Hi Rebecca !

On 6/1/07, Rebecca Walter rwalter@suse.de wrote:

We have a request from management to standardize our terminology for virtualization technology. They, with input from in-house experts, propose the following terminology. Does anyone know of any reason these terms should not become the standard? I need feedback by the end of the day on 4 June so I can get back to management about implementation. If there are no objections, we can start standardizing on these terms immediately.

I'm happy that we want to propose a standard, but I already wrote a document with respective terms, here:

http://forgeftp.novell.com/lfl/.html/virtualization.html

Please read it.

"virtual host server"--A system running virtualization software that makes it able to host virtual machines. "management virtual machine"--The virtual machine used to control the other virtual machines.

What's the difference between the two ? I my terminology, I refer to them as "Host"

"NetWare virtual machine"

Agreed. I call this as VM or Guest.

"hypervisor"--The monitor for virtual machines.

Agreed. Sometimes I call this "VMM, virtual machine monitor", or "virtualizer". "hyperviser" is OK.

"virtual machine"--Not domain or guest.

Domains are specific to Xen, but not to virtualization in general. My article doesn't describe domains at all. If there is a way to make term generic, Please *don't* make terms, that are Xen specific. Only if there is no such way, we'll invent the new Xen-specific term.

Can we find a lowest common denominator to both out documents ?

Rebecca, I believe that SUSE should not be Xen-centric. Instead of choosing Xen-only strategy, we should take into account different emerging virtualization technologies. My article describes that as well. Xen is just one of many. While it works for some cases, it cannot be applied to all cases.

I would like to speak with your virtualization team to explain this to them, and push alternative technologies into openSUSE. I'm particularly interested in VirtualBox and OpenVZ, and I'm interested in overall good SUSE infrastructure to integrate other virtualization technologies as they emerge. I want to help make SUSE ready for virtualization at different levels.

Can you drop me emails of those virtualization guys at Novell ?

...

"virtual machine"--Not domain or guest.

we shall make a difference between the virtual machine, that is the computer, and the guest, that is the operating system intalled on it (at least I see this on VMWare)

Host: my physical computer

virtual machine server would be this one.

Virtual machine 1, virtual machine 2 two different (virtualized) computers guest: Linux, XP, W98, dos, freebsd...

there wouldn't be "guest" used here, if I have understood properly. It would be a virtual machine running whatever OS. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-doc+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-doc+help@opensuse.org

According to my basic terminology: *Host

Your real computer, on which the emulator/virtualizer software runs.

Host means both your real hardware and the operating system that controls that hardware. In some cases there can be only hardware without operating system, like VMware ESX.

The term "Host" describes both hardware and OS.

This can be devided to: *Host Hardware - your real hardware *Host Operating System - the operating system that controls that real hardware.

*Guest (also known as VM=Virtual Machine)

Your emulated computer, virtual machine, or VM for short, this is what you are trying to emulate. Your target. It can be the same, or very different from your real system.

For example, your host can be a Pentium III PC, while your guest can be a Sony Playstation. Of course, VirtualBox cannot emulate Playstations, so look at different software. It's just important that you understand those two basic concepts.

-This means both your virtual hardware _and_ an operating system that runs on your virtual hardware.

This can be devided to: Guest Hardware - your virtual hardware (can be anything, let's as wild as Playstation, for emulation case - usually this would be x86 PC) Guest Operating System - your OS, that runs on the virtual hardware. (can be anything, let's as wild as Playstation BIOS - but usually this would be Windows or Linux OS)

*Hyperviser/Virtualizer Software that does (Full/Para) virtualization.

*Hypercall Just like there are system calls, For para-virtual cases there are hyper calls. Actually a language between the para-virtualizer (hyperviser) and guest. Other types of virtualization doesn't use hypercalls.

Your term "virtual machine server" would be confusing. This is because the "server" term has usually something to do with networking, while virtualization can work nicely without networks, listening TCP ports, etc... Let's leave the term "server" to the programs that listen to TCP ports. Now if I understand you correctly, your term "virtual machine server" equals to my term "Host hardware" or "Host".

Additionally, those terms I just described are a LOT shorter than your terms, plus they are more accurate. It's a lot better to have accurate and short terms at once.

While I respect the concerns expressed by the community so far, I don't think these outweigh the advantages seen by our experts. I don't think "virtual host server" is more complicated than the other server terms we use regularly. Virtual machine is definitely easier than what we've used in the past. Although it sounds a bit wordy at first, "management virtual machine" does make sense and has a good meaning.

So as soon as my schedule permits, I will add these terms to the style guide.

Marcus, in the future, the project would appreciate it if you let us know earlier in the process so we could be more involved in the discussion.

"virtual host server"--A system running virtualization software that makes it able to host virtual machines.

"NetWare virtual machine"

"management virtual machine"--The virtual machine used to control the other virtual machines.

"hypervisor"--The monitor for virtual machines.

"virtual machine"--Not domain or guest.

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