[OpenIndiana-discuss] Solaris 10 and 11 in 151a : VirtualBox, QEMU-KVM or branded zones?

[Jim Klimov]

2012-08-04 18:33, Mike Kirk wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> I've set up a new 151a system, and have been busy configuring as many
> services as I can in OI local zones. But for testing reasons I'd still like
> to have vanilla Solaris 10 and Solaris 11 VMs to play with as well. The
> virtualization page mentions a few options (
> http://wiki.openindiana.org/oi/7.+Virtualization)
>
> - Put 10 and 11 in VirtualBox and be done with it. This sounds easy, but
> heavy? (I will want to run several at once)
> - Try to install each in qemu-kvm: I'm not sure if either will run properly
> (the KVM web page shows spotty support for Solaris VMs?) but may be
> lighter/faster
> - Branded zones sound possible, at least for Solaris 10... which seem light
> and efficient... but I have to create a flar first (?, maybe from within an
> install in VirtualBox to get things off the ground) and doesn't help with a
> Solaris 11 VM.
>
> The load in each of the Sol10/11 VMs will be light: it more important that
> I can run 3-5 of each of them than them being fast for any particular app.
> RAM and disk should not be a problem. Even if KVM and branded-zones are
> more complicated to get running... are they a better way to go instead of
> VirtualBox? Would they all be about equal in terms of network speeds in/out
> of the VMs?

Well, I know of VirtualBox - and that it should work. I did not play
much with KVM yet. You can run VBox instances in local zones to rcap
their resources in a more "visible" manner and to group certain VMs
by their tasks (i.e. quickly start or shutdown unnecessary test VMs).
I wouldn't say the general overhead is substantial for a few VMs
(I have about ten running on a box), but you should provide lots of
on-disk swap space (even if it won't be really used). Virtual HDD
speeds may be appaling though, i.e. if you try to compile illumos
in a VM - this can literally take days. Perhaps newer works on
virtio drivers can rectify that situation...

You can run VirtualBoxes as solaris SMF services using my script at
http://vboxsvc.sourceforge.net .

It may be possible that VBox 4.x would also save your RAM by memory
deduplication - but I am mostly stuck with VBox v3.x and can't say
much about newer features.

If you intend to run similar systems, you're better off installing
and maintaining a "golden-image" VM in a separate ZFS dataset, and
then zfs-cloning it to produce preinstalled up-to-date VMs of some
given OS version (you may also need to forge and replace disk image
GUIDs and VM GUIDs in their XML config files, or using the command
line tools).

HTH,
//Jim Klimov