Precedence: list
MIME-Version: 1.0
In-Reply-To: <20111208075522.5804d2a6@ncopa-desktop.nor.wtbts.net>
References: <20111208075522.5804d2a6@ncopa-desktop.nor.wtbts.net>
Date: Fri, 9 Dec 2011 11:15:54 +0100
Message-ID: <CAGG_d8Dn2goJJsOAFH7H763Qv94pbmujTb9hTm1C1bSuTTmSnw@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [alpine-devel] advice for virtualization on desktop
From: Leonardo Arena <rnalrd@gmail.com>
To: Alpine-devel <alpine-devel@lists.alpinelinux.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

On Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 7:55 AM, Natanael Copa <ncopa@alpinelinux.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have been using qemu for some time for testing and network
> development.
>
> I think raw qemu is a bit cumbersome since i need to keep track of the
> mac address of all the guests. When I create a guest i create a
> start.sh script where i stuff in the mac address. (I sometimes need
> multiple NICs in guests and will need multiple guest vlans etc.
> vde, tap and bridges is what I use). This works ok, but I think it
> could be done better. (I find it cumbersome to manage the guest mac
> addr manually. assign a mac, and keep track of what guest has what mac)
>
> So I am asking for advice.
>
> I think I have the following alternatives:
>
> Switch to Xen.
>
> Use libvirtd.
>
> Make virtualbox work.
>
> In addition to N different alpine boxes I will install at least one
> Windows 7 guest. I'd like to have an ubuntu guest and a fedora guest.
> And fire up a random distro once in a while.
>
> So far, Xen dom0 boots up, but xorg seems to fail (Sandy bridge
> graphics) Interestingly enough it seemed to work with the ATI card
> even if switching to console with ctrl-alt-1 didnt work.
>
> I am having issues getting started with libvirtd. (how do i create a
> new qemu guest? how do i start it, stop it?)
>
> Virtual box needs some work to get compiled but might be nice to have
> anyways. Virtualbox also has (had?) some closedsource code for some
> features. Those will not be available on Alpine.
>
> So, ideas? suggestions?

I've used VirtualBox first and Virt-Manager extensively on Ubuntu, and
I'll definitely go with Virt-Manager.
It's more flexible and powerful than Virtualbox under several aspects.
One bad note is the configuration of networking.
Although latest versions have introduced support for macvtap that
doesn't require setting up a bridge at host level, macvtap is slow
compared to a tun interface.
So setting up networking under Virt-Manager is not trivial like in Virtualbox.

The problem is that Virt-Manager is still broken and may be libvirt
needs some work in order to get them fully functional under Alpine.

- leonardo


---
Unsubscribe:  alpine-devel+unsubscribe@lists.alpinelinux.org
Help:         alpine-devel+help@lists.alpinelinux.org
---