Xen Image directly on bare metal

vinaytp · 08-14-2010, 05:18 AM

Dear All,

I have worked on Xen which is being shipped with RHEL 5.4, Is it possible to install Xen hypervisor directly on bare metal, so that we can save resources.

I searched in Xen Official site, but could not recognize the product that can be directly installed on bare metal like VMware ESX.

Thanks in advance.

acid_kewpie · 08-14-2010, 05:27 AM

Well you need to be sure about what you're really asking for. ESX is still a linux operating system. if you want to save resources then jusy don't install stuff you don't need. ESXi is actually more streamlined than that, but still, it's still linux. Note that Xen is deprecated on RHEL now, in favour of KVM and there is the RHEV suite which is wha formally provides a "bare metal hypervisor" allowing multiple machines to host KVM guests all managed from a central (windows!! eek!!) machine.

vinaytp · 08-14-2010, 05:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by acid_kewpie

Well you need to be sure about what you're really asking for. ESX is still a linux operating system. if you want to save resources then jusy don't install stuff you don't need. ESXi is actually more streamlined than that, but still, it's still linux. Note that Xen is deprecated on RHEL now, in favour of KVM and there is the RHEV suite which is wha formally provides a "bare metal hypervisor" allowing multiple machines to host KVM guests all managed from a central (windows!! eek!!) machine.

Thanks acid_kewpie,

Actually this is not for production environment. Just to create multiple VMs and use them for Proof of Concepts. We do not need any licence or support from the vendor, Also we do not want to install trial versions.

So we have decided to go with Xen directly on bare metal. Where can we download xen image that can be directly installed on bare metal like RHEV ?

acid_kewpie · 08-14-2010, 07:06 AM

well you wouldn't install a Xen image on bare metal, that would make it a real machine, not a virtual machine. There may be cut down fedora spins for Xen, I'm not sure, and TBH you may be able to get something ready made fomr Citrix these days, but as above, just run less stuff, that's all a hypervisor image is, just linux with less stuff.