Re: [Xen-devel] xen questions

[Ian P. <Ian...@cl...>]

> > i have test Xen Live CD. i think it would be useful to directly have a 
> > boot of two linux or a choix to which system do you want to boot and in 
> > which number. because, now, you only see, a live linux system, and 
> > doesn't size advantages of virtualization (which, in my opinion, is to 
> > get multiple system on one box).

You should be able to use the CD to boot multiple copies of RH9
Linux. If you install the images and tools on your hard disk you
should be able to run any manner of Linux distributions
concurrently,.

> > for now, it seems external people can't access source code about netbsd 
> > and windows change, right ? (nothing in bitkeeper tree)

That's correct. The aborted NetBSD port is rather old and not
very helpful as a reference. Kip Macy has kindly been putting
thought into a FreeBSD port.

The XP port can only be released to signatories of the Microsoft
Academic Source License, which has very reasonable terms, but is 
only available to researchers in other Universities.

> > about hypervisor (seems an ibm like name ;) and virtualization, is there 
> >  any gui to change virtual subnet ? something a bit like the ibm 
> > hypervisor to said on which segment(s), this virtual box is, and which 
> > percent of CPU, one virtual box can take ?

There used to be a web-based interface written in tomcat/java,
but I'm afraid it's got out of sync with the underlying tools.

Source is included in the bitkeeper repository
(tools/control/web), so you're very welcome to fix it ;-)

> > on the security aspect, do you think the level of virtualization is 
> > sufficient to isolate virtual box ? (in fact and for example, i suppose 
> > a DoS will kill xen, but on the other side, a linux/win worm can spread 
> > on all linux box, or only the public segment ?)

Our goal is to provide this level of isolation. We believe Xen
already provides good security isolation, though there's always
the possibility of bugs. Resource isolation is tougher, but we
believe with our VMM approach we have a _much_ better chance of
achieving this than attempts to host multiple users/applications
from a single operating system image (e.g. vservers).

> > about windows (but also unix), how do you handle multiple gui on a x86 
> > box ? use some special command (ctrl-alt-shift-suppr ;) ? not possible ? 
> > only remote use ? something else ?

We currently only support one OS using the graphics console.  We
have a plan to support secure display virtualization, but have
yet to implement it.  There's been discussions in other threads
about providing high-performance sharing of graphics cards.

> and when do you think, there will be a public release of the needed 
> extras to install winxp on xen ?

I'm afraid there are no plans for a general release the XP port
-- this aspect of Xen is very much a research project.

Best,
Ian