XenSource in da hizzouse!!!
Xen, the open source competitors to VMWare have just taken a huge leap forward. Up until now they were acknowledged as having the fastest virtualisation platform on the market. You could have several virtual servers running on a single physical server and even transfer them to new servers if you wanted to do repairs or upgrades without having to interrupt services.
Installation and management of the open source version was a bit on the tricky side, so a proper company, XenSource, was formed by the development team to add some polish and make it easier to deploy and manage. They’ve finally cranked out their first release, and it’s better than anyone expected. An extra bonus is that not only are there two commercial versions, but Xen Express is a free cut down version for the enthusiast and developer.
Installation is a snap. Basically all you need to do is boot an existing server from the install disk. It will install the core application layer under the existing OS and transition the OS into a virtualised one. I’m moving my email server onto meatier hardware in a few weeks and my intention all along was to use Xen to have multiple virtual machines for testing purposes. Xen Express just made this a lot simpler. Instead of yet again doing a full OS setup and data migration, I’ll install Xen onto the old server and translate my mail server’s OS into a virtual machine. I’ll then transfer this VM onto the new server, which will already have Xen Express pre-installed. It should turn a full day chore into a 30 minute exercise.
By gary | 12. Dec 2006 | Software | No Comments »