Xen devel - Nov 2006 - [Xen-ia64-devel] VTI Windows installation and booting HowTo

Hi all,

VTI Windows 2003 has brought up in IA64 platform for a long time. Recently, by 
community and Intel''s several important bugs fixing, SMP VTI Windows 
(8vcpus) could pass HCT stress testing for 24 hours.

Here, I provide some steps for VTI Windows 2k3 installation and booting. 

Environment:
--------------------
Platform: Tiger4
Processor: Itanium 2 Processor with VT supported. 
Logic Processors number: 16 (4 processors with Due Core + HT)
PAL version: 8.15
Service OS: RHEL4u3 IA64 SMP with 2 VCPUs
VTI Guest OS: Windows 2k3
Xen IA64 Unstable tree: 12014:9c649ca5c1cc
Xen Schedule: credit
VTI Guest Firmware Flash.fd.2006.11.07 MD5: 
	797c2d6c391a6fc6f16d267e01b382f8

Installation: 
------------------
Windows Server 2003 SP1 installation in VTI: 
1. Prepare a physical disk or a disk image file. 

( This know-how uses /dev/sdc physical disk to install Windows ) 
Modify ''disk'' and ''boot'' line in
/etc/xen/xmexample.vti as
====>
disk = [ ''phy:/dev/sdc,hda,w'', \
''file:/var/images/winsvr2003sp1.ISO,hdc:cdrom,r'' ] 
#if using disk image: #disk = [
''file:/var/images/winXP.img,hda,w'', \
''phy:/dev/cdrom,hdc:cdrom,r'' ] 
boot=''d'' 
<====
2. xm create /etc/xen/xmexample.vti 

Once in the VTi Domain 
In EFI shell, go into CDROM. It can be either fs0: or fs1: 
	fs0:
Run setupldr.efi to start installation. (use quickest installation) :
	setupldr.efi
After Windows installation copying files, it will do the 1st reboot. 
(In recent Changeset, there is a bug will cause VTI domain reboot failed. If it 
automatically reboot fail, could manually create VTI again.)

3. In EFI shell, go to fs0: ; run "cp efi\microsoft\winnt50\boot0000
."

4. Go to msutil\ ; run "nvrboot"; 

	input "I" -> "boot0000" -> "ENTER" ->
"Q"; exit EFI shell; continue.

5. Windows will the perform installation. It takes >5 hours to complete 
installation. VTI domain still met slow CD-ROM issue, which will cause VTI 
domain installation slowly. In recent Changeset VTI performance depredates a 
lot, the installation might be slower.

6. After installation, follow step #4, you can boot VTI Windows 2003 SP1.

7. With guest firmware Flash.fd.2006.11.07, VTI Windows can be automatically 
boot without step #4 by adding a file startup.nsh in its 1st vfat partition
(fs0:\startup.nsh).
======>
#mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/sdc1
#cat >/mnt/sdc1/startup.nsh <<EOF
bcfg boot addf 1 fs0:\boot0000 "windows"
EOF
#umount /mnt/sdc1
<=====
Best Regards,
Yongkang (Kangkang) 永康

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On Thu, 2006-11-16 at 23:32 +0800, You, Yongkang wrote:
> 3. In EFI shell, go to fs0: ; run "cp efi\microsoft\winnt50\boot0000
."
> 
> 4. Go to msutil\ ; run "nvrboot"; 
> 
> 	input "I" -> "boot0000" -> "ENTER"
-> "Q"; exit EFI shell; continue.
> 
> 5. Windows will the perform installation. It takes >5 hours to complete 
> installation. VTI domain still met slow CD-ROM issue, which will cause VTI 
> domain installation slowly. In recent Changeset VTI performance depredates
a
> lot, the installation might be slower.
   I''ve tried this many times, and I always seem to get stuck here.  I
do step #4 above, exit from EFI shell, and get a quick text flash that
looks like it''s selecting and booting Windows 2003, then my VNC session
goes blank.  It runs for a little over an hour consuming 100% of a vcpu,
then according to the xend.log the domain reboots.  I''ve using the
12.01
GFW with xen-ia64-unstable.hg tip (12796).  It repeats the same thing
again if I re-attempt from step 4.  Thanks,

	Alex

-- 
Alex Williamson                             HP Open Source & Linux Org.


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>
>   I''ve tried this many times, and I always seem to get stuck here.
I
>do step #4 above, exit from EFI shell, and get a quick text flash that
>looks like it''s selecting and booting Windows 2003, then my VNC
session
>goes blank.  It runs for a little over an hour consuming 100% of a vcpu,
>then according to the xend.log the domain reboots.  I''ve using the
12.01
>GFW with xen-ia64-unstable.hg tip (12796).  It repeats the same thing
>again if I re-attempt from step 4.  Thanks,
>
Hi Alex,
>From your description, I think all the steps are correct. Maybe there are
some bugs in recently changeset. I didn''t try it in these days. Jingke
did a Windows installation test on 11.10 GW + Changeset 12525(xen-ia64-unstable)
for Kouya''s acceleration patch. The installation and booting are
successful in 50 mins.
We can try Windows Installation in the tip. And give you the feedback again.

Could it relate with different Win2k3 version? I meet this issue (100% vcpus
consuming) before, when try to create >4 vcpus VTI Windows. Anthony has
already fixed this issue several weeks ago.

Best Regards,
Yongkang (Kangkang) 永康

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