Xen users - Jan 2010 - Installing the latest Xen for domain-0

Hi All,

I''m still trying to figure out the basics of using Xen and have a
question
about how to get the latest Xen for dom0.

I tried Debian 5.0 Lenny as Dom-0, by running apt-get to install Xen.
That gives me Xen 3.2 which still have quite a few problems, like
not able to use the xen clocksource in dom-U.

Then I tried Cent OS 5.4 as Dom-0, by running yum to get the latest
packages.
This time the Xen version I get is "3.1.2-164.9.1.el5", and it is
actually
Xen 3.1.2 + patches from Redhat with ports from newer Xen versions.

So here are my questions:

- Is "3.1.2-164.9.1.el5" a good enough version? In general is the Xen
version
  from "yum install" in CentOS close to the most recent release?

- If I want to install the latest stable release, Xen 3.4, is the only way
  by downloading the source tarball in the Xen homepage and install by
compiling?

Thanks!

Daniel


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On Mon, Jan 4, 2010 at 5:27 PM, Daniel Lam <daniel@rockableapps.com>
wrote:
> - Is "3.1.2-164.9.1.el5" a good enough version?
Depends on what you need. It''s well maintained with uptodate security
fixes, and should be enough for most purposes.
Many people (including myself) use it on production environment. Do
you have any particular use case in mind?
> In general is the Xen
> version
>   from "yum install" in CentOS close to the most recent release?
Not realy. Most recent stable Xen release is 3.4.2. The again, newest
does not always mean best.
> - If I want to install the latest stable release, Xen 3.4, is the only way
>   by downloading the source tarball in the Xen homepage and install by
> compiling?
If you use x86_64, you can install Gitco''s RPM
(http://www.gitco.de/repo/) on top of Centos. That would give you Xen
3.4.2 hypervisor and userland (which gives you access to some newer
features like the ability to add vcpus online to PV domU), while still
using Centos'' kernel-xen. This is the easiest and widely-used way, but
some of the newer features (like scsi passthrough) will not work
(since you still use old dom0 kernel).

Again, what particular use do you have in mind?

-- 
Fajar

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On Mon, Jan 4, 2010 at 11:45 PM, Fajar A. Nugraha <fajar@fajar.net> wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 4, 2010 at 5:27 PM, Daniel Lam <daniel@rockableapps.com>
> wrote:
> > - Is "3.1.2-164.9.1.el5" a good enough version?
>
> Depends on what you need. It''s well maintained with uptodate
security
> fixes, and should be enough for most purposes.
> Many people (including myself) use it on production environment. Do
> you have any particular use case in mind?
>
> > In general is the Xen
> > version
> >   from "yum install" in CentOS close to the most recent
release?
>
> Not realy. Most recent stable Xen release is 3.4.2. The again, newest
> does not always mean best.
>
> > - If I want to install the latest stable release, Xen 3.4, is the only
> way
> >   by downloading the source tarball in the Xen homepage and install by
> > compiling?
>
> If you use x86_64, you can install Gitco''s RPM
> (http://www.gitco.de/repo/) on top of Centos. That would give you Xen
> 3.4.2 hypervisor and userland (which gives you access to some newer
> features like the ability to add vcpus online to PV domU), while still
> using Centos'' kernel-xen. This is the easiest and widely-used way,
but
> some of the newer features (like scsi passthrough) will not work
> (since you still use old dom0 kernel).
>
> Again, what particular use do you have in mind?
>
> --
> Fajar
>
Got it.. thanks for explaining.

It''s just a normal 32-bit PC and I''m using it for development,
to create a few domain-Us for various development/testing environments.
I would like to create one or two Windows XP instances in it as well if I
can,
but they''ll only be used for special testing and will be shutdown most
of
the time.

I suppose I''ll just use whatever is included from yum then.
The Xen version from Debian 5.0 Lenny (3.2.0) seems to have various
sorts of problems - I''m hoping that this one from CentOS
won''t.

Daniel


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On Mon, Jan 4, 2010 at 7:56 PM, Daniel Lam <daniel@rockableapps.com>
wrote:
> It''s just a normal 32-bit PC and I''m using it for
development,
> to create a few domain-Us for various development/testing environments.
> I would like to create one or two Windows XP instances in it as well if I
> can,
You could, if your CPU supports intel VT/AMD-V.
If not (for example, Atom CPUs don''t have VT) you''d better use
virtualbox instead.
> The Xen version from Debian 5.0 Lenny (3.2.0) seems to have various
> sorts of problems - I''m hoping that this one from CentOS
won''t.
I have some production systems running Linux PV and Windows HVM guests
on RHEL5''s Xen, works great. Don''t forget to install PV
drivers for
Windows domU though, like GPLPV
(http://www.meadowcourt.org/downloads/) to get decent performance.

-- 
Fajar

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