[wellylug] Xen and Windows

Andrew Tarr andrewtarr at gmx.net
Mon Aug 17 12:33:12 NZST 2009


> Datum: Sun, 16 Aug 2009 22:11:46 +1200
> Von: Jethro Carr <jethro.carr at jethrocarr.com>
> An: Wellington Linux Users Group <wellylug at lists.wellylug.org.nz>
> Betreff: Re: [wellylug] Xen and Windows

> On Sun, 2009-08-16 at 21:33 +1200, William Hamilton wrote:
> > I am looking at putting some time into Xen as a couple of clients are
> > making noises about virtualisation blah blah.  Having had a quick read
> > I see that Windows is not greatly supported unless the processor has
> > virtualisation built in.  
> 
> "not greatly supported" is a bit of an understatement, the only way to
> run non-paravirtualised operating systems like Xen is with a CPU with
> hardware virtualisation (Intel-VT or AMD-V).
>

Shouldn't this read 'the only way to run non-paravirtualised operating systems *on* Xen'? 

I haven't ever used Xen, and I don't pretend to understand the technology particularly well, but here's how I understand the matter: 

*) paravirtualisatation is providing a virtual 'almost the real thing' environment.  This is what Xen does when it's not running on hardware that has special support for hardware virtualisation. 

*) an OS must be specially modified (or sepcially designed in the first place) to run in a paravirtualised enviornment. 

*) Linux has been modified so that it can run in a Xen paravirtual VM.  Windows has not. 

*) hence Linux will run on Xen on hardware without virtualisation support, but Windows will not. 


Do I understand this correctly? 

-Andrew. 
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