Re: Running PostgreSQL in a Xen DomU?

My database needs are probably less than yours, but I've had zero
issues running postgres inside a domU. I'm not using SAN, but instead
DRBD to replicate data at the block level between dom0s. I haven't
tried migrating the domU from one machine to another without
rebooting it, but the shutdown/move/startup process works quite well
for me.

I had some concerns that xen's virtual disk i/o speed wouldn't be
fast enough... but my database performance has never been bad enough
that I had to actually see how fast my domU can do i/o.

On Sep 14, 2006, at 5:04 AM, Thomas Harold wrote:

> We're slowly trying to move away from hardware dependence for our
> servers and it looks like Xen is the path.  Our primary goal is
> that if a particular server fails, we can simply migrate the guest
> OSs to another Xen node and the users will not experience any
> downtime.  Plus it should allow us to consolidate a few servers.
>
> Our database needs aren't that great at the moment, less then 50
> concurrent users even at the worst of times.  But we might have
> multi-gigabyte databases that will be queried in bursts and then
> left alone for a few days.  A single CPU is generally fast enough
> for us.
>
> So our current thinking is:
>
> - Place PG in a DomU that can be moved from host-to-host as needed
>
> - Backend storage would be over a SAN (iSCSI, 9k jumbo frames,
> dedicated  NIC or bonded NICs for the SAN, dedicated switch or VLAN
> for the SAN)
>
> - SAN unit itself would be DRBD'd to a 2nd SAN storage unit.
> That's down the road a bit once we build out the first few Xen nodes.
>
> What I'm not sure of:
>
> - Maybe it's better to run PGSQL in Dom0, on 2 different Xen units
> that are beefed up, with a few lighter DomU guest OSs running in
> the background.  Some sort of heartbeat software that allows the 2
> Xen units to grab the PGSQL's IP address as needed.
>
> - Performance of PGSQL in a DomU.  What are the gotchas?  Do we
> need to export PCI NICs to the PGSQL DomU?
>
> (I have a lot of freedom to experiment.  As long as services are up
> and running and things are stable...  We're going from individual
> machine with DAS to a more clustered/virtual environment with SAN.)
>
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