Re: [Xen-users] How to detect if a machine is a Virtual machine ??

["Nick Couchman" <Nick.Couchman@xxxxxxxxx>]

There are a few ways that you can determine that you're in a virtual platform.  
First, if the platform is PV platform, you either use uname to find the kernel 
name (usually contains a reference to Xen) or look for the /proc/xen directory. 
 You can also look in /sys/hypervisor/type, which exists on Xen platforms.  On 
PV domUs, /proc/xen/capabilities should be empty - on dom0 it will have the 
various available types of domUs listed.  Of course, this is mainly for 
Linux-based PV domUs - other platforms will have indications elsewhere.

For HVM domUs it's much harder to tell - probably the best way is to look at 
the hardware specs and see if they match what Xen (Qemu) emulates as hardware.  
Since many HVM kernels are not "aware" of the fact that they are running as 
virtual machines, there isn't necessarily anything you can look for to make 
that determination.  Some HVM domUs run PV drivers (e.g. the Windows GPL PV 
drivers) that could tip you off, but it just depends on the configuration of 
the domU kernel and drivers.

-Nick

>>> On 2009/12/21 at 11:22, Sachin Goel <SACHIN.GOEL@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: 
> Does anybody has an idea about this ??
> 
> - Thanks,
> Sachin.
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: sachin.goel@xxxxxxxxxx
> To: xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Monday, December 21, 2009 10:51:45 PM GMT +05:30 Chennai, Kolkata, 
> Mumbai, New Delhi
> Subject: [Xen-users] How to detect if a machine is a Virtual machine ??
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Just curious to know, if there is any way that given a terminal to a 
> box, we can determine is it a physical machine or a virtual machine ?
> 
> Thanks,
> Sachin.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-users mailing list
> Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users




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