Ideal Virtualization Solution using Ubuntu

As of 8.04 Hardy Heron release Ubuntu introduced several nice tools and features for Virtualization.

• Build-in support for KVM
• Ubuntu Server Edition JeOS (Just enough OS)
  JeOS is a specialised installation of Ubuntu Server Edition with a tuned kernel that only contains the base elements needed to run within a virtualized environment
• vm-builder
• ubuntu-virt-server ( Meta package for the tools you would needed to run a KVM guest on a server) (Introduced in 8.10)
• ubuntu-virt-mgmt (Meta package for the tools you would need to administer a KVM server from a client) (Introduced in 8.10)

And many others.

For several years I was running VMWare servers on my Ubuntu hosts. After every kernel upgrades I need to recompile the VMWare libraries and unfortunately sometimes kernel upgrades breaks the compilation process. It was always a challange doing the kernel upgrades.

Features listed above encouraged me to try the KVM virtualization. At the end I moved all my VMWare machines to KVM. vm-builder is real paradigm shift. Once you realize its value you will not be able to give it up.

Here you will find series of articles, step by step we will realize our Ideal Virtualization Solution.

1. Installing Ubuntu KVM Virtualization Host
2. Ubuntu KVM Virtualization Host: Networking
3. Ubuntu Repository Server Appliance using vmbuilder
4. vm-buildr based Ubuntu TorrentFlux Appliance

Related posts:

1. mount: could not find any free loop device
2. Ubuntu JeOS based KVM images doesn’t accept the reboot requests.