Mr. Heron was so kind to make a suggestion that I should use disk images to install VMs. Upon further thought, I kinda like the idea. So I re-read the manual and google a little, and discover I still don't know what should be in these disk images. Should I copy the contents of the CDs to a file or what? I've got a test server at the moment with Centos 5.5 and xen installed as the host OS, but have just downloaded the 5.6 CD ISOs along with the DVD ISO, so I'll use 5.6 for my VMs. I've read about how I can create an image from something that already exists. Again, any clarity would be appreciated. steve campbell
Greetings, ----- Original Message -----> Mr. Heron was so kind to make a suggestion that I should use disk images > to install VMs. Upon further thought, I kinda like the idea. So I > re-read the manual and google a little, and discover I still don't know > what should be in these disk images. > > Should I copy the contents of the CDs to a file or what?I haven't been following this conversation but I think I can answer that last question. Using a disk image file rather than a physical disk or partition(s) on a physical means that you use the file as if it were a disk. You don't need to put anything on it... and you boot install media and then select the disk image file as the disk you want to use to install your OS too. Either that, or you are talking about using .iso files on disk as install media rather than physical optical media. TYL, -- Scott Dowdle 704 Church Street Belgrade, MT 59714 (406)388-0827 [home] (406)994-3931 [work]
On Tue, 2011-06-28 at 09:30 -0400, Steve Campbell wrote:> Mr. Heron was so kind to make a suggestion that I should use disk images > to install VMs. Upon further thought, I kinda like the idea. So I > re-read the manual and google a little, and discover I still don't know > what should be in these disk images. > > Should I copy the contents of the CDs to a file or what? I've got a test > server at the moment with Centos 5.5 and xen installed as the host OS, > but have just downloaded the 5.6 CD ISOs along with the DVD ISO, so > I'll use 5.6 for my VMs. I've read about how I can create an image from > something that already exists. > > Again, any clarity would be appreciated.Just put the ISO's in /var/lib/xen/images and point at them. If you didn't download the discs, you can rip them using: dd if=/dev/<optical device> of=/var/lib/xen/images/<name of disc> For example, if ripping the first 5.6 CD... dd if=/dev/hdc of=/var/lib/xen/images/CentOS-5.6-i386-d1.iso I generally rip a disc multiple times and then do a file compare to make sure I've got a reasonable chance of having an undamaged copy. Keep in mind that it isn't as easy to change discs when you are using images on a paravirtual machine. I still recommend setting up a local repository as a much better solution because it allows you to take a snapshot so multiple installs use the exact same versions of everything.
On Tue, 2011-06-28 at 13:35 -0400, Steve Campbell wrote:> Ed, > > What do you mean by "ripping"? As far as the dd command you mentioned, > it appears that the ISO file itself is copied to the folder, not the > expanded iso-into-files themselves. Is this correct? If so, that's just > too easy. > > Thanks for your kind assistance. > > steve campbellYes. By 'ripping', I'm referring to pulling the data from a disc. In this case, I'm using the dd command to create a file with the raw data from the disc. That raw data file can then be used to burn another disc or provided to a virtual machine as a virtual disc.