Novell introduces Intel VT support for Xen

Quoting from the Novell official announcement:

Novell today announced the industry’s first enterprise Linux-based virtualization solution built on Xen, optimized for Intel* Virtualization Technology.

With the integration of Intel Virtualization Technology within Xen, Novell also announced plans to offer enterprise support for virtualized SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 and Red Hat* Enterprise Linux 4 running on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, allowing Red Hat customers to migrate to Novell service and support while still running Red Hat Enterprise Linux in a virtualized environment.

Novell will support Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 running on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 with Intel Virtualization Technology, up through and including Level 3 (or core engineering) support. That means Novell will provide technical support for the Xen hypervisor if a customer uncovers an issue running a virtual instance of Red Hat Linux and that issue is not reproducible in a native, or non-virtualized, environment. If the customer runs a virtual SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 or 10 instance, Novell will offer Level 3 support for the host operating system, the Xen hypervisor and the guest operating system. In addition, Intel and Novell will work together to fix all issues which are related to the hypervisor and Intel VT hardware.

Novell will begin a pilot program in late October with several large enterprise customers. General availability of this solution is expected by the end of the year…

The fun thing is Novell is supporting virtualized Red Hat Linux before Red Hat itself. It’s even funnier considering how much Red Hat criticized Novel for including Xen in SUSE Linux so early.