nixCraft » Linux Virtualization

Vmware Linux Guest Add a New Hard Disk Without Rebooting Guest

nixCraft — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 06:55:53 +0000

As a system admin, I need to use additional hard drives for to provide more storage space or to separate system data from user data. This procedure, adding physical block devices to virtualized guests, describes how to add a hard drive on the host to a virtualized guest using VMWare software running Linux as guest.

It is possible to add or remove a SCSI device explicitly, or to re-scan an entire SCSI bus without rebooting a running Linux VM guest. This how to is tested under Vmware Server and Vmware Workstation v6.0 (but should work with older version too). All instructions are tested on RHEL, Fedora, CentOS and Ubuntu Linux guest / hosts operating systems.

Increase Your VMware Virtual Hard Disk Size ( vmdk file )

nixCraft — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:22:42 +0000

I've Windows Vista installed as a guest under Ubuntu Linux using VMWARE Workstation 6.0. This is done for testing purpose and browsing a few site that only works with Internet Explorer. Since I only use it for testing I made 16GB for Vista and 5GB for CentOS and 5GB in size for FreeBSD guest operating systems. However, after some time I realized I'm running out of disk space under both CentOS and Vista. Adding a second hard drive under CentOS solved my problem as LVM was already in use. Unfortunately, I needed to double 32GB space without creating a new D: drive under Windows Vista. Here is a simple procedure to increase your Virtual machine's disk capacity by resizing vmware vmdk file.

XEN Virtualization Set The MTU For xenbr0 Interface

nixCraft — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:40:08 +0000

I've already written about setting the MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) under Linux including Jumbo frames (FreeBSD specific MTU information is here).

With this quick tip you can increase MTU size to get a better networking performance.

Top 10 Linux Virtualization Software

nixCraft — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:00:59 +0000

Virtualization is the latest buzz word. You may wonder computers are getting cheaper every day, why should I care and why should I use virtualization? Virtualization is a broad term that refers to the abstraction of computer resources such as:

Platform Virtualization
Resource Virtualization
Storage Virtualization
Network Virtualization
Desktop Virtualization

This article describes why you need virtualization and list commonly used FOSS and proprietary Linux virtualization software.

How To Convert From a VMware Image To Virtualbox Image

nixCraft — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 20:24:43 +0000

VirtualBox is a virtual emulator like VMWare workstation. It has many of the features VMWare has, as well as some of its own.

I really like new Opensource VirtualBox from Sun. It is light on resources. Here is a quick tip - you can convert a VMware virtual machine (image) to a VirtualBox machine (image) using qemu-img utility, without reinstalling the GUEST operating system

Linux: Boot a 2TB+ partition or Larger Array Using Grub

nixCraft — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 07:13:58 +0000

I've already written about creating a partition size larger than 2TB under Linux using GNU parted command with GPT. In this tutorial, I will provide instructions for booting to a flat 2TB or larger RAID array under Linux using the GRUB boot loader.

Install Linux On Intel Xeon 7400 Dunnington

nixCraft — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 05:29:29 +0000

Dunnington is Intel's first multi-core CPU - features a single-die six- (or hexa) core design with three unified 3 MB L2 caches (resembling three merged 45 nm dual-core Wolfdale dies), and 96 KB L1 cache (Data) and 16 MB of L3 cache. It features 1066 MHz FSB, fits into the Tigerton's mPGA604 socket, and is compatible with the Caneland chipset. These processors support DDR2-1066 (533 MHz), and have a maximum TDP below 130 W. They are intended for blades and other stacked computer systems.

How To Open VMware Server Remote Console with Firefox 3.0.1

nixCraft — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:23:45 +0000

Explains how to activate / open VMware Server Remote Console plugin with Firefox 3.0.1 under Linux.

Download of the day: Vmware 2.0 Virtualization Solutions Beta Software

nixCraft — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:43:28 +0000

VMware Server is an entry-level server virtualization solution, which is proprietary, freeware software. VMware released version 2.0 beta of Server on July 1, 2008. New version provides appliance like control using nothing but a webbrowser.

VMWare: List all running Virtual Machines [ VMs ] / VPS From a Shell Prompt

nixCraft — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:06:53 +0000

You can easily list all running Virtual machines from a Linux shell prompt without accessing GUI. This is useful to scripts or to get status for any VM.

Red Hat / CentOS Linux 4: Setup Device Mapper Multipathing

nixCraft — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:06:29 +0000

Multipath I/O is a fault-tolerance and performance enhancement technique whereby there is more than one physical path between the CPU in a computer system and its mass storage devices through the buses, controllers, switches, and bridge devices connecting them. A simple example would be a SCSI disk connected to two SCSI controllers on the same [...]

Load Balancer Open Source Software

nixCraft — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:01:49 +0000

I've worked with a various load balancing systems (LBS). They are complex pieces of hardware and software. In this post I will highlight some of the open source load balancing software. But what is load balancing? It is nothing but a technique used to share (spared) load / services between two or more servers. For [...]

Linux Xen High Availability Clusters Configuration Tutorial

nixCraft — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 09:46:51 +0000

Xen is one of the leading Virtualization software. You can use Xen virtualization to implement HA clusters. However, there are few issues you must be aware of while handling failures in a high-availability environment. This article explains configuration options using Xen: The idea of using virtual machines to build high available clusters is not new. [...]

Virtualization: Run Windows and Linux at One Place

nixCraft — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 20:02:03 +0000

I've used VMWARE ESX / Xen paravirtualization, Virtuozzo, Solaris Containers, and FreeBSD Jails as os level virtualization. Virutalbox is another full virtualization solution. Presently, VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux and Macintosh hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista), DOS/Windows [...]

Linux Fibre Channel over Ethernet implementation code released

nixCraft — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:58:10 +0000

Intel has just released source code for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE). It provides some Fibre Channel protocol processing as well as the encapsulation of FC frames within Ethernet packets. FCoE will allow systems with an Ethernet adapter and a Fibre Channel Forwarder to login to a Fibre Channel fabric (the FCF is a "gateway" [...]

Download of the day: Oracle VM

nixCraft — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 05:51:24 +0000

Virtualization is the process of abstracting computing resources such that multiple operating system and application images can share a single physical server, bringing significant cost-of-ownership and manageability benefits. Through its Oracle VM product, Oracle offers scalable, low-cost server virtualization for heterogeneous applications. Oracle VM is free server virtualization software that fully supports both Oracle and [...]

Quick Tip: Send Ctr + Alt + Del to XEN Vps / Guest os

nixCraft — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 17:56:53 +0000

If you hit CTRL+ALT+Delete your host will go down under CentOS Linux 5.x. The solution is hit CTRL key thrice. Now it will disable CTRL+ALT+Del for host. Next just hit alt+del to complete guest CTRL+ALT+Del cycle. Alternatively, you can type the following on host to shutdown vps: xm shutdown myGuestVpsOsName

XEN Server Status Monitoring Command Cheat Sheet

nixCraft — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:13:26 +0000

The xm command is the main command line interface for managing Xen guest domains. The program can be used to create, pause, and shutdown domains. It can also be used to list current domains, enable or pin VCPUs, and attach or detach virtual block devices. Please note that before running any one of the following [...]

RHEL / CentOS Support 4GB or more RAM ( memory )

nixCraft — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 07:30:57 +0000

If you have 4 GB or more RAM use the Linux kernel compiled for PAE capable machines. Your machine may not show up total 4GB ram. All you have to do is install PAE kernel package.

How to: Upgrade Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) to latest Releases 5.1

nixCraft — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 12:47:00 +0000

RHEL 5.1 has been released. Redhat announced the availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1, with integrated virtualization. This release provides the most compelling platform for customers and software developers ever, with its industry-leading virtualization capabilities complementing Red Hat's newly announced Linux Automation strategy. It offers the industry’s broadest deployment ecosystem, covering standalone systems, virtualized [...]