vm for primary os

wolfric

I'm looking for a good foundation vm program to run everything off. Either a package that's bootable or something i can run in a stripped down os.
I'm looking to:

• Boot straight into vm manager/program
• Low resource usage and efficient allocation to virtual machines

Someone has mentioned vmware enterprise and i've just started to look into it however i'd rather push programs that cost money to the back of the list.

Any experience or suggestions?

Dorsanty

I might be worth looking into Xen, http://xen.org/

The host OS is Linux. As such you can strip it of all X windows and other non-required packages. Then the guest OSs get the most resources from your machine.

jpl888

wolfric wrote: »

I'm looking for a good foundation vm program to run everything off. Either a package that's bootable or something i can run in a stripped down os.
I'm looking to:

• Boot straight into vm manager/program
• Low resource usage and efficient allocation to virtual machines

Someone has mentioned vmware enterprise and i've just started to look into it however i'd rather push programs that cost money to the back of the list.

Any experience or suggestions?

I assume you are not looking for containerisation as the previous poster suggested since you will only be able to run Linux guests using Xen/LXC.

KVM and VirtualBox are the best shows in town if you are looking for that sort of thing.

VirtualBox will even run quite well without hardware virtualisation extensions but KVM is built into the kernel and is the leanest and most elegant.

In terms of GUI's VirtualBox is the better but command line KVM wins hands down.

Here is a link to a KVM appliance though I'm assuming there is a more up to date version somewhere http://www.linux-kvm.com/content/virtual-appliances-qemukvm

There is also an image for just JeOS on it's own which you could easily load kvm and/or VirtualBox on top of and run your own virtualisation competition http://www.turnkeylinux.org/bootstrap

Or maybe use a minimal install of Ubuntu server and stick KVM and/or VirtualBox on that. Here is some info on virtualisation in Ubuntu.

http://www.ubuntu.com/server/features/virtualisation

bhickey

I tried a few different VM methods but in the end fell for Proxmox

Do try a few different ones yourself though (maybe Xen, Virtualbox & Proxmox) and see which one lights your bulb.

jpl888

I suppose it depends whether the OP wants to virtualise windows or not. Proxmox (which is OpenVZ based) will again only virtualise/containerise Linux.

bhickey

jpl888 wrote: »

I suppose it depends whether the OP wants to virtualise windows or not. Proxmox (which is OpenVZ based) will again only virtualise/containerise Linux.

Sorry JPL888, that's not true. I don't know where you got that notion from that Proxmox only works with Linux.

I have several Windows 2000 & XP systems migrated to and running fully virtualised in Proxmox.

jpl888

bhickey wrote: »

Sorry JPL888, that's not true. I don't know where you got that notion from that Proxmox only works with Linux.

I have several Windows 2000 & XP systems migrated to and running fully virtualised in Proxmox.

Whoops must've been thinking of Parallels. It must be great living in a world where you are never "wrong again"

Dorsanty

Just to correct some info about Xen, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xen#Guests

Ghost Train

I used xp in vmware player on top of a basic redhat/fedora linux install for a few months

was a pentium 4 machine with no hardware virtualization and was fine as main machine & OS in working environment.

jpl888

Ghost Train wrote: »

I used xp in vmware player on top of a basic redhat/fedora linux install for a few months

was a pentium 4 machine with no hardware virtualization and was fine as main machine & OS in working environment.

Yeah Vmware has pretty good performance without hardware extensions but I prefer the licensing terms of VirtualBox OSE.

Ghost Train

jpl888 wrote: »

Yeah Vmware has pretty good performance without hardware extensions but I prefer the licensing terms of VirtualBox OSE.

not really meant to use it in commerce environment but if it falls outside this there shouldn't be any issue

jpl888

Ghost Train wrote: »

not really meant to use it in commerce environment but if it falls outside this there shouldn't be any issue

Better off with VirtualBox OSE you get the performance and commercial usage restrictions don't come into it, unless you need the PUEL version that is.

Bob_Harris

Free vmware hypervisor.

http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere-hypervisor/index.html