[ale] server virtualization

[Greg Freemyer]

On 6/6/06, Jim Popovitch <jimpop at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Jeff Hubbs wrote:
> > No - there's a Xen liveCD that has two different distros you can run
> > virtually once booted.
>
> So, just to be clear, it is possible on a Xen host to have 3 different
> kernels (2.4.x, 2.6.x, etc) running at the same time (Host, VM1, and VM2)?
>
> Thx,
>
> -Jim P.

Yes and no.

The main kernel (dom0) has to have Xen support compiled in.  Currently
that is only in 2.6 kernels AFAIK.  ie. No 2.4, no bsd, no windows.

Then for the VMs (domU), it is best if the kernel have
Para-Virtualized drivers for the hardware.  ie. Xen-disk-drivers,
Xen-NIC-drivers, etc.

The SuSE 10.0 and 10.1 distros come with 2 kernels, one meant for dom0
and one meant for domU.

You can get a few different domU setups from http://jailtime.org;
including Debian 3.1.  Once you have a dom0 setup with Xen support,
you should be able install any of the systems from jailtime or any
other Para-Virtualized domU.

I don't think there are any 2.4 kernel PV drivers, so you need the
below to run 2.4 kernels in domU.

If Para-Virtuallized drivers are not feasible.  (old kernel, windows, etc):
For Xen you need hardware support to generate traps when the domU
kernel tries to access hardware.  Intel has been shipping VT (Virtual
Technology) support in some of its CPUs since Jan 1. 06.  AMD started
shipping a couple CPUs with SVM (?) support a week or two ago.  The
AMD chips are pretty expensive at this point and not tested by the Xen
community although the Xen developers must have had early access
because support is claimed..

Greg
-- 
Greg Freemyer
The Norcross Group
Forensics for the 21st Century