Re: [Xen-users] aix

[Mark Williamson <mark.williamson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wednesday 10 October 2007, Marco Strullato wrote:
> Hi all,
> is possible to run AIX on xen with VT cpus?
>
> Marco

Since, as others have noted, Xen does not emulate other CPU architectures it 
won't be possible to run AIX on an x86 box.  AIX is primarily PowerPC, right?

Xen does support PPC as a host architecture - i.e. you have to have a PPC 
machine to run PPC Xen on.  In this case, it is possible for Xen to run PPC 
guest OSes.  This enables it to run Linux guests, but I'm not sure about the 
state of this work - or whether there's an AIX to support IBM's 
paravirtualised interface.  I would assume that there is.

If you want to run AIX on x86, your best plan is probably to find a PPC 
emulator that you can run it under.  QEmu is likely to be the best bet, but I 
haven't actually heard of anybody running AIX under it, so your mileage may 
vary.  I'm not sure how advanced QEmu's PPC support is.

However, an advantage here is that QEmu won't need any special hardware 
support to run an emulated guest (albeit slowly) - assuming it provides 
enough features to run AIX in the first place...  Your mileage may vary, 
depending on how much of the necessary PPC system hardware emulation is 
already supported by QEmu; it may or may not be adequate to run a full blown 
OS and it may not have been tested with AIX.

I'm not a Qemu expert, so best to ask on qemu-devel@xxxxxxxxxx and check the 
Qemu website for more definitive information!

Cheers,
Mark

-- 
Dave: Just a question. What use is a unicyle with no seat?  And no pedals!
Mark: To answer a question with a question: What use is a skateboard?
Dave: Skateboards have wheels.
Mark: My wheel has a wheel!

_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users