[wellylug] Xen and Windows

[Daniel Pittman]

"Andrew Tarr" <andrewtarr at gmx.net> writes:
>> 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.

I think you mean "paravirtualization is *NOT* providing", or "normal
virtualization is providing" here...

> 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?

Other than the presumably accidental misstatement in point one, yes, you have
it spot-on.

Regards,
        Daniel
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