Hello,
I was asked for help by a person who wants to standardize all systems on CentOS. This person wants to migrate some physical servers to virtual, such as a web server, DNS servers, and some Proxmox containers.
This person likes Proxmox but that is Debian based and he wants to standardize everything to CentOS. He is prepared to move to a different interface.
I have been using Linux for many years, but I am a CentOS newbie and not a sysadmin. I have only VirtualBox experience. I appreciate recommendations about
:
* Whether to use CentOS 6.5 or CentOS 7.
* Sane methods for virtualizing the existing servers.
More info:
I am not too concerned about the new technologies in CentOS 7, such as GNOME 3, systemd, etc. These systems are servers and once the standardization is established, I suspect subsequent systems will be similar. I expect most remote maintenance to be performed by SSH. CentOS 7 has four more years until EOL, which this person likes, and seems to have better virtualization support. But he is open to using 6.5 as well.
My understanding is KVM only supports full virtualization. As CentOS supports KVM, is that the most straightforward approach? Seems a nuisance to perform a full install with each VM. Or is the common practice to install an OS as the host, create a first VM with the same OS (full install), and then use that first VM as a template? Or can the host install be used as a template?
Or is LXC a better approach seeing as all operating systems will be the same? (I am showing my ignorance as I really don't know whether LXC is a sane choice).
Also appreciated are thoughts about migrating the physical systems to virtual. For example, I believe the person's web server is running Mandriva and Apache 2.2. Once a CentOS "web server" VM is created, is the migration little more than copying config files and web pages?
The person's DNS servers currently run djbdns, but the owner has tinkered some with preparing to move to bind.
This person plans to use two physical machines for redundancy and wants/hopes to quickly copy VMs from one system to the other in the event of hardware failure.
What about security? What are recommended practices for keeping all VMs and the host secure? Do I understand correctly that KVM provides the best sandboxing and LXC is not good at that? I get the feeling that despite KVM being a full system virtualization, KVM has the fewest headaches.
I have CentOS 6.5 and 7 installed on my personal systems, but I am learning at somewhat a snail's pace. As I am new to CentOS design I am hoping a post to this forum might help me get oriented.
Useful links are welcomed. I am already up to my eyeballs in docs to read.
Thanks for any help!