Virtualization - OpenVZ and HyperVM + FluidVM (+ Proxmox)

[Griffin]

Hi guys,

I've recently delved into virtualization and have a few linux servers I'd like to move over to VPS, so that I can manage them in a container like fashion, bringing them online as and when needed.

I'm using OpenVZ as my virtualization technology and I've successfully setup a Centos 5.5 root OS with OpenVZ.

I've been testing out HyperVM and FluidVM as management interfaces. I struggled a little with FluidVM, but this was probably due to human error, since I broke it around 1am this morning, and have only just managed to get it working again. So, instead of over complicating things for myself, I've decided to stick to HyperVM until I'm more comfortable with the virtualization technology involved.

Using HyperVM I've configured two VPS, called VPS1 and VPS2

VPS1 - is running a ubuntu-10.04-x86 template
VPS2 - is running a centos-5-i386-afull template
DNS is working fine, and I can install software onto the VPS's, SSH into them, etc

Strangely enough there seems to be very little information out there as to how to control (proxy, remote) your VPS once created. From what I can tell, VPS2 - my Full Centos5 template is not really that "full". Either they omitted to include a GUI in the template or I'm missing something. The latter is possibly more likely.

My requirement is to be able to access the VPS's directly from their graphical interfaces - much like using Remote Desktop in Windows or alternatively, mounting images in VMWare workstation.

So having no clue where to begin, I used SSH to connect to VPS2 and installed VNC-Server and used vnc-viewer to connect the server. It seemed to work, but all I got was a blank screen. This lead me to believe that there was no graphical user-interface installed, hence I'm currently installing the gnome desktop environment onto it. 252Mb, so it's going to take a little while. I'm guessing templates are all minimal installs, hence the lack of a GUI...

Does anyone have experience with this sort of technology?

1. Is there perhaps a more efficient method of connecting to the GUI frontend? (NoMachine NX maybe?)
2. Your thoughts on HyperVM versus FluidVM versus Proxmox even?
3. Is it possible to create an image of live linux server and port it over onto a VPS?

Many thanks!

 

[Griffin]

Update: Okay, seems I partly answered my own question. Once the GUI is installed (and server restarted) the VPS is accessible via VNC-viewer, but only via a user I created for VNC. I'll have to manually create a root user for VNC to access the server as root. Which immediately begs the question: is this the most secure way of going about it...

 

[avert]

alternatively you can use ssh to forward X applications. Install xming(X11 for windows) if you are running windows locally.

Personally i'm running 3 Host machines on KVM/2centos+1ubuntu for development purposes. Live migration is entertaining ^.^

 

[Griffin]

Thanks Avert, that seems to be the most secure way to go about things. If you are using CLI for migrations, I feel for you. Maybe Virt-manager could make things easier?

 

[avert]

yeah virt-manager is indeed amazing.

 

[Paul_S]

I'm currently playing with Proxmox VE and Openfiler for shared storage and so far I'm fairly impressed.
I'm using KVM on Proxmox VE instead of OpenVZ since Proxmox doesn't allow live migration of OpenVZ guests between Proxmox VE clusters.
Proxmox VE has a Java VNC client built in so you can connect to the guest VM at any point via the Proxmox web based GUI.
No need to install and configure VNC servers on the guest VMs or even a VNC client on a management PC.
You can access the guest VM's from any machine that has a web browser and network connection to your Proxmox VE machine.

The nice thing is that both are free unless you want commercial support (typically for HA or clustering).
I like free ...