Message: 9 Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2007 17:57:16 -0400 From: "Gregory Maxwell" gmaxwell@gmail.com Subject: Re: [Toolserver-l] special projects server (asterisk, etc.) To: toolserver-l@lists.wikimedia.org Message-ID: e692861c0710071457k1ebacf99x688177f7de658709@mail.gmail.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
On 10/7/07, The Fearow fearow00@hotmail.com wrote:
Ideally we should allow total VM control - something that
runs a total
new OS. That way if for instance someone wants to run something important that is restricted to only one operating system,
we can easily run it.
No thank you, I like to avoid pain.
We already have enough problems with users setting up widely used tools then losing interest leaving the tools unmaintained. I wouldn't want to scale that up to complete operating systems.
We already have some 5 operating systems used in various parts of Wikimedia infrastructure adding more is just not desirable even if it's for an ancillary server.
Really, I think if we do the special projects thing it should be done more with a focus on making things scalable, maintainable, and generally production grade. .. and getting there usually means simplicity, consistency, learnability, and documentation. "Lets give people a hosted VM to screw around with" is just the wrong direction, IMO.
That might be an argument for going with Solaris Zones... we already use Solaris, and it doesn't introduce any new OS in the virtualised machines. I know Solaris isn't quite as cool as other OS's... :)
Larry Pieniazek Hobby mail: Lar at Miltontrainworks dot com
Larry Pieniazek:
That might be an argument for going with Solaris Zones... we already use Solaris, and it doesn't introduce any new OS in the virtualised machines. I know Solaris isn't quite as cool as other OS's... :)
i'd inclined to agree that from a management point of view, Solaris would be the best choice. but when the login server ran Solaris, we had the problem that people didn't know how to use it (most of our users are only familiar with Linux); that would probably be even more of a problem when users are expected to run the entire system. (e.g., compiling software...)
i'm also considering Linux (BrandZ) zones under a Solaris host; this has the advantage that users see Linux, but it's integrated with Solaris and is much lighter than other Linux virtualisation solutions (like Xen). the downside is that only Linux 2.4 is currently emulated, which restricts the Linux distributions that can be used (Debian 4.0 and CentOS 3.x will work, but more recent versions won't). 2.6 emulation is being worked on, but isn't ready for production yet...
- river.
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