Xen users - Jun 2006 - Best Distro for Xen, Software Raid and LVM

Hey all,

I''m looking for people''s experiences with distros that work
best with Xen
3.0.2, software raid, and lvm.

I''ve tried Ubuntu (Breezy and Dapper) and CentOs 4.3.  I
wasn''t satisfied
with either.  When I installed Dom0, I configured the drives for software
raid and lvm.  Then after downloading the Xen source, building and
installing it, I couldn''t get the Xen kernel to boot.  The difficulty
was
only componded by both distros installing LILO.

Any insight into this area would be appreciated.

Regards,
Tony Hernandez


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On Wed, Jun 14, 2006 at 09:48:16AM -0500, Tony Hernandez wrote:
>    I''m looking for people''s experiences with distros that
work best with Xen
>    3.0.2, software raid, and lvm.
  I''m currently using Debian Sarge + Sid in a similar setup.  The only
 decision I made was that I was going to have a "normal" root, to
avoid
 any booting issues.

  So I have a 7Gb root partition with no raid/lvm, and then raid + lvm
 partition holding my domains.

  This might not be what you had in mind, but it is a nice safe setup
 if you can spare downtime in the event of root-partition trouble.
> The difficulty was only componded by both distros installing LILO.
  Debian will give you grub.

Steve
-- 
http://www.steve.org.uk/

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Hey Bruno,

I did create initrd-xen.  I might have not passed it the correct --mod
options to allow raid and lvm.  Not sure which ones they need to be.

As far as the boot loader, I don''t know LILO that well and there is
little
discussion on this list or the web about it with xen.  So I did the best I
could.  When I have GRUB, I''m golden.

Tony

On 6/14/06, bruno taranto <btaranto@gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> Hy Tony,
> Do you create initrd-xen and configure your boot loader?
>
> bruno taranto
>
> On 6/14/06, Tony Hernandez < ttony.hernandez@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Hey all,
>
> I''m looking for people''s experiences with distros that
work best with Xen
> 3.0.2, software raid, and lvm.
>
> I''ve tried Ubuntu (Breezy and Dapper) and CentOs 4.3.  I
wasn''t satisfied
> with either.  When I installed Dom0, I configured the drives for software
> raid and lvm.  Then after downloading the Xen source, building and
> installing it, I couldn''t get the Xen kernel to boot.  The
difficulty was
> only componded by both distros installing LILO.
>
> Any insight into this area would be appreciated.
>
> Regards,
> Tony Hernandez
>
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-users mailing list
> Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
>
>
>

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Thanks Steve,

I would really like to have the rootfs in the raid as well.  Any ideas?

Tony

On 6/14/06, Steve Kemp <steve@steve.org.uk> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Jun 14, 2006 at 09:48:16AM -0500, Tony Hernandez wrote:
>
> >    I''m looking for people''s experiences with distros
that work best with
> Xen
> >    3.0.2, software raid, and lvm.
>
>   I''m currently using Debian Sarge + Sid in a similar setup.  The
only
> decision I made was that I was going to have a "normal" root, to
avoid
> any booting issues.
>
>   So I have a 7Gb root partition with no raid/lvm, and then raid + lvm
> partition holding my domains.
>
>   This might not be what you had in mind, but it is a nice safe setup
> if you can spare downtime in the event of root-partition trouble.
>
> > The difficulty was only componded by both distros installing LILO.
>
>   Debian will give you grub.
>
> Steve
> --
> http://www.steve.org.uk/
>
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-users mailing list
> Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
>

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On Wed, Jun 14, 2006 at 09:57:34AM -0500, Tony Hernandez wrote:
>    I would really like to have the rootfs in the raid as well.  Any ideas?
  I imagine it would work if you had the right driver modules compiled
 into your initrd, but to be honest I decided to sidestep the whole
 problem so I can''t advise you terribly much.

Steve
-- 
Debian GNU/Linux System Administration
http://www.debian-administration.org/


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Tony Hernandez wrote:
> I''ve tried Ubuntu (Breezy and Dapper) and CentOs 4.3.  I
wasn''t
> satisfied with either.  When I installed Dom0, I configured the drives 
> for software raid and lvm.  Then after downloading the Xen source, 
> building and installing it, I couldn''t get the Xen kernel to boot.
> The difficulty was only componded by both distros installing LILO.
Are you trying to put your root directory (/) onto software raid?  If 
so, that, not your distribution, may be the problem -- as far as LILO is 
concerned.  Also, note that your root device should be running ext2 or 
ext3 if you want the path of least resistance with the linux kernel 
binaries shipped by Xensource.

I''m running Xen on Debian and Ubuntu as hosts...

--
Eric Windisch

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I would like to put the root directory on raid.

Here is my problem.  I will be using Xen in a production role.  I need the
redundancy of raid-1.  I don''t have a "real" raid controller
(the
motherboard has "fake" raid).  I have two sata drives in this box and
wan to
maximize the space for DomUs.  So having I figure having two drives, raided
with raid-1 (via software), then LVM on top of that.  Then have Dom0 in a
logical volume and all the DomUs in subsequent volumes.

Does anyone know what options to pass initrd to use software raid (not sure
what MegaRaid is) and LVM?

Regards,
Tony

On 6/14/06, Eric Windisch <lists@bwbohh.net>
wrote:
>
> Tony Hernandez wrote:
> > I''ve tried Ubuntu (Breezy and Dapper) and CentOs 4.3.  I
wasn''t
> > satisfied with either.  When I installed Dom0, I configured the drives
> > for software raid and lvm.  Then after downloading the Xen source,
> > building and installing it, I couldn''t get the Xen kernel to
boot.
> > The difficulty was only componded by both distros installing LILO.
> Are you trying to put your root directory (/) onto software raid?  If
> so, that, not your distribution, may be the problem -- as far as LILO is
> concerned.  Also, note that your root device should be running ext2 or
> ext3 if you want the path of least resistance with the linux kernel
> binaries shipped by Xensource.
>
> I''m running Xen on Debian and Ubuntu as hosts...
>
> --
> Eric Windisch
>

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fedora core 4 from http://jailtime.org worked out the best for me. I tried
others w/ quite flaky results (i.e. if I starte more than two domains w/ a
script at the same time - it would crash the domO kernel or get into some
memleak issues in xennet, dhchp would not work, creation and maintainence of
lvms was getting to be painful, etc).

by using file-based vbd from the above link - i created a 1.0 (extendable to
any size you prefer) file/image and have had no problem ever since (touch
wood!). however i still have a lingering problem to do w/ packet/ip
forwarding - i cannot seem to get on the internet for some reason - which i
believe is to do w/ the host/dom0 in itself rather than domU. I''ve
turned
off iptables but to no avail (so far).

--


On 6/14/06, Tony Hernandez <ttony.hernandez@gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> Hey all,
>
> I''m looking for people''s experiences with distros that
work best with Xen
> 3.0.2, software raid, and lvm.
>
> I''ve tried Ubuntu (Breezy and Dapper) and CentOs 4.3.  I
wasn''t satisfied
> with either.  When I installed Dom0, I configured the drives for software
> raid and lvm.  Then after downloading the Xen source, building and
> installing it, I couldn''t get the Xen kernel to boot.  The
difficulty was
> only componded by both distros installing LILO.
>
> Any insight into this area would be appreciated.
>
> Regards,
>
> Tony Hernandez
>
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-users mailing list
> Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
>
>

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Has anyone had success doing this with either debian or ubuntu?

Regards,
Tony

On 6/14/06, padmakar vishnubhatt <vishnubhatt@gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> fedora core 4 from http://jailtime.org worked out the best for me. I tried
> others w/ quite flaky results (i.e. if I starte more than two domains w/ a
> script at the same time - it would crash the domO kernel or get into some
> memleak issues in xennet, dhchp would not work, creation and maintainence
of
> lvms was getting to be painful, etc).
>
> by using file-based vbd from the above link - i created a 1.0 (extendable
> to any size you prefer) file/image and have had no problem ever since
(touch
> wood!). however i still have a lingering problem to do w/ packet/ip
> forwarding - i cannot seem to get on the internet for some reason - which i
> believe is to do w/ the host/dom0 in itself rather than domU. I''ve
turned
> off iptables but to no avail (so far).
>
> --
>
>
> On 6/14/06, Tony Hernandez <ttony.hernandez@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Hey all,
>
> I''m looking for people''s experiences with distros that
work best with Xen
> 3.0.2, software raid, and lvm.
>
> I''ve tried Ubuntu (Breezy and Dapper) and CentOs 4.3.  I
wasn''t satisfied
> with either.  When I installed Dom0, I configured the drives for software
> raid and lvm.  Then after downloading the Xen source, building and
> installing it, I couldn''t get the Xen kernel to boot.  The
difficulty was
> only componded by both distros installing LILO.
>
> Any insight into this area would be appreciated.
>
> Regards,
>
> Tony Hernandez
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> 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
>
>

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Software raid was always troublesome to me with xen. in breezy i made it 
once worked, but saved the config not. so i can not help you there, now 
run dapper-server with the xenify_0.2.sh and that does a good job. just 
had do install bridge-utils first, everythng worked then. use the second 
disk as backup.



Tony Hernandez schrieb:
> Hey all,
>
> I''m looking for people''s experiences with distros that
work best with
> Xen 3.0.2, software raid, and lvm.
>
> I''ve tried Ubuntu (Breezy and Dapper) and CentOs 4.3.  I
wasn''t
> satisfied with either.  When I installed Dom0, I configured the drives 
> for software raid and lvm.  Then after downloading the Xen source, 
> building and installing it, I couldn''t get the Xen kernel to boot.
> The difficulty was only componded by both distros installing LILO.
>
> Any insight into this area would be appreciated.
>
> Regards,
> Tony Hernandez
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-users mailing list
> Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users

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tony> I would like to put the root directory on raid.

I run Debian sarge with my root on software RAID (but not including
LVM; I do use LVM for other partitions).  Instead of using the Xen
binaries, I used the Xen 3.0.2-2 sources to patch and rebuild the
kernel (2.6.16.9 that I got directly from kernel.org).  As far as the
software RAID stuff goes, I just built the kernel and created initrd
in the normal ways (manually adding the initrd entry to my grub
config), and it booted fine with grub.

I''m no kernel-building genius, so it actually took me quite a while to
work my way through what are essentially straightforward steps
outlined in the above paragraph.
-- 
bill-xen@carpenter.ORG (WJCarpenter)    PGP 0x91865119
38 95 1B 69 C9 C6 3D 25    73 46 32 04 69 D6 ED F3


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Tony Hernandez wrote:
  > I''ve tried Ubuntu (Breezy and Dapper) and CentOs 4.3.  I
wasn''t
satisfied
> with either.  When I installed Dom0, I configured the drives for software
> raid and lvm.  Then after downloading the Xen source, building and
> installing it, I couldn''t get the Xen kernel to boot.  The
difficulty was
> only componded by both distros installing LILO.
> 
> Any insight into this area would be appreciated.

I''ve used Xen 3.0.0 thru 3.0.2 on Ubuntu Breezy/Dapper and CentOS 
4.2/4.3, and had zero problems with Xen, grub, raid and LVM on any of 
them.  Both of these OS''s use GRUB by default, not LILO.  I
don''t even
know *HOW* to get them to use LILO instead (who would want to?).

As far as LVM and RAID go, I use LVM on every Linux system I have.  I 
refuse to try to manage disk space without it anymore.  My home server 
uses software raid level 1 on two disks, and I have LVM running on top 
of that, with zero effect on Xen or any other software.  All of that 
system''s filesystems are located within the raid/LVM volume groups,
with
the lone exception is the /boot partition, which I always make a 
separate primary partition with EXT3 filesystem.

As far as backing up the /boot partition, having a second copy on a 
second disk, just in case, isn''t a difficult thing to maintain.  As
long
as it''s an active partition, if the first disk totally dies,
it''s copy
of /boot ought to be visible, if needed.  I haven''t actually proved it 
in the real world, since, knock on wood, none of my hard drives have 
actually failed.

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On Wed, Jun 14, 2006 at 09:48:16AM -0500, Tony Hernandez
wrote:
> I''m looking for people''s experiences with distros that
work best with Xen
> 3.0.2, software raid, and lvm.
> 
> I''ve tried Ubuntu (Breezy and Dapper) and CentOs 4.3.
> with either.  When I installed Dom0, I configured the drives for software
> raid and lvm.  Then after downloading the Xen source, building and
> installing it, I couldn''t get the Xen kernel to boot.  The
difficulty was
> only componded by both distros installing LILO.
You put your /boot onto LVM.  Don''t do that.  It makes baby $DEITY cry.
Grub
doesn''t do LVM -- it has an allergy.  Instead, you put your /boot onto
a
separate MD device, which Grub *can* read (by the simple expedient of just
ignoring the MD metadata, IIRC) to get your HV, kernel, and initrd.

Ubuntu most certainly uses Grub by default, but /boot on LVM forces it to
use icky LILO instead.  It should have given some sort of warning about that
during the install -- it''s certainly how I found out about the problem
originally.  Maybe Dapper''s done away with that bit of user-pestering.

- Matt

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Hey all,

Thanks for the info.

So what I gather is that when I originally setup Dapper or Debian, that I
should setup two sotware raid devices, one for /boot and the other for LVM?
Then GRUB will be able to read /boot and we won''t need LILO?

Tony

On 6/14/06, Matthew Palmer <mpalmer@hezmatt.org>
wrote:
>
> On Wed, Jun 14, 2006 at 09:48:16AM -0500, Tony Hernandez wrote:
> > I''m looking for people''s experiences with distros
that work best with
> Xen
> > 3.0.2, software raid, and lvm.
> >
> > I''ve tried Ubuntu (Breezy and Dapper) and CentOs 4.3.
>
> > with either.  When I installed Dom0, I configured the drives for
> software
> > raid and lvm.  Then after downloading the Xen source, building and
> > installing it, I couldn''t get the Xen kernel to boot.  The
difficulty
> was
> > only componded by both distros installing LILO.
>
> You put your /boot onto LVM.  Don''t do that.  It makes baby $DEITY
cry.
> Grub
> doesn''t do LVM -- it has an allergy.  Instead, you put your /boot
onto a
> separate MD device, which Grub *can* read (by the simple expedient of just
> ignoring the MD metadata, IIRC) to get your HV, kernel, and initrd.
>
> Ubuntu most certainly uses Grub by default, but /boot on LVM forces it to
> use icky LILO instead.  It should have given some sort of warning about
> that
> during the install -- it''s certainly how I found out about the
problem
> originally.  Maybe Dapper''s done away with that bit of
user-pestering.
>
> - Matt
>
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-users mailing list
> Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
>

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On Thu, Jun 15, 2006 at 09:46:55AM -0500, Tony Hernandez
wrote:
> So what I gather is that when I originally setup Dapper or Debian, that I
> should setup two sotware raid devices, one for /boot and the other for LVM?
> Then GRUB will be able to read /boot and we won''t need LILO?
Got it in one.

- Matt

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