[Koha] Some questions about virtualization.

[Michael Kuhn]

Hi Przemek

> 1. Does anyone use KOHA on virtualized servers?

I have installed about ten productive Koha instances so far. All of them 
are on virtualized hosts.

> 2. What solution did you choose KVM, LXC / LDX, VMVare, ProxmoxVE or 
> Docker containers?

I never choose the solution myself, but the responsible IT department of 
the library does. To my knowledge, some used Vmware, some LXC, some 
Proxmox VE, of some I even don't know it and until now there was never 
reason to care about it (as long as the people at the IT department know 
what they're doing).

My own Koha demo installation (koha.adminkuhn.ch) is virtualized with 
Proxmox and hosted by an external IT provider (Contabo). This setup has 
2 CPU, 6 GB RAM, 500 GB harddisk and costs me less than 100 Euro per year.

For my own local Koha test installations I usually use Virtualbox.

> 3. Does it work on production servers or only on test servers?

Both.

> 4. Problems, challenges, thoughts?

Generally the same problems as with physical machines but of course, a 
virtual machine can never be as fast as a physical machine. Also there 
may be problems if too many virtual machines are sitting on the same 
host resp. if some of them are eating up CPU etc. So if you need total 
control and maximum power there's still nothing better than hardware - 
but usually you won't need that, so the benefits of virtualization 
(especially backups) will outweigh everything else.

Besides, there are only minor problems with virtualization, for example

Best wishes: Michael
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