VMware or Xen

[drhilbert]

Dear all,

I would like to have your opinion about the choice of a virtual machine software, mainly between VMware and Xen. I'm running a linux box with FC6 but since I'm developing cross-platform software I'm using since some times VMware workstation with microsoft operating systems installed. Everything is legal, I have (my department actually has) a license for the VMware and for all the OS installed. The point is that I don't want to re-boot to perform my tests.

Recently I saw that Xen (provided by FC > 5) is claiming to be at least as good as VMware, but I don't know if it is true or not. That's why I'm asking your opinion.

I've read on some wiki page that to install Xen on my FC box, I have to have Grub, does it mean I have to reboot to have the virtual system up and running?

I'm confused....

Thanks for your precious help...


hilbert

[aragorn_246]

Hilbert,

I've never used Xen myself, but I have used VMware Server, which imo sucks on Linux.

But I have just installed VirtualBox (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtualbox) which is new on the scene.

Much easier FC install than VMW and much lighter app - no permanent services running. So far it looks good - already persuaded me to dump VMW on both FC and Windows.

HTH

[drhilbert]

Dear Aragorn,

thanks for your help. I went to the VirtualBox website and I discovered that it is working on all linux 32 bit OS, and since I'm using a FC6 x86_64 it is ruled out.

Anything else?

Cheers

[funknor]

I am using WMWare Workstations for years successfully. Never had any issues.

[egurski]

I was at a Red Hat day seminar a few months ago where they talked about RHEL 5 and Xen integration. The main issue for Xen is to make sure that your processor is supported by the Xen hypervisor. I can't locate my notes as I am retiring and everything is packed up, but I know my AMD Athlon 2800-X64 processor is not supported. You will also need to install a Xen-based kernel for it to work, which is available by doing a yum query...



"Most... outages ... are not caused by technology, they're caused by people make changes....."

[drhilbert]

Dear egurski,
thanks for your reply. on the Fedora wiki I found a how-to about Fedora and xen http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraXenQuickstartFC6 and there is written how to understand if your CPU is supported or not.

The point is that I fear you need to reboot into this xen enabled kernel all the times you want to start the vm. This is not the case for vmware....

Cheers,

[egurski]

drhilbert:

Once you've booted to the Xen kernel, which will be your default in Grub, then any VM you want to start does not require a reboot.

At the seminar I attended, they showed Windows XP, and RHEL 4 running under FC5, which is quite similar to VMW...

[pjfg]

I was at a Red Hat day seminar a few months ago where they talked about RHEL 5 and Xen integration. The main issue for Xen is to make sure that your processor is supported by the Xen hypervisor. I can't locate my notes as I am retiring and everything is packed up, but I know my AMD Athlon 2800-X64 processor is not supported. You will also need to install a Xen-based kernel for it to work, which is available by doing a yum query...



"Most... outages ... are not caused by technology, they're caused by people make changes....."

It is not quite true to say that you need a supported processor to run Xen. Xen can run two types of guest; para-virtualized or fully virtualized.

Para-virtualized is where the OS has been modified to run under Xen - it is Xen aware. No special processor requirements for this. This is fine for running other Fedora vm's for example.

Fully-virtualized is where a unmodified OS runs under Xen, such as Microsoft Windows. For this you do require a VT capable processor such as the newer core duo's.

[RupertPupkin]

I've had good luck running Windows under Linux using Qemu, which is available in Fedora Extras.

[parish]

I am using WMWare Workstations for years successfully. Never had any issues.
Ditto, except for support of usb2.

Daniel

[louspag]

I've been using vmware since fc4 with no issues. I don't know much about the other options but one thing I always seem to worry about is what OS's can be virtualized. If I am not wrong I believe vmware supports more OS's for virtualization than the rest. I also like to move virtuals between several machines(host). These machines are not all the same hardware specs or OS and vmware allows me to do that with ease. So flexability is key as well. Another thing to keep in mind is that you can distribute your virtual along with vmware player so that others can run your virtual without requiring special hardware and software configurations or additional costs (other than licensing for OS).