Home Virtualization Server

I chose to install Citrix XenServer 6 on my server.  The bad news is that Citrix doesn't offer a management console for Linux or a web console, so it's next to impossible to manage your virtual environment without a Windows machine.  I found a project called OpenXenManager that tries to fill that void.  I installed it on my Ubuntu machine by following some instructions I found (see below).

sudo apt-get install subversion python-glade2 python-gtk-vnc

svn co https://openxenmanager.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/openxenmanager openxenmanager 

cd openxenmanager/trunk 

./openxenmanager 

I first had to edit the openxenmanager file in the trunk directory and replace the occurrence of python2 with python before it would run correctly.

I'm glad I was able to find OpenXenManager because it does allow me to do a lot of management tasks directly from my Linux workstation.  However, it is not a polished product.  It will occasionally lock up or crash.  I also didn't see a way to activate my XenServer installation from the OpenXenManager interface.  Same goes for applying patches to XenServer.  But I was able to use it to install a few Windows server guests.

Ironically, it doesn't work so well for Linux guests.  At least for the Ubuntu 10.04 releases I have tried to install using it.  Actually, it will install an HVM Linux guest without any problems.  But with HVM you don't get features like live migration.  For that, the virtual machine needs to be running in paravirtualized mode (PV).  Doing this from OpenXenManager is a lot of extra work than doing it from the Windows-based XenCenter console.  And even when I did this from OpenXenManager, I still couldn't access the console of the VM.  I could, however, access the console from XenCenter.  Maybe this has something to do with the fact that the latest SVN release of OpenXenCenter is still the equivalent of XenCenter 5.something instead of the latest version 6 release.

Speaking from experience, if you have a motherboard that supports it, make sure you disable AMD's Cool & Quiet feature in your BIOS.  Before I disabled this, VM guest installation was incredibly slow.  It sped up tremendously with this feature disabled.

Other than the stuff I mentioned above, XenCenter 6 is doing a great job.  Honestly, if you running this in a Windows environment, I don't think you'll have any issues.  Most of my complaints so far are based around the fact that Citrix isn't planning to offer a Linux management console.  Even better would be a web based management interface.  Something that would work across most platforms with a browser. 

Switching Desktops at Home

Yesterday I changed out my primary desktop machine at home.  I decided my existing desktop would be better served as a host server for my virtual machines.  Since I still like having a machine other than my laptop, I found an old HP Pavilion a220n in my junk collection (c'mon you know you have stuff lying around like this, too).  I installed Ubuntu 11.10 on it and it's running surprisingly well.  There is a slight delay when launching programs and it certainly isn't nearly as "zippy" as my six core machine, but I think it'll be fine for a while.  Since I still have a four core processor that I'm not using, I may look at ordering a motherboard and building a new desktop.  Until then, the old pavilion will have to do.

Update:   I decided the delays on the pavilion when launching applications were a bit too much for me.  If I had a decent video card that would fit in one of the PCI slots in that machine, it might improve.  I think the onboard video is my main bottleneck (or at least a bottleneck).  I remembered that I had another AMD Athlon 64 system in my closet.  I have since hooked that system up and loaded Ubuntu on it.  It seems to be running much more smoothly.  I think I'll stick with it for a while. 

Web Conferencing and VOIP

I realized that I was missing something with OpenMeetings.  With WebEx, I get a phone number for the conference that participants can dial into.  It looks like OpenMeetings was designed only for web based conferencing.  From what I've read on mailing lists, the devs suggest that you hire someone familiar with the telcom aspect to help build an integration for you.  This is a little disappointing, but I still like OpenMeetings as a conferencing tool. 

This also made me realize that I don't really have any experience with VOIP.  Well, at least outside of the enterprise with an Avaya PBX.  I'd like to do something on a smaller scale with something like Asterisk.  I think I'll start coming up with a plan to introduce an Asterisk box into my home.  I don't have a land line, so it would kind of fill that void.

I'll post more about this as things start to develop with it.  I'm fairly lazy, so it might take a while.   

Linux and Active Directory Integration

I've been down the road of integrating Linux machines with Active Directory before.  I thought I had pretty much done it all.  I've installed the Unix tools on Windows domain controllers before.  I've setup a Samba 3 PDC that used OpenLDAP for authentication for all Linux and Windows clients.  I've even setup an alpha release of Samba 4 for Active Directory services instead of a Windows domain controller.  My favorite option thus far has been using Samba 4.  Of course, Samba 4 isn't quite ready for prime time yet.  It is just an alpha release at this point, after all.  Some things still don't work quite right (or at all), such as allowing Exchange to extend the schema during installation.

I'm writing now to tell you about something I just found out about.  It's called Likewise Open.  Actually, I think that it's most recent name is Powerbroker Identity Services Open Edition.  I'm still going to call it Likewise Open, though.  In short, it's an application that allows you to very easily join a Linux machine to an Active Directory domain.  Once joined, you can login to your Linux box using your AD credentials.  It even supports changing your AD password from Linux.  You know, if you're required to change your password every so often by policy.

The tool, like most Linux apps, supports command line usage.  It also has a simple GUI that allows you to join or remove a workstation from AD.  If you use a Debian based distro like Ubuntu or Mint, it's even available in the repos.  I tested it on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and joined a Windows 2003 AD domain in a matter of minutes.  The only tweak I had to make was to replace the "hosts" line in /etc/nsswitch.conf with "hosts:  files dns".  After that, joining the domain was a cinch.

I'm very impressed with Likewise Open.  I can definitely see how valuable it could be in an enterprise environment.  BeyondTrust, the company that makes the product has some commercial versions with extra features as well.  According to their website, with the "enterprise" version of their product you can define Group Policy Objects for your Linux machines.  You can even manage AD (think ADUC) from a Linux workstation.  They offer a trial download on their site, but you have to fill out a form and someone from BeyondTrust will contact you with the download details.  That is what is keeping me from testing what sounds like an awesome product.  If you want me to buy your product, just let me download a trial immediately.  Don't make me talk to one of your sales goons.  I'd rather your product speak for itself instead of having to listen to some sales pitch.  Don't get me wrong, I'm very intrigued by what you have to offer, but I'm not giving your personally identifiable information for something that I might decide isn't even a good match for me or my company.

But as far as Likewise Open goes, you should all try it out.  You'll be amazed at how easy it is to install and start using.