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. -- lfr 0/0 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 189 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/attachments/20070409/9ed5da58/attachment-0005.sig>