Hi I need to consider the differences between vmware and xen. Basically any highlighted differences will be appreciated. A few things come to mind, and I''d appreciate some thoughts on them. 1. Installation. Having tried to install xen hosts, I have found it to be difficult. The problem I find is that I have to reboot my server to install a new host as I can''t install from cd without rebooting. Alternativly vmware allows me to install from cd a new hosts without the need to reboot the server and shutdown the other hosts. Yum installations are pain. What ways are there to get round this problem say in a redhat or fedora installation? 2. Performance. Although xen is technically superior to vmware on this level, practically I have read from other peoples emails that performance, such as network performance, really degrades under high loads. Just wondering if this is the case in xen 3.0 aswell? Any other highlights will be apprecatied. Thanks Shahzad _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Shahzad Chohan wrote:> 1. Installation. Having tried to install xen hosts, I have found it to > be difficult. The problem I find is that I have to reboot my server to > install a new host as I can''t install from cd without rebooting. > Alternativly vmware allows me to install from cd a new hosts without the > need to reboot the server and shutdown the other hosts. Yum > installations are pain. What ways are there to get round this problem > say in a redhat or fedora installation?Do you mean setting up a new system as a Dom0, or adding new DomUs? The former absolutely requires rebooting if not running the hypervisor and an appropriate kernel already (this being a deep enough design requirement that despite not being in any way part of the dev team I''m on quite safe ground saying it won''t change, at least until major OS distributions come with Xen out-of-the-box). If you''re discussing adding new DomUs, on the other hand, this absolutely should not require rebooting, and if you could be a little more specific about what you''re doing that *does* require you to reboot, perhaps we could help you find a different procedure. (What''s this "install from CD" bit, for instance? What exactly are you installing? Why are you booting off a CD to do it?) _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
> Do you mean setting up a new system as a Dom0, or adding new DomUs? The > former absolutely requires rebooting if not running the hypervisor and > an appropriate kernel already (this being a deep enough design > requirement that despite not being in any way part of the dev team I''m > on quite safe ground saying it won''t change, at least until major OS > distributions come with Xen out-of-the-box). If you''re discussing adding > new DomUs, on the other hand, this absolutely should not require > rebooting, and if you could be a little more specific about what you''re > doing that *does* require you to reboot, perhaps we could help you find > a different procedure. (What''s this "install from CD" bit, for instance? > What exactly are you installing? Why are you booting off a CD to do it?)I think he refers to installing a brand new OS that will run in a domU by rebooting, installing it off a cd then going back to the old (dom0) os and using the newly-installed OS as a domU. The emulation level xen uses is generaly unable to handle the process of installing an OS from a generic installation CD. One of the main problems would be that the kernel on the install CD is meant to run on a rial system, it''ll not function in a domU. Replacing the kernel is possible but my guess is that 90% of instalers would barf if ran on a different kernel inside a domU. I am personaly using debian, and for me this is a nonproblem, installing a new copy of the os is as simple as: mke3fs /dev/blah mount /dev/blah /mnt debootstrap sarge /mnt umount /mnt But most of the linux distros don''t provide such capability. -- Best regards, Black Dew. =============================~ bdew@bdew.yi.org ~ ICQ:2666606 ~ 2:400/567 ~ _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Black Dew wrote:> I am personaly using debian, and for me this is a nonproblem, installing > a new copy of the os is as simple as: > > mke3fs /dev/blah > mount /dev/blah /mnt > debootstrap sarge /mnt > umount /mnt > > But most of the linux distros don''t provide such capability.Gentoo is very easy to install into a chroot -- just unpack the base image and run with the normal installation procedure. Debian, obviously, has debootstrap. SuSE has "yast dirinstall", which is a close equivalent. If anyone else *isn''t* capable of being easily installed into a chroot, then that distro is severely tardy with regard to its range of install options. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Hi,> The emulation level xen uses is generaly unable to handle the process of > installing an OS from a generic installation CD. One of the main > problems would be that the kernel on the install CD is meant to run on a > rial system, it''ll not function in a domU. Replacing the kernel is > possible but my guess is that 90% of instalers would barf if ran on a > different kernel inside a domU.No, it''s not that a big issue. The main obstackle is that the modules on the install media will not load into the custom domU kernel, so you need a kernel with all config options needed by the installer statically compiled in. Also parted isn''t very happy with the xvd disks because the ioctls to inform the kernel about partition layout changes don''t work on these (yet?), so you have to boot the installer twice (once for partitioning, then restart for the real install). But that''s it. I''ve already installed suse by booting the installer within a domU. Havn''t tried fedora yet, but I wouldn''t be surprised if it works just fine as well. cheers, Gerd _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Le Mon, Oct 31, 2005 at 10:46:01AM +0000, Shahzad Chohan [shahzad.chohan@gmail.com] a écrit:> 1. Installation. Having tried to install xen hosts, I have found it to > be difficult. The problem I find is that I have to reboot my server to > install a new host as I can''t install from cd without rebooting. > Alternativly vmware allows me to install from cd a new hosts without > the need to reboot the server and shutdown the other hosts. Yum > installations are pain. What ways are there to get round this problem > say in a redhat or fedora installation?You should make the install on another box, and then copy files from there to your disk image (or partion, or lvm, ...) on the Xen server. If you often install similar virtual servers, just make a disk image that just copy from to install a new one in few minutes. Dom -- Dominique Rousseau Neuronnexion, Prestataire Internet & Intranet 57, route de Paris 80000 Amiens tel: 03 22 71 61 90 - fax: 03 22 71 61 99 - http://www.neuronnexion.fr _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
On 31 October, 2005 - Gerd Knorr wrote:> I''ve > already installed suse by booting the installer within a domU. Havn''t > tried fedora yet, but I wouldn''t be surprised if it works just fine as well.I install vhosts with FAI in Debian.. took some hackery due to hardware detection and partitioning (setup-harddisks wasn''t happy with 0 cylinders etc). A little hook to do partitioning manually and the rest continued mostly ok. /Tomas -- Tomas Ögren, stric@cs.umu.se, http://www.cs.umu.se/~stric/ `- Student and SysAdmin at Computing Science, University of Umeå _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
> mke3fs /dev/blah > mount /dev/blah /mnt > debootstrap sarge /mnt > umount /mntDistro-agnostic: Create an OS "image" right out of your Dom0: mount /dev/blah /mnt find / -xdev | cpio -pm /mnt Copy it later to your new DomU: mount /dev/blah /mnt/1 mount /dev/newblah /mnt/2 cd /mnt/1 find ./ -xdev | cpio -pm ../2 ...That''s how I deploy all of my DomU''s. John -- John Madden UNIX Systems Engineer Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana jmadden@ivytech.edu _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Nigel Head wrote:> On 10/31/05, *Gerd Knorr* <kraxel@suse.de <mailto:kraxel@suse.de>> wrote: > > I''ve already installed suse by booting the installer within a domU. > > > Hi Gerd, > > I''d be really, really interested in a (brief because you''re surely busy) > summary of how you did this!I think the best is I''ll put that into the Wiki, think I''ll try a install tomorrow and write some kind of "log" into the wiki along the way. stay tuned, Gerd _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
> No, it''s not that a big issue. The main obstackle is that > the modules on the install media will not load into the > custom domU kernel, so you need a kernel with all config > options needed by the installer statically compiled in. Also > parted isn''t very happy with the xvd disks because the ioctls > to inform the kernel about partition layout changes don''t > work on these (yet?),I''d have thought that would be a trivial patch. Please could someone take a look. Thanks, Ian _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Ian Pratt wrote:> > > >>No, it''s not that a big issue. The main obstackle is that >>the modules on the install media will not load into the >>custom domU kernel, so you need a kernel with all config >>options needed by the installer statically compiled in. Also >>parted isn''t very happy with the xvd disks because the ioctls >>to inform the kernel about partition layout changes don''t >>work on these (yet?), >> >>Really? I don''t think the block driver has to do anything for it to work. I tried using parted on a file based disk, it reloaded the partition table just fine. Were you exposing a whole disk to the domU?>I''d have thought that would be a trivial patch. Please could someone >take a look. > >I looked through the code, the BLKRRPART ioctl is handled by the block driver. Assuming we''re setting up the gendisk correctly (and I think we are), it seems like it should just work. Regards, Anthony Liguori>Thanks, >Ian > >_______________________________________________ >Xen-users mailing list >Xen-users@lists.xensource.com >http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users > > >_______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
> I am personaly using debian, and for me this is a nonproblem, > installing > a new copy of the os is as simple as: > > mke3fs /dev/blah > mount /dev/blah /mnt > debootstrap sarge /mnt > umount /mnt > > But most of the linux distros don''t provide such capability.you can try rpmstrap http://hackers.progeny.com/~sam/rpmstrap/ I use it to install fedora and centos on my debian, or to install fedora on centos rpmstrap --list-suites centos3 centos4 heidelberg (fedora core 3) mandriva10 pdk sl304 stentz (fedora core 4) tettnang (fedora core 2) yellowdog4 -- Louie November 01, 2005 12:52:37 _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
>> Also >> parted isn''t very happy with the xvd disks because the ioctls >> to inform the kernel about partition layout changes don''t >> work on these (yet?), > > I''d have thought that would be a trivial patch. Please could someone > take a look.It''s fixed meanwhile (last time I tried was a few weeks ago), I''ve noticed yesterday after writing the mail while trying to find a fix ;) Gerd _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Gerd Knorr wrote:>>> Also >>> parted isn''t very happy with the xvd disks because the ioctls to >>> inform the kernel about partition layout changes don''t work on these >>> (yet?), >> >> I''d have thought that would be a trivial patch. Please could someone >> take a look. > > It''s fixed meanwhile (last time I tried was a few weeks ago), I''ve > noticed yesterday after writing the mail while trying to find a fix ;)Uhm, well, seems there _is_ some problem. The kernel or parted seems to be unhappy in case you boot with a zero''ed virtual hard disk, maybe due to missing geometry information or something like that. When booting with some partition table adding and removing partitions at runtime works ok. cheers, Gerd _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
On Mon, Oct 31, 2005 at 05:23:56PM +0200, Black Dew wrote:> >Do you mean setting up a new system as a Dom0, or adding new DomUs? The > >former absolutely requires rebooting if not running the hypervisor and > >an appropriate kernel already (this being a deep enough design > >requirement that despite not being in any way part of the dev team I''m > >on quite safe ground saying it won''t change, at least until major OS > >distributions come with Xen out-of-the-box). If you''re discussing adding > >new DomUs, on the other hand, this absolutely should not require > >rebooting, and if you could be a little more specific about what you''re > >doing that *does* require you to reboot, perhaps we could help you find > >a different procedure. (What''s this "install from CD" bit, for instance? > >What exactly are you installing? Why are you booting off a CD to do it?) > > I think he refers to installing a brand new OS that will run in a domU > by rebooting, installing it off a cd then going back to the old (dom0) > os and using the newly-installed OS as a domU. > > The emulation level xen uses is generaly unable to handle the process of > installing an OS from a generic installation CD. One of the main > problems would be that the kernel on the install CD is meant to run on a > rial system, it''ll not function in a domU. Replacing the kernel is > possible but my guess is that 90% of instalers would barf if ran on a > different kernel inside a domU. > > I am personaly using debian, and for me this is a nonproblem, installing > a new copy of the os is as simple as: > > mke3fs /dev/blah > mount /dev/blah /mnt > debootstrap sarge /mnt > umount /mnt > > But most of the linux distros don''t provide such capability.http://wiki.sisuite.org/BuildingLinuxChroots - you can do this type of thing on many distributions. Suse also provides a Yast panel to build a Xen Root in their latest release. -Sean -- __________________________________________________________________ Sean Dague Mid-Hudson Valley sean at dague dot net Linux Users Group http://dague.net http://mhvlug.org There is no silver bullet. Plus, werewolves make better neighbors than zombies, and they tend to keep the vampire population down. __________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
> Suse also provides a Yast panel to build a Xen Root in their latest release.Uhm, that doesn''t work yet due to xen unstable being too unstable before the suse 10.0 release. The "install into a directory" yast module should be usable though. You can also go with the instructions on the (new) wiki page here ... http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/SuseYastDomU ... especially when installing a suse domU on a non-suse dom0. btw: you might also want to look at the domi package (available from http://dl.bytesex.org/cvs-snapshots/) which is a set of shell scripts to setup various distros (suse, fedora, debian, gentoo) as domU''s ;) cheers, Gerd _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Hallo all,
I installed the latest stable release of xen (2.0.7) and I want to use
the kernel 2.4.30.
But during boot I received messages like
"ERROR: No hit for procs_blocked"
I saw that there was an thread for the same problem in sept ember, but
no answers were given.
Does anyone know, where the problem can be located?
Thanks and best regards,
Lars Richter
--
Dipl.-Inf. Lars Richter
Pro Design Electronic & CAD-Layout
Hochheimer Straße 47, 99094 Erfurt
phone: +49 361 55038-17
fax: +49 361 78930-80
www.prodesigncad.de
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