[K12OSN] Xen

Mike Ely mely at rogueriver.k12.or.us
Wed Mar 22 17:13:58 UTC 2006


My experience has been more with Xen - the things I've been hearing 
about virtuozzo are not positive, so I've avoided it.  Currently I'm 
running things on UML (User Mode Linux) and VMWare, both of which are 
allright, although UML is definitely being deprecated with the maturing 
of Xen.  Virtuozzo (commercialized openvz) would be somewhere along the 
lines of UML, with a higher amount of processing overhead and resultant 
lower number of nodes per host than Xen.  On the other hand, Xen needs 
either a modified kernel or virtualization technology on the CPU 
(certain versions of Itanic 2, for example) in order to run, so there's 
something to be said for using something else.

In the context of LTSP servers, I'd thought for a while about whether 
virtualization would be a good fit, and my feeling is that it isn't. 
The main reason for this is twofold: First off, any hypervisor(ish) 
solution is going to cause overhead on the server.  Second off, Linux is 
designed to be a multiuser operating system from the ground up, and 
ultimately LTSP is XDMCP with a bit of chrooting, all of which is a 
"core competency" for linux.

I've been using virtualization for things like one-off servers that 
don't like a cluttered environment, or servers that are prone to fail 
spectacularly but don't need a lot of hardware.  The first case is 
pretty obvious, and the second case is really nice when you don't want 
to buy bespoke hardware for a service but don't want that service 
knocking over an entire server full of other stuff when it implodes.

Hope all that helps,
Mike

Paul VanGundy wrote:
> Ron,
> 
> I've heard that OpenVZ (http://openvz.org/) is much better than Xen.
> However, I have no experience with OpenVZ. It's another option though.
> 
> -Paul 
> 
> 
> --
> Paul VanGundy
> Information Technology Director
> Epping High School
> Epping Middle School
> P: 603.679.5472
> F: 603.679.2966
> vangundypw at sau14.k12.nh.us
> Registered Linux User #398783
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: k12osn-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:k12osn-bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf
> Of rmcdaniel at indata.us
> Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 10:36 AM
> To: k12osn at redhat.com
> Subject: [K12OSN] Xen
> 
> Has anyone in this group used Xen?  Any problems running multiple OS on one
> server?  It sure seems like a great way to support both Linux and Windows
> environments.  It could provide a way to slowly ween users off of Windows.
> Seems like something worth trying.
> 
> Ron
> 
> 
> 
> Ronald R. McDaniel
> Conecuh County Schools
> (251) 578-7073 x26
> (251) 238-1890 cell
> 1*4238*104 SouthernLinc
> rmcdaniel at indata.us
> 
> 
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