[CentOS] Centos 5.2 and Xen

[Lanny Marcus]

On 6/11/08, Ned Slider <ned at unixmail.co.uk> wrote:
<snip>
> I've run VMware Server (free, as in cost, not as in open source) on
> CentOS to host WinXP VMs since it was in beta and have no complaints.
> There is an RPM package available on VMware's site:
>
> $ rpm -q VMware-server
> VMware-server-1.0.6-91891.i386
>
> It's only available in i386 package but installs fine on x86_64 and
> supports 64-bit VMs provided the underlying hardware supports it. I
> believe VMs are limited to a max of 2 processors each.
>
> I've used VMware Server on systems varying from old AthlonXP, 512MB RAM
> through to Intel Quad Core Q6600 with 4GB RAM. Note VMware will run on
> older processors without hardware virtualization. In my experience
> there's little noticeable difference between software and hardware
> virtualization (on VMware), and each run at about the perceived speed
> you would expect if it was on native hardware (I've not conducted any
> benchmark tests). The main consideration is that you have enough RAM to
> support the host OS (CentOS) and any VM(s) running on it.
>
> I've not used Xen so can't offer a comparison.

Ned: I was very interested to read that you've run VMWare Server on
systems with only 512 MB of RAM.   I haven't tried it, because the box
I can use only has 512 MB of RAM.

My impression is that Xen is much more demanding about HW.  Lanny