nanog mailing list archives
Re: OT: Xen
From: Todd Vierling <tv () duh org>
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 09:25:40 -0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)
On Sat, 1 Apr 2006, David Lesher wrote:
Panix is offering Xen-based virtual servers. I mention same here only because I've seen almost no discussion of virtualized servers, and hope to learn from the surely-resulting flameware.... http://www.panix.com/corp/virtuals/
Xen and similar solutions are gaining popularity because they work on a similar model as that used for ADSL: most users don't use all the resources all the time. By virtualizing, the provider can offer "dedicated colocation" at a somewhat lower cost to the user, and a *much* lower cost to the provider. If properly provisioned, by distributing more heavily loaded virtual machines appropriately, you can probably attain virtualization of 20-30 or more per 2-way or 2-dual-core SMP box and still have CPU left over. Note that Xen in particular has major advantages over some similar products because it eliminates CPU-consuming system trap hackery needed to emulate hardware devices and page-table mappings. Xen is not, however, backed with extensive commercial support (XenSource is still evolving at the moment), lacks easy integration into popular UI/control-panel products, and requires special kernels for the contained OS's (not such a big deal in practice). The current problems haven't stopped some early adopters from trying out Xen. By and large, those who were once using UML[*] and have now tried Xen have switched and not looked back. [*] User Mode Linux, which I went out of my way to heckle (with technically sound arguments, mind you) at an IETF when it was proposed as a method of virtualization. The sad part is, some folks bought the drivel and actually set up businesses using UML as a virtualization layer. -- -- Todd Vierling <tv () duh org> <tv () pobox com> <todd () vierling name>
Current thread:
- OT: Xen David Lesher (Apr 01)
- Re: OT: Xen Chris Adams (Apr 01)
- Re: OT: Xen Stephane Bortzmeyer (Apr 03)
- Re: OT: Xen Jamie Norwood (Apr 03)
- Re: OT: Xen Chris Adams (Apr 03)
- Re: OT: Xen Stephane Bortzmeyer (Apr 03)
- Re: OT: Xen Todd Vierling (Apr 03)
- Re: OT: Xen Chris Adams (Apr 03)
- Re: OT: Xen Todd Vierling (Apr 03)
- Re: OT: Xen Eric Frazier (Apr 03)
- Re: OT: Xen Valdis . Kletnieks (Apr 03)
- Re: OT: Xen Todd Vierling (Apr 03)
- Re: OT: Xen Michael . Dillon (Apr 03)
- Message not available
- Re: OT: Xen Eric Frazier (Apr 03)
- Re: OT: Xen Todd Vierling (Apr 03)
- Re: OT: Xen Peter Dambier (Apr 03)
- Re: OT: Xen Valdis . Kletnieks (Apr 03)
- Re: OT: Xen Chris Adams (Apr 03)
- Re: OT: Xen Chris Adams (Apr 01)