how to run the virtual machines on ubuntu server

Question

I have ubuntu server edition and I want to run the virtual machines on the ubuntu server.
The ubuntu server running on a hosted company outside my country. I will be running another ubuntu instance inside the host machine.

Which virtual machine is good for that purpose? I want the virtual machine to be restarted with the control panel and when the hardware restarts, the virtual machine also needs to started.

Answer 1

I'm really not clear on exactly what you're saying - it sounds like you're paying for a hosted ubuntu server (what version? and it is a dedicated, physical box?) and you then want to create a virtual server on top of that - is that right?

If it is right then you should be in luck - recent versions of Ubuntu server come with a hypervisor built in (the latest versions come with one called 'KVM') and if your server is a physical server then you should just be able to create a new VM and install Ubuntu into it - you'll then be able to control this VM from the original physical server.

If your original server is already a virtual server then you can do the same (sometimes) but I really wouldn't advise running a VM inside a VM - it'll be slow at best.

Come back to us with more details please and we'll try to help further.

Answer 2

There are a lot of Virtual Machine Hypervisor over the market, but according to me, the three best hypervisor are:

-Xen Sources -An OpenSources Server oriented hypervisor and if you got the correct CPU (With Virtual instructions) you'll be able to run all operating Systems.

-VMWare ESX -Well, VMWare is providing a lot of solutions some are free the others are quite expensive but globally VMWare is the most used solution into corporate.

-Sun xVM Virtualbox is a good Workstation and Server hypervisor, BUT if you want to use load balancing and some other stuff like Hot replication etc, you will have to develop by yourself the components with the differents API provided by Sun.

There is another one which is Citrix Xen Desktop and Xen Server (They buy Wen sources that why is named "XEN") who seems to be quite cool. But I don't know very well this solutions, actually I never worked on it.

If you need some help with the Third one, do not hesitate to contact me, I'll could help you.

Answer 3

If I understand correctly you have a hosted Ubuntu VPS (Virtual Private Server) that you wish to run VMs in? If your VPS is Xen based, (Slicehost, Linode, etc) then having Xen virtual machines running within your hosted server isn't possible. Installing Xen in your VPS requires installing a customized Xen kernel. Since you're tied with your service provider's kernel, any modifications on the hosted kernel level aren't possible. As Chopper3 suggested KVM would be a viable solution, but you could also use VMware Server 2.

Answer 4

If you dont need a gui-based management, you could try VirtualBox.
Or Xen or KVM.
VMware seems to have discontinued Server 2, so I dont suggest moving to it.