The Definitive Guide to the Xen Hypervisor

Index by Subject

• David Chisnall
• Prentice Hall
• 9780132349710

I liked this book before I even opened it. First, it's a good looking book - follow the Amazon link and take a look at the cover - it's just plain pretty.. actually much better looking than it looks at Amazon.. and it's a good feeling book too.. creamy, smooth hardcover.. my goodness, this was a sensual treat and I hadn't even opened it yet! That may sound silly, but for real book lovers, a good looking book is part of the overall appeal, and frankly it's been a while since I've seen anything this attractive, so I had to mention it.

And then it is a Prentice Hall book. Over the past few years I have come to expect great quality from this publisher, and if they ever have disappointed me, I can't recall the instance just now. Just seeing "Prentice Hall" gives me confidence that I'm going to like it.. they have been that good.

And then the subject matter: Xen Hypervisor. I'm a bit rabid on the subject of virtualization in general; I think it is going to be the best thing since sliced bread and window screens, and of course since I am also predisposed to open source and convinced that it is also more important than anything else that has ever happened in the computing industry, well, how could I not want to read this?

So I spent several hours curled up in various positions with my nose buried in this, and I have to tell you that it exceeded my expectations: as much as I thought I would enjoy it, in reality it turned out to be even more interesting!

You see, what I did not realize about paravirtualization ( that's where the OS is rewritten for the hypervisor) is that it is ideal to use as a teaching tool. I also did not realize that today's Xen doesn't necessarily need to use paravirtualized kernels, but that's less important. What's exciting (and obvious in retrospect) is that developing a kernel for a Xen hypervisor is easier because you aren't dealing with real hardware but still gives every learning opportunity a bare metal effort would provide. As the preface notes, this book could be used as a text in an OS course, and that also means that you and I can learn not just about Xen, but the difficulties of OS kernel design in general - two books for the price of one, almost.

If you are interested in OS kernels, this might be a really good place to start. Throw in a few other general OS theory books and you could give yourself quite an education.

Did I mention that this is well written and easy to follow? The author explains difficult concepts unusually well.. this was a pleasure to read.

Order (or just read more about) The Definitive Guide to the Xen Hypervisor  from Amazon.com

Comments /Books/definitive_xen.html


Add your comments

Why no "Digg this!" etc.?

Enter your email address for automatic notification of new posts here
(be sure to whitelist 'feedburner.com' if you use spam filtering)

Lone-Tar Backup and Disaster Recovery
for Linux and Unix

Have you tried Searching this site?

Unix/Linux/Mac OS X support by phone, email or on-site: Support Rates

This is a Unix/Linux resource website. It contains technical articles about Unix, Linux and general computing related subjects, opinion, news, help files, how-to's, tutorials and more. We appreciate comments and article submissions.

Publishing your articles here