Xen users - Aug 2007 - how to retrofit DomU installation initrd w/ xennet/xenblk?

I''m trying to do an interactive network installation using the DomU
kernel/initrd pair located at $ROOT/images/xen on the CentOS5.0 media.
The host is running the CentOS5.0 xen kernel as Dom0.

The Guest boots, anaconda kicks off and prompts for installation media.
However, no network protocol (http, ftp, nfs) may be used for the
installation on account of the fact that the installer cannot locate any
networking modules (xennet?).

How do I retrofit the xen initrd available on the CentOS installation
media to include the appropriate network modules? I need to support
interactive, network based DomU installs.

Any ideas?


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

> The Guest boots, anaconda kicks off and prompts for installation media.
> However, no network protocol (http, ftp, nfs) may be used for the
> installation on account of the fact that the installer cannot locate any
> networking modules (xennet?).
> 
> How do I retrofit the xen initrd available on the CentOS installation
> media to include the appropriate network modules? I need to support
> interactive, network based DomU installs.
It took me some time to get kickstarts working too, but here''s what
finally did it for me: 

kernel = "/boot/rhel5-amd64-ks-kernel.img"
ramdisk = "/boot/rhel5-amd64-ks-initrd.img"
extra = "selinux=0 ip=10.10.7.7 gateway=10.10.7.1 netmask=255.255.255.0
dns=dns,servers ks=http://path/to/kickstartfile ksdevice=eth0"
name = "hostnamehere"
memory = "512"
disk = [ ''tap:aio:/var/lib/xen/images/test2.img,hda,w'', ]
vif = [ ''bridge=xenbr0'', ]
vcpus=1
on_reboot = ''destroy''
on_crash = ''destroy''

Those kernel and initrd images come right out of the directories you''re
talking about (although RHEL for me, the CentOS images work the same).
If you aren''t hosting your ks over HTTP, I''m not sure how
you''d do this
exactly, but you could always do so and set it up with the
"interactive"
flag turned on, which should allow you to specify installation media. 

John



-- 
John Madden
Sr. 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

Thanks for the help. We do not use kickstart in our environment. All
installs have to be user driven and interactive, with the installation
media hosted over http.

I need a way to force the appropriate DomU network drivers (xennet?)
drivers to (pre)load when booting up the VM. Unless I''m missing
something, it seems strange that the RHEL/CentOS installation initrd was
packaged without the proper modules for an over-the-network install.

As always, any help is much appreciated.


PS: btw, I''m new to kickstart. How does one specify the
''interactive'' mode?


John Madden wrote:
>> The Guest boots, anaconda kicks off and prompts for installation media.
>> However, no network protocol (http, ftp, nfs) may be used for the
>> installation on account of the fact that the installer cannot locate
any
>> networking modules (xennet?).
>>
>> How do I retrofit the xen initrd available on the CentOS installation
>> media to include the appropriate network modules? I need to support
>> interactive, network based DomU installs.
> 
> It took me some time to get kickstarts working too, but here''s
what
> finally did it for me: 
> 
> kernel = "/boot/rhel5-amd64-ks-kernel.img"
> ramdisk = "/boot/rhel5-amd64-ks-initrd.img"
> extra = "selinux=0 ip=10.10.7.7 gateway=10.10.7.1
netmask=255.255.255.0
> dns=dns,servers ks=http://path/to/kickstartfile ksdevice=eth0"
> name = "hostnamehere"
> memory = "512"
> disk = [ ''tap:aio:/var/lib/xen/images/test2.img,hda,w'', ]
> vif = [ ''bridge=xenbr0'', ]
> vcpus=1
> on_reboot = ''destroy''
> on_crash = ''destroy''
> 
> Those kernel and initrd images come right out of the directories
you''re
> talking about (although RHEL for me, the CentOS images work the same).
> If you aren''t hosting your ks over HTTP, I''m not sure how
you''d do this
> exactly, but you could always do so and set it up with the
"interactive"
> flag turned on, which should allow you to specify installation media. 
> 
> John
> 
> 
> 
_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users