I realized that I sent my reply to Sander only so I have copied it below:
------------------------
Hi Sander, I will likely work through the KVM section again soon as I have
been trying different Virtualization platforms to try and see which one I like
best. I like the idea of running KVM on Ubuntu server a lot and remember
getting some error messages trying to create virtual machines following your
KVM section. I don't remember what they were as this was a few months ago when
I first started using Ubuntu (so it could well have been user error). Since
then I have also been looking at VirtualBox as I had read that it too had the
ability to run in headless mode. I am not sure if you should discuss KVM more
in the book as compared to Xen for example? I say this as KVM is what Ubuntu
officially supports now I think, right? What would I like to see more of? Well
here is a wish list off the top of my head: * discussion of growable vs fully
expanded virtual hard drives for performance. If the virtual hard drive is
fully expanded is it created as a contiguous file even if it is several Gb in
size? If virtual hard drives are growable does this mean that they will become
fragmented?* how to monitor virtual machine performance remotely if possible
and also discussion of remote desktop or similar to both headless and GUI
virtual machines. Remote management tools - what are they and how to install
and use them.* Ubuntu JeOS - the benefits of using this operating system for
virtual machines. Are VMWare Tools necessary to run JeOS in KVM? If so how to
install VMWare Tools. Discussion of the benefits of VMWare tools on Ubuntu
JeOS. * What are the specific optimizations that JeOS offers other than a small
hard drive footprint and low memory use (without VMWare Tools) on KVM?* Any
methods to reduce disk I/O operations on virtual machines to improve
performance further?* What features are proposed for future releases of KVM?*
More detailed explanation of the qemu commands i.e. parameter by parameter so
that the reader knows what the switches are for etc* Virtual machine management
in general - scripts to start up a particular virtual machine on boot for
example, or shut down all virtual machines one by one. Scripts to back up
virtual machines to remote stoarge and then boot them once this is done. * How
to "import" VMWare virtual machines to KVM - if this can be done? There are
plenty of VMWare appliances that I would like to run - can this easily be done
on KVM and what steps would need to be taken for example? Is there any
performance penalty in importing a VMWare virtual machines as opposed to
creating it in KVM?* Is there a GUI tool to create KVM virtual machines on the
desktop before moving them to the server (which is how I might prefer to work).
* Can I do snapshots in KVM? So discussion of the full feature set vs the
competition (VMWare) for example.* does a kernel update affect my KVM
installation?* can I do some kind of VDI with KVM? Basically I would like a
full and detailed account of the limitations and features of KVM and how to
administer the server through the command line and remotely with GUI tools if
that applies also. With virtualbox I had a hard time getting the bridged
networking to work and I did not get that far with KVM so I can't comment
there. I realize that this is much more than would ever be in a beginner book.
Even so I would have liked to see more page space devoted to Virtualization so
that more ground could be covered. I guess that this is why I said that I
would happily buy a good book just on Virtualization. I think I ended up
feeling that the explanations of technologies was fine (pages 329 to 331) but
that the walkthrough of creating virtual machines for KVM (332 to 335) did not
explain the syntax or the process fully enough for me. Does the Qemu window
that you see when installing XP run when XP is running on the server for
example, or is it just to monitor the install? I guess if I had got that far
maybe it would become clearer :-) So I am not sure how much this helps you as
it is far more information that would be included in a single chapter on
Virtualization ... but I think tying in JeOS would be great as would importing
VMWare virtual machines as well as ways to remotely administer virtual
machines. I will try and get back to you on my experience the second time round
now that my "server" machine is free to have ubuntu loaded on to it again. This
may not be very quickly though as I am taking a summer class on linux / UNIX
which looks like it will take up a fair amount of my spare time. Mike> Date:
Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:17:58 +0200> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> To:
ubuntu-server@lists.ubuntu.com> Subject: Re: Ubuntu Server Book Needed?> > On
Fri, Jul 11, 2008 at 09:13:05PM +0000, Mike Lane wrote:> > I actually have the
first book that you linked too and have found it> > pretty useful so far. I was
actually very disappointed with the> > section on virtualization though which
very briefly covers KVM, Xen> > and I forget the third one off the top of my
head. > > IIRC correctly, the book was based on Feisty, and virtualisation in>
Feisty was rather basic. I imagine a newer edition would include stuff> on
libvirt and all the surrounding tools.> > -- > Soren Hansen | > Virtualisation
specialist | Ubuntu Server Team> Canonical Ltd. | http://www.ubuntu.com/
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