Arch Linux

PierreR

Member

Registered: 2008-11-10

Posts: 58

Virtualization: How tiny can a linux host be ?

I would be interested in a tiny linux distro that would only serve as a host for other guess linux OS. This is for development purpose (not production).

Do you know of any distro that would fit that niche ?

I don't believe OpenVZ will do it for me. I would like to use the latest catalyst ATI driver which is not going to work so well with the current openvz kernel version I think.

I guess KVM will fit more even it is less efficient. Does it make sense to view it like this:

one big master host together with small containers (openvz)
vs
one tiny linux core together with bigger oses managed through one hypervisor (for instance kvm).

The first option is probably better for production and the second less pain for my purpose.

Anyway if I use KVM which means a new kernel for every guess, the host OS could be kept at a bare minimum (no X server, ...), isn't ? Any experience to share using Arch for that purpose ?

Thanks for your input (please correct me if it is all nonsense)

LeoSolaris

Member

From: South Carolina

Registered: 2008-03-30

Posts: 354

Re: Virtualization: How tiny can a linux host be ?

You could try the ISO of Xen, it is a tiny hypervisor that would accomplish what you want, and still be open source. (with closed source module support for hardware) Make sure you grab the right one. The "Try It" ISO for Xen is a LiveCD and while it would work, it is larger than what I think your after. It uses Debian to make it live.

It's either that or try Linux from Scratch and find out for yourself how small you can make Linux.

P.S. on the xen.org downloads page, there is one called XCI, which seems to be aimed at laptops and embedded boards, which should be even smaller and easier on the system resources than Xen.

Edit: You could also take a look at vmware ESXi as well. It's another free hypervisor.

Last edited by LeoSolaris (2009-09-19 03:09:01)

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starfry

Member

From: Surrey, UK

Registered: 2010-08-18

Posts: 232

Re: Virtualization: How tiny can a linux host be ?

If you just want a hypervisor that look after a number of server containers then take a look at Proxmox.

jasonwryan

Anarchist

From: .nz

Registered: 2009-05-09

Posts: 30,426

Website

Re: Virtualization: How tiny can a linux host be ?

starfry: Arch is a rolling release - necrobumping threads is discouraged here. Please read the Forum Etiquette http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/For … Bumping.27

Closing

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