I am planning a new installation of hypervisor. I have read many of the examples but I am have not been able to determine how to start. While the user manual is succinct in its presention, I there were explainations as to why any particular step is performed - I do not know enough to read between the lines. I have seen how to install when starting from a Linux installation. I would like the Xen install to be independent. Is that possible? My intent is to build a machine for running daily tasks and experimenting with applications on VMs to facilitate testing and manage configurations. Some of these VMs will be running, not heavily loaded, while doing daily tasks. I would like to hear comments on this configuration plan. I would like to have bootable disk for a Windows OS, a Debian, and a Xen. I expect to mainly use the Xen and perform daily activities in a VM. The other two bootable partitions would be as backups. The difficulty I saw with the examples of installing Xen was that the boot was directly tied to a Linux installation. So I am wondering if there is a way to install Xen so it is isolated. And where might I find an installation process to achieve this. I would appreciate any comments that will help me learn more about the process. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
On Sun, Nov 6, 2011 at 5:50 PM, <ray@aarden.us> wrote:> I am planning a new installation of hypervisor. I have read many of the > examples but I am have not been able to determine how to start. While the > user manual is succinct in its presention, I there were explainations as to > why any particular step is performed - I do not know enough to read between > the lines. > > I have seen how to install when starting from a Linux installation. I > would like the Xen install to be independent. Is that possible? My intent > is to build a machine for running daily tasks and experimenting with > applications on VMs to facilitate testing and manage configurations. Some > of these VMs will be running, not heavily loaded, while doing daily tasks. > > I would like to hear comments on this configuration plan. I would like to > have bootable disk for a Windows OS, a Debian, and a Xen. I expect to > mainly use the Xen and perform daily activities in a VM. The other two > bootable partitions would be as backups. > > The difficulty I saw with the examples of installing Xen was that the boot > was directly tied to a Linux installation. So I am wondering if there is a > way to install Xen so it is isolated. And where might I find an > installation process to achieve this. > > I would appreciate any comments that will help me learn more about the > process. > > _______________________________________________ > Xen-users mailing list > Xen-users@lists.xensource.com > http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users >The hypervisor is not something you interact with directly you need a privileged domain to aka dom0 to communicate with the hypervisor. You can install xen from pretty much any distro and your existing installation will act as dom0. You can then have a windows domU which you can interact with rather than have a boot disk, as well as a debian domU. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [Xen-users] New Install Planning From: chris <tknchris@gmail.com> Date: Sun, November 06, 2011 6:08 pm To: ray@aarden.us Cc: xen-users <xen-users@lists.xensource.com> On Sun, Nov 6, 2011 at 5:50 PM, <ray@aarden.us> wrote: I am planning a new installation of hypervisor. I have read many of the examples but I am have not been able to determine how to start. While the user manual is succinct in its presention, I there were explainations as to why any particular step is performed - I do not know enough to read between the lines. I have seen how to install when starting from a Linux installation. I would like the Xen install to be independent. Is that possible? My intent is to build a machine for running daily tasks and experimenting with applications on VMs to facilitate testing and manage configurations. Some of these VMs will be running, not heavily loaded, while doing daily tasks. I would like to hear comments on this configuration plan. I would like to have bootable disk for a Windows OS, a Debian, and a Xen. I expect to mainly use the Xen and perform daily activities in a VM. The other two bootable partitions would be as backups. The difficulty I saw with the examples of installing Xen was that the boot was directly tied to a Linux installation. So I am wondering if there is a way to install Xen so it is isolated. And where might I find an installation process to achieve this. I would appreciate any comments that will help me learn more about the process. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users The hypervisor is not something you interact with directly you need a privileged domain to aka dom0 to communicate with the hypervisor. You can install xen from pretty much any distro and your existing installation will act as dom0. You can then have a windows domU which you can interact with rather than have a boot disk, as well as a debian domU. ______________________________________________________ Chris, Thank you very much. I saw those ‘words’ in the guide but did not understand them. You clear it up great. This brings two questions (for now): 1) If I upgrade the Debian version, does the Xen installation require reinstallation? And if so, what does it do to all the associated VM images? 2) Is there a minimal installation for debian domU? Where can I get a description or ‘how to’? ray _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [Xen-users] New Install Planning From: chris <tknchris@gmail.com> Date: Sun, November 06, 2011 6:08 pm To: ray@aarden.us Cc: xen-users <xen-users@lists.xensource.com> On Sun, Nov 6, 2011 at 5:50 PM, <ray@aarden.us> wrote: I am planning a new installation of hypervisor. I have read many of the examples but I am have not been able to determine how to start. While the user manual is succinct in its presention, I there were explainations as to why any particular step is performed - I do not know enough to read between the lines. I have seen how to install when starting from a Linux installation. I would like the Xen install to be independent. Is that possible? My intent is to build a machine for running daily tasks and experimenting with applications on VMs to facilitate testing and manage configurations. Some of these VMs will be running, not heavily loaded, while doing daily tasks. I would like to hear comments on this configuration plan. I would like to have bootable disk for a Windows OS, a Debian, and a Xen. I expect to mainly use the Xen and perform daily activities in a VM. The other two bootable partitions would be as backups. The difficulty I saw with the examples of installing Xen was that the boot was directly tied to a Linux installation. So I am wondering if there is a way to install Xen so it is isolated. And where might I find an installation process to achieve this. I would appreciate any comments that will help me learn more about the process. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users The hypervisor is not something you interact with directly you need a privileged domain to aka dom0 to communicate with the hypervisor. You can install xen from pretty much any distro and your existing installation will act as dom0. You can then have a windows domU which you can interact with rather than have a boot disk, as well as a debian domU. >>>> Chris, Thank you very much. I saw those ‘words’ in the guide but did not understand them. You clear it up great. This brings two questions (for now): 1) If I upgrade the Debian version, does the Xen installation require reinstallation? And if so, what does it do to all the associated VM images? 2) Is there a minimal installation for debian domU? Where can I get a description or ‘how to’? ray _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
On Sun, Nov 6, 2011 at 10:01 PM, <ray@aarden.us> wrote:> -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: Re: [Xen-users] New Install Planning > From: chris <tknchris@gmail.com> > Date: Sun, November 06, 2011 6:08 pm > To: ray@aarden.us > Cc: xen-users <xen-users@lists.xensource.com> > On Sun, Nov 6, 2011 at 5:50 PM, <ray@aarden.us> wrote: > I am planning a new installation of hypervisor. I have read many of the > examples but I am have not been able to determine how to start. While the > user manual is succinct in its presention, I there were explainations as to > why any particular step is performed - I do not know enough to read between > the lines. > > I have seen how to install when starting from a Linux installation. I > would like the Xen install to be independent. Is that possible? My intent > is to build a machine for running daily tasks and experimenting with > applications on VMs to facilitate testing and manage configurations. Some > of these VMs will be running, not heavily loaded, while doing daily tasks. > > I would like to hear comments on this configuration plan. I would like to > have bootable disk for a Windows OS, a Debian, and a Xen. I expect to > mainly use the Xen and perform daily activities in a VM. The other two > bootable partitions would be as backups. > > The difficulty I saw with the examples of installing Xen was that the boot > was directly tied to a Linux installation. So I am wondering if there is a > way to install Xen so it is isolated. And where might I find an > installation process to achieve this. > > I would appreciate any comments that will help me learn more about the > process. > > _______________________________________________ > Xen-users mailing list > Xen-users@lists.xensource.com > http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users > > The hypervisor is not something you interact with directly you need a > privileged domain to aka dom0 to communicate with the hypervisor. You can > install xen from pretty much any distro and your existing installation will > act as dom0. You can then have a windows domU which you can interact with > rather than have a boot disk, as well as a debian domU. > > >>>> > Chris, > Thank you very much. I saw those ‘words’ in the guide but did not > understand them. You clear it up great. > > This brings two questions (for now): > 1) If I upgrade the Debian version, does the Xen installation > require reinstallation? And if so, what does it do to all the associated > VM images? > 2) Is there a minimal installation for debian domU? Where can I get > a description or ‘how to’? > ray >Of course theres a million answers to this and a million opinions so there is no "right" answer. I also use debian and I find the best way to start is to grab the netinstall for your arch, install debian, when you get to package selection, uncheck everything and when you boot up the first time install whatever you need ssh etc. Then you have a very very minimal os and from there you can grab the xen packages and tune things to your needs. Make sure you have a proper firewall in place and only the the absolutely necessary things in dom0 as it needs to be as secure as possible and should really be used only for administration. In regard to upgrading debian, if you do a upgrade then the xen packages would also upgrade along with it. The disk images for your VM/domU''s would not be touched. chris _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
<ray@aarden.us> wrote:>That sounds great. I am not very familiar with debian. Can you >suggest ''whatever you need ssh etc''.Quite literally "whatever **you** need". If you want to log in remotely via SSH then you need to install an ssh server (openssh-server) and so on. If you untick all the install options when prompted, you get a fairly clean and minimal system - you will almost certainly want to install some additional packages to suit your requirements. One further tip. Do **not** use the "network-script" option to configure your bridges. Debain now has very simple to use tools to create bridge(s) and attach NIC(s) to them. There have been numerous threads on this subject lately. My preference is to give my interfaces sensible names (eg pethint, pethext vs eth0, eth1) via /etc/udev/rules.d.p70-persistent-net-rules And then create bridges with sensible names (eg ethint vs br0 or xenbr0). It makes it a lot simpler remembering what everything is connected to. -- Simon Hobson Visit http://www.magpiesnestpublishing.co.uk/ for books by acclaimed author Gladys Hobson. Novels - poetry - short stories - ideal as Christmas stocking fillers. Some available as e-books. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [Xen-users] New Install Planning From: chris <tknchris@gmail.com> Date: Sun, November 06, 2011 9:22 pm To: ray@aarden.us Cc: xen-users xen-users@lists.xensource.com On Sun, Nov 6, 2011 at 10:01 PM, <ray@aarden.us> wrote: -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [Xen-users] New Install Planning From: chris <tknchris@gmail.com> Date: Sun, November 06, 2011 6:08 pm To: ray@aarden.us Cc: xen-users <xen-users@lists.xensource.com> On Sun, Nov 6, 2011 at 5:50 PM, <ray@aarden.us> wrote: I am planning a new installation of hypervisor. I have read many of the examples but I am have not been able to determine how to start. While the user manual is succinct in its presention, I there were explainations as to why any particular step is performed - I do not know enough to read between the lines. I have seen how to install when starting from a Linux installation. I would like the Xen install to be independent. Is that possible? My intent is to build a machine for running daily tasks and experimenting with applications on VMs to facilitate testing and manage configurations. Some of these VMs will be running, not heavily loaded, while doing daily tasks. I would like to hear comments on this configuration plan. I would like to have bootable disk for a Windows OS, a Debian, and a Xen. I expect to mainly use the Xen and perform daily activities in a VM. The other two bootable partitions would be as backups. The difficulty I saw with the examples of installing Xen was that the boot was directly tied to a Linux installation. So I am wondering if there is a way to install Xen so it is isolated. And where might I find an installation process to achieve this. I would appreciate any comments that will help me learn more about the process. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users The hypervisor is not something you interact with directly you need a privileged domain to aka dom0 to communicate with the hypervisor. You can install xen from pretty much any distro and your existing installation will act as dom0. You can then have a windows domU which you can interact with rather than have a boot disk, as well as a debian domU. >>>> Chris, Thank you very much. I saw those ‘words’ in the guide but did not understand them. You clear it up great. This brings two questions (for now): 1) If I upgrade the Debian version, does the Xen installation require reinstallation? And if so, what does it do to all the associated VM images? 2) Is there a minimal installation for debian domU? Where can I get a description or ‘how to’? ray Of course theres a million answers to this and a million opinions so there is no "right" answer. I also use debian and I find the best way to start is to grab the netinstall for your arch, install debian, when you get to package selection, uncheck everything and when you boot up the first time install whatever you need ssh etc. Then you have a very very minimal os and from there you can grab the xen packages and tune things to your needs. Make sure you have a proper firewall in place and only the the absolutely necessary things in dom0 as it needs to be as secure as possible and should really be used only for administration. In regard to upgrading debian, if you do a upgrade then the xen packages would also upgrade along with it. The disk images for your VM/domU''s would not be touched. chris _________________________ Chris, That sounds great. I am not very familiar with debian. Can you suggest ''whatever you need ssh etc''. ray _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
ray@aarden.us wrote:> > That sounds great. I am not very familiar with debian. Can you > suggest ''whatever you need ssh etc''. > ray > >Not to be negative or anything, but if you''re "not very familiar with debian" - you''re just asking for a world of hurt in trying to get Xen working. I''ve found Xen to be fairly touchy to get up and running, and there are quite a few subtle interactions with the host operating system (e.g., getting grub startup configurations and kernel variables set up right). With that said: - for Xen on Debian, be sure to look at http://wiki.debian.org/Xen - you might consider installing XCP (the bare metal hypervisor version of Xen) - not sure if it would run on your hardware or not (note: haven''t tried it myself) - if you''re more familiar with another Linux distribution, you might want to go with its Xen package (OpenSuse, in particular comes with Xen pre-configured) - depending on what you''re actually trying to accomplish, you might consider another virtualization environment (e.g., KVM under CentOS, VirtualBox, VMware, Parallels) For a production server environment, Xen is the best of the bunch (IMHO), but if you''re just trying to maintain a few separate images on a desktop system, it might be more trouble than it''s worth. FYI: For ANY virtualization, make sure you have a fast CPU (multiple cores are even better), lots of memory, and lots of extra disk space. And make an informed choice between hardware-assist vs. paravirtualization. Miles Fidelman -- In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In<fnord> practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Date: Mon, 07 Nov 2011 08:37:36 -0500 From: Miles Fidelman <mfidelman@meetinghouse.net> Subject: Re: [Xen-users] New Install Planning To: xen-users <xen-users@lists.xensource.com> Message-ID: <4EB7DF20.3020506@meetinghouse.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed ray@aarden.us wrote:> > That sounds great. I am not very familiar with debian. Can you > suggest ''whatever you need ssh etc''. > ray > >Not to be negative or anything, but if you''re "not very familiar with debian" - you''re just asking for a world of hurt in trying to get Xen working. I''ve found Xen to be fairly touchy to get up and running, and there are quite a few subtle interactions with the host operating system (e.g., getting grub startup configurations and kernel variables set up right). With that said: - for Xen on Debian, be sure to look at http://wiki.debian.org/Xen - you might consider installing XCP (the bare metal hypervisor version of Xen) - not sure if it would run on your hardware or not (note: haven''t tried it myself) - if you''re more familiar with another Linux distribution, you might want to go with its Xen package (OpenSuse, in particular comes with Xen pre-configured) - depending on what you''re actually trying to accomplish, you might consider another virtualization environment (e.g., KVM under CentOS, VirtualBox, VMware, Parallels) For a production server environment, Xen is the best of the bunch (IMHO), but if you''re just trying to maintain a few separate images on a desktop system, it might be more trouble than it''s worth. FYI: For ANY virtualization, make sure you have a fast CPU (multiple cores are even better), lots of memory, and lots of extra disk space. And make an informed choice between hardware-assist vs. paravirtualization. Miles Fidelman -- In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In<fnord> practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra ------------------------------ Miles, Thank you very much for all the info. I have read up on XCP now and I see several places where it is said to make sure your hardware supports virtualization or Windows OS may not work correctly. I have not found anything that says what hardware supports virtualiation as neccessary for XCP. I plan to buy hardware to match. I am expecting an AMD 4 core and an ASUS motherboard. My local supplier says that today, all motherboards support virtualization. I have contacted Asus and Gigabyte and have not gotten a clear answer. My goeal is to multiple video, NIC ports, and SATA ports all isolatable. I do not intend to address paravirtualization. I wonder about usig SSD for dom0 and possibly another SSD for one guest. ray _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Do your research before investing money. If you intend to only do HVM guests, then video isolation isnt really very well supported unless you buy very high end video cards with specific drivers which are passthrough aware or you are ok with using emulated 2d video via vnc. Most motherboards do support basic virtualization VT/SVM however you will need a capable CPU and BIOS needs to give you the option to turn it on. If you plan to do passthrough of devices to your HVM guests you should be looking for IOMMU support, which is also a feature which requires matching motherboard/cpu support. Intel calls it VT-d, not sure what AMD calls this. I agree with Miles though that Xen can take some tuning to get everything running how you want. If you aren''t very comfortable with any distro of Linux then you most likely won''t be that comfortable with Xen, as even when running Xen, 90% of your day to day tasks and interaction will be just like a plain Linux box. chris On Tue, Nov 8, 2011 at 7:19 AM, <ray@aarden.us> wrote:> Date: Mon, 07 Nov 2011 08:37:36 -0500 > From: Miles Fidelman <mfidelman@meetinghouse.net> > Subject: Re: [Xen-users] New Install Planning > To: xen-users <xen-users@lists.xensource.com> > Message-ID: <4EB7DF20.3020506@meetinghouse.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > ray@aarden.us wrote: > > > > That sounds great. I am not very familiar with debian. Can you > > suggest ''whatever you need ssh etc''. > > ray > > > > > Not to be negative or anything, but if you''re "not very familiar with > debian" - you''re just asking for a world of hurt in trying to get Xen > working. > > I''ve found Xen to be fairly touchy to get up and running, and there are > quite a few subtle interactions with the host operating system (e.g., > getting grub startup configurations and kernel variables set up right). > > With that said: > > - for Xen on Debian, be sure to look at http://wiki.debian.org/Xen > > - you might consider installing XCP (the bare metal hypervisor version > of Xen) - not sure if it would run on your hardware or not (note: > haven''t tried it myself) > > - if you''re more familiar with another Linux distribution, you might > want to go with its Xen package (OpenSuse, in particular comes with Xen > pre-configured) > > - depending on what you''re actually trying to accomplish, you might > consider another virtualization environment (e.g., KVM under CentOS, > VirtualBox, VMware, Parallels) > > For a production server environment, Xen is the best of the bunch > (IMHO), but if you''re just trying to maintain a few separate images on a > desktop system, it might be more trouble than it''s worth. > > FYI: For ANY virtualization, make sure you have a fast CPU (multiple > cores are even better), lots of memory, and lots of extra disk space. > And make an informed choice between hardware-assist vs. > paravirtualization. > > Miles Fidelman > > > -- > In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. > In<fnord> practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra > ------------------------------ > Miles, > > Thank you very much for all the info. I have read up on XCP now and I > see several places where it is said to make sure your hardware supports > virtualization or Windows OS may not work correctly. I have not found > anything that says what hardware supports virtualiation as neccessary > for XCP. > > I plan to buy hardware to match. I am expecting an AMD 4 core and an > ASUS motherboard. My local supplier says that today, all motherboards > support virtualization. I have contacted Asus and Gigabyte and have not > gotten a clear answer. > > My goeal is to multiple video, NIC ports, and SATA ports all isolatable. > I do not intend to address paravirtualization. I wonder about usig SSD > for dom0 and possibly another SSD for one guest. > > ray > > > > _______________________________________________ > Xen-users mailing list > Xen-users@lists.xensource.com > http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users >_______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Ray, ray@aarden.us wrote:> My goeal is to multiple video, NIC ports, and SATA ports all > isolatable. I do not intend to address paravirtualization. I wonder > about usig SSD for dom0 and possibly another SSD for one guest. rayWell... when I asked about your goal, I was sort of more asking why you were trying to virtualize, and under what context. All you''ve said so far is:> My intent is to build a machine for running daily tasks and > experimenting with applications on VMs to facilitate testing and > manage configurations. Some of these VMs will be running, not heavily > loaded, while doing daily tasks. > > I would like to have bootable disk for a Windows OS, a Debian, and a > Xen. I expect to mainly use the Xen and perform daily activities in a > VM. The other two bootable partitions would be as backups.and> I plan to buy hardware to match. I am expecting an AMD 4 core and an > ASUS motherboard.The important questions are more like: - Is this going to be a desktop machine or a server? - What kind of daily tasks are you talking about? Word processing, spreadsheets, and powerpoints? Video editing? Gaming? Database serving? It kind of matters. - Which is your primary environment - Windows or Linux? - What kinds of applications and configurations are you planning on experimenting with? and what''s the purpose of that experimentation? Are you doing formal evaluation for an employer, or is this more of a "I want to play with this stuff" kind of thing? - Which is more important to you - daily tasks, or the experimentation? -- In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In<fnord> practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Date: Tue, 08 Nov 2011 09:10:30 -0500 From: Miles Fidelman <mfidelman@meetinghouse.net> Subject: Re: [Xen-users] New Install Planning Cc: xen-users@lists.xensource.com Message-ID: <4EB93856.6080806@meetinghouse.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Ray, ray@aarden.us wrote:> My goeal is to multiple video, NIC ports, and SATA ports all > isolatable. I do not intend to address paravirtualization. I wonder > about usig SSD for dom0 and possibly another SSD for one guest. rayWell... when I asked about your goal, I was sort of more asking why you were trying to virtualize, and under what context. All you''ve said so far is:> My intent is to build a machine for running daily tasks and > experimenting with applications on VMs to facilitate testing and > manage configurations. Some of these VMs will be running, not heavily > loaded, while doing daily tasks. > > I would like to have bootable disk for a Windows OS, a Debian, and a > Xen. I expect to mainly use the Xen and perform daily activities in a > VM. The other two bootable partitions would be as backups.and> I plan to buy hardware to match. I am expecting an AMD 4 core and an > ASUS motherboard.The important questions are more like: - Is this going to be a desktop machine or a server? - What kind of daily tasks are you talking about? Word processing, spreadsheets, and powerpoints? Video editing? Gaming? Database serving? It kind of matters. - Which is your primary environment - Windows or Linux? - What kinds of applications and configurations are you planning on experimenting with? and what''s the purpose of that experimentation? Are you doing formal evaluation for an employer, or is this more of a "I want to play with this stuff" kind of thing? - Which is more important to you - daily tasks, or the experimentation? - In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In<fnord> practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra __________ Miles, This will be a workstation. I expect to run SVN/Apache on a VM for my own use so it will be a light load athough it will manage a large dataset. My primary environment is Windows. I will probably start with XP and change to 8 when it comes out. My daily tasks are emailing, wordprocessing, spreadsheets, Visio, programming in Matlab, Mathematica, Python, Eclipse. I plan on programming for voice recognition with Dragon. No gaming. Experimentation is typically the execution enviroment for these apps and their configurations. I am not doing formal evaluations but some of what I do does get work for me. Mostly it is play. About 20% of my daily tasks are experimentation - trying diffferent ways to do things. My usual machine behavior is to build a machine and keep it until new technology allows me to buy a machine 10x as fast as the old. My current machine is 6 years old with XP. I have installed Debian on a couple laptops. I don''t like continually recovering from errant paths; I would like to catalogue them and move forward. Which begs my next question, is there a configuration management tool that will allow me to keep track of all these images and scripts that set them up? I would like to be able to pull up a script, change it, and build a new VM. I can imagine a SVN solution - kind of. ray _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users