[GRLUG] Virtual OS in Linux

[Tim Schmidt]

On Mon, Dec 8, 2008 at 3:22 PM, Adam M. Erickson <adam at openfad.com> wrote:
> I have been running Virtual Box from Sun on Ubuntu for a few years now
> because it is easy for me to back up and run the virtual disk on any
> other Linux install.
>
> Is there anything else that runs on Linux for ***free*** that could
> also be run from Linux that would help me advance my education and
> qualify me for a better job position someday? (getting laid off for a
> few weeks so I'll have a lot of time on my hands to work on this.)
>
> Free being the key word. I have search some of the archives since I
> joined the GRLUG mailing list but most virtual discussions discussed
> products but not price.

Grab a recent copy of Ubuntu or Fedora (8.10 or 10 respectively) and
install kvm and virt-manager.  If you don't have a cpu with
virtualization extensions, you can opt for qemu and kqemu instead of
kvm.  The end result is a well supported completely Free (with a
capital F) virtualization platform complete with remote management (as
well as local if that floats your boat - you use the same interface
for either: virt-manager).

Essentially, it's all or most of the features of VMware server or ESXi
with none of the proprietary licensing crap.  Plus the ability to
emulate a plethora of other architectures and configurations nothing
else supports like ARM, MIPS, Sparc, etc.

Beware, however, Red Hat developed the bits for remote disk management
(mainly the ability to create new virtual disks remotely through
virt-manager), and those only landed in virt-manager upstream in time
for Fedora 10's release.  Ubuntu doesn't have them - at least until
the next version.  So if you're just doing local administration,
either will work well.  For remote server installs, I'd recommend
Fedora.

KVM and virt-manager are where serious FOSS virtualization is
converging.  Now's the time to start learning.

--tim