public inbox for linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: Anthony Liguori <anthony@codemonkey.ws>
To: Chetan Loke <chetanloke@gmail.com>
Cc: Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
	virtualization@lists.linux-foundation.org, kvm@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Hypervisor detection from within a Linux VM
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:44:01 -0500	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <4C2A6921.1010405@codemonkey.ws> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTinl3ighc51F5V4YP7fuOSscAA_qcynYMtM5j5wk@mail.gmail.com>

On 06/29/2010 04:25 PM, Chetan Loke wrote:
> Hello,
>
>
> Requirement:
> I have the need to support my apps(running on a Linux VM) on different
> *nix hypervisors(ESX/Xen etc). I need to know on which hypervisor my
> app is running. I read the CPUID usage thread -
> http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.emulators.kvm.devel/22643 but to be
> honest in the end I looked at
> http://lxr.linux.no/#linux+v2.6.34/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/vmware.c#L88
> The vmware_platform() detection code is straight forward.
>
> Current-hack:
> As a quick hack we just grep lspci for VMware's pci-ids.
>
> Solution:
> I can write a bare minimal driver, check the cpu-id as VMware's
> balloon driver does and then emit a proc/sysfs node. The setup
> packages and the apps can then check for this node-string.I'm
> currently working on ESX and I am hoping that this thin-driver will
> work.
>    

It can be done entirely in userspace.  Take a look at virt-what:

http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/virt-what/

> Question:
> Q1)Is it possible to get this functionality as part of the stock
> kernel or is that a bad idea? I suspect there could be other
> users/apps who would need to know what *nix hypervisor(or a
> non-virtualized environment) they are
> running on?
> Q2)If this is not the right approach then can someone please suggest
> another approach?
>    

It might be reasonable to list the hypervisor signature as a field in 
/proc/cpuinfo.  There's also a /sys/hypervisor where such information 
could go.

Regards,

Anthony Liguori

> Regards
> Chetan Loke
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe kvm" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>    


  reply	other threads:[~2010-06-29 21:44 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 3+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2010-06-29 21:25 Hypervisor detection from within a Linux VM Chetan Loke
2010-06-29 21:44 ` Anthony Liguori [this message]
2010-06-29 23:41   ` Chetan Loke

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=4C2A6921.1010405@codemonkey.ws \
    --to=anthony@codemonkey.ws \
    --cc=chetanloke@gmail.com \
    --cc=kvm@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=virtualization@lists.linux-foundation.org \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox