[OmniOS-discuss] combo storage/virtualization server

[Paul B. Henson]

Once upon a time I was planning to set up a zfs-based storage server at 
home along with a virtualization server running either linux/kvm or 
vmware esxi. Then Oracle came along and killed off OpenSolaris, and that 
plan got put on hold (for a bit over two years now <sigh>). When Joyent 
announced kvm for illumos, I thought it would be sweet to combine the 
originally planned two separate servers into one mongo zfs/kvm/illumos 
box :).

I'm having trouble finding the perfect distribution though ;). I've been 
keeping an eye on illumian, as I didn't really enjoy working with IPS 
under OpenSolaris, and a dpkg based system sounds more palatable. 
However, a production ready version isn't quite out yet, and it looks 
like the first release isn't going to have kvm support. SmartOS is the 
clear leader for pure virtualization purposes, but the lack of 
persistent customization/configuration in the global zone makes it not 
very suitable for a storage server.

OmniOS seems production ready (although I don't think I can swing the 
$4k/yr support contract for my home deployment ;) ), includes kvm 
support, and I like the minimalistic approach for the base OS. I've been 
thinking about giving it a try, and was wondering if anybody has done 
much virtualization with it and might provide some feedback as far as 
how that's been working out.

I was also curious about the issues OmniTI had with minimizing 
OpenIndiana, and was wondering if the same issues might be encountered 
with illumian. illumian is only going to be a server OS, and not include 
any of the GUI or desktop packages, so potentially would be easier to 
minimize.

Thanks...