OS level virtualization query

[Alvin M.]

What are special care needs to be care while we are installing OS level virtualization?

[Pawel Kowalski]

Do you have a computer at home you can test this on first before you do it on your production server?

I have never installed vm on a linux box so I can't comment. But it is always a good idea for you to test something in a lab enviroment first.

[jason]

The same care you would take in any situation--make sure you are keeping the software and the OS up to date. With virtualization, though, you have to remember to keep the host and all of the guests up to date.

You may also need to purchase an extra IP address or two as well. Depending on your setup you will probably want to dedicate at least one IP address to each virtual instance you create. I can't speak for all of the products I mentioned, but I know that VMWare instances can share IPs and VMWare will do NAT translation to route things two them (all traffic on port 80 goes to windows, all traffic on port 25 goes to linux, etc.), but if you want to host the same services on standard ports on both instances then each instance will need a unique IP.

You'll also want to ensure that you allocate enough resources (memory, disk space, processor cycles, etc.) to each instance.

There are probably other things you'll want to consider as well, depending on which virtualization software you choose.

Keep us updated on what you decide to do and how it goes. I'm curious to see your results.

--Jason