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

[Mike Kirk]

Thanks Jim:

On Sat, Aug 4, 2012 at 11:30 AM, Jim Klimov <jim at cos.ru> wrote:

>
> 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
>

I ended up using VirtualBox 4.1.18 for some of the heavy lifting. This is
how I've been sorting the apps:

- Whenever possible stick what I need in a OI local zone
- If that's not possible, stick it in a Solaris 10 branded local zone. I
made a flar as a template using VirtualBox first
- If I need a Solaris 10 or 11 global zone I run them in VirtualBox (or
Windows or Linux)

I kicked the tires on KVM but gave up fast: after I added the packages
(while VB was running) they went in, but I could no longer successfully
reboot. Had to use single-user mode and rip the packages out, then things
were fine. VirtualBox and KVM don't play nice together?

And you were right:
- I had to double my swap space or eventually I'd boot VirtualBox VM N+1
and it would fall over as "Aborted" in the UI, even though physical memory
was fine. /var/adm/messages showed swap issues. Added more and things were
fine (even though "swap -l" showed the actual swap devices/pools weren't
being used)
- Disk IO in a Solaris 10/11 VB VM is less than stellar (especially
compared to my brandz Sol10 local zone) - I don't know much about virtio
but I'll do some Googling.

Thanks!

   Mike