[aklug] Re: Dedicated Virtualization

On 12/08/2010 02:56 PM, Greg Madden wrote:
>
> 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.
>
>
Yeah, I neglected to mention that I use VirtualBox on my workstation;
but I consider it a 'desktop-style' virtualization rather than
'enterprise-style' virtualization. I use the non-OSE version since it
has a few extra doodads (RDP and USB support, to name two), and the
"Seamless Mode" in both editions is to die for, but again - I consider
that a desktop productivity tool, and not something on which I'd deploy
servers.

-- 
Adam
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