Re: [Xen-users] Best way to differentiate between virtual servers and non-virtual servers

[Simon Hobson <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

jinho hwang wrote:

> As the perspective of the infrastructure manager, not a user, 
> knowing a machine is a virtual machine or a physical machine helps 
> how to manage the machine.
Right, so after all that, you are talking about how you - as the 
administrator of a machine - determine if it's bare metal (non 
virtualised) system, or a virtualised system, or is a host for 
virtualised machines.
I don't know about other virtualisation technologies, but with Xen 
you just need to look at what's installed.
If the hypervisor is installed, and there's a /proc/xen directory 
with stuff in it, and Xen commands (eg "xm list") do stuff - then 
you'll know that this is a host system running under Xen.
If there's no Xen stuff installed, and no /proc/xen directory - then 
you're likely running on bare metal.

However, you really should not be having to do this. You should 
**KNOW** without having to go looking around on a machine what it is. 
If you are working on machines, and your management systems (even 
just a basic list of what you have or are responsible for) does not 
give you this information then you need to address that.
Traditionally people would keep "some sort of list" which would say 
"what is it", "where is it", and "what's the admin/root password". 
These days that should also include "is it a virtual host or client" 
- and have an easy way to find out "what virtual machines does this 
host" or "where is this hosted" depending on whether it's a host or 
guest.
--
Simon Hobson

Visit http://www.magpiesnestpublishing.co.uk/ for books by acclaimed
author Gladys Hobson. Novels - poetry - short stories - ideal as
Christmas stocking fillers. Some available as e-books.

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