Xen users - Dec 2005 - Fastest way to get a Xen server running

Hello,

Next week I must set up a Xen server for some demonstration and testing. 
  Time is very limited so I need a good (updated and working!) 
tutorial/reference to do it. There are more or less no special 
requirements for this setup, other that it will run dom0 + a couple of 
linux domU''s. Well, there is one requirement, and that is to get
"as
little junk as possible" in dom0/U. The lesser unneeded services the
better.

Do you have any recommendations? I''ve found this:
http://www.option-c.com/xwiki/Xen_Debian_Quick_Start

And that guide seems to be able to get my up''n''running with
dom0 quite
fast. How about domU?

Until now I''ve been doing tests with the bootable LiveCD. But I need an
installed system where I can alter configuration and investigate it''s 
effects.

Thanks in advance,

Rickard Borgmäster


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Rickard Borgmäster wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Next week I must set up a Xen server for some demonstration and 
> testing.  Time is very limited so I need a good (updated and working!) 
> tutorial/reference to do it. There are more or less no special 
> requirements for this setup, other that it will run dom0 + a couple of 
> linux domU''s. Well, there is one requirement, and that is to get
"as
> little junk as possible" in dom0/U. The lesser unneeded services the 
> better.
>
> Do you have any recommendations? I''ve found this:
> http://www.option-c.com/xwiki/Xen_Debian_Quick_Start
>
> And that guide seems to be able to get my up''n''running
with dom0 quite
> fast. How about domU?
i made this for debian domU with an lvm-partition for hda1 and a 
lvm-swap partition for hda2:

http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/DebianDomU

kind regards,

Robin



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Rickard Borgmäster wrote:
> http://www.option-c.com/xwiki/Xen_Debian_Quick_Start
I''d like to point out a big thank-you to the guys behind this. Thanks
to
the installer and their guides, I could complete the testing of 10 
virtual domU with router software in just 4 hours. And we really found 
the test results we looked for.

Great!

Now, erase hard-drive and start all over again, to build a "real"
system :-)

Best regards,
Rickard Borgmäster


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On 12/12/05, Rickard Borgmäster <doktorn@sub.nu>
wrote:
> Rickard Borgmäster wrote:
>
> > http://www.option-c.com/xwiki/Xen_Debian_Quick_Start
>
> I''d like to point out a big thank-you to the guys behind this.
Thanks to
> the installer and their guides, I could complete the testing of 10
> virtual domU with router software in just 4 hours. And we really found
> the test results we looked for.
>
> Great!
On behalf of Yvette who did most of the work, thanks and you''re
welcome. That''s the reason we put the wiki and the packages together.
They''re what we use and we''re glad other people are using
them.

There''s going to be some more stuff appearing over the next few weeks.
Just keep watching the site.
> Now, erase hard-drive and start all over again, to build a "real"
system :-)
The fun begins...

N Clements
www.option-c.com

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Hello,

Well, the instructions are all there. The guide and the installer CD is
the powerful tools that make it happen. Following the guided debian
install (more or less just accepting defaults) and then rebooting the
machine, and a dom0 setup is done within the hour.

The document then links to another document explaining some steps for
"debootstrap". Following those, and 30 minutes later I had a base domU
configuration. Aid a few minutes stripping it from unnecessary services
such as cron, exim etc (unnecessary for this purpose at least). Apt-get
quagga and just watch it install within the minute. An outdated
module-init-tools gave us some problems until we found out what was
causing quaggas daemons not to start up. Solved rather quickly due to
google-power :-)

Assigning each domU 8MB''s of ram was the least amount that it would
start in (remember, totally stripped from services, but still stock
kernel). A few quick restarts later we found out that quagga and it''s
daemons wouldn''t run in less than 14 MB''s of RAM. Once the
domU
configuration was done, it was shut down and it''s filesystem image file
was copied x10 along with a separate config file. And then for the real
goal with this test: would it be possible to run 10 virtual routers at
the same time, in a P3 with 256MB RAM?

And the answer is yes.

It might be possible to push things even harder, but 10 virtual routers
is the critical amount for our project. The rest of available memory
have other purposes for our solution. And that is X, Firefox and
possibly Ethereal. The goal is to produce a virtual router laboration
environment, where a student can have all 10 router terminals on the
screen while viewing HTML exercise instruction in Firefox and maybe
capturing traffic in Ethereal.

All this should be put on a single LiveCD so that a student will be able
to do exercises at home using a standard PC, and no access to physical
routers. This way students get a really powerful tool for preparing for
scenarios with real hardware.

My original post telling about this project is here:
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.emulators.xen.user/5384/


Best regards,
Rickard Borgmäster


SC Leung (PISA) wrote:
> Hi Rickard,
> 
> Congratulate you success in Xen. 
> 
> I am curious how you build up the virtual domU with router software in such
a short time. What is the approach? What
> tool do you use in router software?
> 
> Regards,
> SC Leung
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: xen-users-bounces@lists.xensource.com
[mailto:xen-users-bounces@lists.xensource.com] On Behalf Of Rickard
> Borgmäster
> Sent: Tuesday, 13 December 2005 12:53 AM
> To: xen-users@lists.xensource.com
> Subject: [Xen-users] Re: Fastest way to get a Xen server running
> 
> 
> Rickard Borgmäster wrote:
> 
> 
>>http://www.option-c.com/xwiki/Xen_Debian_Quick_Start
> 
> 
> I''d like to point out a big thank-you to the guys behind this.
Thanks to
> the installer and their guides, I could complete the testing of 10 
> virtual domU with router software in just 4 hours. And we really found 
> the test results we looked for.
> 
> Great!
> 
> Now, erase hard-drive and start all over again, to build a "real"
system :-)
> 
> Best regards,
> Rickard Borgmäster
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-users mailing list
> Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
> 
> 



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