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<img src="http://www.xensource.com/images/globals/xensource_toplogo.gif" align="right" alt="XenSource, anyone?">XenSource, anyone?
Sep. 13, 2006

For all of our talk about Xen virtualization and Red Hat and SUSE, we've been overlooking that one of XenSource's goal was to create a standalone virtualization program. Well, we don't have to wait any longer. XenEnterprise 3.0 is finally here.

Despite the "3.0" designation, this is actually XenSource's first real product release of the Xen VM (virtual machine). For a first release, eWEEK Labs found it quite good. That's an important phrase, though: "for a first release." As it is, you can only run instances of Debian GNU/Linux 3.1, RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) 4.1 and 3.6; and SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server) 9 Service Pack 2 out of the box.

That's a far cry from the proprietary VMWare's dozens of virtual operating systems and applications. Of course, you can add your own VMs to XenSource by hand, or to Xen on SLES 10 and the forthcoming RHEL 5. It is, however, far more difficult to do with Xen than it is with VMWare. You see, in VMWare, the VM BIOS hands control over to the install disk's boot manager, which in turn hands control over to the system's operating system.

It's a straightforward operation that doesn't require the base operating system to be set up for VMWare. The problem with Xen is that it doesn't virtualize the pre-boot environment, so it takes a lot more work to get the Xen VM onto the system in the first place. It also requires that the base operating system be customized to work with Xen.

<img src="http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/images/smiles/source.jpg"> Linux Watch
<img src="http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/images/smiles/view.jpg" border="0"> <a href="http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS5699498692.html" target="_blank"> complete article</a>