Re: new system configuration advice

[Manuel Bouyer <bouyer%antioche.eu.org@localhost>]

On Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 03:00:38PM +0000, Steve Blinkhorn wrote:
> I'm really grateful to contributors to this thread for the insight you
> have given me into the sorts of issues that are active.   Could I
> impose on your generosity with your time to ask a few slightly more
> pointed questions, related I think to topics that have come up?
> 
> 1. I do virtually all of my development work under NetBSD, although
> often the target OS is MS Windows.   Could I reasonably expect to have
> a NetBSD dom0 and a clutch of Windows domU's (each with a different
> release of MS Windows), with access to some common element of disk
> storage, and access to a single bit-mapped display?   Some
> contributors seem to be suggesting that any bit-mapped display needs
> to be provided via another machine, others not.   My aim is to
> eliminate additional boxes.

If you don't start these domUs at the same time, you can share a
disk image between all of theses. Or you could setup a samba server in the
dom0 and share files this way.
For display, the virtual machine's screen is also virtual. you access it
with vnc; so you can access it from your dom0.

> 
> 2. Stability.  I like NetBSD because it gives me a stable environment
> to work in - machines rarely need rebooting, mostly they just plug on
> reliably.   How true is this of the Xen port?   Will I be able to get
> on with my application-related development work, or should I expect to
> have to spend time on a regular basis attending to more, rather than
> fewer, system management tasks than I do now with multiple physical
> boxes?

I use NetBSD/Xen dom0 in production, no stability issues so far.

-- 
Manuel Bouyer <bouyer%antioche.eu.org@localhost>
     NetBSD: 26 ans d'experience feront toujours la difference
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