Win SBS 2011 and OpenIndiana on same virtual platform?

[MaxIImus]

Hi Guys,

I have got a Win SBS 2011 license which I would like to use as a backup-server through the use of the dashboard etc. The current server is running ESXi with OpenIndiana. I tried to install SBS2011 on the ESXi server but were having problems with getting it to work correctly - and later I saw that SBS2011 is not supported by ESXi.

Is there a way of using both OpenIndiana and SBS2011 on the same computer?

What if I install SBS2011 directly on the server and used OpenIndiana through VMware workstation or VirtualPC. Is this a viable solution?

What about installing Win Hyper-V server and installing both OpenIndiana and Win SBS2011 (SBS 2011 is supported by Hyper-V but OpenIndiana is not, officially) as a virtual computer? Is this viable?

I would like to still use OpenIndiana as the storage but I really like the Idea of having a server being in charge of alle the backups on the network as WinSBS 2011 is capable of.

What do you guys think about this?

-MaxIImus

 

[brutalizer]

A hypervisor type 2 (VirtualBox, VirtualPC), is not as stable as type 1 (ESXi). There are stories about people who lost all their data when they tried to run Solaris ontop Windows. Therefore, if you want to use type 2, then you should install Solaris on bare metal. And then install Windows on top. This is a stable solution. Windows might crash in worst case, but Windows does not hold all your data, so you will not loose your raid. Solaris on bare metal will not crash, so you can not loose your raid.

 

[danswartz]

If you are going to ditch esxi, how about installing desktop OI and running sbs under virtualpc?

 

[nOrVow]

You can try Proxmox. Their recent version is pretty refined. It's based on debian stable I think, so it should be pretty solid. I plan on using this for my home test lab.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ProxmoxVE/videos

 

[mwroobel]

Solaris on bare metal will not crash, so you can not loose your raid.

With the caveat of having proper, up-to-date backups of your data.

 

[MaxIImus]

Have anyone tried to use OpenIndiana in Hyper-V?


I am also thinking about using Hyper-V and installing both SBS2011 and CentOS for backup and storage (Not ZFS but mdadm instead - I know the difference between them). I would, however, prefer to use Openindiana instead but if I cannot find a stable reliable solution, then this is my plan b.

 

[_Gea]

Hi Guys,

I have got a Win SBS 2011 license which I would like to use as a backup-server through the use of the dashboard etc. The current server is running ESXi with OpenIndiana. I tried to install SBS2011 on the ESXi server but were having problems with getting it to work correctly - and later I saw that SBS2011 is not supported by ESXi.

Is there a way of using both OpenIndiana and SBS2011 on the same computer?

What if I install SBS2011 directly on the server and used OpenIndiana through VMware workstation or VirtualPC. Is this a viable solution?

What about installing Win Hyper-V server and installing both OpenIndiana and Win SBS2011 (SBS 2011 is supported by Hyper-V but OpenIndiana is not, officially) as a virtual computer? Is this viable?

I would like to still use OpenIndiana as the storage but I really like the Idea of having a server being in charge of alle the backups on the network as WinSBS 2011 is capable of.

What do you guys think about this?

-MaxIImus

I have never used SBS 2011 to answer if its worth the effort. I have replaced all my 2008
file and backup servers with OpenIndiana and Nexenta ZFS server and would never go back.
(I only need a SMB shared folder for my backups)

But if you need or like to use both, you have only one choice if you do not want to loose ZFS storage features:
ESXi, virtualize OI with pass-through to controller and disks and virtualize SBS 2011 either with its own
controller and disk or supplied with ZFS storage (via ESXi or iSCSI)

II have not tried, but i can*t see a reason, why SBS should not run under ESXi in general
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/316143

Any other possibility like Hyper-V or running OI in a type-2 hypervisor to virtualize OI may work.
But you must forget any superiour ZFS if you go this way.

 

[brutalizer]

I use Solaris 11 Express on bare metal. And I have installed VirtualBox on Solaris. Inside VirtualBox I have installed WinXP / Linux / etc. Everything works very well. I can play older 3D games such as Quake 3, etc in WinXP. No stabilty issues at all.

Actually, I prefer this setup to ESXi setups. I prefer to run ZFS on bare metal, instead of via ESXi. But I have understood that ESXi is a stable setup and successful.

 

[_Gea]

Regarding the storage part (controller and disks) Solaris will run like on bare metal when
virtualized with pass-through.

You only need to satisfy the CPU and especially RAM needs for a virtualized SAN OS
with real RAM. With pass-through, RAM assigned to a storage OS is a fixed assignment.
(no over-commitment possible- and not usefull with a ZFS OS)

I would use a type-2 solution on top of OS like Virtualbox if the base system is the main
system and the ones above are only used for testing with a reduced importance. Only the base OS has full access to resources.

With a type 1 solution on bare metal, all virtualized systems are equal regarding resource use or access (especially RAM and CPU)
Also stability of such a minimal base OS like ESXi is better compared to a full size OS like Solaris, OSX, Linux or Windows as base.