Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE SERVER 10 - INSTALLATION AND ADMINISTRATION 04-08-2006 Installation Manual page 440

Figure 23.1 Virtual Machine Server and Device Drivers
VM Server
VM Server Desktop
SUSE Linux
Virtual Machine Monitor
Physical Computer Hardware
Virtual machines are defined and stored on the VM Server. The definitions (called VM
definitions) are stored in a configuration file located at /etc/xen/vm/vm_name.
The configuration file defines the virtual resources, such as CPU, memory, network
card, and block devices, the operating system sees when it is installed and booted on
the virtual machine.
Figure 23.2 Virtual Machine Definitions and Virtual Machine Monitor
VM Definition
Virtual Machine Monitor
In both full virtualization and paravirtual modes, a VM's operating system uses device
drivers to interact with the VMM. In full virtualization mode, the operating system uses
its native OS device drivers for a standard set of emulated devices, such as an AMD
PCNet or NE2000 network card, an IDE disk drive, and a VGA graphics card. In par-
avirtual mode, the VM-aware operating systems include special device drivers (called
Xen drivers) to communicate through the VMM and VM Server to the physical devices
in the computer.
440 Installation and Administration