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Virtual Server 2005

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Add Solution

Clustering VM"s

Source: microsoft.public.virtualserver
Sent: 07/29/2008
From: "JohnC" <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

I have a Dell R905, 4 - 2.0ghz quad core Opteron's, 32gb RAM, connected to
Dell MD3000 array with 2tb storage. I'd like to know thoughts on if we can
run 3 VM clusters and 3 VM standalone servers on a box of this size? I'd
allocate 4gb RAM to each primary server and 3gb to each cluster partner. The
reason for the clusters is completely for software maintenance/patching, the
apps can't be down (yeah whatever). These servers now run on individual Dell
2650's w/Xeon 3.0 ghz 4 gb RAM. I collected 2 weeks of perfmon and the CPU
avg was about 10%, peaks at 35% for short periods. Are there any resources
to gauge how much you can push a box with Virtual Server 2005 or am I
basically on a build it and see adventure?

Thanks for any thoughts!

john

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Related Messages

Re: Clustering VM"s

Sent: 07/30/2008
From: "Tim Walsh" <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

Total of 9 VMs if my count is correct should be able to run on your machine,
with the standard cavet regarding resources. Basically, you have 16
processors with 2 GB memory per virtual machine and you'll have unused
processer and memory for the physical machine. Storage and network IO will
be your major concern.

Keep in mind that building clusters for production work isn't recommended at
this time. For testing and labs it's okay, but for production work your
putting your eggs all in one basket.

"JohnC" <(email address - cut out)> wrote in message
news:(email address - cut out)...

Show quoted text

>I have a Dell R905, 4 - 2.0ghz quad core Opteron's, 32gb RAM, connected to
>Dell MD3000 array with 2tb storage. I'd like to know thoughts on if we can
>run 3 VM clusters and 3 VM standalone servers on a box of this size? I'd
>allocate 4gb RAM to each primary server and 3gb to each cluster partner.
>The reason for the clusters is completely for software
>maintenance/patching, the apps can't be down (yeah whatever). These servers
>now run on individual Dell 2650's w/Xeon 3.0 ghz 4 gb RAM. I collected 2
>weeks of perfmon and the CPU avg was about 10%, peaks at 35% for short
>periods. Are there any resources to gauge how much you can push a box with
>Virtual Server 2005 or am I basically on a build it and see adventure?
>
> Thanks for any thoughts!
>
> john
>

Re: Clustering VM"s

Sent: 07/30/2008
From: (email address - cut out)
Message:

On Jul 30, 9:27=A0am, "Tim Walsh" <(email address - cut out)> wrote:
ne,
l
at
to
an
ers
th

Tim,

Thanks for your reply. Yes I understand everything is based on
resources. I failed to mention that I *could* also cluster the hosts
if the host can handle the workload, that way I have a way to take
production servers offline to patch with no downtime, and also a fail-
over for hardware failure on the host. We have redundant networks
already. I guess my only worry would be the disk array, which would be
RAID5, so it would take a pretty catastrophic event to knock it all
offline completely. But your right all the eggs would be resting on
that disk array as thats where the VHD's would all reside.

John

Show quoted text

> Total of 9 VMs if my count is correct should be able to run on your machi=
> with the standard cavet regarding resources. Basically, you have 16
> processors with 2 GB memory per virtual machine and you'll have unused
> processer and memory for the physical machine. Storage and network IO wil=
> be your major concern.
>
> Keep in mind that building clusters for production work isn't recommended=
> this time. For testing and labs it's okay, but for production work your
> putting your eggs all in one basket.
>
> "JohnC" <(email address - cut out)> wrote in message
>
> news:(email address - cut out)...
>
>
>
> >I have a Dell R905, 4 - 2.0ghz quad core Opteron's, 32gb RAM, connected =
> >Dell MD3000 array with 2tb storage. I'd like to know thoughts on if we c=
> >run 3 VM clusters and 3 VM standalone servers on a box of this size? I'd
> >allocate 4gb RAM to each primary server and 3gb to each cluster partner.
> >The reason for the clusters is completely for software
> >maintenance/patching, the apps can't be down (yeah whatever). These serv=
> >now run on individual Dell 2650's w/Xeon 3.0 ghz 4 gb RAM. I collected 2
> >weeks of perfmon and the CPU avg was about 10%, peaks at 35% for short
> >periods. Are there any resources to gauge how much you can push a box wi=
> >Virtual Server 2005 or am I basically on a build it and see adventure?
>
> > Thanks for any thoughts!
>
> > john- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Re: Clustering VM"s

Sent: 07/31/2008
From: "Tim Walsh" <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

John,

Your right a Raid 5 would have to take a major hit to lose your VMs, one
option would be to use VSS and take snap shots of your VMs and back the
snapshot up on a different machine, assuming you have the space available
elsewhere.

I just build a Clustered VM for my developers so they could practice setting
up IIS on it before I give them the new hardware. Their manager wasn't happy
that I wouldn't give them 2 physical clusters and insisted they use a
virtual one to play with. The developer himself is amazed at the virtual
machines performance, and the speed at which I set it up for him, he barely
had time to get a cup of coffee. The MS white papers are great tools when
setting them up.

Regards
Tim
<(email address - cut out)> wrote in message
news:(email address - cut out)...
On Jul 30, 9:27 am, "Tim Walsh" <(email address - cut out)> wrote:

Tim,

Thanks for your reply. Yes I understand everything is based on
resources. I failed to mention that I *could* also cluster the hosts
if the host can handle the workload, that way I have a way to take
production servers offline to patch with no downtime, and also a fail-
over for hardware failure on the host. We have redundant networks
already. I guess my only worry would be the disk array, which would be
RAID5, so it would take a pretty catastrophic event to knock it all
offline completely. But your right all the eggs would be resting on
that disk array as thats where the VHD's would all reside.

John

Show quoted text

> Total of 9 VMs if my count is correct should be able to run on your
> machine,
> with the standard cavet regarding resources. Basically, you have 16
> processors with 2 GB memory per virtual machine and you'll have unused
> processer and memory for the physical machine. Storage and network IO will
> be your major concern.
>
> Keep in mind that building clusters for production work isn't recommended
> at
> this time. For testing and labs it's okay, but for production work your
> putting your eggs all in one basket.
>
> "JohnC" <(email address - cut out)> wrote in message
>
> news:(email address - cut out)...
>
>
>
> >I have a Dell R905, 4 - 2.0ghz quad core Opteron's, 32gb RAM, connected
> >to
> >Dell MD3000 array with 2tb storage. I'd like to know thoughts on if we
> >can
> >run 3 VM clusters and 3 VM standalone servers on a box of this size? I'd
> >allocate 4gb RAM to each primary server and 3gb to each cluster partner.
> >The reason for the clusters is completely for software
> >maintenance/patching, the apps can't be down (yeah whatever). These
> >servers
> >now run on individual Dell 2650's w/Xeon 3.0 ghz 4 gb RAM. I collected 2
> >weeks of perfmon and the CPU avg was about 10%, peaks at 35% for short
> >periods. Are there any resources to gauge how much you can push a box
> >with
> >Virtual Server 2005 or am I basically on a build it and see adventure?
>
> > Thanks for any thoughts!
>
> > john- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Re: Clustering VM"s

Sent: 07/31/2008
From: "Edwin vMierlo [MVP]" <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

at

Tim,

Just curious, is that recommendation from Microsoft ?

Show quoted text

>
> Keep in mind that building clusters for production work isn't recommended
> this time.

Re: Clustering VM"s

Sent: 08/01/2008
From: "Tim Walsh" <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

Ed,

As far as I know it is a Microsoft recommendation. I might be misreading the
note at the bottom of this KB article

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/840192

Note Because Virtual Server 2005 does not support the failover from a
virtual machine on one host computer to a virtual machine that resides on a
second host computer, a server cluster that you configure in Virtual Server
2005 is best suited for testing and development purposes. Microsoft
recommends that you do not use this configuration in a production
environment.

Regards
Tim

"Edwin vMierlo [MVP]" <(email address - cut out)> wrote in
message news:(email address - cut out)...

Show quoted text

>
>>
>> Keep in mind that building clusters for production work isn't recommended
> at
>> this time.
>
> Tim,
>
> Just curious, is that recommendation from Microsoft ?
>
>

Re: Clustering VM"s

Sent: 08/02/2008
From: "JohnC" <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

VS 2005 R2 is a cluster aware application though isn't it?

"Tim Walsh" <(email address - cut out)> wrote in message
news:(email address - cut out)...

Show quoted text

> Ed,
>
> As far as I know it is a Microsoft recommendation. I might be misreading
> the note at the bottom of this KB article
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/840192
>
> Note Because Virtual Server 2005 does not support the failover from a
> virtual machine on one host computer to a virtual machine that resides on
> a second host computer, a server cluster that you configure in Virtual
> Server 2005 is best suited for testing and development purposes. Microsoft
> recommends that you do not use this configuration in a production
> environment.
>
> Regards
> Tim
>
> "Edwin vMierlo [MVP]" <(email address - cut out)> wrote in
> message news:(email address - cut out)...
>>
>>>
>>> Keep in mind that building clusters for production work isn't
>>> recommended
>> at
>>> this time.
>>
>> Tim,
>>
>> Just curious, is that recommendation from Microsoft ?
>>
>>
>
>

Re: Clustering VM"s

Sent: 08/02/2008
From: "Bruce Sanderson" <(email address - cut out)am>
Message:

In case you aren't aware, there is a newsgroup specifically for clustering
which you might find useful - microsoft.public.windows.server.clustering.

--
Bruce Sanderson
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders

It is perfectly useless to know the right answer to the wrong question.

"JohnC" <(email address - cut out)> wrote in message
news:(email address - cut out)...

Show quoted text

Re: Clustering VM"s

Sent: 08/02/2008
From: "Tim Walsh" <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

As far as I know, there is a white paper on how to cluster the Host machines
as as a separate white paper on how to cluster the VMs themselves. To
clarify, this thread has been about clusting the VMs and not the host
machines or did I misunderstand?

Using Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 to Create and Configure a Two-Node
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Cluster
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/virtualserver/deploy/cvs2005.mspx

Virtual Server Host Clustering Step-by-Step Guide for Virtual Server 2005 R2
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/9a3de6d0-c820-41ac-860c-de950d271f8d1033.mspx?mfr=true

"JohnC" <(email address - cut out)> wrote in message
news:(email address - cut out)...

Show quoted text

> VS 2005 R2 is a cluster aware application though isn't it?
>
>
>
> "Tim Walsh" <(email address - cut out)> wrote in message
> news:(email address - cut out)...
>> Ed,
>>
>> As far as I know it is a Microsoft recommendation. I might be misreading
>> the note at the bottom of this KB article
>>
>> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/840192
>>
>> Note Because Virtual Server 2005 does not support the failover from a
>> virtual machine on one host computer to a virtual machine that resides on
>> a second host computer, a server cluster that you configure in Virtual
>> Server 2005 is best suited for testing and development purposes.
>> Microsoft recommends that you do not use this configuration in a
>> production environment.
>>
>> Regards
>> Tim
>>
>> "Edwin vMierlo [MVP]" <(email address - cut out)> wrote in
>> message news:(email address - cut out)...
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Keep in mind that building clusters for production work isn't
>>>> recommended
>>> at
>>>> this time.
>>>
>>> Tim,
>>>
>>> Just curious, is that recommendation from Microsoft ?
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>

Re: Clustering VM"s

Sent: 08/05/2008
From: (email address - cut out)
Message:

On Aug 2, 1:35=A0pm, "Bruce Sanderson" <(email address - cut out)am>
wrote:
g
to
an
ers
th

Yes I was referring to the VM's , sorry for getting off track
there......

Show quoted text

> In case you aren't aware, there is a newsgroup specifically for clusterin=
> which you might find useful - microsoft.public.windows.server.clustering.
>
> --
> Bruce Sandersonhttp://members.shaw.ca/bsanders
>
> It is perfectly useless to know the right answer to the wrong question.
>
> "JohnC" <(email address - cut out)> wrote in message
>
> news:(email address - cut out)...
>
>
>
> >I have a Dell R905, 4 - 2.0ghz quad core Opteron's, 32gb RAM, connected =
> >Dell MD3000 array with 2tb storage. I'd like to know thoughts on if we c=
> >run 3 VM clusters and 3 VM standalone servers on a box of this size? I'd
> >allocate 4gb RAM to each primary server and 3gb to each cluster partner.
> >The reason for the clusters is completely for software
> >maintenance/patching, the apps can't be down (yeah whatever). These serv=
> >now run on individual Dell 2650's w/Xeon 3.0 ghz 4 gb RAM. I collected 2
> >weeks of perfmon and the CPU avg was about 10%, peaks at 35% for short
> >periods. Are there any resources to gauge how much you can push a box wi=
> >Virtual Server 2005 or am I basically on a build it and see adventure?
>
> > Thanks for any thoughts!
>
> > john- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Re: Clustering VM"s

Sent: 08/05/2008
From: "Bruce Sanderson" <(email address - cut out)am>
Message:

Hey, no problem! It just occurred to me that the clustering newsgroup might
be useful to you.

--
Bruce Sanderson
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders

It is perfectly useless to know the right answer to the wrong question.

<(email address - cut out)> wrote in message
news:(email address - cut out)...
On Aug 2, 1:35 pm, "Bruce Sanderson" <(email address - cut out)am>
wrote:

Yes I was referring to the VM's , sorry for getting off track
there......

Show quoted text

> In case you aren't aware, there is a newsgroup specifically for clustering
> which you might find useful - microsoft.public.windows.server.clustering.
>
> --
> Bruce Sandersonhttp://members.shaw.ca/bsanders
>
> It is perfectly useless to know the right answer to the wrong question.
>
> "JohnC" <(email address - cut out)> wrote in message
>
> news:(email address - cut out)...
>
>
>
> >I have a Dell R905, 4 - 2.0ghz quad core Opteron's, 32gb RAM, connected
> >to
> >Dell MD3000 array with 2tb storage. I'd like to know thoughts on if we
> >can
> >run 3 VM clusters and 3 VM standalone servers on a box of this size? I'd
> >allocate 4gb RAM to each primary server and 3gb to each cluster partner.
> >The reason for the clusters is completely for software
> >maintenance/patching, the apps can't be down (yeah whatever). These
> >servers
> >now run on individual Dell 2650's w/Xeon 3.0 ghz 4 gb RAM. I collected 2
> >weeks of perfmon and the CPU avg was about 10%, peaks at 35% for short
> >periods. Are there any resources to gauge how much you can push a box
> >with
> >Virtual Server 2005 or am I basically on a build it and see adventure?
>
> > Thanks for any thoughts!
>
> > john- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Re: Clustering VM"s

Sent: 08/13/2008
From: "Edwin vMierlo [MVP]" <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

thanks for that info, good to know !

rgds,
Edwin.

"Tim Walsh" <(email address - cut out)> wrote in message
news:(email address - cut out)...
the
a
Server
recommended

Show quoted text

> Ed,
>
> As far as I know it is a Microsoft recommendation. I might be misreading
> note at the bottom of this KB article
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/840192
>
> Note Because Virtual Server 2005 does not support the failover from a
> virtual machine on one host computer to a virtual machine that resides on
> second host computer, a server cluster that you configure in Virtual
> 2005 is best suited for testing and development purposes. Microsoft
> recommends that you do not use this configuration in a production
> environment.
>
> Regards
> Tim
>
> "Edwin vMierlo [MVP]" <(email address - cut out)> wrote in
> message news:(email address - cut out)...
> >
> >>
> >> Keep in mind that building clusters for production work isn't
> > at
> >> this time.
> >
> > Tim,
> >
> > Just curious, is that recommendation from Microsoft ?
> >
> >
>
>

Post Reply | This is Spam! | Mark as Spam

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