Ubuntu Server Book Needed?

Tue Jul 15 12:57:03 UTC 2008

On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 6:00 AM, Sander van Vugt <sander.van.vugt at xs4all.nl>
wrote:

> Hi Mike,
>
> Thank you so much for your input! I will definitely consider all of it
> when going through the second draft of the virtualization chapter in a
> week or two.
>
> If you could give me your contact details by private mail, I'll make
> sure you get a free copy of the beginning and advanced books once they
> are out later this year.
>
> Thanks again!
> Sander
>
>
> Mike Lane schreef:
>  > I realized that I sent my reply to Sander only so I have copied it
> below:
> >
> > ------------------------
> >
> > Hi Sander,
> >
> > I will likely work through the KVM section again soon as I have been
> > trying different Virtualization platforms to try and see which one I
> > like best.
> >
> > I like the idea of running KVM on Ubuntu server a lot and remember
> > getting some error messages trying to create virtual machines
> > following your KVM section. I don't remember what they were as this
> > was a few months ago when I first started using Ubuntu (so it could
> > well have been user error). Since then I have also been looking at
> > VirtualBox as I had read that it too had the ability to run in
> > headless mode.
> >
> > I am not sure if you should discuss KVM more in the book as compared
> > to Xen for example? I say this as KVM is what Ubuntu officially
> > supports now I think, right?
> >
> > What would I like to see more of? Well here is a wish list off the top
> > of my head:
> >
> > * discussion of growable vs fully expanded virtual hard drives for
> > performance. If the virtual hard drive is fully expanded is it created
> > as a contiguous file even if it is several Gb in size? If virtual hard
> > drives are growable does this mean that they will become fragmented?
> > * how to monitor virtual machine performance remotely if possible and
> > also discussion of remote desktop or similar to both headless and GUI
> > virtual machines. Remote management tools - what are they and how to
> > install and use them.
> > * Ubuntu JeOS - the benefits of using this operating system for
> > virtual machines. Are VMWare Tools necessary to run JeOS in KVM? If so
> > how to install VMWare Tools. Discussion of the benefits of VMWare
> > tools on Ubuntu JeOS.
> > * What are the specific optimizations that JeOS offers other than a
> > small hard drive footprint and low memory use (without VMWare Tools)
> > on KVM?
> > * Any methods to reduce disk I/O operations on virtual machines to
> > improve performance further?
> > * What features are proposed for future releases of KVM?
> > * More detailed explanation of the qemu commands i.e. parameter by
> > parameter so that the reader knows what the switches are for etc
> > * Virtual machine management in general - scripts to start up a
> > particular virtual machine on boot for example, or shut down all
> > virtual machines one by one. Scripts to back up virtual machines to
> > remote stoarge and then boot them once this is done.
> > * How to "import" VMWare virtual machines to KVM - if this can be
> > done? There are plenty of VMWare appliances that I would like to run -
> > can this easily be done on KVM and what steps would need to be taken
> > for example? Is there any performance penalty in importing a VMWare
> > virtual machines as opposed to creating it in KVM?
> > * Is there a GUI tool to create KVM virtual machines on the desktop
> > before moving them to the server (which is how I might prefer to work).
> > * Can I do snapshots in KVM? So discussion of the full feature set vs
> > the competition (VMWare) for example.
> > * does a kernel update affect my KVM installation?
> > * can I do some kind of VDI with KVM?
> >
> > Basically I would like a full and detailed account of the limitations
> > and features of KVM and how to administer the server through the
> > command line and remotely with GUI tools if that applies also.
> >
> > With virtualbox I had a hard time getting the bridged networking to
> > work and I did not get that far with KVM so I can't comment there.
> >
> > I realize that this is much more than would ever be in a beginner
> > book. Even so I would have liked to see more page space devoted to
> > Virtualization so that more ground could be covered.
> >
> > I guess that this is why I said that I would happily buy a good book
> > just on Virtualization.
> >
> > I think I ended up feeling that the explanations of technologies was
> > fine (pages 329 to 331) but that the walkthrough of creating virtual
> > machines for KVM (332 to 335) did not explain the syntax or the
> > process fully enough for me. Does the Qemu window that you see when
> > installing XP run when XP is running on the server for example, or is
> > it just to monitor the install? I guess if I had got that far maybe it
> > would become clearer :-)
> >
> > So I am not sure how much this helps you as it is far more information
> > that would be included in a single chapter on Virtualization ... but I
> > think tying in JeOS would be great as would importing VMWare virtual
> > machines as well as ways to remotely administer virtual machines.
> >
> > I will try and get back to you on my experience the second time round
> > now that my "server" machine is free to have ubuntu loaded on to it
> > again. This may not be very quickly though as I am taking a summer
> > class on linux / UNIX which looks like it will take up a fair amount
> > of my spare time.
> >
> > Mike
> >
> >
> > > Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:17:58 +0200
> > > From: soren at ubuntu.com
> > > To: ubuntu-server at lists.ubuntu.com
> > > Subject: Re: Ubuntu Server Book Needed?
> > >
> > > On Fri, Jul 11, 2008 at 09:13:05PM +0000, Mike Lane wrote:
> > > > I actually have the first book that you linked too and have found it
> > > > pretty useful so far. I was actually very disappointed with the
> > > > section on virtualization though which very briefly covers KVM, Xen
> > > > and I forget the third one off the top of my head.
> > >
> > > IIRC correctly, the book was based on Feisty, and virtualisation in
> > > Feisty was rather basic. I imagine a newer edition would include stuff
> > > on libvirt and all the surrounding tools.
> > >
> > > --
> > > Soren Hansen |
> > > Virtualisation specialist | Ubuntu Server Team
> > > Canonical Ltd. | http://www.ubuntu.com/
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Get fish-slapping on Messenger! Play Now
> > <http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/101719805/direct/01/>
>
>
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>

Wow a large email chain that I seemed to miss.  I would love to help as well
with this.  I have worked on the Official Ubuntu Book since the beginning
and would love to hlep out with this as well if there is still help needed
from the community.

Jonathan
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