Re: Running skolelinux virtually in production?

[Steven Chamberlain <steven@pyro.eu.org>]

Hi,

I think you would probably only want to virtualise for:

1. Testing:
Install Skolelinux main server in a virtual machine (maybe on a desktop
machine that isn't very fast), as practice before installing it on a
real server.  It won't be as fast as if it was installed directly onto
the machine.  And maybe less stable:  if something on the 'host' system
caused a crash, the virtual machine would crash too.

2. Consolidation:
You have old servers that could maybe work as VirtualBox containers,
running on the new server;  that way, the old servers can be turned off
to save power, or use the hardware for something else.

As a real-life example:  I set up a new Linux production server (Debian,
but not actually Skolelinux), later installed VirtualBox on it, then
imported an old Windows 2000 server as a VirtualBox container.  So the
services in the Windows 2000 guest are still available on the network,
and the old server hardware was turned off and used for something else now.

I think (but haven't tested) if you install Skolelinux main server
directly onto a new server, you could install VirtualBox later if you
want to run any containers like I did.

Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
steven@pyro.eu.org