{"id":105,"date":"2014-09-26T23:59:24","date_gmt":"2014-09-26T23:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smsitgroup.com\/?page_id=105"},"modified":"2014-09-30T23:28:47","modified_gmt":"2014-09-30T23:28:47","slug":"virtualize-on-a-budget-build-your-own-xenserver","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/smsitgroup.com\/virtualize-on-a-budget-build-your-own-xenserver\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Build Your Own XenServer With RAID"},"content":{"rendered":"

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SMS IT Group<\/p>\n

www.smsitgroup.com<\/a><\/p>\n

213.222.5182<\/p>\n

Written by Scott G. McCarthy<\/p>\n

sgm@smsitgroup.com<\/a><\/p>\n

How to Build Your Own XenServer with RAID<\/p>\n

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DOWNLOAD PDF VERSION BY CLICKING HERE\u00a0(Cleaner Version)<\/a><\/h1>\n

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How To Build Your Own XenServer With RAID<\/h1>\n

Rethink Your IT Infrastructure with New Technology<\/p>\n

About the author:\u00a0Scott G. McCarthy is the Director of SMS IT Group in Los Angeles, CA. Mr. McCarthy has been performing PCI and HIPPA audits for well over 9 years. He has a 100{ce92d213718bf382776617a85d6b0fddfd46b8b53e7ce8d6080f3edcd619f511} pass rate and has never failed an audit to date. Mr. McCarthy has worked with everyone from small doctors\u2019 offices, Fortune 500 Corporations, and law firms. He has successfully passed PCI audits for both law firms and corporations and some of the world\u2019s largest banks. Mr. McCarthy can be reached at\u00a0sgm@smsitgroup.com<\/a>\u00a0or at the SMS IT Group at 213-222-5182.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Great Philosophical Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n

To start, virtualization can be expensive. Especially in this era of slashed IT budgets and deciding between payroll expenses and equipment. Unless you work for a company riding out this awful economy to profit, you are probably struggling with how to cut costs. When SMS IT Group decided to virtualize its colocation environment, we struggled with costs like everyone else. We decided to take a fresh approach to it this time. One of our engineers asked the question, \u201cWhy don\u2019t we do it like Google and build our own servers\u201d. Being so conditioned to pick up the phone and order a Dell, I almost immediately dismissed the idea. After some discussion, we decided to give it a try.<\/p>\n

The first question we had to answer was what virtualization platform to run. So we went out and looked at all of them from VMWare to Proxmox to VirtualBox. After a couple weeks of testing, we decided to go with XenServer. Why? Because XenServer was free and it seemed like the quality of the product was at the level we needed. Although it was no VMWare, it fit our budget and had most of the features we required. Citrix didn\u2019t shove support contracts down your throat or make you purchase a bloated licensing agreement to start. We actually found the Citrix approach refreshing; start out with the free product and if you need support or advanced features down the line, you can purchase them.<\/p>\n

Pondering the Server \u2013 To Build or Buy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The second question we asked ourselves was what hardware. Obviously Dell or HP was a safe bet but demanded one hell of a budget. We also realized that many technologies had changed the server game including SATA drives, third party RAID cards, and other features. I also started to ask myself why Google built their own servers when they can simply cut a bulk purchasing deal with Dell. That question started to eat at me. So I sat down and priced out a comparable Dell server to a do it yourself clone server. I was shocked at how much we could save building our own servers. On top of that, if we did build our own servers, we wouldn\u2019t need the expensive 4 hour contract because we would know how to fix them ourselves and have spare parts on hand. If we built them, we would obviously know how to fix them.<\/p>\n

So I ran the numbers and was shocked, I mean absolutely shocked at how much we could save building our own boxes and not purchasing the support agreements. Yes, we would have to put some time into it, however, once servers are built they pretty much just run unless a component breaks. And let\u2019s be honest, these days not much really breaks anymore. How hard is it to throw a new memory chip on the board or replace a motherboard or power supply? Maybe a half hour of time? An hour at most? After my cost savings excitement kicked in, I commissioned a project to build a clone server that can run and support XenServer. I still had this voice in the back of my head telling me I was going to regret this decision but was determined to push forward. I had to know!<\/p>\n

The Decision Is Made \u2013 Build It!<\/strong><\/p>\n

So the next step was to figure out what hardware to purchase for our Frankenstein server. Everything was pretty straight forward but one of the challenges we presented to ourselves was to build the server with consumer grade components. If we were going to make this work, the cost savings had to be significant to make up for all the time invested. We were not going to run out and buy a server-grade motherboard, processor and HP RAID card because it would defeat the whole purpose. So we ordered everything we needed pretty quickly with the exception of one component; the RAID card!<\/p>\n

XenServer is very flexible and has some great tools built into it. I personally think the management console is outstanding. With that said, when you compare XenServer to its main competitor VMWare,\u00a0there are many challenges and shortcomings to overcome compared to VMWare.<\/em>\u00a0One of the biggest challenges SMS has faced is\u00a0hardware compatibility<\/strong>\u00a0specifically related to RAID controller. XenServer simply has one of the worst Hardware Compatibility Lists in the industry!<\/em><\/p>\n

A simple search on Google will show hundreds of people all asking about which\u00a0RAID controllers work with Xen Server<\/strong>\u00a0and how to build a home test environment or build a server for Xen with lower cost components. Unfortunately, almost every one of those posts never gives anyone a clear answer as to what components work or don’t work. We were stuck on what RAID card to use and there was no clear answer after reading though hundreds of posts!<\/p>\n

A Change of Plans \u2013 Cold Feet<\/strong><\/p>\n

After hitting this RAID card obstacle, I started to worry about whether we were going to pull this off. With our project schedules, clients to attend to and other responsibilities, I decided to fork the plan in the event our XenServer clone experiment failed. We needed a plan B. So I made the decision to order a Dell server in the event our clone experiment failed or took longer than anticipated. Plus, in the event we ever got our server going, we could test it against a commercially build box and we needed desperately to upgrade our aging email system.<\/p>\n

So we would move forward with two server projects. The 1st<\/sup> project would continue on with our clone server and the 2nd<\/sup> would be done with a Dell xxx series server. Since Dell isn\u2019t cutting us a check, I am not going to be an advertisement for their servers in this article. I will just say that the hardware is apples to apples with the exception of the high speed drives on the Dell. So we ordered the Dell server and then the clone components and waited for them to show up. Our goal was now to build two servers and decide which direction we would go long term.<\/p>\n

The Nuts and Bolts of the Clone Server<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am going to preface this section by saying the information listed below is the result of a lot of blood, sweat and tears. Although we spent a great deal of our own time and money figuring this situation out, I decided to release this article because I didn\u2019t want to see anyone else struggling with XenServer and hardware compatibility after reading through hundreds of unanswered posts. Get it together Citrix! How hard can it possibly be to list some third party RAID cards that work with XenServer? Seriously!<\/p>\n

Now remember how I said that we ordered everything? Yea, everything except the RAID card for the clone server! We still could not figure out this dam RAID card! One night browsing around I ran across this really obscure post about LSI RAID cards working with XenServer but not being certified or making drivers for XenServer. When I went to the LSI website and looked at their models, they all had VMWare support and drivers but no XenServer.<\/p>\n

Now in this post I ran across, the guy mentioned that the LSI card would use the built in Linux drivers and give you the ability to RAID the drives through the Linux driver. Although it sounded good, I was still not totally sold on the idea. HP and Dell RAID cards are a small fortune and would break the budget of our experiment. So after some contemplation and a roll of the dice, I decided to purchase an LSI 3Ware 9650SE-4LPML RAID card. This card supports 4 SATA drives and claims to support Linux. We made the final decision to try out SATA drives on our Frankenstein server with the LSI card. So I logged onto Amazon and placed the order.<\/p>\n

A few days later, we had everything we needed in front of us. We had all the components to build our own server and a brand new Dell xxx server.<\/p>\n

The Easy Route \u2013 Load Up The Dell Server<\/strong><\/p>\n

As expected, we took the Dell server out of the box, popped in the USB key for XenServer and loaded it up. Right away, it saw the RAID array and loaded up in about 45 minutes. It was absolutely mindless and simple. Our first Dell XenServer was ready to go in less than 2 hours\u2019 time from unboxing to complete software setup. I was starting to re-think my decision. Man, these Dell servers sure aren\u2019t cheap but they are simple to load and painless. No assembly, struggling with components, and peace of mind.<\/p>\n

But there was still two major problems with the Dell server; it was expensive and the support contract was not cheap! We were basically at the mercy of Dell to provide spare parts and fix the thing if it ever broke. After dealing with my fair share of drunk techs and guys who just got out of technical school, the commercial support contracts always failed to impress me for what you paid for them.<\/p>\n

The Road Less Traveled \u2013 The Clone Server<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s almost laughable to think about building your own server these days. It is so convenient to just purchase one and load it up. They are pretty much a commodity and I guess that\u2019s why so many people simply don\u2019t want to bother building anything anymore. But the Google question still nagged at me like a scorned ex-wife. Why did Google build their own servers? There must be a reason!<\/p>\n

So it was time to travel down the road less traveled. We sat down and built out our clone box. We put together the case, components, installed the RAID card, and got ready to fire it up. It only took about an hour to build and was surprisingly quick. I was going to fall out of my chair if the thing actually booted so I hit the power button and almost fell out of my chair when the BIOS screen came up and it started reading the XenServer install key!<\/p>\n

I knew I wasn\u2019t out of the clear yet. The big question was whether the RAID card was going to work and whether it was going to be reliable and something we could trust to put into production. So once XenServer got to the provisioning screen, I was a little confused and worried. I saw a choice of the LSI RAID set and then saw the regular 4 drives all listed out separately. My immediate through was great; so much for this! But I decided to pick the LSI set and continue on feeling disappointed. Well, XenServer finished loading up and I thought that there was no way this RAID set worked.<\/p>\n

So here was the big test. I was going to pull one of the drives and probably watch the server crash and burn. So I pulled the 1st<\/sup> drive and to my total surprise, it was still running. Wait, was this possible? Is it really working? Yes, it was! So I rebooted the box and went back into the LSI tool and it showed one drive was offline and the RAID set was critical. So I took a new drive, threw it in the box and rebuilt the RAID array. Guess what? It actually rebuilt!<\/p>\n

I am not going to bore you with all the testing details but I am going to tell you that we tested the hell out of the RAID card and the server worked perfectly every time. To my surprise, our clone server actually worked! A week later, we took the server and threw it in the colocation with the new Dell server and both loaded VMs on them. I decided to load our new email server on the clone and see how it held up against the Dell.<\/p>\n

So How Is The Performance?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Believe it or not, for the past six months, our clone server now runs a VM email server with hundreds of users all based on XenServer. It also runs 4 other virtual servers all of which are extremely demanding. After running the clone server for 6 months, it has been wonderful! When you compare it to the Dell, it holds its own. The only difference I can see is the speed between the high speed drives in the Dell compared to our consumer grade SATA drives. But you know what? The speed difference is not that noticeable! Had I put high speed drives in the clone server, the performance would be the same.<\/p>\n

So What Happened? What Was The Long Term Conclusion?<\/strong><\/p>\n

So it\u2019s been about 6 months since we went through our little experiment and our clone server is still running at our colo now supporting our email system, MySQL server, management server, and monitoring server. It holds its own against our high-priced Dell servers. And you know what? We have built 6 more since our experiment. Why you ask? Why not just stick with your Dell servers?<\/p>\n

For several reasons but I will bullet out the main points below:<\/p>\n