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[SOLVED] Choosing a virtualization method.

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cds60601
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[SOLVED] Choosing a virtualization method.

#1 Post by cds60601 »

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:
Tekmon_Xonic wrote:I don't think that 2GB of RAM is enough to run Windows 7 on top of Debian
Yes, that would be a stretch but a simple openbox desktop in Debian only requires ~500MiB so you could give 1.5GiB to Win7, theoretically.

Guide here:

https://wiki.debian.org/KVM
Interesting twist to this topic, I will start a new thread for my questions.

I would appreciate some feedback on experiences before committing on an engine to use. I have used a few in the past and I'll expand a tad below.
But first, my specs are a bit lean - Intel® Pentium(R) CPU N3700 @ 1.60GHz × 4 lappy w/8 GB ram running 64-bit Stable.

1. KVM - Until recently, I never gave it much thought until I looking over the wiki (thank you HoaS for that!). This looks promising.
2. VB - I have played with this in the past. Its a nice package but feels sluggish on my lappy so I attribute it to being somewhat bloated (I'm not sold on this one).
3. Xen - Again, I have used in the past (quite a long time ago actually) and feel that could be a possibility. Unsure since my expectations may be based on past experiences.

Any and all suggestions/experiences/help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and cheers
Chris
Last edited by cds60601 on 2018-06-22 02:59, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Choosing a virtualization method.

#2 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

If I may...
cds60601 wrote:VB
^ This uses non-free kernel modules for the guest additions and the upstream security support is so poor that Debian dropped VirtualBox for the stretch release.
cds60601 wrote:Xen
^ This is a full hyervisor solution (much like OpenBSD's vmd(8)); it's also *very* complicated:

https://wiki.debian.org/Xen

KVM is a native kernel module and I find the performance to be excellent.

I should probably note that I prefer to use `qemu-system-x86_64` directly rather than mess around with libvirt:

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=1546
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Re: Choosing a virtualization method.

#3 Post by cds60601 »

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:If I may...
cds60601 wrote:VB
^ This uses non-free kernel modules for the guest additions and the upstream security support is so poor that Debian dropped VirtualBox for the stretch release.
cds60601 wrote:Xen
^ This is a full hyervisor solution (much like OpenBSD's vmd(8)); it's also *very* complicated:

https://wiki.debian.org/Xen

KVM is a native kernel module and I find the performance to be excellent.

I should probably note that I prefer to use `qemu-system-x86_64` directly rather than mess around with libvirt:

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=1546
Perfect! This is exactly what I was looking for. I must admit that based on my previous experience w/Xen - that would not be a good option for a laptop. Now if I wanted t rebuild my Debian server ... maybe. Unless Xen has changed that much over the years to be a feasible desktop app like VB of course,

Are there other virt options other that the 3 (well, 2 workable mentions above)?

Cheers
Chris
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Re: Choosing a virtualization method.

#4 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

cds60601 wrote:Are there other virt options other that the 3 (well, 2 workable mentions above?
I think there are a few other proprietary solutions but I haven't tried those, for obvious reasons :D

You might find that containers can do what you want with a significantly lower overhead — if I only need a command line in a different userspace then I tend to prefer systemd-nspawn (https://packages.debian.org/stretch/systemd-container) over a full-blown VM.

Guide here:

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=129390

A good, old-fashioned chroot jail is another option for that sort of thing if systemd is not favored.
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Re: Choosing a virtualization method.

#5 Post by pendrachken »

cds60601 wrote:
Head_on_a_Stick wrote:If I may...
cds60601 wrote:VB
^ This uses non-free kernel modules for the guest additions and the upstream security support is so poor that Debian dropped VirtualBox for the stretch release.
cds60601 wrote:Xen
^ This is a full hyervisor solution (much like OpenBSD's vmd(8)); it's also *very* complicated:

https://wiki.debian.org/Xen

KVM is a native kernel module and I find the performance to be excellent.

I should probably note that I prefer to use `qemu-system-x86_64` directly rather than mess around with libvirt:

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=1546
Perfect! This is exactly what I was looking for. I must admit that based on my previous experience w/Xen - that would not be a good option for a laptop. Now if I wanted t rebuild my Debian server ... maybe. Unless Xen has changed that much over the years to be a feasible desktop app like VB of course,

Are there other virt options other that the 3 (well, 2 workable mentions above)?

Cheers
Chris
I use VMWare player( free for non-corporate use), but I run the opposite way these days. I run multiple Linux VMs on a single large Windows server host. Throw Intel / AMD virtualization, a couple cores, and 2-16 GB of RAM at each VM depending on what it needs and if you went full screen you would think it was on bare metal. It's worth checking out.

I obviously don't care if software is OSS / proprietary, as long as it works. YMMV.
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Re: Choosing a virtualization method.

#6 Post by cds60601 »

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:If I may...
cds60601 wrote:VB
^ This uses non-free kernel modules for the guest additions and the upstream security support is so poor that Debian dropped VirtualBox for the stretch release.
cds60601 wrote:Xen
^ This is a full hyervisor solution (much like OpenBSD's vmd(8)); it's also *very* complicated:

https://wiki.debian.org/Xen

KVM is a native kernel module and I find the performance to be excellent.

I should probably note that I prefer to use `qemu-system-x86_64` directly rather than mess around with libvirt:

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=1546
Outstanding - love the virtual lab tutorial, thank you.
Qemu is installed, creating my first image (Testing) - can't wait for the finished product.

Cheers
Chris
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