Robin Bowes
2008-Jan-31 01:27 UTC
[Xen-users] Choosing O/S for dom0 host with xen 3.2 - best option?
Hi, I (just) posted something similar to this on the fedora-xen list so apologies if some of you see it twice. I''m about to commission a new dom0 host to host multiple dom0 instances for testing purposes. I''m currently trying to decide what platform to use. I''ve previously used FC6 and CentOS5 as Dom0 hosts. I''d like to be able to use Xen 3.2, and I see RPMS are available from xen.org for CentOS5. My current questions: Do I need to do anything other than install the xen 3.2 RPMS on my CentOS 5.1 system? i.e. Do I need to build a new initrd or anything, or does the xen RPM install take care of that? Do I continue to use the CentOS kernel-xen? Will tools like virt-install work the same with xen 3.2 as with xen 3.1? Are any other distros more suitable for use with xen 3.2? I prefer Redhat/CentOS/Fedora flavours as that''s what I''m most comfortable with, but I''m not averse to try something else if it is more appropriate. Thanks for any responses, advice, suggestions, pointers to FAQs, etc. R. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Mark Williamson
2008-Feb-04 04:45 UTC
Re: [Xen-users] Choosing O/S for dom0 host with xen 3.2 - best option?
> I (just) posted something similar to this on the fedora-xen list so > apologies if some of you see it twice. > > I''m about to commission a new dom0 host to host multiple dom0 instances > for testing purposes. I''m currently trying to decide what platform to > use. I''ve previously used FC6 and CentOS5 as Dom0 hosts. > > I''d like to be able to use Xen 3.2, and I see RPMS are available from > xen.org for CentOS5. > > My current questions: > > Do I need to do anything other than install the xen 3.2 RPMS on my > CentOS 5.1 system? i.e. Do I need to build a new initrd or anything, or > does the xen RPM install take care of that?The RPM will take care of that.> Do I continue to use the CentOS kernel-xen?You could do (well, you can use the Xen kernel from Centos 5.1 but not the one from Centos 5.0). Be warned though, the Citrix / XenSource RPMs aren''t intended to be as well integrated as your distro''s RPMs, nor will they receive regular security and bug patching. They''re billed as a base for distributors to work from or for early adopters to play with.> Will tools like virt-install work the same with xen 3.2 as with xen 3.1?I can''t persuade yum to let me uninstall CentOS 5.1''s Xen 3.1 without it removing virt-install :-( I don''t know if you can install the Citrix / XenSource RPMs alongside the CentOS ones ... ?> Are any other distros more suitable for use with xen 3.2? I prefer > Redhat/CentOS/Fedora flavours as that''s what I''m most comfortable with, > but I''m not averse to try something else if it is more appropriate.I do all my Xen development work on CentOS 5.1 these days. That said, I generally try to run CentOS''s own Xen on the host so I haven''t tried 3.2 on there. Out of interest, is there something specific you must have in Xen 3.2? Xen 3.1 turned out to be quite a good release AFAIK and supported most things quite nicely. I generally think my CentOS Xen experience has more Zen to it if I stick with the packages they provided ;-) Cheers, Mark -- Push Me Pull You - Distributed SCM tool (http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~maw48/pmpu/) _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Robin Bowes
2008-Feb-04 12:29 UTC
[Xen-users] Re: Choosing O/S for dom0 host with xen 3.2 - best option?
Mark Williamson wrote:>> Will tools like virt-install work the same with xen 3.2 as with xen 3.1? > > I can''t persuade yum to let me uninstall CentOS 5.1''s Xen 3.1 without it > removing virt-install :-( I don''t know if you can install the Citrix / > XenSource RPMs alongside the CentOS ones ... ?Actually, I was mistaken - the version of xen that is available with CentOS 5.1 is 3.0.3: # rpm -q xen xen-3.0.3-41.el5.x86_64 How did you get xen 3.1 ?>> Are any other distros more suitable for use with xen 3.2? I prefer >> Redhat/CentOS/Fedora flavours as that''s what I''m most comfortable with, >> but I''m not averse to try something else if it is more appropriate. > > I do all my Xen development work on CentOS 5.1 these days. That said, I > generally try to run CentOS''s own Xen on the host so I haven''t tried 3.2 on > there.I generally do that too. But, I''ve been experimenting with being a bit more adventurous, i.e. trying to understand how the whole xen thing fits together rather than just relying on virt-install.> Out of interest, is there something specific you must have in Xen 3.2? Xen > 3.1 turned out to be quite a good release AFAIK and supported most things > quite nicely. I generally think my CentOS Xen experience has more Zen to it > if I stick with the packages they provided ;-)Nothing specific. I guess I''m an early adopter! R. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Nico Kadel-Garcia
2008-Feb-04 17:04 UTC
Re: [Xen-users] Re: Choosing O/S for dom0 host with xen 3.2 - best option?
Robin Bowes wrote:> Mark Williamson wrote: > >>> Will tools like virt-install work the same with xen 3.2 as with xen >>> 3.1? >> >> I can''t persuade yum to let me uninstall CentOS 5.1''s Xen 3.1 without >> it removing virt-install :-( I don''t know if you can install the >> Citrix / XenSource RPMs alongside the CentOS ones ... ? > > Actually, I was mistaken - the version of xen that is available with > CentOS 5.1 is 3.0.3: > > # rpm -q xen > xen-3.0.3-41.el5.x86_64 > > How did you get xen 3.1 ?And he keeps saying it, too. You can confirm whatever it is by looking inside the SRPM for the source code. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Robin Bowes
2008-Feb-04 18:39 UTC
[Xen-users] Re: Choosing O/S for dom0 host with xen 3.2 - best option?
Nico Kadel-Garcia wrote:> Robin Bowes wrote: >> Mark Williamson wrote: >> >>>> Will tools like virt-install work the same with xen 3.2 as with xen >>>> 3.1? >>> >>> I can''t persuade yum to let me uninstall CentOS 5.1''s Xen 3.1 without >>> it removing virt-install :-( I don''t know if you can install the >>> Citrix / XenSource RPMs alongside the CentOS ones ... ? >> >> Actually, I was mistaken - the version of xen that is available with >> CentOS 5.1 is 3.0.3: >> >> # rpm -q xen >> xen-3.0.3-41.el5.x86_64 >> >> How did you get xen 3.1 ? > And he keeps saying it, too. You can confirm whatever it is by looking > inside the SRPM for the source code.CentOS definitely comes with 3.0.3. Howwver, the 3.1.2 SRPM for Fedora 8 builds and seems to work fine on CentOS 5.1, so I''m now using that. R. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
xensource.com@vmail.baremetal.com
2008-Feb-04 19:59 UTC
Re: [Xen-users] Re: Choosing O/S for dom0 host with xen 3.2 - best option?
>> > How did you get xen 3.1 ? >> And he keeps saying it, too. You can confirm whatever it is by looking >> inside the SRPM for the source code. > > CentOS definitely comes with 3.0.3. >yes/no... [root@office2 raid]# rpm -qa | grep -i xen xen-libs-3.0.3-41.el5 kernel-xen-2.6.18-53.el5 kmod-gnbd-xen-0.1.4-12.el5 xen-3.0.3-41.el5 kmod-gfs-xen-0.1.19-7.el5 that would indicate 3.0 ... however xm dmesg gives something else... [root@office2 raid]# xm dmesg | more __ __ _____ _ ___ ____ _____ _ ____ \ \/ /___ _ __ |___ / / | / _ \ | ___|___ / ___| | ___| \ // _ \ 7_ \ |_ \ | || | | |_|___ \ |_ \ / _ \ |___ \ / \ __/ | | | ___) || || |_| |__|__) |__) | __/ |___) | /_/\_\___|_| |_| |____(_)_(_)___/ |____/____(_)___|_|____/ http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/netos/xen University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory Xen version 3.1.0-53.el5 (mockbuild@) (gcc version 4.1.2 20070626 (Red Hat 4.1. 2-14)) Mon Nov 12 02:16:12 EST 2007 Latest ChangeSet: unavailable ----------- rather confusing, but I see why one would think that centos 5.1 was not xen 3.0 I haven''t really worked with this install yet. So maybe there''s more to the picture than I see. -Tom _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Steven Timm
2008-Feb-04 20:05 UTC
Re: [Xen-users] Re: Choosing O/S for dom0 host with xen 3.2 - best option?
Centos 5.1 is dependent on their Upstream Vendor (the big vendor with the red hat) for whatever Xen or kernels they did. According to what I can find in those release nodes, they did their usual pattern of trying to shoehorn most but not all of the xen 3.1 patches into the distro and still call it xen 3.0.3. The one notable difference between this and the real xen 3.1 that I''ve found so far is that according to the release notes, 32-bit PAE domU on 64-bit dom0 is a "technology preview" --not supported feature and I can testify that it doesn''t work if you want to do any sort of I/O at all. I went back to the xensource-compiled tarballs. Steve Timm On Mon, 4 Feb 2008, xensource.com@vmail.baremetal.com wrote:> >>> > How did you get xen 3.1 ? >>> And he keeps saying it, too. You can confirm whatever it is by looking >>> inside the SRPM for the source code. >> >> CentOS definitely comes with 3.0.3. >> > > yes/no... > > [root@office2 raid]# rpm -qa | grep -i xen > xen-libs-3.0.3-41.el5 > kernel-xen-2.6.18-53.el5 > kmod-gnbd-xen-0.1.4-12.el5 > xen-3.0.3-41.el5 > kmod-gfs-xen-0.1.19-7.el5 > > > that would indicate 3.0 ... however xm dmesg gives something else... > > [root@office2 raid]# xm dmesg | more > __ __ _____ _ ___ ____ _____ _ ____ > \ \/ /___ _ __ |___ / / | / _ \ | ___|___ / ___| | ___| > \ // _ \ 7_ \ |_ \ | || | | |_|___ \ |_ \ / _ \ |___ \ > / \ __/ | | | ___) || || |_| |__|__) |__) | __/ |___) | > /_/\_\___|_| |_| |____(_)_(_)___/ |____/____(_)___|_|____/ > > http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/netos/xen > University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory > > Xen version 3.1.0-53.el5 (mockbuild@) (gcc version 4.1.2 20070626 (Red Hat > 4.1. > 2-14)) Mon Nov 12 02:16:12 EST 2007 > Latest ChangeSet: unavailable > > > ----------- > > rather confusing, but I see why one would think that centos 5.1 > was not xen 3.0 > > I haven''t really worked with this install yet. So maybe there''s > more to the picture than I see. > > -Tom > > > _______________________________________________ > Xen-users mailing list > Xen-users@lists.xensource.com > http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users >-- ------------------------------------------------------------------ Steven C. Timm, Ph.D (630) 840-8525 timm@fnal.gov http://home.fnal.gov/~timm/ Fermilab Computing Division, Scientific Computing Facilities, Grid Facilities Department, FermiGrid Services Group, Assistant Group Leader. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
--[ UxBoD ]--
2008-Feb-04 20:18 UTC
Re: [Xen-users] Re: Choosing O/S for dom0 host with xen 3.2 - best option?
if you have installed the libvirt stuff can you install the xensource-compiled tarballs over the top ? i see from the xen website though they only do i386 versions :( Regards, -- --[ UxBoD ]-- // PGP Key: "curl -s http://www.splatnix.net/uxbod.asc | gpg --import" // Fingerprint: F57A 0CBD DD19 79E9 1FCC A612 CB36 D89D 2C5A 3A84 // Keyserver: www.keyserver.net Key-ID: 0x2C5A3A84 // Phone: +44 845 869 2749 SIP Phone: uxbod@sip.splatnix.net ----- "Steven Timm" <timm@fnal.gov> wrote:> Centos 5.1 is dependent on their Upstream Vendor (the big vendor with > the red hat) for whatever Xen or kernels they did. According to > what I can find in those release nodes, they did their usual pattern > of trying to shoehorn most but not all of the xen 3.1 patches > into the distro and still call it xen 3.0.3. The one notable > difference between this and the real xen 3.1 that I''ve found so > far is that according to the release notes, 32-bit PAE domU > on 64-bit dom0 is a "technology preview" --not supported feature > and I can testify that it doesn''t work if you want to do any sort of > I/O at all. I went back to the xensource-compiled tarballs. > > Steve Timm > > > > > On Mon, 4 Feb 2008, xensource.com@vmail.baremetal.com wrote:-- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Mark Williamson
2008-Feb-14 15:51 UTC
Re: [Xen-users] Re: Choosing O/S for dom0 host with xen 3.2 - best option?
> > And he keeps saying it, too. You can confirm whatever it is by looking > > inside the SRPM for the source code. > > CentOS definitely comes with 3.0.3. > > Howwver, the 3.1.2 SRPM for Fedora 8 builds and seems to work fine on > CentOS 5.1, so I''m now using that.CentOS 5.0 shipped with 3.0.3. I believe CentOS 5.1 shipped with something based on Xen 3.1. The package names say 3.0.3 but they''re basically lying ;-) I suspect what''s going on here is something weird to do with RPM version naming; they''re trying to indicate that the CentOS 5.1 Xen is a newer version of the package of the same name from CentOS 5.0 and presumably renaming the package''s base name would break something somewhere... Cheers, Mark -- Push Me Pull You - Distributed SCM tool (http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~maw48/pmpu/) _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users