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Xen 2.0 Virtual Machine Monitor Released
An anonymous reader writes "The Xen team are pleased to announce the release of Xen 2.0, the open-source Virtual Machine Monitor. Xen enables you to run multiple operating systems images concurrently on the same hardware, securely partitioning the resources of the machine between them. Xen uses a technique called 'para-virtualization' to achieve very low performance overhead -- typically just a few percent relative to native. This new release
provides kernel support for Linux 2.4.27/2.6.9 and NetBSD, with FreeBSD and Plan9 to follow in the next few weeks. Xen 2.0 runs on almost the entire set of modern x86 hardware supported by Linux, and is easy to 'drop-in' to an existing Linux installation. The new release has a lot more flexibility in how guest OS virtual I/O devices are configured. For example, you can configure arbitrary firewalling, bridging and routing of guest virtual network interfaces, and use copy-on-write LVM volumes or loopback files for storing guest OS disk images. Another new feature is 'live migration', which allows running OS images to be moved between nodes in a cluster without
having to stop them. Visit the Xen homepage for downloads and documentation."
What is the sound of one hand crashing?
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
Sigh... how hard would it be to get a license and distribute it as a binary-only module to people like me who'd be willing to pay for it? I'm sure it'd still be less expensive than the existing alternatives.
Otherwise this looks very nice. In fact, I didn't know that there was such a mature free virtual machine available.
The owls are not what they seem
Oh man, can you imagine the overhead on a virtual beowulf cluster using this?
So from a Linux or Plan9 VM I can watch the BSD VMs die in realtime!
disclaimer: I love OpenBSD
Trolling is a art,
Does it work with AMD64? How about with one 64 and one 32 bit OS? The FAQ just says "x86".
It can't run AmigaDOS.
Direct link: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/Research/SRG/netos/xen/scr eenshots/index.html
Let's assume you're an ISP and have a few big machines on the racks. Your customers don't want or need that much horsepower but want their webserver (which you maintain) to run under Linux, or NetBSD, or FreeBSD, or whatever.. You can do it.
Let's assume you're a developer and want to test your code under various OSs, now you can do it on the same box in realtime (read: no reboots)
The list goes on and on, it's a great technology.
Trolling is a art,
from http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/Research/SRG/netos/xen/faq .html
1.3 Which OSes run on Xen?
To achieve such high performance, Xen requires that OSes are ported to run on it. So far we have stable ports of Linux 2.4, Linux 2.6, and NetBSD. Ports of FreeBSD and Plan 9 are nearing completion.
From the FAQ, it states that you can only run OS's ported to it. While this might be great for cluster testing, or software design, this is defintely no VMware replacement. I am slightly disappointed in this, but I can see where it has its place.
Ahh..cool.. thanks for the explanation.
How is this different, to say, Bochs?
It sets up single-file hard drives which you can delete if you don't want em.
Right now I have windows 3.11(!) + 95 + 98 + me + 2k + longhorn beta + xp + 3 distros of linux + dos 6.22 all as seperate images.
Sadly it doesn't do mac but despite it's limitations (it uses a seriously old emulated gpu and sound), it has at least let me get linux onto the net without a fuss (couldn't even get linux to install my modem before)
Anyway plug over, that's what it sounds like.
Get paid to search..It's geniune and
Actually, a couple ISPs and datacenters are already working on using Xen for this exact purpose.
:)
http://xen.terrabox.com will be back online in the next 72 hours. You can find a wiki about xen there. One page is available for listing of any companies that offer Xen based virtual servers. So far the customers that i have setup under Xen have been quite impresed with the speed and stability as compared to the traditional virtualized and meta-virtualied linux vhost setups.
Big difference. VMWare is about virtualising a foreign OS. Since VMWare abstracts at the BIOS and hardware level it can run almost all OSes the CPU will support but it takes a large performance hit.
Xen is a VM platform, i.e. it lets you set up multiple virtual machines that run with very little extra overhead. A lot like User Mode Linux, except easier to configure and install.
Here's a typical use case: you want to make a network "security box" that includes firewall, proxy, web server, email, wiki, irc. Now, conventionally you put all these services in the same Linux system (or whatever OS you use). Using Xen you run all of the services in their own virtual machine, so that if the firewall gets compromised, for instance, an attacker cannot get access to other parts of your system.
It's a very useful tool.
Oh, another use case I just thought of too: how about a 'hidden' Linux OS on your Windows box that does all your email, browsing, and other Internet work that you want to keep secure. Click the icon, up pops Mozilla, except it's running in a different virtual OS.
Yup, definitely very useful.
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running binaries for one distro on another distro isn't machine virtualization. What you want is WINE or win4lin.
Only an idiot calls something lame when it's the wrong tool for what they want to do.
being able to run BSD as well?
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
UML has MASSIVE context switching overhead.
:)
UML runs insidethe host OS and thus is a security risk.
UML doesn't access hardware via native drivers (PCI hardware that is).
UML is DOG slow compared to xen domains for IO.
I could go on. UML is/was a good solution, but if you wanted a BSD, plan9, or other OS trunnign on the same hardware as linux, forget it.
Under Xen, you can run 1 domain that uses hda, hdb, and the USB stuff directly, a second accesses a second IDE set at hde and hdf and a second PCI video card.
Remembers, xen isn't about just launchign another OS, it's about splitting up the hardware in a secure fashion.
GPLed virtualization software that according to the benchmarks achieves performance unseen in current approaches - sounds like a dream come true.
..) should give a fair picture of the overall performance hit for the virtualized systems.
:)
It would be astonishing if those benchmark numbers hold true in a production environment, which might well be as the selected benchmarks (SPECint, Postgres, Apache,
Being able to partition your OS without serious performance implication would open a whole lot of new possibilities for developers that previously where only possible with huge investments in high-end hardware and expensive virtualization software licenses.
I've already decided: My price for the most useful opensourced application in 2004 goes to..... Xen
Does anyone actually use Plan9?
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Almost got in... if it wasn't for them darn linux boxen!
Developing cluster applications without needing three machines crammed under the desk. Two VMs to act as cluster members, one VM to act as client and one VM to read Slashdot on.
Unfortunately, cluster applications will still need testing on real hardware for performance measurement and failover tests, but most of the code development can be carried out on a regular server.
More importantly, you can keep one VM with your work running and switch over when the PHB comes towards your cube.
How did I know that invitation sig just wouldn't be neglected on /dot? ;)
I've been wondering for years whether this would be feasible, but my idea was to thread each OS to a different processor. That said, I've never known assembly and have no idea whether I'm being painfully naive here.
With this software you can simulater your very own super computer.. thats absolutely great..
Big glue gene or what ever prepare to die..
spelling is for people who doens't know better...
Plan 9 from outer space??
Not quite. Plan 9 from Bell Labs.
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Oooo - this is really cool! And incredibly timely as well.
I've got a project at work where I can use this stuff *now*. And it ought to speed up my development considerably.
Many, many thanks to the folks who put it together.
They have ported linux and in for virtual hosting it's what matters. It serves its purpose perfectly right.
I'll do the stupid thing first and then you shy people follow...
thankx, that was sorta the summary i was looking for. :)
And whoever modded this offtopic probably confused this UML with the other UML
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" A port of Windows XP was developed for an earlier version of Xen, but is not available for release due to licensce restrictions."
Awe, shucks.
Xen? I hated that level - too much jumping. Oh, wait, this is something else, isn't it?
I musn't be a mainstream Linux user anymore by the looks of it, because I don't want to run a virtualised version of any MS products.
I think mainstream Linux is still in the server space, and I think Xen (and qemu and UML) in those environments would be very useful.
The Internet's nature is peer to peer - 20050301_cs_profs.pdf
This is extremely useful!
For example, I host my websites with host provider. I'd like to install tomcat and run some JSP/J2EE. The application I'd like to run won't work in a hosted environment, where I share my server space with hundreds of other users in virtual domains. I need my own server, but that's cost-prohibitive.
So if I want to run that app, I have to get a hosted server and set it up. My provider has to rack another server and I have to pay quite a bit extra to get it. Not anymore, now my provider sets a virtual server for me on a single piece of hardware that I share with others.
There are any number of apps out there that just won't play well in a virtual domain environment, and yet don't justify dedicated servers either.
On top of that, according to the install guide, the virtual machines can be moved on the fly(!) to other physical hosts, allowing for balancing and perhaps cluster services. If one piece of hardware becomes overloaded, a new host can be setup and the heavily-loaded guest moved to the new host, incurring no downtime in the process.
Heck, we incur downtime and alot of work to move apps to newer, beefier hardware. Imagine if you could move your app on the fly to new hardware? If you setup all of your servers to run as guest OS in Xen, even if there is only one guest per server, you still benefit for being able to migrate on the fly.
Timbert
I've spent the last few days beating my head against the wall trying to get windows 98 to cooperate with qemu.
For fucks sake! If you're going to pay for Windows 98 you might as well also pay for VMWare.
On the other hand if you're going to pirate Windows 98 you may as well also pirate VMWare.
Q: Why did the company with the virtual beowulf cluster, which was directly beneath a brothel, go out of business?
A: Because there was too much fucking overhead!
Sorry that I wasn't clearer; I meant that mainstream computer users won't adopt linux until it is able to run the applications that they rely on.
And no, right now wine and codeweavers don't cut it (I can just imagine telling someone "yeah, here's a free operating system for ya, you just have to pay to run anything you need to run" LOL!)
This isn't redundant. It's the only post in the entire thread that asks a very important question.
Many people already own a copy of Windows 98. Most of the PCs that currently exist were sold with a copy of it, I believe.
Heh. Long live HL. I was kinda expecting an app hosting / user cushioning system like Novell's Zen Works...
:*( for good reason.
But maybe we'll get it for KDE as "Ken", at which point I'll revive the Soviet Sad Man
Ok, you're obviously not working on anything even remotely interesting. What do you do? Maintain a small office network and troubleshoot printers all day?
Virtualization is the big thing for datacenters and ISPs. (Hint: google for sun N1). Apart from things like clustering, scalability, etc, etc the most important thing is that it creates an abstraction layer between the raw iron of the server and the OS. This allows you to programmatically create, destroy, clone or copy instances of systems in reaction to network events, outages, etc, etc.
Oh yeah, that's totally lame! Can't imagine why anyone would want that!
How about my Xen with no jumping puzzles? :-)
The word 'Xen' does seem to be a bit overused - maybe not as closely as 'Phoenix' or 'Firebird' were for Mozilla, but it's still pretty bad, even if the virtualisation Xen has reached the top of the pile...
Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
Zen? I hated that starship computer. Orac was alot cooler
Who in their right mind would ever consider putting a firewall, email, web server, and IRC on the same box? A *firewall* for God's sakes. I wouldn't put that combination together on any one box, even with Xen 2.0.
Oh, another use case I just thought of too: how about a 'hidden' Linux OS on your Windows box that does all your email, browsing, and other Internet work that you want to keep secure. Click the icon, up pops Mozilla, except it's running in a different virtual OS.
Sounds more like a job for VMWare.
-matthew
"THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
For fucks sake! If you're going to pay for Windows 98 you might as well also pay for VMWare.
On the other hand if you're going to pirate Windows 98 you may as well also pirate VMWare.
VMware is hundreds, read that again: hundreds of dollars; windows 98....isn't.
Also, the version which I'm using is an upgrade version I have which came with a used laptop I paid $50 for a couple years back. When it asks for the windows disks I'm upgrading from, I throw in the windows 3.1 disks I've had sitting around since 94.
As far as vmware goes. vmware will not switch to fullscreen mode because of weirdness with DGA under X which I could not fix even after spending a fair amount of time googling for it; that alone puts it in the not-for-thirty dollars camp, and definately not for hundreds of $$$.
According to the Xen FAQ, (question 1.4, the one about Microsoft Windows) "virtualisation features in next-generation CPUs should make it much easier to support unmodified OSes". Does anyone know what virtualisation features they're talking about?
QEMU is a similar open source project. It's supposed to run unmodified versions of Windows even. Does anybody know what QEMU's lastest performance numbers are?
For what it's worth, I've had this problem before. You can switch to fullscreen in VMware, but only after you edit the module section of your XFree86/X.org config file as appropriate.
I want to load my next-gen CPU up with the 2007 version of this, and concurrently run every x86 OS ever written, hosted under Linux of course.
Performance will probably bog down after the first few dozen OSes are loaded. Even Linux has its limits LOL.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
There is much much more to it than this though. :) If you go read the xen faq I'm certain that you will grasp the significance of this. Xen is a whole new area of virtualized machine software.
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Couple of changes at VMware you might be interested in:
1) VMware workstation is now a lot cheaper (I believe around ~$150).
2) In the new 5.0 version, I believe they've switched to using Xvidmode instead of DGA (at least, that's what the current 5.0 beta is using).
I had suggested VMware, but this might be better (performance and price).
Method of processing duck feet
Since Xen is implemented at a very low layer of the system (below the kernel, directly on top of the hardware), it's not portable with a simple recompile (like Bochs is).
However, the Xen architecture is portable to other hardware platforms and the source code is structured to facilitate this. There's a port to x86_64 underway and one developer has been working on IA64 in his spare time. We'd like to see a PowerPC port too.
Google for "beos vmware" (without the quotes) and you'll find messages from lots of people who have tried it, some successfully, and what they did to get it to work. I've seen it run, though I'm not sure which version of BeOS it was.
I use http://www.colinux.org/ to run linux inside windows 2000/XP. It is free and a lot faster than vmware. You can even download a debian image for a quickstart.
It's also worth noting that the Xen 2.0 IO architecture (substantially changed from previous versions) allows device drivers to be run in isolated virtual machines, with minimal privileges to drive the hardware.
The idea is that device drivers will be limited in their ability to trash the system but still able to run with very high performance. This is probably not going to interest most people as much as the obvious benefits to virtual hosting, cluster management, development, etc but it could be interesting for high availability setups.
There's a white paper on the Xen website that discusses this in more detail.
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I had trouble to switch vmware to fullscreen mode in fedora too. I solved it by using a higher-resolution in fedora. Have u tried this?
Are there any similarities between this and what IBM does on their mainframes?
"Anyone that has ever gotten an idea based on any of my work and done something better with it-good for you."--J.Carmack
Don't forget Xen does live migration and suspend / resume of virtual machine, which (AFAIK) UML does not.
What were you thinking?
Alas? Not.
wake up and hold your nose
again some moderator voted you down
i say shoot these ignorant arses in the eye
we are all talking about emulation/virtualization and while Wine means (Wine is not an emulator) it still addresses the issue of running apps from other OSes in Linux
While its nice to be able to run virtual UNIX boxes, being able to run multiple instances of windows server would be great ..
:)
Their site mentioned getting XP running, but I don't see the average Joe being able to get a hold of such a modified beast.. ( and server is more useful then a workstation product anyway )
Oh, and a bsd host would be nice too since I'm making a list
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Also AMD they have something:l ay/200409121 13927.html
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/disp
Matt
Really, what has the average consumer really seen come out of Microsoft Research? Not much.
The paranoid would almost think it's a place to stuff smart people so they aren't working for someone else.
Personally I think the intentions are good but Microsoft just doesn't seem good at turning a good idea into a practical product.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I'm looking to do exactly what User Mode Linux claims to be for, but it seems like Xen does it too. Which is more reliable? Faster? Easier to install?
Basically I want just slightly more functionality than a chroot jail - I want to be able to run a service on a virtual filesystem (ie, a filesystem that exists as a file) with an linux OS version that may vary from the host OS (ie, I can upgrade one service without having to do them all at the same time) I want a compromise of one service to have minimum security implications for the others. And I want to be able to move a service/virtualmachine from one physical machine to another with a minimum of hassle.
Thanks in advance!
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With this software you would, in theory, create a gimpy cluster from a formidable super computer.
That's fantastic!
Correction: It runs in user space (hence the name). It can run as any user (i.e. doesn't have to be root). So that makes it as much (or less) of a security risk as any other program: perl, apache, postfix, etc.
I can just imagine telling someone "yeah, here's a free operating system for ya, you just have to pay to run anything you need to run" LOL!
I'm curious to know the extent of your "virtualisation" of Win98, in the sense that is your goal to allow the user to run all their previous Win98 applications ?
The reason I ask is that if it is, then, as much as I'm completely pro-Linux (I don't run anything else), I'd wonder if you are doing your end-users a disservice. If you going down that path, then Linux just becomes a somewhat unnecessary overhead, as I can't see how the users will transition to Linux when all their applications are running under Windows 98, even though it is on a virtualised box.
I think there are two important criteria for a transition to Linux to be successful.
Firstly, around 50% or more of the applications the end-user is going to run need to be native Linux applications. If they aren't, then I'd think there is still too much "gravitational mass" pulling the user back towards Windows.
Secondly, moving between the native and non-native applications, and moving or switching between the native and non-native data needs to be simple for the end-user. Again, if it isn't, the end-user will probably just want to stick with what they know, the non-Linux solution.
The Internet's nature is peer to peer - 20050301_cs_profs.pdf
Hi TimMann,
When you are at work how about having a chat to the guys about FreeBSD host support.
I currently run a very old 2.x version on VMWare and would like to BUY and be able to run your latest products.
From the ports collection there is version 3.x of VMWare running under linux emulation but I can't buy any liscences for 3.x. I was reading one post on a newsgroup a while ago that suggested that you have to resort to finding liscences on warez sites if you want to get it running.
With version 5.3 of FreeBSD looking like it will become a stable branch soon I'd really like to buy a dual opteron machine with the new SMP enhancements and run a XP virtual machine for developers that have to use the occasional windows tools.
Now what we need is a guide to bootstrapping Xen & our favorite linux distributions.