Re: KVM and Xen

On Sat, 30 Dec 2006 17:04:52 -0800
"Roopnarine, Peter" <proopnarine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I think that the question might actually be in reference to the new kernel
addition (Kernel Virtual Manager? I think). Apparently virtualization
capabilities will be built into the kernel. That's about all that I know, but
it sounds exciting.

Yep. KVM gets rid of the "hypervisor" that Xen has, just making the
hypervisor-like functions part of the Dom0 kernel (though no doubt
KVM will have it's own jargon, so it won't call it Dom0). However,
KVM (in current incarnation, anyway) doesn't support Xen's
"paravirtualization" concept - KVM will only work on newer computers
with hardware virtualization support (which is probably an OK restriction
since by the time the kernels with KVM support have stabalized, all new
computers will have the new instructions anyway).

The big advantage I see to KVM is that nothing has to be "special"
about the Dom0 kernel - all the regular old device drivers work fine,
all the posts from people having problems with video drivers in the
Xen kernel disappear, power management works like always, so your
laptop with the Windows guest doesn't drain the battery
in 10 minutes, etc.

The biggest disadvantage will be easy for anyone with an older
computer to spot :-).

The second biggest disadvantage is the totally stupid acronym they
have adopted for it, making it virtually impossible to find any information
in a google search since all you get are hits on hardware switches.

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