Command for identifying Virtual Machine

UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users
1

Hi,

I need a command which will tell me definitely if a particular Linux System is Virtual (Guest) or Physical. Is there a command for this? Command will be preferable over any Script.

Thanks,

Vineet

2

Which kind of virtualization? Hardware or Software? Xen, VMware, VirtualBox, qemu, Virtuozzo, VirtualPC, ...?

3

Hi,

I guess I am looking for Software Virtualization. I am trying to find out information about a specific box so need to know if its Physical or Virtual. The Type does not matter. It can be anything. Is there a command for this? For example in Solaris by running the zonename command we can come to know from the output if its a zone or not. Is there something like that in Linux?

Thanks,

Vineet

4

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know, Solaris' zones aren't the same as virtualization, but more of an extended chroot, as they do not have an own kernel or similar, but only restrictions in terms of device usage. While this is useful for isolating zones from each other, or for HA purposes, it's not virtualization.

AFAIK, Linux has nothing like this, but you can achieve a similar effect with Xen and others.