I know a lot of people just see Xen as a method to use over spec''d boxes more efficiently, but im interested in using its virtulisation capabilities on low spec systems. Has any one had any luck with getting a DomU running on a single CPU. I seem to get stuck during the install, as far as i can see it seems that the DomU is not being allocated CPU time. Using Fedora 6, i can get through the anaconda stage in about 1/2 hr but when the X window starts the CPU use drops to near 0% and i never get past a black screen with the X cursor.
On Mon, Feb 26, 2007, Adrian Revill wrote:> I know a lot of people just see Xen as a method to use over spec''d boxes > more efficiently, but im interested in using its virtulisation > capabilities on low spec systems. > Has any one had any luck with getting a DomU running on a single CPU. > > I seem to get stuck during the install, as far as i can see it seems > that the DomU is not being allocated CPU time. > > Using Fedora 6, i can get through the anaconda stage in about 1/2 hr but > when the X window starts the CPU use drops to near 0% and i never get > past a black screen with the X cursor.I have no trouble with Xen on single CPU athlon machines running >10 DomU''s. I don''t run X or a framebuffer console. And my IO load is light. Adrian
Hi Adrian, Thx for the reply, gives me hope. As you can guess im new to Xen. So how do you install the os into the DomU? If i was installing from cd i could use linux text expert, but i cant see how to give the option to the Dom install. regards Adrian Adrian Chadd wrote:> On Mon, Feb 26, 2007, Adrian Revill wrote: > >> I know a lot of people just see Xen as a method to use over spec''d boxes >> more efficiently, but im interested in using its virtulisation >> capabilities on low spec systems. >> Has any one had any luck with getting a DomU running on a single CPU. >> >> I seem to get stuck during the install, as far as i can see it seems >> that the DomU is not being allocated CPU time. >> >> Using Fedora 6, i can get through the anaconda stage in about 1/2 hr but >> when the X window starts the CPU use drops to near 0% and i never get >> past a black screen with the X cursor. >> > > I have no trouble with Xen on single CPU athlon machines running >10 DomU''s. > I don''t run X or a framebuffer console. And my IO load is light. > > > > Adrian > >
On Mon, Feb 26, 2007, Adrian Revill wrote:> Hi Adrian, > > Thx for the reply, gives me hope. As you can guess im new to Xen. > > So how do you install the os into the DomU? > If i was installing from cd i could use linux text expert, but i cant > see how to give the option to the Dom install.I bootstrap Debian/ubuntu in a fresh jail using debootstrap inside the install root. I dump that into a freshly made LVM partition and boot the DomU up, then finish configuring it that way. Its not that simple. :) I''m pretty sure there''s a much nicer way to bootstrap Fedora DomU''s and hopefully one of the Fedora-Savvy people ''ere will point it out. Adrian
Markus Armbruster
2007-Feb-26 10:19 UTC
Re: [Fedora-xen] Running Xen on low spec single CPU
Adrian Revill <adrian.revill@shazamteam.net> writes:> I know a lot of people just see Xen as a method to use over spec''d > boxes more efficiently, but im interested in using its virtulisation > capabilities on low spec systems. > Has any one had any luck with getting a DomU running on a single CPU. > > I seem to get stuck during the install, as far as i can see it seems > that the DomU is not being allocated CPU time. > > Using Fedora 6, i can get through the anaconda stage in about 1/2 hr > but when the X window starts the CPU use drops to near 0% and i never > get past a black screen with the X cursor.Shot from the hip: how much physical RAM? How much memory allocated to the domU?
Daniel P. Berrange
2007-Feb-26 13:49 UTC
Re: [Fedora-xen] Running Xen on low spec single CPU
On Mon, Feb 26, 2007 at 08:32:18AM +0000, Adrian Revill wrote:> I know a lot of people just see Xen as a method to use over spec''d boxes > more efficiently, but im interested in using its virtulisation > capabilities on low spec systems. > Has any one had any luck with getting a DomU running on a single CPU. > > I seem to get stuck during the install, as far as i can see it seems > that the DomU is not being allocated CPU time. > > Using Fedora 6, i can get through the anaconda stage in about 1/2 hr but > when the X window starts the CPU use drops to near 0% and i never get > past a black screen with the X cursor.How much RAM did you give the guest install VM - RAM is much more important than CPU speed - I''ve seen hangs like the one you describe when I didn''t give enough RAM for install. Dan. -- |=- Red Hat, Engineering, Emerging Technologies, Boston. +1 978 392 2496 -=| |=- Perl modules: http://search.cpan.org/~danberr/ -=| |=- Projects: http://freshmeat.net/~danielpb/ -=| |=- GnuPG: 7D3B9505 F3C9 553F A1DA 4AC2 5648 23C1 B3DF F742 7D3B 9505 -=|
Hi Dan I have a 1.7+ XP athlon and 1.5G ram in the box an have given it 512Mb for the DomU The same settings work a treat on a quad core Opto> How much RAM did you give the guest install VM - RAM is much more important > than CPU speed - I''ve seen hangs like the one you describe when I didn''t > give enough RAM for install. > > Dan. >
Am Montag Februar 26 2007 schrieb Adrian Revill:> Hi Dan > > I have a 1.7+ XP athlon and 1.5G ram in the box an have given it 512Mb > for the DomU > > The same settings work a treat on a quad core Opto > > > How much RAM did you give the guest install VM - RAM is much more > > important than CPU speed - I''ve seen hangs like the one you describe when > > I didn''t give enough RAM for install. > > > > Dan. > > -- > Fedora-xen mailing list > Fedora-xen@redhat.com > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-xenI use a Double Pentium III 650 MHz with 1GB RAM with 3 DomU''s running. It''s really good running! -- Gruß Frank Rosendahl Fingerprint: 7506 6D0F 2C79 09A6 A8CF E51D BEF0 0279 A989 8450
John Summerfield
2007-Feb-26 23:02 UTC
Re: [Fedora-xen] Running Xen on low spec single CPU
Adrian Chadd wrote:> On Mon, Feb 26, 2007, Adrian Revill wrote: >> Hi Adrian, >> >> Thx for the reply, gives me hope. As you can guess im new to Xen. >> >> So how do you install the os into the DomU? >> If i was installing from cd i could use linux text expert, but i cant >> see how to give the option to the Dom install. > > I bootstrap Debian/ubuntu in a fresh jail using debootstrap inside the > install root. I dump that into a freshly made LVM partition and boot > the DomU up, then finish configuring it that way. > > Its not that simple. :) I''m pretty sure there''s a much nicer way > to bootstrap Fedora DomU''s and hopefully one of the Fedora-Savvy people > ''ere will point it out.Debian/Ubuntu has some nice scripts for creating VMs (a little buggy at present though). It writes the xen config file, and (according to its docs) can create Ubuntu, Debian and Fedora guests, is extensible. It has the option of running debootstrap (for Debian/ubuntu), rpmstrap (for RPM-based systems), creating the system from an exising directory tree, from a tarball. With the right incantation, you can go from raw materials to a running guest in one command. SUSE''s Yast cam also create guests; I have a SLES guest on my laptop (openSUSE 10.2 host) created with Yast. -- Cheers John -- spambait 1aaaaaaa@coco.merseine.nu Z1aaaaaaa@coco.merseine.nu Please do not reply off-list