On Mon, Apr 09, 2007 at 04:56:00PM -0400, Ross S. W. Walker wrote:
Also, if I read the specs correctly, Parallels require VT/Pacifica, whilest VMWware doesn't. (Xen also requires those, for HVM guests):
AFAIK Parallels is a fully virtualized hypervisor that requires no hardware acceleration (maybe it does for OS X though...).
Parallels runs unmodified guests (windows/Linux/BSD), so it does need hardware assistance (VT/Pacifica). Or a method of binary translation as used by VMWare, but from the webpage it seems only VT/Pacifica.
I wouldn't call VT/Pacifica hardware acceleration, just yet, as VMWare uses binary translation even on machines with those in some cases, for performance reasons.
I agree completly. Alas, my budget doesn't allow testing of Xen enterprise solutions (VirtualIron and Xen Enterprise), so I don't know how they compare to ESX.
They are aimed to be ESX equivalents, but I think their user interfaces need a little work, and I prefer the management software to be hosted on the server instead of separate Java GUI apps.
At $500/socket they are 1/6th the cost of ESX server.
For a blade center with 16 nodes, 4 cores in each, thats a heavy fee. We have a costumer with ESX, so we know how it performs. But for this customer, such fees are hard to justify, and we're going with Xen.
You can download 30 day trials of either and give them a whirl.
The single-node free VirtualIron didn't install correctly, and I'm getting weary of introducing all my details for a download.
I'd prefer 2 node free versions, for on-going real-world evaluation, but beggars can't be choosers. :)
XenEnterprise is CentOS 4.4 with Xen 3.0.4 fully Xen Source patched, which after trying out OSS 3.0.4 realized that it can take a whole company to patch it to working condition.
Virtual Iron runs rPath + Xen 3.0.2 plus a whole slew of custom additions like HVM save/restore/migration. Virtual Iron only does HVM though, they have done-away with PV and the rPath is fully embedded so no remote OS access, while with XenEnterprise you can run CentOS as if you had installed it yourself.
Thanks for your input.