[Koha] MySQL database server, dedicated vs virtual

[tobias carlsson]

Hi! 

I'm currently working with a Koha implementation in a public library in
southern Sweden. Our installation (it's not live yet) is currently on a
virtual machine running Ubuntu Server 14.04 LTS and the version of Koha
is 3.22. The MySQL database also resides on the same virtual server. 

I've tried some at home - on a Koha test server running under Debian
with the MySQL database on a machine running Ubuntu Server 14.04 (with a
Core i3 4170 @3,7 GHz (stock), with a quite slow Western Digital Red.
The difference between running on "bare metal" and virtual seem rather
striking. Is there anyone out there who have moved from virtual running
databases to physical? What can you tell us about this? 

I know that a database server should run with good I/O performance and a
fast CPU and lots of RAM and so on, but since I'm a librarian, not an
engineer (that sounded familiar...), I have limited experience of
dealing with servers in a large scale and I'm no expert on databases. 

I'm aware of database optimizations and the use of plack and memcached,
but running the database on a "bare metal" server with a high clock,
made me start thinking of how we should deal with the database. It seems
to me that many libraries use virtual servers for everything, even
databases and that it's common to run Koha and server on the same
(virtual) instance. 

Please share your experiences and thoughts about this. 

Best regards, 

Tobias Carlsson 
Systems Librarian and IT Technician 

Currently working with Koha at Vaggeryds bibliotek (Vaggeryd public
library) in Sweden. 
Working as a Systems Librarian at Gislaveds bibliotek.