Bringing modern virtualization in the Arm-powered Datacenter
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@olivierlambert compatibility with x86 VM?
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What do you mean?
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@olivierlambert I assume that @lawrence888 is asking for x86 guest OS support for VM and probably not only for Linux distros that support ARM (like Debian, Ubuntu, RHEL, Rocky, ...) but also for Windows Server as a guest OS? There is some ARM support for Windows 11 Pro as far as I know.
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@gskger Running Debian server on a Hexner Ampere machine and one has to install the ARM version. Not x86.
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If you are running an Arm server, you will need to run Arm guests obviously
I'm not expecting (at least now) an emulation layer whatsoever. That could be a good project for a company doing few hundreds millions in revenue though 
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@manilx True. Adapting XCP-ng for Arm64 will still open up many possibilities for managing cloud native environments or environments that need to scale BIG. Maybe one day Windows on ARM will be a thing. In the meantime have a look at Jeff Gerlings blog post on running Windows on Altere Altra Max.
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@gskger XCP-NG on ARM/Ampere will be huge!!!!
The running cost of those machines is a big win over x86. Power is expensive in Europe. Hetzner is in full swing on that front.
And not everything runs in Windows
I guess it's only the smaller fraction of all the VM's in the world. -
Do we have first release for Arm processor?
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Hi,
No, it's in the backlog. The CPU works with Xen, but adapting the entire toolstack requires first a new platform, which is the goal of XCP-ng 9.0, so don't expect anything this year
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Thanks @olivierlambert,
Hope we have new one in Q1 2025.
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I think you don't get it. Getting the whole stack ported on Arm is a huge amount of work and FIRST we need to have XCP-ng 9.0 (or at least a prototype of it). We are talking years of work (depending on how many people working on it).
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@olivierlambert thanks for investing in this. Great news!
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Any news regarding the ARM?
Would like to test in on a rpi5 -
Hi,
Arm isn't like x86. A Raspberry Pi is VASTLY different than an Ampere machine. It's like expecting to have something working on both your smart watch and your desktop computer.
We'll move forward on Arm thanks to XCP-ng 9.0, but the main target will be server-grade hardware, not Raspi5. Maybe it will in the future, but it's not a priority and might require a LOT of work.
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@olivierlambert said in Bringing modern virtualization in the Arm-powered Datacenter:
Hi,
Arm isn't like x86. A Raspberry Pi is VASTLY different than an Ampere machine. It's like expecting to have something working on both your smart watch and your desktop computer.
We'll move forward on Arm thanks to XCP-ng 9.0, but the main target will be server-grade hardware, not Raspi5. Maybe it will in the future, but it's not a priority and might require a LOT of work.
But come on, I really need to run a dozen or more VMs using bytes of ram each on a rPi.
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@DustinB ROTFL
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The only place running XCP-ng on things like an RK3588 make sense is for home lab stuff, I probably wouldn't even build work lab stuff on these. Never enough ram (so far) and limited cores, plus almost everything will need to be running in virtual processor architecture.
All that said, it might be neat to simulate these ARM processors in x86 so that we could create a VM of the Pi, etc.
