Linux OS advice for building a SAM-SD
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I’m looking to build a SAM-SD for a NAS backup repository for VM’s. I’m currently running VMware ESXi hypervisors in my production environment. The SAM-SD is going to be a dedicated NAS to serve up NFS file storage. I’m planning on installing XenServer for the SAM-SD Hypervisor and a Linux OS VM on XenServer for the file server. I need help picking a Linux distro to spin up to do the file serving. My Linux knowledge is only basic and was looking for some help. I’ve seen some suggestions on this forum to use Fedora as the Linux OS to do the file serving. I see that @JaredBusch has created some nice tutorials for installing both Fedora and Debian. Can anyone help me understand if I should be looking at a Fedora or Debian OS? Also, Turnkey Linux has a pre-built File Server that is ready to go that takes a lot of the work out of this for someone with only basic Linux knowledge. Is there a reason not to use the Turnkey Linux build? My last question is in regards to the Linux virtual disk. I plan on creating a 6 TB or larger OBR 10 of local storage on the SAM-SD. When I spin up the Linux distro, is there anything I need to know to prepare the Linux virtual disk. I ask because with Windows, this is pretty straight forward. Just add a 6 TB thin provisioned virtual disk and the virtual HDD will grow as needed. Is this the same in the Linux world?
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Turnkey isn't an easily supported system, but it's easy to get invested in.
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I don't use XenServer, but wasn't there some issue with larger disks on the guest machines?
@DustinB3403 should know that answer.
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2TB minus 4GB is the limit for local storage.
Detached storage doesn't have this limit.
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If I was building this, I would use KVM on Fedora with a Fedora guest VM, just because I prefer Fedora/RHEL. No other real reason.
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@dustinb3403 Oh wow, I was not aware of the 2TB virtual HDD limit with XenServer. I will be looking into a new Hypervisor for this. Thanks for the heads up! I like XenServer and ESXi. I personally didn't like working with Hyper-V and it was annoying that it had to be integrated with Active Directory. @JaredBusch I will check out KVM, but with no GUI, it doesn't not seem as easy to work with as others.
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@magicmarker said in Linux OS advice for building a SAM-SD:
@JaredBusch I will check out KVM, but with no GUI, it doesn't not seem as easy to work with as others.
You mean a GUI like this?
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@dustinb3403 said in Linux OS advice for building a SAM-SD:
Turnkey isn't an easily supported system, but it's easy to get invested in.
I would avoid Turnkey across the board. Nothing against them individually, just conceptually. They fall into the Jurassic Park trap.
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@jaredbusch said in Linux OS advice for building a SAM-SD:
I don't use XenServer, but wasn't there some issue with larger disks on the guest machines?
@DustinB3403 should know that answer.
Yes, KVM might be better here.
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@jaredbusch said in Linux OS advice for building a SAM-SD:
If I was building this, I would use KVM on Fedora with a Fedora guest VM, just because I prefer Fedora/RHEL. No other real reason.
Same here. Fedora on KVM sounds like the way to go.
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@magicmarker said in Linux OS advice for building a SAM-SD:
@dustinb3403 Oh wow, I was not aware of the 2TB virtual HDD limit with XenServer. I will be looking into a new Hypervisor for this. Thanks for the heads up! I like XenServer and ESXi. I personally didn't like working with Hyper-V and it was annoying that it had to be integrated with Active Directory.
Hyper-V has no dependency on Active Directory. While we could discuss the merits of using or avoiding AD, tons of people believe that Hyper-V should not be connected to AD, so using it that way is extremely popular.
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@scottalanmiller said in Linux OS advice for building a SAM-SD:
tons of people believe that Hyper-V should not be connected to AD, so using it that way is extremely popular.
We have a thread somewhere stating why that is a silly thing to do if they already have AD. Obviously if there is no AD, that is fine.
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@magicmarker said in Linux OS advice for building a SAM-SD:
@dustinb3403 Oh wow, I was not aware of the 2TB virtual HDD limit with XenServer. I will be looking into a new Hypervisor for this. Thanks for the heads up! I like XenServer and ESXi. I personally didn't like working with Hyper-V and it was annoying that it had to be integrated with Active Directory. @JaredBusch I will check out KVM, but with no GUI, it doesn't not seem as easy to work with as others.
The issue is with local storage only. When using detatched storage this issue isn't present. Some weird limit that the devs had at the time.
You can have something like 16TB attached to a single VM, just split up 8 times, which could then be spanned in the VM so it looks like a single drive.
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I think I was confusing KVM with Xen. Maybe it was Xen that has no GUI. So am I just just doing a Fedora minimal install and adding the KVM package? How are you managing the VM's with the GUI? Are you installing a KVM management tool on an other pc? Or are you running Fedora with a desktop and opening up the KVM virtual machine manager app from there? I have a lot to read up on.
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@magicmarker said in Linux OS advice for building a SAM-SD:
I think I was confusing KVM with Xen. Maybe it was Xen that has no GUI.
All hypervisors have a GUI if you add one, none have one if you don't. It's universal. In theory, someone could make a hypervisor with a build in GUI, but that would be crazy and no one has ever done it and we don't anticipate that anyone ever will. But no hypervisor limits you to that and there is no hypervisor on the market for which a GUI has not been built. All hypervisors have multiple GUI options today, in fact. Some are better than others, for sure, but GUI vs no-GUI is not a limitation.
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@dustinb3403 said in Linux OS advice for building a SAM-SD:
@magicmarker said in Linux OS advice for building a SAM-SD:
@dustinb3403 Oh wow, I was not aware of the 2TB virtual HDD limit with XenServer. I will be looking into a new Hypervisor for this. Thanks for the heads up! I like XenServer and ESXi. I personally didn't like working with Hyper-V and it was annoying that it had to be integrated with Active Directory. @JaredBusch I will check out KVM, but with no GUI, it doesn't not seem as easy to work with as others.
The issue is with local storage only. When using detatched storage this issue isn't present. Some weird limit that the devs had at the time.
You can have something like 16TB attached to a single VM, just split up 8 times, which could then be spanned in the VM so it looks like a single drive.
I believe the limit is because of ext3.
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@black3dynamite said in Linux OS advice for building a SAM-SD:
@dustinb3403 said in Linux OS advice for building a SAM-SD:
@magicmarker said in Linux OS advice for building a SAM-SD:
@dustinb3403 Oh wow, I was not aware of the 2TB virtual HDD limit with XenServer. I will be looking into a new Hypervisor for this. Thanks for the heads up! I like XenServer and ESXi. I personally didn't like working with Hyper-V and it was annoying that it had to be integrated with Active Directory. @JaredBusch I will check out KVM, but with no GUI, it doesn't not seem as easy to work with as others.
The issue is with local storage only. When using detatched storage this issue isn't present. Some weird limit that the devs had at the time.
You can have something like 16TB attached to a single VM, just split up 8 times, which could then be spanned in the VM so it looks like a single drive.
I believe the limit is because of ext3.
EXT3 has that limit, but the limit actually exists in this case because of the legacy container type being used.
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I just want to mention that the KVM Hypervisor does take more than Linux basic knowledge. After @JaredBusch and @scottalanmiller recommended KVM on Fedora for the SAM-SD OS I have been playing with the KVM Hypervisor on a minimal Fedora install. I was able to successfully get a working KVM Hypervisor running. I realize that I've been very spoiled with the ESXi Hypervisor. I will require a more GUI based Hypervisor setup. I played around with the virt-manager which is a nice alternative to the cli for novice Linux users. There is still too much for me to learn with KVM and I never really did find instructions that really spell it out for me. I'm trying not to use VMware ESXi. I'm going to re-visit Hyper-V 2016 standalone with a Fedora Server (with desktop) VM to be my NFS file server. I'm open to any advice or words of encouragement to re-direct my focus back to the KVM Hypervisor.
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@magicmarker said in Linux OS advice for building a SAM-SD:
I just want to mention that the KVM Hypervisor does take more than Linux basic knowledge. After @JaredBusch and @scottalanmiller recommended KVM on Fedora for the SAM-SD OS I have been playing with the KVM Hypervisor on a minimal Fedora install. I was able to successfully get a working KVM Hypervisor running. I realize that I've been very spoiled with the ESXi Hypervisor. I will require a more GUI based Hypervisor setup. I played around with the virt-manager which is a nice alternative to the cli for novice Linux users. There is still too much for me to learn with KVM and I never really did find instructions that really spell it out for me. I'm trying not to use VMware ESXi. I'm going to re-visit Hyper-V 2016 standalone with a Fedora Server (with desktop) VM to be my NFS file server. I'm open to any advice or words of encouragement to re-direct my focus back to the KVM Hypervisor.
You couldn't find any good guides to KVM? We should see about writing one here.
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@magicmarker said in Linux OS advice for building a SAM-SD:
I just want to mention that the KVM Hypervisor does take more than Linux basic knowledge.
Depends on how you get it. You can get KVM from someone like Scale and never see anything of Linux ever.
