List, I have yesterday successfully installed Xen 3.0.2 on Ubuntu 6.06 and have a Ubuntu 6.06 running as guest. I have a couple of questions which is not clear to me after having read the documentation. 1a. File to partition ? The guest is stored in a file and not on a partition. Can that be changed at a later point, perhaps just migrating ?, or do I have to created a new guest from scratch. 1b. File resizing As far as I understand it is not possible to extend the size of a filebased guest OS, is that correct ? 2. Migrating between different host OS Is is possible to migrate the Ubuntu guest from the Ubuntu host OS to another host OS say SuSE ? Best regards Per _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
On Fri, Jul 21, 2006 at 02:02:35PM +0200, Per Jensen wrote:> 1a. File to partition ? > The guest is stored in a file and not on a partition. Can that be changed > at a later point, perhaps just migrating ?, or do I have to created a new > guest from scratch.Just create the block device, mkfs it, mount it somewhere, mount your file somewhere else over loop, copy from one to the other, unmount it all, change your Xen config, and all will be well.> 1b. File resizing > As far as I understand it is not possible to extend the size of a > filebased guest OS, is that correct ?No.> 2. Migrating between different host OS > Is is possible to migrate the Ubuntu guest from the Ubuntu host OS to > another host OS say SuSE ?Modulo differences in Xen versions, there shouldn''t be a problem at all. - Matt _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
>>> On 22/07/2006 at 03:25, in message <20060722022539.GI24689@hezmatt.org>,Matthew Palmer <mpalmer@hezmatt.org> wrote:> On Fri, Jul 21, 2006 at 02:02:35PM +0200, Per Jensen wrote: >> 1a. File to partition ? >> The guest is stored in a file and not on a partition. Can that be changed >> at a later point, perhaps just migrating ?, or do I have to created a new >> guest from scratch. > > Just create the block device, mkfs it, mount it somewhere, mount your file > somewhere else over loop, copy from one to the other, unmount it all, change > your Xen config, and all will be well. > >> 1b. File resizing >> As far as I understand it is not possible to extend the size of a >> filebased guest OS, is that correct ? > > No.I think this is possible. I''ve been able to ''expand'' a 4GB disk file (file1) hosting Windows 2003 up to 8GB as I was running out of space. By creating a ''blank'' second 4GB disk file (file2) I was able to cat file2 >> file1 so that the resulting file1 was now 8GB in size. Obviously, I still had my partition of size 4GB inside an 8GB file. By using gparted-livecd I was then able to resize the partition in the 8GB file to use more of the space I''d just added. It''s a few steps, and it''s not exactly pretty, but it does work. I''d also suggest backing up your original disk file so that you''re not working on the only copy :-) Jon _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
2006/7/21, Per Jensen <per@net-es.dk>:> > List, > > I have yesterday successfully installed Xen 3.0.2 on Ubuntu 6.06 and have > a Ubuntu 6.06 running as guest. I have a couple of questions which is not > clear to me after having read the documentation. > > 1a. File to partition ? > The guest is stored in a file and not on a partition. Can that be changed > at a later point, perhaps just migrating ?, or do I have to created a new > guest from scratch. > > 1b. File resizing > As far as I understand it is not possible to extend the size of a > filebased guest OS, is that correct ?Yes, It`s possible if you use LVM and, for example XFS file system. With LVM you can resize you virtual partition. With ext3 file system the resize is possible too. 2. Migrating between different host OS> Is is possible to migrate the Ubuntu guest from the Ubuntu host OS to > another host OS say SuSE ?You need use the same version of XEN in the server host, then you can migrating between different host`s using "xm migrate" command. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
On Mon, Jul 24, 2006 at 10:22:32AM +0200, Jonathan Ervine wrote:> >>> On 22/07/2006 at 03:25, in message <20060722022539.GI24689@hezmatt.org>, > Matthew Palmer <mpalmer@hezmatt.org> wrote: > > On Fri, Jul 21, 2006 at 02:02:35PM +0200, Per Jensen wrote: > >> 1a. File to partition ? > >> The guest is stored in a file and not on a partition. Can that be changed > >> at a later point, perhaps just migrating ?, or do I have to created a new > >> guest from scratch. > > > > Just create the block device, mkfs it, mount it somewhere, mount your file > > somewhere else over loop, copy from one to the other, unmount it all, change > > your Xen config, and all will be well. > > > >> 1b. File resizing > >> As far as I understand it is not possible to extend the size of a > >> filebased guest OS, is that correct ? > > > > No. > > I think this is possible. I''ve been able to ''expand'' a 4GB disk file (file1) hosting Windows 2003 up to 8GB as I was > running out of space. By creating a ''blank'' second 4GB disk file (file2) I was able to cat file2 >> file1 so that the > resulting file1 was now 8GB in size. Obviously, I still had my partition of size 4GB inside an 8GB file. By using > gparted-livecd I was then able to resize the partition in the 8GB file to use more of the space I''d just added.Easier than that -- dd if=/dev/zero of=diskfile count=0 bs=1G seek=8 Huzzah for sparse files! If you''ve partitioned the disk image, you can then wield parted over it to resize the partitions, otherwise just use your filesystem''s resizing tool.> It''s a few steps, and it''s not exactly pretty, but it does work. I''d also suggest backing up your original disk file so > that you''re not working on the only copy :-)That''s not a bad idea. - Matt _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users