Virtualization For Dummies®

Chapter 13. Implementing Fedora Virtualization

In This Chapter

• Getting a hold of Fedora 7 proper

• Installing Fedora 7

• Installing a guest virtual machine

• Installing a guest operating system

In Chapter 12, I take VMware Server through its paces — definitely a great product. However, you might want to consider another alternative for any number of reasons. Perhaps the fact that VMware Server installs as an application on top of the machine's operating system gives you pause — that solution isn't particularly optimal with regard to performance potential, to be honest. Or perhaps you prefer the Linux operating system and would like to use a virtualization solution integrated with it. Or maybe you just want to experiment with something else to compare it with VMware Server.

Whatever your reason, this chapter is for you. In this chapter, I demonstrate how to use the Xen virtualization technology built into Fedora 7. By the chapter's end, you'll be able to create and run guest virtual machines to your heart's content.

If your company uses Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), this is a good chapter for you to pay attention to. Features that are going into the next version of RHEL typically first see the light of day in Fedora, where Red Hat can (literally) work the bugs out. The first implementation of Xen in RHEL came in the currently shipping RHEL5. However, the upcoming RHEL5.1 will offer many improvements in virtualization, and most of those improvements are already available in Fedora 7, which ...