Any system builders out there? Give me feedback on home Xen box we are building: http://bit.ly/BtReM
May 2009
Xen Computer
When Jayme and I moved in together she came up with the idea of building a computer. She wanted to learn more about computers and I had never built one myself. We also wanted to try lots of different Linux distros and maybe have access to Windows (we both have Macs, only hers is Intel), so I immediately set my mind on virtualization. This had been in the back of my mind since it was discussed on Security Now episodes 53 and 54.
I don’t remember how I first heard about Xen, but I had already decided I wanted bare metal virtualization capability. I wanted to run 2 or 3 vm’s at one time without the overhead of Windows or Mac OS running underneath them. Xen seems to be the open-source frontrunner, at least for someone who is not a Linux guru (and even that I am not sure about).
In trying to narrow down our main components, these were our requirements:
- Size. We didn’t want it to be too big. I already have a gimongous heater under my desk (PowerMac G5). Luckily, Jayme only has a little MacBook.
- Virtualization support. Needs to be on the CPU and the motherboard. This meant Intel chips with Intel VT or AMD Pacifica and a lot of research to confirm mobo support which I am still only guessing about.
- Networking: Gigabit ethernet, for speedy VNC connections on the LAN.
- Graphics: Need integrated graphics for minimal use with monitor, mostly during initial setup.
- Bus: SATA, because I have a spare 250GB SATA drive.
- Total cost. We were aiming for ~$500.
This is what we have come up with. Jayme researched the case and power supply, and I did the cpu and motherboard.
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wish we could go to the Quad, but they are so pricey.
- Motherboard: Intel DG35EC
- RAM: We’re going to start with 4GB. Haven’t picked it out yet.
- Case: Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
- Power Supply: Antec EA500 500W Had a hard time understanding how to figure this out. The calculator said ~320W with the full 8GB of RAM, so I think this gives us some buffer.
We’re going to use this headless from each of our machines with VNC. My understanding of Xen is that VNC is how you use the different VMs even when you are on the box.
So my flight out was delayed 3 hours, causing connection mayhem. Rushed to airport for earlier flight and now getting home 90 min sooner.
Never flying US Airways again. For real this time.
Hurley’s blog: http://dispatchesfromtheisland.blogspot.com/
The fact that this was the first photo on the web pretty-much sums it up: http://bit.ly/oxUuG
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Hulu says, “Take THAT Boxee!” http://www.hulu.com/labs/hulu-desktop
Finally found out how nice State College looks in sunlight. http://twitpic.com/67thq
Thank you WebLion, for the Symposium and everything you do for the Plone community! #pse09
What do you know, my flight out of State College tomorrow morning is not cancelled yet.
2 minutes into @natea’s session, and I’m sold on Deliverance. #pse09
Only seeing two slidedecks on Slideshare. Where is everyone? #pse09 http://bit.ly/wWHzB
There’s an app for that. http://appft.com/
PondCMS - Plone on Amazon EC2 - looks very interesting. #pse09
Those of you running 10, 20, 30+ sites on one Zope, what are your CPU/RAM specs and are you using ZEO? #pse09
Ha! Paul Everitt scoffs, “Twitter…pfff….Get off my grass.” #pse09
Lineage looks great. Still not sure if we should use it or do separate sites for our situation. #pse09
Excellent run-through of viewlets by @cdw9. #pse09
I can’t believe they have Rotelli’s up here. I thought it was a small South Florida thing. #pse09
#nameJoelsProduct He listed his wishes and said it was magic. Must be called DocuGenie? #pse09
Wow, automatic documentation updates with DOM aware screenshot cropping. Lightning talk by Joel Burton. It has no name. #pse09
Limi is showing the CSS “framework” (20 lines) behind Deco in this lightning talk. #pse09
Amberjack looks interesting. Lightning talk by @natea. #pse09
Hrm, contentwellportlets looks interesting. #pse09
Start with Debian, has everything in the world, just add Plone, instead of starting with Buildout and adding everything in the world. #pse09
RT @kevin7kal: two streams for #pse09 Room A-B http://bit.ly/1rMvHM and Room D-E http://bit.ly/OpD0a Plone Symposium East 2009
Really like the UW Oshkosh idea of reduced site migration time for internal clients who receive training in Plone and Web Writing. #pse09
Seriously cannot wait for Deco. #pse09
Hearing Kim Nguyen talk about Plone adoption at UW Oshkosh makes reminds me of how easy we had it. #pse09
Miracle: The gate attendent took pity on me, put me on the 9pm even though I was #12 for 7 seat openings. At the Lion Inn, finally. #pse09
And the 10:45 is full too. So unless some people give up and a few more just stay home, it looks like I am sleeping in Philly.
Hits keep coming: Just realized my standby was booked in co-worker’s name. (He stayed home, sick.) Now I am #12 standby for 9:05pm flight.
Doh! Last tweet was @jluvsu2.
Oooh, thanks for the tip. That would have been perfect, but next train is 12:42pm tomorrow.
Any other Plone people on cancelled US Airways 4528 from Philky to State College? #pse09
Trying for standby on sold out 9:05 flight. If not, there is one more at 10:45. After that, hitch? Beers tomorrow @calvinhp, I guess. #pse09
On the airport economy parking shuttle in Ft. Lauderdale. Flying out to State College, PA for Plone Symposium East. #pse09
Summer hours start today! Woohoo!
Somehow survived excursion to Bean City, FL. Saw neither beans nor city, but had a good time with friends.
Working on wireframes for a friend’s site. Got to learn about PEAR to get XML_RSS for blog integration and checked out http://CushyCMS.com
Twitter’s user guide. http://twitpic.com/5rn3b
My Following is out of control again. Can’t keep up. 1 reason my tweets have gone down. I will have to make cuts. Sorry. It will be hard.
Scored the last price of meatloaf in the cafeteria. Win!
Can’t believe hard dark it is this morning. Very gloomy. Kind of nice.
Play
Thinking about GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L and Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 for a Xen machine. Any comments?
Ten years ago I had a 13” tv and a 17” monitor. This was a point of pride.
My missing 50GB was in a user folder to which I didn’t have read access. IT Guy found it with Grand Perspective. http://tinyurl.com/m97ws
