Virtual Windows workstation run on a headless CentOS server running KVM with ...

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StephD

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Dec 17, 2013
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I believe I won't be starting this project as a headless workstation since it remains unclear whether VGA passthrough will be achievable at all. From what I read on relative websites, it's far from stable and even tends to feels like voodoo sometimes. I post link here for future reference.

VGA device assignment - KVM

If somebody ever stops by and wanna share recipe for success, of course, be my guest.
 

Mike

Member
May 29, 2012
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You may want to read up on VFIO. Some guy from Red Hat has been working on that and it's not covered on the KVM site.
 

StephD

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Dec 17, 2013
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I wonder which Linux distribution is the most suitable for this build. I planned to go with CentOS but now I feel Fedora might be my ticket.
 

bwillcox

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Jan 20, 2013
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Tejas
Fedora will have the newest qemu/KVM/etc bits the soonest as CentOS = RHEL for that purpose. Depends on what you want to do, really. Just keep in mind that a given Fedora release won't receive updates past 6 months a given release +1 and you'll have to update. With their new fedup tool that is not quite as much a pain now; it used to be wipe and reinstall....

Personally I use CentOS for my "production" KVM hosts and Fedora on my workstation since it gets the new bits first.
 

Mike

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May 29, 2012
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Debian Jessie is pretty up to date on this at the moment. Otherwise there is always Arch Linux to be on top of the new stuff. I wouldn't go to Debian Sid if I were you.
 

StephD

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Dec 17, 2013
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Thanks guys for getting back. I'm not much of a Debian guy. I pretty much stick with RPM based distributions as I use CentOS at work almost exclusively. I'll probably need to get the new bits as soon as possible since VGA passthrough seems like it's such a moving target, so yes, Fedora it might be.

Anyway, it's true I need to decide what I want to do with this build. Right now, I see it as a lab to test things on. I will most likely end up booting more than one system anyway. I might actually install one of these 6-in-1 2.5″ hot swap cage so I can swap/clone SSD boot drives easily (provided I can get some confirmation it's safe to run them fanless with SSDs).

Bottom line is until I'm able to get vga passthrough from CentOS running the latest kernel and GIT software, then I'll probably be booting Fedora 20 and see if I get lucky with the latest packages available.
 
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Mike

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May 29, 2012
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By the time you have Centos running the latest Qemu and kernel from Epel you are essentially running Fedora ;)
 

StephD

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Dec 17, 2013
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By the time you have Centos running the latest Qemu and kernel from Epel you are essentially running Fedora ;)
I have not been booting Fedora for à while except on my Chromebook so it was not clear what differences would exist. I think I read Fedora uses XFS by default which I might be interested in using here even if I install CentOS.
 

bwillcox

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Jan 20, 2013
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Tejas
Fedora still defaults to ext4 as does CentOS but both have xfs available, Fedora also has btrfs available as a tech preview if you want to play with it.
 

StephD

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Dec 17, 2013
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I am still waiting for the PSU and I just ordered this :

8GB Module - DDR3L 1600MHz Server Premier
Part Number: KVR16LE11/8KF
Specs: DDR3L, 1600MHz, ECC, CL11, Dual Rank, X8, 1.35V, Unbuffered, DIMM,

This is pretty much all I need to gets things started. I'll need a WiFi / Bluetooth USB dongle as well but that's no show stopper.
 

StephD

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Dec 17, 2013
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Fedora still defaults to ext4 as does CentOS but both have xfs available, Fedora also has btrfs available as a tech preview if you want to play with it.
I read a looong /. thread about file systems and it feels like I'll have a hard time deciding which one I should use. btrfs would not be considered stable yet and neither would be zol. I could eventually decide to go with zfs on OmniOS. This is something I need to learn for work anyway so why not get started with it on this build ?
 

StephD

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Dec 17, 2013
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I just ordered an Intel s3500 ssd. I think I need power loss data protection more than write speed/endurance.
 

StephD

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Dec 17, 2013
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I received the Picopsu but it doesn't work. I think I picked the wrong model. It seems it misses a P4 connector. I ordered a molex to P4 adapter. I hope it helps the board boot.
 

StephD

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Dec 17, 2013
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I will probably use qcow2 disk image format for vm storage and stick with ext4 as a host filesystem. This seems likely to help with data protection since base image won't be open in write mode when things go wrong.
 

StephD

Member
Dec 17, 2013
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FreeBSD 10 is out and feature list is impressive. I might be running this instead.
 
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StephD

Member
Dec 17, 2013
126
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I received the SSD but still no P4 cable in the mail. I hope I can finally get things started next week-end.
 
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