Hi Mike, Thank you so much for your input! I will definitely consider all of it when going through the second draft of the virtualization chapter in a week or two.
If you could give me your contact details by private mail, I'll make sure you get a free copy of the beginning and advanced books once they are out later this year. Thanks again! Sander Mike Lane schreef: > 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/ > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Get fish-slapping on Messenger! Play Now > <http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/101719805/direct/01/> -- ubuntu-server mailing list ubuntu-server@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-server More info: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerTeam