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I have a need to convert a bare-metal machine to a virtual-machine (via VMware converter). This part has been done successfully. I have then been asked to convert the vmware image to a XEN hvm.

The client wants to install their brew of xen hypervisor on the physical machine, and then have their virtual machine boot straight away (like its not a VM running on the machine).

So basically, I would image the original OS, install XEN, and then run the virtualized OS on top of XEN. But ideally, the fact that the OS is a VM or running on XEN would be transparent to any user of that machine.

Is such a thing even possible? From my understanding of the hypervisor layer, you'll always need a domain0, and that always has to be a physical machine, and trying to bypass domain0 and boot straight into a VM would not be feasable.

Thanks

Ryan
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You can set up Dom0 to auto-start specific virtual machines when the server boots up. Domain0 will still be available, but the users using the virtual machine will not see this.

I assume this is what the client wants. The phrases "Wants to install hypervisor" and "Like its not a VM" are contradictory and don't really make sense.

Tero Kilkanen
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  • They do for this case, because the client wants to run the OS as a VM, but doesn't want anyone to know that the machine that they are using, is actually a VM installed on a physical device. The more specific question is, say I'm sitting at Dom0. But my OS is VM1 (hosted on Dom0). Can I have the machine that is Dom0, boot VM1 so that it is transparent to the user? – Ryan Aug 13 '14 at 14:11