KVM + Ubuntu HOWTO

[ward-3KHz9by4hz4 at public.gmane.org (Ward Vandewege)]

On Thu, May 24, 2007 at 02:09:44PM -0400, Kristian Hermansen wrote:
> Xen is intrusive in the Linux kernel, and requires vast changes to even 
> make it work.  Also, to run Xen, you are *REQUIRED* to run a patched 
> kernel (-xen) which may break your environment.  

That's true for the dom0. For domU's, this is only the case if you don't have
hardware virtualization support. If your CPU is somewhat recent (AMD socket
F/AM2, Intel Core 2 Duo, etc), chances are you have hardware virtualization
support, which means that you can run an unmodified kernel as domU. Xen uses
(a modified) qemu to achive this, btw.

> KVM, on the other hand, can run minimally with only one kernel module 
> (kvm-intel or kvm-amd) and one user space component.  Thus, it is easier 
> to maintain and you can run a standard kernel without all the nasty 
> patches that are necessary for Xen to run.

Right. But note that KVM *only* supports CPUs that have hardware
virtualization...

> So, Xen got there first, but the consensus is that Xen may die quickly 
> if KVM takes off over the next year or so...

I wouldn't go as far as saying that is a consensus per se, but I have heard
the argument. We'll see. Competition is good. May the best technology win.

Thanks,
Ward.

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