VirtualBox as a VPS Hosting platform?

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Windows hosts.
mikrobson
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VirtualBox as a VPS Hosting platform?

Post by mikrobson »

I am currently using VMWare as our platform to host VPS's in a new startup and have not been all that impressed with it. Although it has been reliable, It is VERY slow to create new VM's and just "feels" kind of slow and bloated. Just doesn't seem to impress me much overall.

I have also tested VirtualBox locally and have been able to VERY quickly create new clones or completely functioning VM's with no problems of any kind. I just instaled it, and it worked flawlessly (way to go guys!!), whereas our VMWare system took MONTHS to configure, and I'm not convinced that it's 100% right still!

We host Windows 2003 VPS's and 5 flavors of Linux VPS's currently, and I have been able to replicate our current VMWare network completely, and everything works great! (See our site at http://www.servesouth.com)

So, my question is,"Has anyone considered (or used) VirtualBox as a VPS hosting platform, and what sort of issues have there been using it for that purpose?"

If VirtualBox CAN be used as a VPS Hosting platform, are there any managment programs that work well with it to manage the whole system (Ubersmith-type programs)?

Thanks!
Cerin
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Re: VirtualBox as a VPS Hosting platform?

Post by Cerin »

It's a shame you never got an answer to this. I guess that's a tentative "No, Virtualbox is not robust enough to run a business on." I'm curious to know if there's a more definitive answer.
blindrain
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Re: VirtualBox as a VPS Hosting platform?

Post by blindrain »

I would like to know this info too. i do have some ideas on how to accomplish this especially with phpvirtualbox.
BillG
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Re: VirtualBox as a VPS Hosting platform?

Post by BillG »

Why not give it a go? Then you will be able to tell us how it goes. I can't see any reason for it not to work.
Bill
vensasa
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Re: VirtualBox as a VPS Hosting platform?

Post by vensasa »

I would say no as well. Virtualbox is unreliable. I have used virtualbox for a year. In the 3.x series it was stable. But around 4.x it started crashing on a daily basis. The worst was our businesses servers by then had become dependant on our VMs and now the whole thing was basically useless. It was a disaster. So thats how things go with Virtualbox. Things just blow up for no reason and no one really seems to care.

No one seems to have taken any interest at all in this very severe problem, even though this problem is a major defect in Virtualbox you would think they would want fix, but the stability and reliability one would think they would realise is important. No one seems to have shown much concern however, and I have seen little visible sign they are worrried at all about reliability.
Martin
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Re: VirtualBox as a VPS Hosting platform?

Post by Martin »

WIthout a some description of the crashes and some way do reproduce them there is no way to fix anything.
VBox 4 never crashed for me.
vensasa
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Re: VirtualBox as a VPS Hosting platform?

Post by vensasa »

Why do you assume i did not file a bug report? I filed bug reports and made posts to this very board and no one has given any indication whatsoever they care about this problem at all or that any effort will be made to fix the problem and a time estimate to it being fixed. No one has really responded to by bug report or given any indication that they even care, such as what they are looking at to find the cause or what subsystem the problem is being caused by and that the problem will be fixed.

Whats been worse than the problem itself is that we have NO IDEA if the problem will EVER be fixed oir that virtual box even cares about our problem. This was a severe problem that caused immense damage to our business and no one cares. Am i know supposed to give Virtualbox glowing reviews?
Martin
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Re: VirtualBox as a VPS Hosting platform?

Post by Martin »

If you use software which can have "an immense business impact" without an official/commercial support contract it's your own problem.
Nobody here on this forum (which is not an Oracle support channel) can guarantee you that Virtualbox will work in your specific environment.
vensasa
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Re: VirtualBox as a VPS Hosting platform?

Post by vensasa »

Why do you assume I do not have one? Actually we do. But even if we did not, if we are having a problem with this bug, other people will be too, and the bug should be fixed. Having unreliable buggy software that does not work for people is unacceptable. This bug needs attention. And, as well, for software that does not work right and there seems to be a complete disregard for reliability, as if they simply do not care that the software does not work right, is this supposed to convince me that it is worthwhile to spend a lot of money on buying licences for this software? Why should I buy software and then to not have it work, anhd have no one care that it does not work?

The BUG needs to be fixed so virtualbox does not crash anymore. Developers need to pay attention to this to fix this problem! Virtualbox DID work for us in 3.x, thats what even makes this more outrageous, we spent money on this and invested a lot of data and infrastructure being built on the VM, believing it was stable, then the rug is pulled out from us and it starts crashing all of the time at 4.x
vensasa
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Re: VirtualBox as a VPS Hosting platform?

Post by vensasa »

By the way, this is the bug report for my problem: http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/9011
Perryg
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Re: VirtualBox as a VPS Hosting platform?

Post by Perryg »

vensasa wrote:Why do you assume I do not have one? Actually we do. But even if we did not, if we are having a problem with this bug, other people will be too, and the bug should be fixed. Having unreliable buggy software that does not work for people is unacceptable. This bug needs attention. And, as well, for software that does not work right and there seems to be a complete disregard for reliability, as if they simply do not care that the software does not work right, is this supposed to convince me that it is worthwhile to spend a lot of money on buying licences for this software? Why should I buy software and then to not have it work, anhd have no one care that it does not work?

The BUG needs to be fixed so virtualbox does not crash anymore. Developers need to pay attention to this to fix this problem! Virtualbox DID work for us in 3.x, thats what even makes this more outrageous, we spent money on this and invested a lot of data and infrastructure being built on the VM, believing it was stable, then the rug is pulled out from us and it starts crashing all of the time at 4.x
If you have purchased a service contract, (actually paying for support IE: License) why are you not talking to Oracle?
This forum is for non-paying open source reports and as such do not get the attention that you seem to need.
vensasa
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Re: VirtualBox as a VPS Hosting platform?

Post by vensasa »

I use Virtualbox. Why not? I prefer to try many different avenues
Perryg
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Re: VirtualBox as a VPS Hosting platform?

Post by Perryg »

But have you contacted Oracle? If as you say you have paid for a service contract then you should talk to them direct?
Call the 800 number and give them your service contract number and let the tell you what to do.
vensasa
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Re: VirtualBox as a VPS Hosting platform?

Post by vensasa »

Did I say i did not? The bottom line is this is a BUG and a DEFECT in the software with Virtualbox repeatedly freezing and seems linked to heavy CPU activity. Our VMs are used for servers and as well desktop sessions. Multimedia does seem to slow down or crash virtualbox much more quickly so this is an indicator of serious problems with reliability and virtualbox not tolerating high levels of activity well at all. The lack of reliability should be a serious concern. Yet the impression we get is no one cares.
vensasa
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Re: VirtualBox as a VPS Hosting platform?

Post by vensasa »

and what about personal users? They as well need a system that is reliable as well, and certainly the indifference and unreliable behaviour is not a convincing reason to use VirtualBox or spend money for this. "Oh it crashes all the time and is unreliable as hell. This is what we need, lets buy it!".
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