Archive for the ‘Virtualisation’ Category

Auto shutdown script for Xen VMs on XenServer

Monday, September 5th, 2011

In case of a scheduled maintenance which requires your Xen VMs to be shutdown on your Xen server when you are not available, the following script should can be put to use:

Create a script as allvmshutdown.sh with 755 permissions and add the list of VMs as in the example script:

#!/bin/bash
xe vm-shutdown vm=VM1
xe vm-shutdown vm=VM2
xe vm-shutdown vm=VM3
xe vm-shutdown vm=VM4
xe vm-shutdown vm=VM5
xe vm-shutdown vm=VM6
xe vm-shutdown vm=VM7
xe vm-shutdown vm=VM8
xe vm-shutdown vm=VM9
xe vm-shutdown vm=VM10

To get a list of VMs on the server, run the command #xe vm-list from the command line, which will list the VMs hosted on your Xen host.

Now you just need to add a cron entry to schedule this job. For example, to run script at 02:00 am on Sunday:

crontab -e
*   02 *    *    0           /scripts/allvmshutdown.sh

Note: Do ensure that the script is commented or removed from the crontab, after the maintenance has been completed to prevent this script from recurring.

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How to backup/restore Xen Virtual Machines using Xen Center

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

When you export a VM, a complete copy of the VM (including disk images) is stored as a single file on your local machine, with a .xva file extension. The VM export/import
feature can be used in a number of different ways:

  • As a convenient backup facility for your VMs. An exported VM file can be used to recover an entire VM in the event of disaster.
  • As a way of quickly copying a VM, for example, a special-purpose server configuration that you use many times. You simply configure the VM the way you want it, export it, and then import it to create copies of your original VM.
  • As a simple method for moving a VM to another server.

Note It may not always be possible to run an imported VM that was exported from another server with a different CPU type. For example, a Windows VM created on a server with an Intel® VT Enabled CPU, then exported, may not run when imported to a server with an AMD-VTM CPU.

To export a VM:

  1. If the VM you want to export is running, you must shut it down first. See the image below:
  2. In the Resources pane, select the VM, right-click, and then click Export as Backup on the shortcut menu. Alternatively, on the VM menu, click Export as Backup.
  3. Enter a name for the export file and specify the folder where you want it to be saved.
  4. To have the export file verified, select the Verify export on completion check box at the bottom of the dialog box. Be aware that verification may take some time.
  5. Click Save to begin exporting the file.
  6. The export progress is displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the XenCenter window and on the Logs tab. To cancel an export in progress, click on the Logs tab, find the export in the list of events, and click the Cancel button.

Exporting a VM may take some time, depending on its size and the speed and bandwidth of the network connection between the server and XenCenter.

To import an external VM in XenCenter, you use the Import wizard: select a server or pool in the Resources pane, right-click, and then select Import VM on the shortcut menu, and follow the wizard steps.

  1. Import source. Enter the location of the exported VM in the Import file name box and ensure that the Exported VM option button is selected. Click Next to continue.
  2. Home server. Select a home server for the new VM, then click Next to continue.
  3. Storage. Select a storage repository where virtual disks for the new VM will be stored, then click Import to begin the import process.
  4. Network. Configure the virtual network interfaces for the imported VM. The default network interfaces are listed on this page; you can add, modify, or delete virtual network interfaces as required. When you are happy with the new VM’s network configuration, click Next to move to the final wizard page.
  5. Finish. To have your new VM start up as soon as the import process has finished and the new VM is provisioned, ensure the Start VM after import check box is selected before  you click Finish.

Click Finish to complete the import process and close the wizard.

The import progress is displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the XenCenter window and also on the Logs tab. The import process may take some time, depending on the size of the VM and the speed and bandwidth of the network connection between XenCenter and the server where you are installing the new VM.

Once the newly-imported VM is available, it appears in the Resources pane. This is in a nutshell, the simplest way to backup your VMs if you are the administrator of a Xenserver. There are advanced tools available like PHDVirtual, which automates the backup and transfer of your VMs to an external storage and though their pricing is a bit steep its well worth the price for the convenience and automation offered.

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SA-SCSI Storage with RAID – Now Available on our VPS Servers

Monday, August 30th, 2010

In line with our sustained efforts in providing our VPS clients with industry leading hardware and software options, we have upgraded the HDDs on our VPS servers from the current Raptor 10K RPM disks to Seagate Cheetah SA-SCSI 15k RPM drives.

SA-SCSI (Serial Attached Small Computer System Interface) is the gold standard in storage solutions for web servers requiring enterprise class robustness with high availability and fault tolerance features, especially where large databases and mission critical applications are involved. To ensure our clients are able to get the performance of a dedicated hardware at a fraction of its cost, we  have gone ahead and upgraded all our VPS clients to the new hardware without any additional expense and they are all delighted with the improved performance which is being delivered to their applications, as a result of this upgrade.

The SCSI HDDs coupled with the RAID hardware makes it a very stable and robust platform for hosting VMs on the Citrix Xen Server platform. Furthermore, we have also upgraded the Xen Server virtualization platform to its latest version (Xen Server ver 5.6) which is more stable and has several bug fixes implemented in its current verion. We have also added more storage space to our VPS hosting plans alongwith a higher monthly bandwidth allocation for no additional charges.

Bottom line is that if you are looking for a VPS or would like to host your application, website or mail server on a dedicated server platform, you will be hard pressed to find an offering which could better ours!

Check out our new Linux VPS and Windows VPS hosting plans and talk to our sales team today!

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VPS data and bandwidth usage tracking with bandwidthd

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

You don’t need any database or snmp connection to monitor all of your client with bandwidthd an open source application for monitoring bandwidth usage on Apache and IIS. All you need just libcap, libpng, libgd and apache/IIS installed on your Linux/Windows system and you can monitor all your connected clients per IP and per connection protocol.

Installation and configuration in windows

Download the packages below and install them prior to installing the bandwidthd software

For installing gd-latest extract the zip archive and place it in a directory in C drive say “gd”. Navigate to the directory C:\gd\bin and copy the bgd.dll to c:\windows\system32 directory.

  1. Download the “Bandwidthd” software from the link
    http://sourceforge.net/projects/bandwidthd/files/
  2. Extract the zip archive and place it in a folder say c:\inetpub\bandwidthd.
  3. In IIS create  a virtual directory either to your existing website or under the default website and point the home directory to “C:\Inetpub\bandwidthd\htdocs”.
  4. Open the file C:\Inetpub\bandwidthd\etc\bandwidthd.conf and  provide the correct subnet of your network.
  5. Now navigate to the directory C:\Inetpub\bandwidthd and execute the batch file “Install Service.bat”. This will install a service for bandwidthd. Make the service start up type as automatic and start the service.
  6. Now point your web server as http://<server IP>/bandwidthd and you will now be able to view the graphs containing the bandwidth statistics.

Installation and configuration in Redhat/Centos/Fedora Linux

  1. As a prerequisite please ensure that you have libcap, libpng, libgd and apache installed in your computer.
    # rpm -qa | grep libcap
    # rpm -qa | grep libpng
    # rpm -qa | grep gd
    # rpm -qa | grep httpd
  2. Next download the bandwidthd RPM according to your Linux distro from the link
    http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3 (Search with “bandwidthd”)
  3. Install the RPM as below
    # rpm -ivh bandwidthd-2.0.1-9.el5.i386.rpm
    This will install bandwidthd under /var/www/bandwidthd
  4. Next open the httpd.conf file
    # vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
    Add the lines as below to it and save:

    Alias /bandwidthd “/var/www/bandwidthd/htdocs”
    <Directory “/var/www/bandwidthd/htdocs”>
    Order Allow,Deny
    Allow from All
    </Directory>

  5. open /var/www/bandwidthd/etc/bandwidthd.conf and provide the correct subnet for your network.
  6. Restart the webserver
    # service httpd restart.
  7. Start the bandwidthd service
    # service bandwidthd start
  8. Now point your browser to http://<server IP>/bandwidthd and start checking the bandwidth statistics graphs.

Few screenshots

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Diadem VPS Hosting Services – Dedicated Server performance minus the expense!

Friday, April 9th, 2010

Virtualisation Hosting Services

Virtualisation alongwith cloud computing are the hottest buzzwords in the online IT world today. Both these technologies are very promising and on a long term basis it would help lower the TCO (total cost of operation) for the consumers and ensure a scalable service infrastructure where the underlying hardware becomes a virtualised commodity.

At Diadem, we like to be on the leading edge by deploying these technologies on our network infrastructure and enable our clients to benefit from such services. Our Virtual Private Server offerings is the result of over six months of dedicated effort in research, testing and deployment to enable implementation of stable, reliable and cost effective VPS offerings for our clients.

So what is a VPS and why do I need one?

Virtual Private Servers is an offshoot of OS virtualisation, which allows you to run more than one operating system simultaneously or singly on a single machine by sharing the same hardware resources. While OS virtualisation has been existence since the 1960′s, it has evolved rapidly over the past decade, thanks to the explosive growth of the Internet requiring ever more servers online and the need by businesses to cut down their  IT spend and consolidating multiple OS for different functions, within a single server. Server virtualisation is now a proven and accepted technology which enterprises of all shapes and sizes are embracing rapidly for their server deployment needs to ensure that their server infrastructure is well utilised and generate a higher ROI from their IT investments.

Here is my non technical description of a VPS:

“A Virtual Private Server is a ‘server within a server’ which allows you to have your own memory space, HDD capacity and CPU resources and enables you to run your own Operating System within a dedicated server. Consider it to be your own apartment within a multi-storied building. Every apartment owner has their own living space, bedrooms and other areas which they could beautify and update as per their individual needs but they also share a common entrance to the building with the rest of the apartment owners, a common heating and sewage system, electrical wiring and other such features to reduce the cost of the apartment per individual.”

Benefits of a VPS in comparison with dedicated servers or shared hosting is highlighted below:

  • A virtual server is significantly cheaper to run than a standalone dedicated server in which an entire server is dedicated for a specific client.
  • It allows clients to experiment their application on a smaller scale without having to make upfront investments on a dedicated server.
  • Businesses can run multiple servers with different operating systems from within the same physical server, thereby reducing the cost and increasing the utilisation of a dedicated server.

Compared to a shared hosting environment, here are the key benefits of a VPS:

  • It is a secure environment dedicated for the client to run their websites online and retain complete control on the server.
  • Server OS settings can be tweaked and optimised as per the requirement of a specific application.
  • Corporates can run their own mailing servers in a secure VPS which would allow them to create unlimited email ids, web space for individual users with customised antispam and mail archiving solutions.
  • Clients can consolidate multiple sites on a single VPS and manage them from a single OS.
  • Web design firms can operate their own hosting services without having to share credit with a web hosting firm.

Our VPS Story

While we have been dabbling with virtualisation for the past year, we seriously got into delivering it as a service to our clients towards the end of last year. There were three main contenders for the virtualisation platform, Windows HyperV, VMWare ESXi and Citrix XenServer and we gave them a fair evaluation from our end.

While each server virtualisation platform has its own pros and cons and new features are being developed and deployed for all these hypervisors on a rapid scale, we found Citrix XenServer to be the most suitable for our needs. Following are the primary reasons why we choose XenServer over the other hypervisors:

  • The Citrix XenServer is FREE for personal and commercial use.
  • It is packed with tools and features which are available as paid options or are non existent in other hypervisors.
  • Citrix XenServer is based on the industry standard Xen hypervisor which is an open source virtualisation platform.
  • There is a large community backing Xen and it is a well documented system.
  • It has a small memory footprint which makes it less resource intensive on the server.
  • It is stable, easy to deploy and is supported by Citrix Systems which is a leader in virtualisation technologies.

Now that we have done the heavy lifting in putting our virtualisation infrastructure in place, we would like you to benefit from our VPS offerings, which is available in both Linux and Windows platforms. Checkout our Linux VPS and Windows VPS plans which are specially developed considering the requirements of the Indian market and are available from a low monthly cost of Rs. 1999 per month.

We would be putting up more resources, howtos, offers and updates highlighting our VPS services over the next few months so watch this space!

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