Linux Heavies Line Up For ‘Para-Virtualization’

No one vendor will rule the Linux virtualization roost.

VMware, Xen, IBM and Red Hat are collaborating on a “para-virtualization” interface for the Linux kernel that would enable multiple hypervisors.

Jack Lo, senior director of R&D at VMware, said the effort is about making an operating system more virtualization-aware.

“People generally refer to that as ‘para-virtualization,'” Lo told internetnews.com

Lo explained that VMware put together a virtual machine interface (VMI) over the last year and has been speaking with members of the Linux community about it. The effort is fundamentally about trying to get an interface into Linux that would support multiple hypervisors.

The formal name for the effort is the “Para-virt ops” interface and is currently and led by IBM kernel developer Rusty Russell, according to Lo. An IBM spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.

It is unclear as to when the par-virtualization interface will actually show up in the Linux kernel. Lo commented that it’s up the kernel community to decide. He did note that VWmare is hoping to get some of the changes into the kernel before the end of this year.

But he was quick to note that it’s not just VMware behind the work.

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