Virtualization 2010 ?

[sharris]

Hello DaemonForum,

I need some advice. I am not running any production servers yet or working in the Networking field. I'm a student who finally will make it to a Web Administration class this coming fall semester and I plan to be "WAY" ahead, hopefully. Now the fun begin I already have my first home network up and running, thanks to the daemonforum, (but barely since I don't see the packets flowing, it's not secure). I'll come back latter for that. For now it's time to tighten up machine-4 on my LAN which will be use for web development and testing "FreeBSD, Arch-Linux and Windows XP" and to do and store all my homework on. I need Virtualization on this machine only. For instance; when I build a nice FreeBSD or Arch-Linux running Apaches and other programs and/or from jails I can simply copy this OS from PRIMARY-1 (dd the partition) and dd it to an dedicated web or mailserver (my machine-3) or elsewhere as long as it it can be copy to partition PRIMARY-1 on that machine hard drive. I want it to "WORK" and not carry no Virtualization junk with it. I would use jails when it come to something used for production to begin with. Is this the way its suppose to work if we choose something like this? Here's an ideas about my present setup and what I want to do with KVM or VM over ESX 4.1.I if my processor qualify.

My first Gateway and LAN:
http://www.daemonforums.org/showthread.php?t=4913

Machine-1		FreeBSD 8.0-i386		Gateway-pf Firewall
Machine-2		Windows XP		Mainly for internet Access
Machine-3		FreeBSD 8.0-AMD		Production Test Machine-ssh-
                                              ipsec-etc
Machine-4		KVM or VM over ESX 4.1.I	Development machine with 
                                              internal access only

I know nothing as of yesterday about VM. It was just something I heard other students were using and a line or two in the textbooks about it. It was no big deal to me. Now that I found interest, for the past few days I did some serious research with these two thread as the leader in the end ... These two threads hold truly some Great details and I never found anything else in over 48 hours that even came close when talking BSD. How lucky can one be ...

JUNE 19, 2008
Server virtualization
http://www.daemonforums.org/showthre...irtual+Machine

JUNE 30, 2008
Virtualization Software
http://www.daemonforums.org/showthread.php?t=1152

phoenix:
Now, if you want to talk about hypervisors (Xen, Linux-KVM, VMWare ESX) . .. ..

and that he did ... After reading both threads a few times, it was a hands down decision for me but these thread are 2 years old. I like to know what he and others think today. I learned that most BSD users wish for VMware running FreeBSD as HOST, regardless and now I kind of understand why. I just wonder if it's out there somewhere all ready. I also think VMware brought back VMware Server Console and a few other things that phoenix pointed out back than. Not sure if that have anything to do with the native management console, i really like to know. Just a wild thought, I think VMware know how to run FreeBSD as HOST, problem is it may "RULE" and they don't want that going on right now. "FBSD-V-ware". I read about the bounty

http://pubs.vmware.com/server1/admin...stall_gsx.html

1)
Hope I'm not wording things wrongly but which would be the better choice today ... KVM or VM over ESX 4.1.I or something else. I want to go with the one that has hopes for FreeBSD as host someday even if I have to buy new hardware. But for now I'll go with whatever works for AMD Phenom Quad-core. It's not an Opteron so I guest it don't have build-in Virtualization. But it might have something that KVM or VM over ESX 4.1.I can use, if not, what would be the next runner-up.

2)
I have no PRIMARY partitions to spare. Can I install KVM or VM over ESX 4.1.I to Extend partition.

3)
Since FreeBSD is not supported as an host system, I rather use Arch-Linux as host. Are there any pro & cons when it comes to Arch-Linux vs Zenwalk or is there something more common for today use. I'm thinking of using a strip-down version of Arch-Linux or turning off what is not needed (if it help with performance). 85% performance would be just fine... anything over would be a bonus. As long as everything stays intact and don't get polluted with a bunch of add-on, especially in the guest systems i'll be happy.

I already forgot some of the stuff I read so I don't have a total understanding of hypervisor-based virtualisation and the minimum support needed from a processor to run either KVM or VM over ESX 4.1.I but I need to go ahead and post this than read more into hypervisor tonight before I get confuse.

Thanks in advance for any advice comments or ideas

[Carpetsmoker]

I think you forgot question number 0: Do you want or need KVM/ESX?

[sharris]

I think you forgot question number 0: Do you want or need KVM/ESX?

Virtualization was only a fancy word to me that meant two programs running at the same time or 10 copies of Office-7 being used over a server, from there I never cared. Now that I know it run many OS's that could make things easier when working with FBSD without X. I would write the script under windows, switch to FreeBSD and test it. The good news is my processor has AMD Virtualization (AMD-V). The bad news is I will not be able to move my main FBSD partition to another machine unless it has hypervisor on it according to this thread.

http://www.mnvaa.com/?p=109

After reading this now I really don't know what I want or need.

[sharris]

A brief architecture overview of VMware ESX, XEN and MS Viridian:

http://it20.info/blogs/main/archive/2007/06/17/25.aspx

phoenix: There's also paravirtual disk and network drivers available for Linux and Windows which give native I/O performance.

http:///kvm.qumranet.com/kvmwiki/

http://www.linux-kvm.com

.. Link 1 is now:

http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/Main_Page

hansivers: For those of us who are addicted to benchmarks, i found this link quite interesting:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/archi.../t-168825.html


KVM is the way to go and from one of the pages at KVM it say this:
"Here is the setup which is used with kvm and qemu. Qemu can run as standalone, with kqemu module or with kvm module."

qemu-kvm-0.12.4 released
Monday, May 10, 2010 - 01:06 Haydn Solomon

http://www.linux-kvm.com/?page=1

http://www.linux-kvm.com/content/ups...ased-bug-fixes

Seems like something going on, but I can't find where it might say "FreeBSD as host" and can run Windows as guest.

[sharris]

A silent Thank you phoenix ... I can't believe my ears. I guest I'm half way there. More than I ever seen.. Now I'll see about KVM if this is not all of it. When I install and FreeBSD is HOST and it can make Windows XP as guest, I'll be more than happy.

http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/BSD

kqemu on BSD 
FreeBSD 

Updating Base System 
$ freebsd-update fetch install

Updating Ports System 
$ portsnap fetch extract

Installing kqemu-kmod 
$ pkg_add -r kqemu-kmod

Intalling qemu 
$ pkg_add -r qemu

Loading kernel modules 
$ kldload kqemu
$ kldload aio

Creating the image file 
$ qemu-img create -f qcow2 kwinxp.img 5G

Starting the vm 
$ qemu -cdrom /dev/acd0 -hda kwinxp.img -m 512 -boot d -kernel-kqemu -localtime

Troubleshooting 

If you run into problems installing W2K or XP Os, run qemu without acpi and kqemu. 
$ qemu -cdrom /dev/acd0 -hda kwinxp.img -m 512 -boot d -no-kqemu -no-acpi -localtime

If you are running a server without X, access your VM through VNC 
$ qemu -cdrom /dev/acd0 -hda kwinxp.img -m 512 -boot d -kernel-kqemu -vnc :0 -localtime

[sharris]

now I get it...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QEMU