[CentOS-virt] open-vm-tools for latest CentOS-4 and CentOS-5 kernel-vms

Tue Jan 1 15:53:34 UTC 2008
Johnny Hughes <johnny at centos.org>

Ray Van Dolson wrote:
>>>   No need to run vmware-config-tools.pl after kernel upgrade
>> This is indeed a huge benefit, as it requires one less reboot and does
>> not require you to do anything via your console or to rebuild anything
>> as a user.  You also do not need build tools inside your client VM now.
> 
> This is indeed, very cool.
> 

I would like to point out that VMware is working very hard to get these
tools incorporated into Linux distros right now.  Whether or not we
should do this or promote Xen instead is a different argument for a
different time.

Many people use VMWare right now, and these tools will work in all the
version, not just the free server (though that is where we develop and
test them).

>> But I think this will be a major improvement for VMWare users as are the
>> kernel-vm kernels.
>>
> 
> Couple questions regarding these kernels... should they be run on the
> host or on the guest?  And I see they are in -testing right now, and
> also in "tru's" home directory.  Where is the authoritative source for
> them and will they end up in centosplus at some point?
> 

We (Tru Huynh actually, with help from Akemi Yagi and Fabian Arrotin)
created them. There is no Authoritative source (except us :D), the SRPMS
are available from the current locations now.  They are the EL kernel
with the clock freq set to 100HZ instead of 1000HZ ... which is pretty
much required to get any kind of performance inside of VMware VMs.

They will end up somewhere ... either in a virt repo or extras (as they
are named kernel-vm and not kernel, they are not replacing the kernel as
such).

They are designed to run inside VMs, though will run on the host as well
 currently.  All they do is adjust the freq of the clock to 100HZ.  They
are not recommended for the host, however.

It is possible that we will work with the VMWare people to add other
tweaks to these kernels for performance gains ... if there are specific
things called out by them to increase / enhance usability or performance
inside VMware VMs.

Thanks,
Johnny Hughes

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