Re: [Xen-users] Xen and other server processes

[Mark Williamson <mark.williamson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Hi, I currently have a Xen VPS server (which I pay for monthly) that I use
> to host my own personal email, web sites, etc
>
> I have started teaching a class on Linux, and would like to possibly give
> my students their own Xen environment so they can each have root access.  I
> am looking at dedicated servers for this.
>
> My question:  Is it possible (and advisable) to divide a dedicated box up
> partially for Xen domUs?  For instance, can I can I run several domUs and
> dedicate half my disk space/memory for that, and then save the rest for my
> own server processes outside of Xen?  Or would I dedicate the whole box to
> Xen, and then just allocate myself a Xen instance with 50% of the
> resources? Basically, can Xen and other servers coexist peacefully?

Xen is a hypervisor - it runs directly on the host machine.  It's a bit like 
an "operating system for operating systems": operating systems run in Xen's 
domains in the same way a program runs in a process on a normal OS.  Xen 
wants to own a machine completely, so *every single* Operating System running 
on that machine (including "domain 0", which behaves roughly as the "host" 
OS) is actually a Xen guest.

To get the effect you want, you'd just create a domU which had 50% of the 
resources of the machine and run your processes in that.  This is probably 
preferable to just running your processes in "dom0", since it's good to keep 
dom0 as lightweight and secure as possible.

> While I am posting, I will ask another question that I think I already know
> the answer to.  Is there any way to create a Xen instance without a
> dedicated IP address for that instance?

You could NAT them, just like you could with physical machines.  You'd 
probably configure dom0 to do the NATing and they'd all hide behind dom0's IP 
address.

Cheers,
Mark

-- 
Push Me Pull You - Distributed SCM tool (http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~maw48/pmpu/)

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