[wplug] Virtualization On Boot Flash

[Neal Sofge]

We had a similar plan for our Browser Test Lab, to deal with all the  
different mutually-incompatible Windows/IE combinations.  Alas, my  
Enterprise Architect decided to use a stock Windows XP system  
instead, running desktop VMWare, and you can imagine what that did  
for our productivity.


On Aug 8, 2007, at 2:27 PM, Michael Semcheski wrote:

> Red Pill / Blue Pill* issues aside, I saw an article** on The Register
> claiming that Dell was going to start adding a flash boot area that
> contained a virtual machine hypervisor (probably either Xen or
> VMWare).  The machine would boot the hypervisor, and then boot the
> regular operating system.
>
> So how does this sound?  Your machine boots up, looks at the first
> boot drive (which happens to be flash media), which contains a
> stripped down kernel with Xen.  This kernel boots, loads up the
> network and an NFS mount.  Then, it boots the "Mike's Desktop" image
> off of a server.
>
> Optionally, it also loads up a Windows desktop if I want one, or maybe
> I want three Linux desktops.  You're only constrained by RAM, really.
>
> I think that would be pretty cool.  For one thing, VM's generally boot
> faster than actual PC's.  Another thing, it adds a layer of
> abstraction between the PC hardware and the OS.  Applications that
> have mutually exclusive dependencies could each get their own instance
> of a VM.
>
> I think its potentially pretty cool.  I think it would probably be
> feasible with an Intel-VT or AMD-V processor and a USB stick now.
>
> Thoughts and opinions?
>
> Mike
>
> *http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1983037,00.asp
> **http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/07/dell_hypervisor_flash/
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--
Neal Sofge, Web Technology Analyst
RAND Corporation <http://www.rand.org/>



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