[aklug] Re: Dedicated Virtualization

On Wednesday 08 December 2010 10:12:31 am adam bultman wrote:
> On 12/08/2010 10:03 AM, Christopher Howard wrote:
> > Hey guys, at work I managed to get hold of one (pretty nice) spare PC,
> > and I want it to be dedicated to just running VMs. The VMs will be mainly
> > be used for testing purposes (e.g., experimenting with
> > software/networking configurations).
> >
> > I was wondering if I should go with what I know (Qemu built on a Linux
> > base) or if I should try out this "Xen" thing. Whatsay?
>
> Xen is good, but the last time I used it (~1 year ago) 'fixing' VMs that
> were broken was terribly difficult. The downside of Xen that I see:
> When you allocate RAM to a VM, it is 'taken' from the host OS, and
> reserved. (VMWare doesn't do that; at least, ESX doesn't.) (Yes, I
> know that oversubscribing is bad.) I haven't followed too closely with
> what RHEL is using to replace Xen, but it'd be a good idea to look into
> it's replacement.
>
> VMWare is another good one to try, since it'll more likely apply to any
> future positions you might hold ( depending on what you are planning on
> getting into, job-wise). I don't know of any large companies that use
> Qemu for virtualization (in production), but I know quite a few that use
> VMware. Getting your feet wet with VMWare would be good in any event.

No ones mentioned VirtualBox, it is owned by Oracle but it has an open source
(OSE) edition, it is bundled with Debian. I use it after switching from VMware
workstation. Not sure of any downsides resource wise, it is easy to use and I
don't miss VMware.

-- 
Peace,
Greg
---------
To unsubscribe, send email to <aklug-request@aklug.org>
with 'unsubscribe' in the message body.