JDPFu.com 2025

Ok, so I’m migrating my servers from Ubuntu 6.xx to 8.xx and adding Xen virtualization along the way.
So far:

1. Regulus – Athlon 1800+
   1. Xen Dom0 (reg0/regulus) running 8.04 and Xen from the Ubuntu repository.
   2. 1.2GB RAM
   3. 2×250GB Disks (sw mirrored)
      1. Dom1 – reg1 256MB RAM w/ 2GB Virt Disk
      2. Dom2 – reg2 256MB RAM w/ 2GB Virt Disk
2. Romulus – Core 2 Duo still at 6.xx
   This blog is running on reg1 at near native speed.

Next, we will:

1. Migrate the old website from romulus —> Dom2 (it will still be slow)
2. Update our load balancer to use the new xen1/2 domains for all traffic
3. Validate that email, web, SIP, and other traffic works without romulus powered on. Romulus has an external array attached to it, so we’ll lose most of our protected storage.
4. Unplug the external array, do an upgrade upgrade from 6.0x → 7.10 → 8.04 with Xen – not touching the HOME directories. We hope no data lose happens, but it will. It will just be OS related data loss, not HOME or external array stuff.
5. Bring Xen up on romulus Dom0, rom1, rom2, rom3, rom4.
6. Romulus is an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 that is only pressed into real CPU service running 2 mencoder jobs at the same time. Hardly a worthwhile experience for a CPU like this. It also has 2GB of RAM and well over a TB of external storage in RAID5 config.

There is a risk that we could lose access to the external array – it uses software RAID, not hardware.

As I’m writing this, it seems I’ll need a better method for naming servers with Xen domains on them to limit confusion. – Romulus – rom0, rom1, rom2, rom3 …. Regulus – reg0, reg1, reg2, etc. With matching IP addresses .41, .42, , .51, .52, .53 ….

Why bother with all this?

1. WinXP runs under Xen iff the processor supports VT in hardware. My Athlon doens’t, but the E6600 does. Having an XP machine available will be nice – that is, besides my aging laptop that’s almost 4 years old and still going, but has been beeping every 30-45 minutes for over 2 years.
2. Protected storage – all the Dom1-Dom2 will be on RAID5 storage.
3. Nice monitor, keyboard, mouse -
4. Lower noise
5. Lower heat means lower power consumption – my server room/office gets really warm during the summer.