[mythtv-users] Mythbacked on ESXi 5.0

Kris B. krisbee at krisbee.com
Mon Oct 24 17:27:56 UTC 2011


> None of those applications justifies dedicated hardware (the kids in
> particular), even if I had the funds available to allocate.  Plus,
> having the OS for each VM isolated to a single file that I can
> snapshot in my sleep makes, "Daddy, my computer won't start anymore",
> or, "My term paper is gone", scenarios easier to deal with.
> 
> I was under the impression that the whole impetus behind the
> development of virtualization was to consolidate the many, the
> disparate in to one footprint.  "Reduce your management, reduce your
> expenses and footprint on the environment, let virtualization do it
> all for you!"
> 
> Well, let it do it all, then.  Say you build a dedicated back end.
> How many clock cycles are wasted with it just sitting there between
> recording/transcoding sessions?  Even with a multi-core processor
> grabbing analog streams with hardware-based encoders on the cards, the
> processors are going to be bored.  The only question is how well can
> the VM see the cards through the hypervisor and how efficiently that
> data can be sent across the bus to the disks?  Multi-disk database
> architectures run on virtualized environments all day, every day.

Well, I think the idea is, why don't you just use the main OS to do all
of that?  My home machine is the file server, print server, web server,
transcoder, backend, ham radio computer/modem, and office machine for my
home business, etc.  - but it all runs under the main machine, no
virtualization.

Four children?  Let them have four accounts, and they can even log in
remotely and run their own desktops at the same time - and then you only
have to back up their home directories.  Plus, only one set of software
to install, and you don't have to worry about upgrading four+ machines
every time there is a patch.  

Business/Corporate environments may need VM's to run several different
servers on one machine, but almost all home users just need to run
different daemons on one machine, which is no big deal.  They usually
run faster, coordinate better, and it is easier to kill a process then a
whole machine and reboot.

Electricity does cost, but you can scale down the processor speed
dynamically to save power, as well as shut down drives, etc.  You can
even have the computer shut itself off at night and wake itself (though
mine is usually transcoding the days shows during that time).  So again,
you can still have one computer, but not really need a VM setup for the
home.

Having said that, I do run a virutal machine so I can run three window
apps I can't run or run well with WINE.  Boot up time from the suspend
is 3-5 seconds, I go in and out, and that's it.

And of course, you can do whatever you choose and feel fit to.  I think
the criticism was, why bother, or more to the point, are you sure this
is the best path.

-- 
  Kris B.
  krisbee at krisbee.com



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