Gentoo as a virtualisation host [solved]

xtz · Last edited by xtz on Tue Jun 18, 2013 8:57 am; edited 1 time in total

Hey guys,

I'm about to get a 2xQuadcore server for virtualisation and I need to select a host OS for it.
I'd happily pick OpenBSD but the one thing it's not good for (I guess) is virtualisation (only supports qemu and the performance is not good).
I've tried to get my hands on some official doc, but got only this:
http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/vps/overview.xml
As it's been updated on June 19, 2006 for the last time I don't think the info is very useful ;-)

So my main questions have to be:

What methods of virtualisation does Gentoo support (not interested in para-virtualization)?
Anyone with a currently running setup to share performance comments? My imaginary setup would be:
- An OpenBSD guest facing the internet. Would be NATing all other connections for the box - would need a dedicated ethernet adapter, no special requirements
- A few Red Hat guests (needed for testing) - no special requirements
- Maybe a Win7/8 guest - this would definitely need USB support

Any answers or comments would be much appreciated, thanks.

_______0 · Guru Joined: 15 Oct 2012 Posts: 521

doable

666threesixes666 · Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 4:39 pm Post subject:

i absolutely love "aqemu" hypervisor bare metal virtualization. it supports kvm / qemu.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypervisor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel-based_Virtual_Machine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QEMU

not as easy to setup as virtualbox, as it requires kernel recompilation. if your ok with following the wiki pages and recompiling your kernel this would be the optimal solution.

Caprisun · n00b Joined: 08 May 2012 Posts: 15

KVM on Gentoo is pretty good. I like it much better than anything else I've tried, including ESXi 5.

The networking is flexible, though I prefer to simply bridge my VM's and treat them like real machines. (You can easily disable networking for certain VM's or put them on a virtual switch)

USB support for Windows is also very good, even webcams work! I haven't tried an iPod yet but everything else has been great.

It's also stable and not *THAT* hard to configure.

I'm running VM's on an Intel Core 2, using an Intel SSD with ext4 and the discard option. It is amazing!

amospalla · n00b Joined: 08 Mar 2013 Posts: 26

I currently use both KVM and Openvz, but AFAIK, you can also use XEN, Vserver and Virtualbox on gentoo. Note that Openvz/Vserver are containers (AKA "chroot on steroids"), and XEN can do both full virtualization, and para-virtualization.

xtz · Posted: Fri Jun 14, 2013 11:36 am Post subject:

amospalla · n00b Joined: 08 Mar 2013 Posts: 26

Xen works both in full virtualization (needs hardware assistance) and para-virtualization (needs guest modification).

_______0 · Guru Joined: 15 Oct 2012 Posts: 521

xtz · Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 8:56 am Post subject:

Thanks everyone for the info, I think it's been settled then.