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VMware's newer products for enterprise virtualization (VSphere, 4i) are built on top of the SuSE Linux kernel... so my guess would be a purchase to essentially

by fname 16y ago

VMware's newer products for enterprise virtualization (VSphere, 4i) are built on top of the SuSE Linux kernel... so my guess would be a purchase to essentially own the underlying OS kernel they build their product on top of. IIRC, their older products were built using Red Hat instead, they made the switch a couple years ago.

munchhausen 16y ago
I didn't know that vSphere used a SuSE kernel - that's interesting. I assumed they roll their own for sure. There must be more to it though - a couple of hundred million dollars for a Linux kernel which you can have for free anyway would be a steep price, even if we consider it as a talent acquisition to get the engineering team which built that kernel.
sangaya 16y ago
When I was in one of the vSphere training classes the instructor informed us that the hypervisor is completely homegrown and that only the Management Console (which is a VM that provides CLI access) runs on top of a Linux kernel.
- arethuza 16y ago
  That was my understanding - that Linux instance is really a special purpose guest running "alongside" the other guests on top of the hypervisor.
  - nailer 16y ago
    If you watch ESX boot, the Linux kernel starts first - the 'VMkernel' is started via the vmkmod.ko module. Not saying that VMware Inc are wrong, but Linux runs VMkernel. VMkernel may them 'subsume' its parent kernel somehow but I'm not sure how they'd accomplish this, nor do VMware like talking about how this is achieved.
    - arethuza 16y ago
      The way someone explained it to me is that the Linux kernel loads the hypervisor "under" itself.
- fname 16y ago
  I was referring to the Management Console.
rualthan 16y ago
This is my first comment here. Oh Boy! how easy and fast it was to sign up!! I sign just to comment because the comment "(VSphere, 4i) are built on top of the SuSE Linux kernel" is so wrong. The Classic ESX has Service Console is is customized RHEL. ESXi does not have the Service Console. It still does have a command console where one can run ESX commands and a limited set of Unix commands which AFAIK are Busybox's. It also has dropbear sshd. So coming back to the topic, I too have no idea what VMware is going to do with SuSe Linux.
- fname 16y ago
  Welcome! The Classic ESX has Service Console is is customized RHEL ESX 3.5 was built on top of RHEL, but vSphere 4 was completely redone. Ask anyone at VMware my friend.
  - rualthan 16y ago
    Thanks. "ESX 3.5 was built on top of RHEL" again far from accurate. The COS has been based on RHEL since the genesis of ESX. Whereas VMkernel is VMware's own creation. At least thats what they claim. Even if the COS in ESX 4.X is based on SLES instead of RHEL, your point does not still make sense because VMware's future roadmap is to phase out Classic ESX. Sometime in the future, there will be only ESXi.

by fname 16y ago

munchhausen 16y ago

I didn't know that vSphere used a SuSE kernel - that's interesting. I assumed they roll their own for sure. There must be more to it though - a couple of hundred million dollars for a Linux kernel which you can have for free anyway would be a steep price, even if we consider it as a talent acquisition to get the engineering team which built that kernel.

sangaya 16y ago

When I was in one of the vSphere training classes the instructor informed us that the hypervisor is completely homegrown and that only the Management Console (which is a VM that provides CLI access) runs on top of a Linux kernel.

arethuza 16y ago
That was my understanding - that Linux instance is really a special purpose guest running "alongside" the other guests on top of the hypervisor.
- nailer 16y ago
  If you watch ESX boot, the Linux kernel starts first - the 'VMkernel' is started via the vmkmod.ko module. Not saying that VMware Inc are wrong, but Linux runs VMkernel. VMkernel may them 'subsume' its parent kernel somehow but I'm not sure how they'd accomplish this, nor do VMware like talking about how this is achieved.
  - arethuza 16y ago
    The way someone explained it to me is that the Linux kernel loads the hypervisor "under" itself.
fname 16y ago
I was referring to the Management Console.

rualthan 16y ago

This is my first comment here. Oh Boy! how easy and fast it was to sign up!! I sign just to comment because the comment "(VSphere, 4i) are built on top of the SuSE Linux kernel" is so wrong. The Classic ESX has Service Console is is customized RHEL. ESXi does not have the Service Console. It still does have a command console where one can run ESX commands and a limited set of Unix commands which AFAIK are Busybox's. It also has dropbear sshd. So coming back to the topic, I too have no idea what VMware is going to do with SuSe Linux.

fname 16y ago
Welcome! The Classic ESX has Service Console is is customized RHEL ESX 3.5 was built on top of RHEL, but vSphere 4 was completely redone. Ask anyone at VMware my friend.
- rualthan 16y ago
  Thanks. "ESX 3.5 was built on top of RHEL" again far from accurate. The COS has been based on RHEL since the genesis of ESX. Whereas VMkernel is VMware's own creation. At least thats what they claim. Even if the COS in ESX 4.X is based on SLES instead of RHEL, your point does not still make sense because VMware's future roadmap is to phase out Classic ESX. Sometime in the future, there will be only ESXi.