Upgrading the Tango virtual machine

# 8 years ago
Andy	The TANGO virtual machine has been downloaded over 1900 times size it was released 2 years ago. It has proved to be useful to a number of people. The time has come to upgrade it to the latest version of TANGO and 64 bits. The current version is based on VMWare, 32 bits, Ubuntu 13 and TANGO V8. We propose to prepare a new version based on 64 bits, Ubuntu 14.04 and TANGO V9 + all the tools on the current VM. The first version will have PyTango V8 because V9 is not ready yet. Which VM technology should be use - VirtualBox, VMWare, Xen, … ? Any other comments or requests? ANY VOLUNTEERS to help ? Andy Edited 8 years ago

# 8 years ago

The TANGO virtual machine has been downloaded over 1900 times size it was released 2 years ago. It has proved to be useful to a number of people. The time has come to upgrade it to the latest version of TANGO and 64 bits.

The current version is based on VMWare, 32 bits, Ubuntu 13 and TANGO V8.

We propose to prepare a new version based on 64 bits, Ubuntu 14.04 and TANGO V9 + all the tools on the current VM.

The first version will have PyTango V8 because V9 is not ready yet.

Which VM technology should be use - VirtualBox, VMWare, Xen, … ?

Any other comments or requests?

ANY VOLUNTEERS to help ?

Andy

Edited 8 years ago

# 8 years ago
Carlos	Regarding VM tech: In the mail you mentioned VMWare, so I suppose the decision is already taken, but anyway, here is my opinion: I would discard Xen given the intended audience of the tangobox. So I focus on the other two: I would use Virtualbox over VMware to avoid proprietary licenses() but as long as the final file is given on a OVA file importable by both VMware and VirtualBox, I think any will do. () VMWarePlayer is freeware but not free, while Virtualbox is GPL, which is more aligned with the Tango spirit…

# 8 years ago

Carlos

Regarding VM tech: In the mail you mentioned VMWare, so I suppose the decision is already taken, but anyway, here is my opinion: I would discard Xen given the intended audience of the tangobox. So I focus on the other two: I would use Virtualbox over VMware to avoid proprietary licenses(*) but as long as the final file is given on a OVA file importable by both VMware and VirtualBox, I think any will do.

(*) VMWarePlayer is freeware but not free, while Virtualbox is GPL, which is more aligned with the Tango spirit…

# 8 years ago
Andy	Carlos, I agree. The current decision is for VirtualBox. Andy

# 8 years ago
mamik	Hello, We are small company and using Tango in internal instrumentation and data collection. Let me summarize our use of TangoBox: - We uploaded the VMware image to VMware ESXi Hypervisor in our server (VirtualBox image can be converted/uploaded also) - Removed some ESFR specific IP configuration - Its running as our main Tango server after removing test devices and adding our real ones. - hdbarchiver running with local database I know, its not the intended use, but it works (running 18 month). The limitations we found: 100GB HDD is small for data archiving, adding extra space is painful. Request: Use LVM during system creation (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lvm) Archived data search and visualization is limited. We installed Egiga. Request: Add Egiga to image Miklos

# 8 years ago

mamik

Hello,
We are small company and using Tango in internal instrumentation and data collection.
Let me summarize our use of TangoBox:
- We uploaded the VMware image to VMware ESXi Hypervisor in our server (VirtualBox image can be converted/uploaded also)
- Removed some ESFR specific IP configuration
- Its running as our main Tango server after removing test devices and adding our real ones.
- hdbarchiver running with local database
I know, its not the intended use, but it works (running 18 month).
The limitations we found:
100GB HDD is small for data archiving, adding extra space is painful.
Request: Use LVM during system creation (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lvm)
Archived data search and visualization is limited. We installed Egiga.
Request: Add Egiga to image

Miklos

# 8 years ago
Andy	Hi Miklos, this is indeed very interesting. I am glad to hear the VM has served you well. I take your request to have LVM into account for the disks. The work of preparing the new VM has started with VirtualBox. So far it has been easy to add / resize disks without using LVM. We will look into changing the size and if we see problems with the non-LVM disk manager we will switch to LVM. I have switched off swap too as the VM is configured with 4 GB memory. The swap can be switched back on again using the VirtualBox manager. Good idea to add Egiga. I will add this to the list of pre-installed packages. Andy

# 8 years ago

Andy

Hi Miklos,

this is indeed very interesting. I am glad to hear the VM has served you well. I take your request to have LVM into account for the disks. The work of preparing the new VM has started with VirtualBox. So far it has been easy to add / resize disks without using LVM. We will look into changing the size and if we see problems with the non-LVM disk manager we will switch to LVM. I have switched off swap too as the VM is configured with 4 GB memory. The swap can be switched back on again using the VirtualBox manager.

Good idea to add Egiga. I will add this to the list of pre-installed packages.

Andy

# 8 years ago
hardion	Hi Andy, Good kick off!!! Talking about packages, what are the software installed in the current VM? Do you have a list? which version of tango for the new one? As I said in tango meeting MAXIV can work on the centos version. At this moment our VM runs with tango8 and centos6 (or ubuntu 10.04 if you want) but we expect to run tango9 and centos7 in the next month. Not sure what we can expect for icalepcs. Our idea is also to release the ansible configuration to build yourself a TangoBox. At this moment the showstopper is the access of the MAXIV RPM repository from Internet. Miklos, are you interested to have different type of VM: TangoDB VM, Tango Server VM, Tango Archiving VM, Tango Client VM…? /Vincent Vincent Hardion Control System MAX IV Laboratory

# 8 years ago

hardion

Hi Andy,

Good kick off!!!

Talking about packages, what are the software installed in the current VM?
Do you have a list? which version of tango for the new one?

As I said in tango meeting MAXIV can work on the centos version. At this moment our VM runs with tango8 and centos6 (or ubuntu 10.04 if you want smile

) but we expect to run tango9 and centos7 in the next month. Not sure what we can expect for icalepcs.
Our idea is also to release the ansible configuration to build yourself a TangoBox.
At this moment the showstopper is the access of the MAXIV RPM repository from Internet.

Miklos, are you interested to have different type of VM: TangoDB VM, Tango Server VM, Tango Archiving VM, Tango Client VM…?

/Vincent

Vincent Hardion
Control System
MAX IV Laboratory

# 8 years ago
Andy	Hi Miklos, I have created a new VM using LVM with a 1 TB and flexible resizing. So far it does not take more than 10 GB on my disk. I hope the LVM does not cause problems further down the road … Hi Vincent, great to hear you are offering to provide CentOS versions of the VM. The idea of different versions is interesting but means more work. Who will do it? I think having one VM with everything on it and updated is already a good start. Kind regards Andy

# 8 years ago

Andy

Hi Miklos,

I have created a new VM using LVM with a 1 TB and flexible resizing. So far it does not take more than 10 GB on my disk. I hope the LVM does not cause problems further down the road …

Hi Vincent,

great to hear you are offering to provide CentOS versions of the VM. The idea of different versions is interesting but means more work. Who will do it? I think having one VM with everything on it and updated is already a good start.

Kind regards

Andy

# 8 years ago
hardion	Hi Andy, I think so too. The purpose of the TangoBox is mainly to have a quick start and a sand box for development. Nethertheless Tango is made for distributed system. To have different type of installation reflect more the usual installation. MAXIV manages different type of VM but it is not easy to run several VM on one laptop (docker is a better candidate). Is it easy to list the software + versions the TangoBox should have? /Vincent Vincent Hardion Control System MAX IV Laboratory

# 8 years ago

hardion

Hi Andy,

I think so too. The purpose of the TangoBox is mainly to have a quick start and a sand box for development.
Nethertheless Tango is made for distributed system. To have different type of installation reflect more the usual installation.
MAXIV manages different type of VM but it is not easy to run several VM on one laptop smile

(docker is a better candidate).

Is it easy to list the software + versions the TangoBox should have?

/Vincent

Vincent Hardion
Control System
MAX IV Laboratory

# 8 years ago
mamik	Hi Andy, Thank you! We are using LVM on our servers without any issue. Hi Vincent, The current "all in one" VM, serves all our needs. For bigger institutes the situation can be different. Miklos

# 8 years ago
raph38130	Dear all, from my experience teaching Tango courses, there are issues mainly with hosts requirements : - some users have only 32 bits hosts (so can only run 32b VM) and rather small HD / memory - unreliable or slow internet : don't forget to embed for them github/sourceforge repository of source code, as docs, tools, cross compilers (for the ARM raspberry !)… maybe there are specifications for 2 VM… IMHO we have to target newbees, students, trainees… experienced users will easily make their custom VM from debian packages (or source) rgds

# 8 years ago

raph38130

Dear all,

from my experience teaching Tango courses, there are issues mainly with hosts requirements :
- some users have only 32 bits hosts (so can only run 32b VM) and rather small HD / memory
- unreliable or slow internet : don't forget to embed for them github/sourceforge repository of source code, as docs, tools, cross compilers (for the ARM raspberry !)…

maybe there are specifications for 2 VM…

IMHO we have to target newbees, students, trainees…
experienced users will easily make their custom VM from debian packages (or source)

rgds