Xen users - Jan 2006 - Installing proprietary software on XEN3-based systems...

Hello everybody... After a looooooooong lurking on the list, I''m coming
with some questions...

I''m only THINKING ABOUT this scenario... A lot of old linux hosts to
"virtualize" and "consolidate"...

Let''s say that you have this hardware

Dell PowerEdge 2850 with two Xeon CPUs, 4 Gb of RAM
A couple of Qlogic QLA2342 fiber channel HBAs

Let''s say that you need to connect this hardware to an IBM
"SHARK"
(S.A.N.) to provide disk space for the guests.

My boss says: "if you want to connect this system to my S.A.N. you have
to install IBMsdd package!" (proprietary multipathing software).

IBMsdd says: "ha ha, you have kernel version 2.6.12.6.something!!! I
WANT WANT WANT REALLY WANT kernel version 2.6.9-11.Elsmp for loading my
totally proprietary binary-only kernel modules!!!".

So, I have to:
- pray that kernel SRPMS are built from version 2.6.9-11
- grab them from here
(http://bits.xensource.com/Xen/latest/xen-3.0-x86_32-rhel4.1.src.tar)
- install kernel SRPMS
- tweak the "kernel.spec" file to ensure that the
"EXTRAVERSION" is
exactly "-11.Elsmp"
- build kernel RPMS, install it as dom0''s kernel.

Is it right???

Now comes the first "real-world" big thing... What if I need to
install
Oracle-whatever inside the guests??? The runInstaller is VERY picky
about versions of "not-really-essential" software packages (like
glibc,
ah ha...), so I will need to rebuild again from the SRPMS after
"glibc.spec" editing, isnt''it???

Needed glibc-and-so-on versions for Oracle 9.2.0.7 on RHEL4...

glibc-profile-2.3.4-2
glibc-devel-2.3.4-2
glibc-2.3.4-2
glibc-headers-2.3.4-2
glibc-common-2.3.4-2
glibc-utils-2.3.4-2
compat-glibc-headers-2.3.2-95.30
compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-47.3
compat-libgcc-296-2.96-132.7.2
compat-gcc-32-c++-3.2.3-47.3
nss_db-compat-2.2-29
compat-glibc-2.3.2-95.30
compat-gcc-32-3.2.3-47.3
compat-libcwait-2.1-1
compat-db-4.1.25-9
compat-libstdc++-296-2.96-132.7.2
compat-oracle-rhel4-1.0-5
compat-glibc-headers-2.3.2-95.30

Additionally, I''m thinking to "consolidate" the corporate
firewall
(actually running FW-1 commercial software on RH7.2)... And this will be
ANOTHER nightmare, I think... :(

Excuse me for being so "confusing"... My english isn''t really
good...
All I need to know is: "is there anybody out there that faced
successfully with this kind of ''proprietary software'' problems
running
XEN?"

Best regards and thanks in advance.

F. Simonetti

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Simonetti Ferdinando wrote:
>My boss says: "if you want to connect this system to my S.A.N. you have
>to install IBMsdd package!" (proprietary multipathing software).
>
>IBMsdd says: "ha ha, you have kernel version 2.6.12.6.something!!! I
>WANT WANT WANT REALLY WANT kernel version 2.6.9-11.Elsmp for loading my
>totally proprietary binary-only kernel modules!!!".
>  
>
binary-only kernel modules will not work under Xen.

I would expect that when the distro''s pick up Xen, companies will begin
shipping Xen-aware modules.  I''m not speaking for IBM here, just a pure
speculation.

Until then, if you need a binary-only module (nVidia driver, VMware 
module, IBMsdd, etc.) Xen is just not an option for you.
>So, I have to:
>- pray that kernel SRPMS are built from version 2.6.9-11
>- grab them from here
>(http://bits.xensource.com/Xen/latest/xen-3.0-x86_32-rhel4.1.src.tar)
>- install kernel SRPMS
>- tweak the "kernel.spec" file to ensure that the
"EXTRAVERSION" is
>exactly "-11.Elsmp"
>- build kernel RPMS, install it as dom0''s kernel.
>
>Is it right???
>
>Now comes the first "real-world" big thing... What if I need to
install
>Oracle-whatever inside the guests??? The runInstaller is VERY picky
>about versions of "not-really-essential" software packages (like
glibc,
>ah ha...), so I will need to rebuild again from the SRPMS after
>"glibc.spec" editing, isnt''it???
>  
>
You can install a stock RHEL4 under Xen.  There is a Xen-aware glibc but 
it is not a requirement.  You can use whatever version of glibc your 
software requires.

Xen guarentees that most userspace software will run unmodified so as 
long as it''s strictly userspace (no kernel modules), you
shouldn''t have
a problem here.

Regards,

Anthony Liguori
>Needed glibc-and-so-on versions for Oracle 9.2.0.7 on RHEL4...
>
>glibc-profile-2.3.4-2
>glibc-devel-2.3.4-2
>glibc-2.3.4-2
>glibc-headers-2.3.4-2
>glibc-common-2.3.4-2
>glibc-utils-2.3.4-2
>compat-glibc-headers-2.3.2-95.30
>compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-47.3
>compat-libgcc-296-2.96-132.7.2
>compat-gcc-32-c++-3.2.3-47.3
>nss_db-compat-2.2-29
>compat-glibc-2.3.2-95.30
>compat-gcc-32-3.2.3-47.3
>compat-libcwait-2.1-1
>compat-db-4.1.25-9
>compat-libstdc++-296-2.96-132.7.2
>compat-oracle-rhel4-1.0-5
>compat-glibc-headers-2.3.2-95.30
>
>Additionally, I''m thinking to "consolidate" the corporate
firewall
>(actually running FW-1 commercial software on RH7.2)... And this will be
>ANOTHER nightmare, I think... :(
>
>Excuse me for being so "confusing"... My english isn''t
really good...
>All I need to know is: "is there anybody out there that faced
>successfully with this kind of ''proprietary software''
problems running
>XEN?"
>
>Best regards and thanks in advance.
>
>F. Simonetti
>
>_______________________________________________
>Xen-users mailing list
>Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
>http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
>
>  
>

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Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users

Simonetti Ferdinando wrote:
> My boss says: "if you want to connect this system to my S.A.N. you
have
> to install IBMsdd package!" (proprietary multipathing software).
No go.
But take a peek over at dm-devel, from what I''ve heard lately their
multipathing software is quite good.  At least I saw a posting a
couple months ago where someone proclaimed the device-mapper multipath
software to be much better than their proprietary software from IBM.

> Needed glibc-and-so-on versions for Oracle 9.2.0.7 on RHEL4...
No problem here, looks like it''s all open source.
Just a matter of compiling things.
> Additionally, I''m thinking to "consolidate" the
corporate firewall
> (actually running FW-1 commercial software on RH7.2)... And this will be
> ANOTHER nightmare, I think... :(
Assuming that Xen will soon be able to run standard kernels unmodified
on a VT CPU, you could use the Linux version of FW-1 (SecurePlatform),
which should probably run well under Xen considering that it''s a Linux
box and Linux/Xen is receiving a lot of testing.

You might want to wait till PCI passthru makes it into Xen 3.0 so you
can have hardware-level network performance on your firewall.  That
will also be a good thing if you decide at some point in time that you
need a hardware VPN accelerator.


For a conclusion I''d probably say that it''s an interesting
project, it
sounds like it''s doable, but it''s probably going to take a
*lot* of
tinkering to get it to work :-).

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