I'm interested in building a desktop so I can run multiple simultaneous guest OS instances with access to the same hardware. The idea is to build a system that allows me to plug in various drives (maybe around 4 concurrently) and do various operations (recovery and scans) on the guest disks with separate OS installations.
I also want to be able to have some sample virtual machines to load the guest-disk's OSes from time to time.
Please note the difference here between guest OS instance and guest-disk OS, where the first is a guest OS loaded from a local disk on a virtual machine (think: "System Rescue CD", "Ultimate Boot", etc.), and the latter is running the OS on a virtual machine from the guest hard disk (probably XP, Vista, 7 Home).
Main desktop, one SSD with all my guest OS images, one or more large drives for backup.
The other guest drives would likely be connected to a fast disk controller card.
Is this feasible performance wise? I haven't really worked with modern computers with their fast buses. Is it realistic to do multiple full disk scans on separate disks concurrently, given that I have a (or a few) dedicated controller(s), multiple CPU cores, and a fast bus speed?
Also, is Xen the best option for running a virtualization monitor?
I also want to be able to have some sample virtual machines to load the guest-disk's OSes from time to time.
Please note the difference here between guest OS instance and guest-disk OS, where the first is a guest OS loaded from a local disk on a virtual machine (think: "System Rescue CD", "Ultimate Boot", etc.), and the latter is running the OS on a virtual machine from the guest hard disk (probably XP, Vista, 7 Home).
Main desktop, one SSD with all my guest OS images, one or more large drives for backup.
The other guest drives would likely be connected to a fast disk controller card.
Is this feasible performance wise? I haven't really worked with modern computers with their fast buses. Is it realistic to do multiple full disk scans on separate disks concurrently, given that I have a (or a few) dedicated controller(s), multiple CPU cores, and a fast bus speed?
Also, is Xen the best option for running a virtualization monitor?
Hrmm it sounds interesting. I've considered deploying an openstack cloud as a single desktop and seeing how that works. I think eventually that will be the approach...
massively parallelized turing complete design. automated to unholy levels of efficiency.
=/ Just a thought.
massively parallelized turing complete design. automated to unholy levels of efficiency.
=/ Just a thought.
Not sure the cloud is a solution to this issue, and I don't really get how that plays into things with virtualization in this case. Openstack looks interesting, I'll scour the site.
I looked into some VMware products. I wonder if running Workstation on a lightweight host OS would be fast enough to run several simultaneous VM instances?
So it looks like I should try Xen Hypervisor, or XCI. More investigations soon.
I looked into some VMware products. I wonder if running Workstation on a lightweight host OS would be fast enough to run several simultaneous VM instances?
So it looks like I should try Xen Hypervisor, or XCI. More investigations soon.
libvirt -> kvm isn't bad.
with qemu you can do stuff like alternate architectures... however relatively slowly... for arm testing this means super fast. =P
with qemu you can do stuff like alternate architectures... however relatively slowly... for arm testing this means super fast. =P
You need a processor with virt bindings. Otherwise you are going to take a serious hit.
But it's not only possible plenty of people do it. I suggested openstack because it gives you amazon compatible api to the instance creation / control. This can be useful for stuff like automated regression testing and the sort.
But it's not only possible plenty of people do it. I suggested openstack because it gives you amazon compatible api to the instance creation / control. This can be useful for stuff like automated regression testing and the sort.