Re: [Xen-users] Should I use HVM?

["Henning Sprang" <henning_sprang@xxxxxx>]

On 10/8/06, John Hannfield <hal9020@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> [...]
> But I only need Linux which is already ported to xen, so do I really need 
> hardware
> virtualisation?  There must be other benefits to using it? But what are they?
This is not so easy to say without knowing what _exactly_ you want to
do except "run Linux". HVM can also be used to test development of
software that needs a full BIOS and the illusion of a real PC around
it to work. And I think if you not only want to run servers, but also
stuff with a GUI attached, hvm is maybe a bit easier and by riunning
it locally via sdl you can avoid the vnc hassles.

On the other hand, in my opinion, Xen's hvm support is still a bit
shaky - probably you will need a while to get it running, and there
are some issues. Also, not every unmodified OS runs easily on it ( I
could not get *BSD runinng in it). So, I would not currently recommend
it for production use of anything without further investigations.
I can imagine (don't know if it is really the case) there are already
people running Xen hvm domains to host real productions servers with
windows under real load, but my experiences are that it doesn't just
work easily ad those people/businesses invested a good amount of time
and work to get that going seamlessly and ready for production. I can
also imagine that most people do not consider this a viable way yet
and wait another half a year or sountil Xen HVM is really seamlessly
working, with full performance and no installation/configuration
hassles.

Finally, I'd just say, if you don't really need it and aren't curious
tp play around with it, you don't need to buy a HVM CPU. On the other
hand, most CPU's today come with hvm I think, I don't know if it's
even possible to buy one without in the meantime, so if you get one
for  not much more than a non-hvm CPU, just buy it and play around
with it...

Henning

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