Re: Stability of -current for a Xen Dom0 machine

[Dustin Marquess <dmarquess%gmail.com@localhost>]

On Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 9:58 AM, Stefano Marinelli
<postnet%dragas.dyndns.org@localhost> wrote:
> Hello. First of all, thank you (and haad) for your nice replies.
>
>> Did not know Hetzner's current metal they offer you. In case it offers 
>> further
>> (and important for you) hardware features i.e. server management stuff and
>> others typical for server management should try if NetBSD provides all what
>> you want on it. Otherwise it might be a good choice to use i.e. a Linux Dom0
>> and run your NetBSD DomUs on it.
>
> Maybe Linux would be a wiser choice as Hetzner doesn't provide a console and 
> just a recovery system (Linux, FreeBSD, OpenSolaris). So in case of (future) 
> troubles, there might be problems.
> Anyway, my real world experiences shown that NetBSD is working far better, 
> even if "just" as Dom0. I/O is better and generally speaking is more reliable.
>
>> If you are happy with NetBSD as Dom0 on that machine - it would be a very 
>> nice
>> choice.
>
> Yes. I manage some NetBSD dom0 machines and they just sit and work, without 
> any single problem.
>
>> If you are a BSD source geek i can recommend i.e. Gentoo with xen-sources
>> kernel (3.4 or 4.1 xen - i use 3.4 at the time because of compiling problems
>> with 4. - Gentoo uses a xen kernel based on SuSes patchsets) as you might
>> configure the binary configuration nearly BSDish - i.e. to bring out the 
>> "last
>> ressources" out of the hardware.
>
> I've been using Gentoo for a long time (back in 2003). Maybe it could also be 
> ok, but in case of Linux, I think I'll stuck with Squeeze.
>
>> I.e. if required you may run a LVM on Dom0 as transparent backend without LVM
>> within NetBSD and/or vice versa.
>
> I think I will run NetBSD-current (a recent build) for some weeks to test 
> and, if stable enough, put it in production. I will have a overlap time of 2 
> months so there's enough time to see if everything is ok.

I will say that a NetBSD dom0 is damn stable, even -current.  I've
used it for a long time.

The only downside is the fact that the version of Xen in NetBSD is
getting a little crusty.  Last I checked, it was still on 3.3.x.  XCP
1.0.0 which is stable now uses 3.4.2, and let's not even get started
on 4.0.x.

If you can live without the features/enhancements in the newer Xen
versions, then I'd go all for NetBSD as the dom0.

-Dustin