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VM Host on USB 2.0

S

Solo

n00b
Joined
May 30, 2012
Messages
6
I'm looking to set up my first virtualized server and was wondering what all of your thoughts were on installing a VM host, baremetal or not, on an internal USB 2.0 port.

Would speed be an issue? Is it necessary to have the fast read/writes of a sas raid for the host?

I was thinking having it on a usb stick might help protect the host machine incase of raid failure or whatnot, even ease of transfer to another system and then keeping the vm's off on an internal raid array, nas or san.

I've been eyeing Proxmox or CentOS/KVM as my host. Does the host make a difference?
 
I've spun up Hyper-V VM's from USB2.0 storage before. Slow, but operational for testing/short periods.
 
Solo said:
I was thinking having it on a usb stick might help protect the host machine incase of raid failure or whatnot, even ease of transfer to another system and then keeping the vm's off on an internal raid array, nas or san.
Click to expand...

This paragraph confuses me. Are you running RAID 0? If not, then your VM is going to be better protected on the RAID 1/5/10 drives vs a USB memory device.

If you have an internal RAID array or a NAS or SAN, then why not run the VM from those and use the USB as your backup?

Edit: When you say "VM Host" are you talking about an actual virtual machine, or the hypervisor?
 
DMFD-Minister said:
This paragraph confuses me. Are you running RAID 0? If not, then your VM is going to be better protected on the RAID 1/5/10 drives vs a USB memory device.

If you have an internal RAID array or a NAS or SAN, then why not run the VM from those and use the USB as your backup?

Edit: When you say "VM Host" are you talking about an actual virtual machine, or the hypervisor?
Click to expand...

I mean the hypervisor when I say VM Host.

I will be running RAID 10 but never thought of it as being better protected than USB memory, though I'm not well knowleded on the faults of USB memory or RAIDs. I wanted to keep the hypervisor off of the same disk/array that the virtual machines are on but some of these hypervisors are so small that having a full drive dedicated to them seemed a bit overboard.
 
That makes a bit more sense now.

I work for a business partner and configure hundreds of ESX hosts every year. Our standard practice is now to install the hypervisor (vSphere) on a USB Memory Stick which plugs directly into the motherboard. We're running production-level worldwide systems like this. Essentially the ESX host will load the hypervisor into memory from the USB key (quite quickly too) and away you go. There aren't really any write operations going on.

From a VM perspective, we then have VMs running on a SAN of some sort and back those up from the SAN with a variety of methods, but for most SMBs, we go from SAN (or internal disk) to a NAS device using Veeam Backup, and then from the NAS to tape for long-term off-site storage.

If you ever had a problem with the USB key with Hypervisor, you could easily just re-load the hypervisor on a new key, point it to the VMs residing on your storage, and you'd be back up and running. That's part of the reason why we're ok with Hypervisors on USB Key. However I would never put production VMs on a USB key because there is no redundancy vs. at least 1 level of redundany on your RAID 10 (perhaps 2 if the right disks fail).
 
If you mean you got an internal USB plug that you can stick a USB stick then yes this is one of the best ways to do it. Just make a copy of the usb stick so if your usb stick for what ever reason dies you can just boot of the new one. I have had a several Hosts run on a simple usb stick for almost 2 years now.

Never do a direct install on a HD.
If you are refering loading a vm from usb drive no it doesn't work in vmware.
 
MAKE COPIES OF THE USB DRIVES IF YOU RUN ESXI IN PRODUCTION FROM THEM

swapping keys in 5 minutes if it crashes is much better than wiping&re-initializing your DAS
 
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