2.1 Virtual Machine Host Requirements

The following sections list the system and software requirements for running virtualization.

2.1.1 Hardware Requirements

In most cases, the hardware requirements for the virtual machine host are the same as those for the SUSE® Linux operating system, but additional CPU, disk, memory, and network resources should be added to accommodate the resource demands of all planned virtual machines.

HINT:Remember that virtual machines, just like a physical machines, perform better when they run on faster processors and have access to more system memory.

The following table lists the minimum hardware requirements for running OES 2 NetWare® with a NetWare virtual machine.

Table 2-1 Hardware Requirements

System Component

Minimum Requirements

Recommended Requirements

Computer

Server-class computer with Pentium* II or AMD* K7 450 MHz processor

Server-class computer with Pentium III, Pentium III Xeon*, Pentium 4, Intel Xeon 700 MHz, AMD K8 CPUs (Athlon* 64 and Opteron*), Intel EM64T or higher processor.

Memory

512 MB of RAM for the host

512 MB of RAM for each NetWare virtual machine

512 MB

1 GB of RAM

Free Disk Space

7 GB of available, unpartitioned disk space for the host.

3.7 GB of available, unpartitioned disk space for each NetWare virtual machine

7 GB or more of available, unpartitioned disk space for the host.

10 GB or more of available, unpartitioned disk space. Additional disk space might be required depending on which OES components are selected and how they are used.

CD-ROM Drive

4X CD-ROM drive

48X CD-ROM drive

Hard Drive

20 GB

Network Board

Ethernet 100 Mbps

IP Address

  • One IP address on a subnet for the host

  • One IP address on a subnet for each NetWare virtual machine

  • Subnet mask

  • Default gateway

Mouse

N/A

USB or PS/2

Server Computer BIOS

If you are doing a CD-ROM installation, prepare the BIOS on your server computer so that it boots from the CD-ROM drive first.

2.1.2 Software Requirements

Xen virtualization technology is available in SUSE Linux products based on code path 10 and later. Code path 10 products include Open Enterprise Server 2 Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, and OpenSUSE® 10.x.

The virtual machine host requires the following software packages and their dependencies to be installed:

  • kernel-xen

  • xen

  • xen-tools

  • xen-tools-ioemu (required for full-virtualization mode)

  • kernel-xenpae (used instead of kernel-xen, this package is required to enable a 32-bit virtual machine host to access memory over 3 GB)

  • yast2-vm (You should install the newest version available)

Updates are available through your update channel. Make sure to update to the most recent packages available.