Can you make a Hypervisor?

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JorgeCarousel
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Joined: 4. Aug 2022, 16:50

Can you make a Hypervisor?

Post by JorgeCarousel »

Hey guys,

I have an old HP Z840 where I'm trying to put a hypervisor on, I tried ESXi, but it wouldn't see the boot drive, I tried Citrix Hypervisor Express (old Xen Server) and even though it worked, the express edition has gone EOL and I don't want to have an OS with virtual machines on top of it (Windows with Hyper-V), so is there a possibility that you can create a Hypervisor based on VirtualBox?

Thanks.
mpack
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Re: Can you make a Hypervisor?

Post by mpack »

VirtualBox is a type 2 hypervisor, i.e. it needs a working host OS.
scottgus1
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Re: Can you make a Hypervisor?

Post by scottgus1 »

JorgeCarousel wrote:is there a possibility that you can create a Hypervisor based on VirtualBox?
Like Mpack says above, Not in Virtualbox, no. Oracle sells (emphasis on "sells") a type-1 hypervisor, but free Virtualbox is going to stay type-2 for the foreseeable future. (They'd be highly unlikely to undercut their type-1 sales by making free Virtualbox do the same thing.)

That said, type-1's still need a control host OS to run, so the strength required from the computer is still the same. Type-1 vs Type-2 is only a matter of which OS touches the hardware first: the hypervisor or the control OS.

That siad, you can get a compatible Linux text-only host OS that has very little impact on the PC to run Virtualbox on top of.

But Virtualbox will always need an OS to run on top of.
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