Fedora xen - Apr 2006 - need advices on how to install domU with xenguest-install

After reading instructions from from the "FedoraXenQuickstartFC5" doc 
and the xen user manual, I''m using the xenguest-install script to 
install my domUs. However, I have some questions on how you guys, 
perform installations of your domU servers:

This is what I''m doing:
- on dom0, create one lvg per domU (/dev/vg/domU1,/dev/vg/domU2,etc..)
- format the lvg with "mkfs -t ext3 /dev/vg/domU1"
- run xenguest-install, answering  "/dev/vg/domU1" to the "What
would
you like to use as the disk (path)" question

The goals is to be able later to mount that lvg and copy files from/to 
it (when the associated domU is down of course...) and later to clone it 
to create other domUs from it..

Anaconda starts fine, but I always get a message saying that the file 
system is not valid and it has to be reinitialised...
Q: Is that normal? "/dev/vg/domU1" IS correct and the fs IS correct 
before running xenguest-install (checked by mount/copy/umount..)

Then with diskdruid, I create only one partition in xvda (mount="/", 
fs=ext3).
Anaconda gives a warning saying that there is no swap partition defined...
Q: Is there a way to run xenguest-install and specify another lvg for 
the swap partition?
Q: What guy do you do? do You define a swap partition? do you initially 
not define a swap partition and then, when he domU is installed, modify 
the domU configuration file to add another lvg for the swap, start the 
domU and configure there the swap partition?
(It would be possible with disk druid to build another structure in the 
lvg (with "/boot", "/" and swap partition...) but
I''ll not be able to
use the lvg from dom0 later, I guess. Remember, i want to be able to 
mount the lvg from dom0 when the domU is down)

Then comes grub...
- When anaconda ask for it, how do you configure grub on domU. Do you:
  1) install it on the MBR of first disk (MBR of the disk with is mapped 
to the lvg?)
  2) install it in first block of first partition (see remark above..)
  3) don''t install it, and after installation of domU. copy the kernel 
in /boot of dom0,  update the domU configuration file to set the kernel 
and root parameter
  It seems that option 3 is the only one if I want to be able to mount 
the lvg from dom0 later...
Q: what guys do you recommend there?

I also tried to install FC5 by booting from the DVD on an lvg directly 
(in "/dev/vg/domU1"), but  was not able to start it as a domU...  
Installation is OK, I used the existing "/boot" partition when asked
for
it (the one used by dom0)and tried to create a domU. My domU started but 
I had a lot of problems.. Most of them because I didn''t manage to 
install FC5 in the lvg with the FC5xenU kernel (I checked all the menus 
where packages and selected and dint find any entry to choose the 
kernel). The standard kerne lwas installed. I successfully boot the domU 
with the xenU kernel (parameter kernel pointing to it in /boot in domu 
config file), but in domU there is no corresponding /lib/module dir... 
and because of that, thenetwork does not start ..(I stop here..)
Q: is there a way to install FC5 this way (boot from DVD) and force it 
to install the FC5xenU kernel instead of the standard FC5 kernel?

MANY MANY thaks for sharing.
(Sorry for the loooonnng post..)

Denis Forveille wrote:
 > [...]
> This is what I''m doing:
> - on dom0, create one lvg per domU (/dev/vg/domU1,/dev/vg/domU2,etc..)
> - format the lvg with "mkfs -t ext3 /dev/vg/domU1"
> - run xenguest-install, answering  "/dev/vg/domU1" to the
"What would
> you like to use as the disk (path)" question
The one time  I used the script, successfully, I gave a location in the 
file system and the script generated a large file(which wasn''t existing
before!) that was used as a block device itself, where it created lvm 
volumes and partitions for files and swap.
I don''t know if you can feed some options into the script to change
that
behaviour and use an lvm volume instead of a location for a file, never 
looked into it or tried to run it with --help.

Hi,

On Sun, 2006-04-09 at 16:44 -0400, Denis Forveille wrote:
> This is what I''m doing:
> - on dom0, create one lvg per domU (/dev/vg/domU1,/dev/vg/domU2,etc..)
> - format the lvg with "mkfs -t ext3 /dev/vg/domU1"
The domU is expecting a *disk* image, including partitioning
information, not just a single filesystem.
> Anaconda starts fine, but I always get a message saying that the file 
> system is not valid and it has to be reinitialised...
Right, it can''t find the partition table so it creates a fresh one.
> The goals is to be able later to mount that lvg and copy files from/to 
> it (when the associated domU is down of course...) and later to clone it 
> to create other domUs from it..
You can use "lomount" to mount a single partition from within the disk
image (or manually use losetup or dmsetup to set a mapping to the
partition.)

--Stephen