virtualbox.org

Hi,

I'm looking for a virtualization solution which doesn't need a Host-OS and can be installed on the bare metal server.
Is that possible with Virtualbox ? Which version should I use ? What are the prerequisites ?
If not, any suggestions ?

Thanks

VB is a type-2 hypervisor and that one needs an OS to run on. What you are looking for is a type-1 like Xen and ESX.

You can try a fast linux distro such as gentoo or archlinux, then run it in headless.

Won't be the same either way.

Hello,

quwa wrote:I'm looking for a virtualization solution which doesn't need a Host-OS

There's always some kind of OS. With VMware ESXi, for example, you have a BusyBox (small version of Linux for embedded systems) at the heart of the product. It has a small disk footprint, but there are a whole lot of processes running there.

quwa wrote:and can be installed on the bare metal server

In theory, provided you have some technical information about the target system and you respect some rules, you can install many OS on a remote bare metal server.

The idea is to install the OS you want to deploy on a remote bare metal server in a local VirtualBox guest, make your configuration for the target system, and when you're happy with that, convert the VDI to a raw disk image. You then start your remote bare metal server in the rescue live OS typically provided by many hosting companies and (savagely!) overwrite its hard drive. Et voilà! You have an operational remote server immediately after reboot. It works well for FreeBSD.

I've described this method that i call V2RP (Virtual to Remote Physical) at:
http://www.frbsd.org/fr/dedibsd/index.html

In practice, some OS makes it difficult to do that, because they don't allow you to change disk geometry at install time or "remember" too many things about your source configuration to be deployed easily on a remote bare metal server.

For example, I'm having difficulties preparing ESXi systems for remote installation (the detailed characteristics of the source system are embedded in the configuration files, up to the type and position on the PCI bus of internal components) but i think it should be do-able.

quwa wrote:Is that possible with Virtualbox ? Which version should I use ? What are the prerequisites ?

Indeed! I do it with VirtualBox OSE (any version) on a stripped-down version of FreeBSD (the bare minimum in the kernel and just 3 running processes besides VirtualBox for convenience (sshd, crond and syslogd)). Thus it has a small memory footprint, but contrarily to BusyBox i have a full-fledged Unix OS to play with and add anything needed (for example: firewall, IPsec, cloud management layer, etc.)

I've packaged all this in an (open source) project called HeV (Hébergement Virtuel / Virtual Hosting):
http://www.projet-hev.org/fr/index.html

The main prerequisites at this time are to be able to read french or cope with automated translations of it for what they are worth. Documentation is also still lacking, so ability to read some shell code is useful.

I'm also working on a fully automated host system generator, which takes some parameters on a web page and produce a disk image configured for the target system. It drives the installation of the target system in a VirtualBox guest through scripted keyboard injection, starting either from the installation CD/DVD of the OS, or a generic HeV image for the target disk geometry if available...

Best regards,

Hubert

PS: Volunteers are welcome