I was just wondering if we have thought about having a virtualization form? for questions in relation to linux in VM ware, virtualbox, QEMU, etc, etc?

You know it's LQ's policy to only create fora when there's sufficient and continuously growing demand. IIRC it has come up. Apparently there wasn't so it was voted down. Maybe I'm missing something but the amount of questions about virtualisation in the last half year didn't seem to be growing exponentially?

I hadn't known that Fora was a plural form of Forum. LQ is such an educational site!

Just a datum :

A rough search (xen OR vmware OR virtualbox OR qemu OR parallels OR vserver OR "virtual pc" OR openvz OR brandz OR kvm) shows there have been about 250 threads more or less related to virtualization in the last month.

Not sure about if that qualify for a new forum to be created, but maybe.

One issue would be where to locate it in LQ taxonomy as virtualization is related to everything, including hardware, software, distributions, enterprise, programming, other *NIX, non *NIX ...

The question is in the more or less part. Taxonomy says installing any VM SW is /Software and problems with the VM'ed OS itself or connecting to an app inside the VM may be /Software, /Server, /Networking, /Linux - General or even /General if it's ClippyOS. If I "allinurl:xen OR vmware OR virtualbox OR qemu OR parallels OR vserver OR "virtual pc" OR openvz OR brandz OR kvm -install -start -connect" I end up with just over one hundred and seventy for the past year. More than I expected but a two hundred threads a year forum doesn't look that convincing to me, but that's just me.

Virtualization is something that is really getting a lot of mindshare at the moment, so is something I've been keeping my eye on. The one reason I could see creating a forum at some point is precisely because it would collect all information about a topic I think is going to have a large impact in one place (it's almost certainly too scattered now). I'm not sure the traffic is quite there yet, but I'm open to discussion.

--jeremy

I really don't see the need for Virtualization to have it's own forum. I sort of agree with unspawn, having a Virtualization forum would be questions directed at installing, maintaining, updating, etc, the actual virtualization part of it. For example, if you had a Linux install as a Virtual Machine with VMware and had problems with some type of software or networking, it's not necessarily a virtualization problem but rather an issue with software or networking within a Linux OS, which could fall under Software or any other forum we might already have.

I mean, we get thousands of apache questions a year, we don't have a dedicated apache forum. So I think demand isn't always a factor in determining if there should be a forum or not, there are many other factors that should play.

I think for now, actual Virtualization questions are suitable in Software on most cases, since, it is software.

I agree, because personally, I don't see virtualization being a necessity for an extended period of time, as native apps continue to improve. As Linux users, we should be supporting native apps rather than wasting resources on supporting running proprietary apps on Linux. Just my

Cheers

Virtualization is neither limited to running proprietary applications nor to virtualize proprietary O/Ses.

Oh, really? Color me red. What else is it used for?

It's a great testing platform - set up a base VM, copy it, install stuff, bugger it up, start again.

Supposedly great for maximising hardware utilisation, but not my area

You can run X virtual machines on Y physical machines, and migrate the virtual machines as demand changes. I read about a test where after a certain number of virtual apache servers, they were more efficient if you run virtual machines and divided the number of apache servers between them. This was done on a single physical server. A bottle neck would reduce the throughput after so many apache instances, so keeping the number of instances on each VM below that number improved the total throughput.

The main purpose of vm is to reduce the total amount of hardware used by not having dedicated servers running underutilized each in their own case & using it's own power supply. This can reduce the floor space needed and cooling costs.

billymayday & jschiwal~

Thanks! I guess you're never too old to learn, after all. Just that most of the questions I've seen on the subject involved virtualizing Windows on Linux or vice-versa. I just assumed that's all it was good for.

Cheers

I set up a Windows install in VirtualBox, but only because, like you, I'd seen it talked about lots. Don't use it, but it's pretty cool.

Strangest part is, it boots way faster than as a native OS (not allowing for Linix boot of course)

ROFL!

That was the biggest problem I'd had with running Windows-based games with Wine-- Some ran so fast that they were unplayable! Doesn't say much for Windows, does it? LOL

Cheers