Hi,

I wanted to copy a question from Amazon on the posted subject, here. I've seen the question before, and I think it is important to emphasize that Red Hat has its own virtualization software, known as KVM.

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Hi Mike,

Every year I teach over 100 student Linux Administration at my college.
I would love to use your RHCE 7 guide with VMs in those classes but
unfortunately most student use windows has their main desktop. It would
REALLY be nice if you could create your lab VMs in a format that easily
imports into VirtualBox or VMware.

Thanks for writing a fantastic RHCE study guide!

Ed

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Hi Ed,

I appreciate your kind words.

When I created the Lab VMs in KVM, I wanted to give students the
opportunity to address several RHCSA objectives.

If I set up VMs for VMWare of VirtualBox, that would keep students from
studying the Red Hat approach to virtual machines, KVM.

Red Hat's VM software is KVM. Red Hat does not own, control, or certify
VMWare or VirtualBox.

Yes, that means students who study for the Red Hat exams have to work
from a system where Red Hat Enterprise Linux (or equivalent) is
installed.

All I can suggest is that your students set up a "dual-boot" on their
Windows systems, and install Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Then your
students could study 100% of the objectives for the RHCSA exam.

Thanks,
Mike

Or use KVM in OpenSUSE

it works great , i have a Debian8 install on that KVM

Greetings Mike and everyone,
At home to study for my RHCSA, I'm running Linux Mint (a preference) with VMWare Workstation 10. Within that instance of VMWare WS10, I have CentOS installed with KVM's running CentOS VM's on KVM. My work system, which runs Windows 7 has VMWare Player running CentOS with KVM installed and working with CentOS vm's. There is a little check-box in the VMWare processor settings tab that allows virtualization withing virtualization. (Virtualize Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI) Is this working for anyone else? Please let me know if this works for you. That way, you would not have to be limited by your base OS.

Always, always keep in mind that Red Hat is a for-profit corporation ... but also, that (for a sometimes-hefty fee) they have "soup-to-nuts responsibility" for the virtual installations which use their system. To that end, they created their own virtualization system, which they control. I don't agree with author-Mike's reply to the instructor, but I'm quite sure that this was a specific directive that author-Mike was given from above. (Or, maybe it's his own belief. Which is completely defensible.)

Having to do "dual virtualization" seems quite lame to me, and I wish that RH would consider doing something to help the situation of people like teacher-Ed. Ed's point is valid: a college teaches more than just RH certification classes, on hardware (and VMWare's) that is purposed for more than one thing. This is a valid business-concern of the college.

Although RH has a (non-predatory!) corporate interest in what VM-environment runs their OS in a production setting, and in learning how to manage RH's chosen environment, Red Hat would actually benefit from helping people like Ed in situations like Ed's. (And, let's face it, not every installation runs, or can run, RH under KVM on their hardware ... so, maybe author-Mike's perspective is narrower than it properly should be?)

In any case: Colleges like Ed's employer do directly serve RH's corporate interests, and I'm sure that the differences of environment can, in fact, be accommodated by all parties concerned . . . mmmm??

Red Hat Linux won't look so good if the student has to deal with it "in a box in a box" where it runs much more slowly. And so, who knows what buying-decisions that student might one day make or influence? Mmmmmmm?? This difference of environment can be technically dealt-with, and I think that it is in Red Hat's interests that it should be. Don't throw avoidable obstacles in the way of people who are teaching other people to use and manage your product, nor make them wrestle-out how to avoid 'em. Especially not when they're on your side.

No one has to do nested virtualisation - They simply need the machines to dual boot with RHEL/CentOS etc. That does not cost anything extra nor does it affect performance.

Not to mention that there is real value in learning how KVM virtualisation works and how it is configured, especially considering the students are training towards a RHEL certification. They will need this knowledge when they get a job - knowing how to use VirtualBox or desktop VMWare products will not help them one bit once they get to work in an enterprise environment.

Why would anyone even think that having Windows/OS X would be a suitable base for doing a Linux certification? Will people next be expressing their outrage that they can't use Juniper gear for their CCNA?

Then they have no place training people for RHEL certifications.

I disagree: they are in the training business, in their community, and therefore they do have students who wish to study for these exams ... and at the same time, the necessity to do so using the equipment that they now have, and at reasonable expense, and without circumventing their own IT-Department. Red Hat should be able to find a way to accommodate the technical needs of established institutions (especially(!) community colleges), without compromising the technical validity of the curriculum they have developed.

Windows and OS/X both should be valid platforms under which to run any sort of environment under virtualization ... even a "subsequently virtualized" one. Even though it might be far-removed from the environment that one will (maybe) actually encounter on the job, it still should be valid for training purposes. I'm quite sure that a technical solution exists, and I think that Red Hat should work to find it.