[rt-users] RT VMWare appliance

[Les Mikesell]

On Thu, 2006-03-23 at 12:58, Joop van de Wege wrote:
> > 
> > Would it be difficult to modify this to use mysql or postgresql
> > on a different host?  That is, if someone tries the virtual
> > machine and likes it, would they be able to point the database
> > connection at a non-virtual machine for better performance
> > and run it in production?

> Yes, with a bit of work this can be done. All the tools are available,
> the VM is configured to use bridging and DHCP so it can connect to the
> internet and download the neccessary components, they are not installed
> because of space considerations and <shameless plug on> because I would
> like to promote Oracle(XE) together with RT, backed by our business
> </shameless plug off>.
> 
> In my testing I didn't see much difference except ofcourse when you're
> database is on a signifcant faster machine which is exclusivly used for
> RT and nothing else.
> But then maybe one shouldn't use virtualisation anyway and go for the
> bare metal thing instead.
> Nice thing about VM is that you can keep a working version zipped away
> and restore it on any machine capable of running VMWare or other
> compatible virtualisation software. If you have a solid backup/restore
> procedure you should be up and running after a disaster in literally
> minutes. 
> I could configure this VM, using OracleXE, to be redundant in a couple
> of ways so that you would miss probably not one transaction in case of
> disaster. Interested?;-)

That sounds like a nice touch, but what I see as a real win is
the ability to have a stable database - and VM or not doesn't
really matter there, we should already know how to maintain,
back up, and restore the database, but be able to update
the RT/RTFM/AT independently in a new VM image (preferably where
someone else has already done the work of bundling all the
perl modules).  Then you would just give it the IP address
of the old one and change the configuration to use the old
database to cut over with only a few minutes of downtime.

-- 
  Les Mikesell
   les at futuresource.com