[PLUG] VMware users group meeting

[Paul Heinlein]

On Thu, 18 Jan 2007, Auke Kok wrote:

> M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:
>> To add a Xen twist to this, there are certain types of Intel (and 
>> AMD, I think) chips that can run Windows guests under Xen. The 
>> VMware marketing guys flag this as "Did you know you need special 
>> hardware to run Windows with Xen?" :) But just how special *are* 
>> these chips? If I walked into Fry's or CompUsa or Office Depot and 
>> just bought "a PC" that was manufactured recently, would the chips 
>> in it have the ability to run a Windows guest under Xen?
>
> Personally, I'd prefer KVM over Xen considering the recent work that 
> has been done and the outlook, which is significantly more positive 
> than Xen's.
>
> About the CPU's: you'll need the 'vmx' extension listed in 
> /proc/cpuinfo. In practice, all core 2 duo's and pentium 4's have 
> it, so it's not that special, but many celeron's come without it.

Strike that bit about Pentium 4's. Most, but not all, Pentium D's are 
VT-enabled, but the P4 has been on the market a long time, and most of 
them in production are pre-VT.

I've never had the need to run a non-Linux OS in Xen, but I've been 
giving Linux/Xen a fairly serious workout at work. One tremendously 
cool use is to host web apps behind our border firewall on Xen VMs and 
use mod_proxy to make them visible to the public Internet. Then I can 
give folks admin rights on their VM and let them run amok. They're 
able to add modules or distribute authority as they see fit, and any 
damage they do is easy to compartmentalize. Plus, LVM snapshots ease 
the task of backing up the domU's from dom0.

-- 
Paul Heinlein <> heinlein at madboa.com <> www.madboa.com