macbook pro with i7
processor, 16gb of ram, OS on SSD. I was running VMware fusion with an
xenserver VM and a Cloudstack Manager VM. It was tight for ram but did work
and VMware fusion did pass the VT technology through to xenserver providing
HVM capabilities.

What is the budget like?


Somewhere between 1000 - 1200 eur. I looked at renting with hetzner but it
was coming out at being 500eur for setup costs and 300eur every month. I
have found two second hand dell servers with an Intel Xeon 2.6Ghz (4 dual
core processors with HT installed) and 32gb of ram(total of 83.2ghz and
64gb of ram) but storage for them is posing to be an issue. (noisy/loud,
electricity cost, internet connection etc.)

@Sebastien - That looks pretty interesting! Will take a better read of it
tonight.

On 19 July 2013 09:39, Sebastien Goasguen <ru...@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> On Jul 18, 2013, at 7:56 PM, Ian Duffy <ia...@ianduffy.ie> wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I'm looking for peoples personal opinions.
> >
> > I'm thinking about undertaking a project for a 2 month college assignment
> > sometime in the future to create an API wrapper and web front end with
> the
> > end goal of producing something like the rackspace or linode web-ui. I do
> > realise 'basic cloud' is a solved problem, but I'm not seeing any *open
> > source projects* that allow for user sign up, select a package offering,
> > billing, ticketing etc. along with basic instance/vm management.
> >
>
> It's kinda of nice, but I think you have proven that you can tackle a much
> more challenging problem than this one.
>
> tackle this instead:
>
> https://github.com/Netflix/Cloud-Prize/wiki
>
>
> > The cost of setting up a demo lab seems somewhat expensive.
> >
> > My idea was: 1 xenserver with 16gb+ ram make use of local storage, 1
> > cloudstack manager/secondary storage 2gb+ of ram, finally something to
> host
> > the wrapper and web app.
> >
> > What hardware would you recommend for creating a budget, portable and
> quiet
> > demo lab?
> > Do you think I would be better of renting? If so are their any companies
> > you would suggestion?
> >
>
>
>
>
> > Thanks,
> > Ian
>
>

Re: Demo Lab - To rent or To buy

Posted by Sebastien Goasguen <ru...@gmail.com>.
On Jul 18, 2013, at 7:56 PM, Ian Duffy <ia...@ianduffy.ie> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I'm looking for peoples personal opinions.
> 
> I'm thinking about undertaking a project for a 2 month college assignment
> sometime in the future to create an API wrapper and web front end with the
> end goal of producing something like the rackspace or linode web-ui. I do
> realise 'basic cloud' is a solved problem, but I'm not seeing any *open
> source projects* that allow for user sign up, select a package offering,
> billing, ticketing etc. along with basic instance/vm management.
> 

It's kinda of nice, but I think you have proven that you can tackle a much more challenging problem than this one.

tackle this instead:

https://github.com/Netflix/Cloud-Prize/wiki


> The cost of setting up a demo lab seems somewhat expensive.
> 
> My idea was: 1 xenserver with 16gb+ ram make use of local storage, 1
> cloudstack manager/secondary storage 2gb+ of ram, finally something to host
> the wrapper and web app.
> 
> What hardware would you recommend for creating a budget, portable and quiet
> demo lab?
> Do you think I would be better of renting? If so are their any companies
> you would suggestion?
> 




> Thanks,
> Ian

Re: Demo Lab - To rent or To buy

Posted by Ian Duffy <ia...@ianduffy.ie>.
@Kelly - Assuming you mis-read there were no HVM/VT-passthrough issues with
my version of vmware fusion.

@Joe and @David - Thanks for the feedback, will definitely look into that.

Re: Demo Lab - To rent or To buy

Posted by Joe Brockmeier <jz...@zonker.net>.
On Thu, Jul 18, 2013, at 08:27 PM, Musayev, Ilya wrote:
> Specs would really depend on budget, in US I can build this setup for
> about $800, more or less depends on the componets.

One of the things I've usually done is go to Geeks.com and buy a
second-hand workstation. Typically you can pick up a pretty beefy
machine for cheap. For example, they have a quad-core Xeon machine with
12GB of RAM for ~$350. (The inventory varies quite a bit, though. If you
don't see something you like, check back in a few days. If you do see
something you like, it might be gone in a few days if you wait to make a
decision...)

Best,

jzb
-- 
Joe Brockmeier
jzb@zonker.net
Twitter: @jzb
http://www.dissociatedpress.net/

RE: Demo Lab - To rent or To buy

Posted by "Musayev, Ilya" <im...@webmd.net>.
Ian

You dont need a server, a nicely loaded desktop or even large laptop would do the job.

What is the budget like?

I would go with desktop grade motherboard (budget being tight), ssd disk for root, sata for remaining.  Setup multiple disks in raid 1 or raid 5. CPU depending on the budget. RAM being affordable is not a big deal.

My personal preference would be to stay with KVM as then you can remain on stock linux with no kernel trouble and use it as desktop development machine when/if needed or don't use it as desktop if u want it to be "server".

I usually go on sites like newegg and amazon and read reviews.

Specs would really depend on budget, in US I can build this setup for about $800, more or less depends on the componets.

Regards
Ilya


- All mistakes in this message are not mine but Android's.


-------- Original message --------
From: Ian Duffy <ia...@ianduffy.ie>
Date:
To: CloudStack Dev <de...@cloudstack.apache.org>
Subject: Demo Lab - To rent or To buy


Hi,

I'm looking for peoples personal opinions.

I'm thinking about undertaking a project for a 2 month college assignment
sometime in the future to create an API wrapper and web front end with the
end goal of producing something like the rackspace or linode web-ui. I do
realise 'basic cloud' is a solved problem, but I'm not seeing any *open
source projects* that allow for user sign up, select a package offering,
billing, ticketing etc. along with basic instance/vm management.

The cost of setting up a demo lab seems somewhat expensive.

My idea was: 1 xenserver with 16gb+ ram make use of local storage, 1
cloudstack manager/secondary storage 2gb+ of ram, finally something to host
the wrapper and web app.

What hardware would you recommend for creating a budget, portable and quiet
demo lab?
Do you think I would be better of renting? If so are their any companies
you would suggestion?

Thanks,
Ian