[SOLVED] -VirtualBox Clustering & Load balancing

[DR I]

Hi everyone,

I'm working on a new Virtual solution for my company, and we are looking for an OpenSource under GPL solution.
That why we will trying VirtualBox OSE 3.0.2, but I've some question about Virtualbox before.

Can we make a cluster server using virtualbox? I mean, can I aggregate two or more server under linux to made an Virtualbox cluster? Actually at this point I have two Dell server who host two linux and virtualbox each one, is there any way to manage these both server in a unique point?

If I've got one of my server who's crashing, is there any way to automaticaly transfert the virtual machines contains on this one to the second up server?

The second point is about the ressources management.

Could we allocate cpu's as we want or it is virtualbox which balloon these one? Can we create some priority lists?
Same question about memory.

Currently we also have three Xen virtual Server 3.4.0, there are manage in a unique console, and if on of our server is crashing, the others take the lead and the virtual machine aren't shutting down.

I'm sorry for my english I'm french.

[DR I]

Up!

[DR I]

Whoa, morethan two days and no one answers??

Is there anybody to help me to these simple questions?
Is there anybody who have try to implement VirtualBox in corporate?

[vbox4me2]

Yes, you have to look into a hardware fallback solution, VBox itself can't do this yet. You can do a nearfallback with centralized VDI'd.

[DR I]

OK I'll need to develop a frontend Web based application to manage the complete solution.
hum... do you know if there is some API to use for the PHP Language?

I'll take a look at the VDI's centralized solutions.

Thanks a lot.

[vbox4me2]

Management has been covered a few times here, I would not bother as a simple rdp into a Host lets you control everything, even webrdp works fine.

[DR I]

No in fact I told you if any API or modules for PHP was available to create by myself an Central Administration Control based on web services.

Do you know when VBox will be able to manage some Cluster and Ressources Load Balancing ?

Actually, I will try to build an HeartBeath over my three VBox server's

[MKhaos7]

VirtualBox is a Desktop Virtualization solution, and as such, it doesn't provide any of the features you want.
Moving VMs between machines and clustering are features not available in VBox.

If you want you probably can create some sort of scripts to make it behave more or less the way you want, but it will be far from solutions like Xen, KVM or VMware, that are designed with corporate use in mind.

[DR I]

Yes I know about VMWare KVM and Xen (I've mount a Xen on a 50 servers cluster) but on this specific machine I don't have any Intel-VM instrustion, then on Xen I can't run any windows due to the HVM compatibility of our processors.

About VMware, is not an under GPL Solution then I refuse to work on it.

Ok Thanks a lot about your informations!

Ticket Close!!

[vbox4me2]

It doesn't stop you from using standard solutions to get the same thing with VBox, corporate solutions are no more then trowing the right components in the mix. You can shell out thousands to get the competition to do this for you, or do some research and get the same for a tenth. In practicality terms it makes no difference since you have to test either choice anyway.

[MKhaos7]

VBox4me, I agree with you in most part. But in some aspects VirtualBox simply doesn't have the resources for server virtualization use.
For example: you can't do live migration with VBox. Balooming and shared pages aren't there yet, so you end up with some "lost" memory.
Central management and resource monitoring can be accomplished, but will require some coding on the end part.

If it can be done? Course it can. In the end you will have what you are looking for? Don't really know...

[vbox4me2]

It depends what you're looking for and ofcourse what risk and bcm analyses concludes, personally I prefer a hardware fallover system where the top OS isn't aware which box it's running on (which can be done with software), next to that VBox is perfectly suitable for corporate use.

[DR I]

Thanks a lot for your informations and answers, I'll test to make an Php Front end to manage my desktop Virtual machine on this server and use Xen on the other one wich is HVM compatible.

Bye