Hello, I want to implement a diskless xen hypervisor. The way I suppose it will work is xen booted over pxe and getting iscsi san storage to store vm images. Is solution like that usable ? _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
On Thu, Aug 7, 2008 at 9:48 AM, Denis J. Cirulis <denis@opensource.lv> wrote:> Hello, > > I want to implement a diskless xen hypervisor. The way I suppose it will work is xen booted over pxe and > getting iscsi san storage to store vm images. > > Is solution like that usable ?it certainly is. i believe somebody here did that, but using AoE instead of iSCSI.... the result is extremely neat, splitting your hardware needs in two types of boxes: storage boxes, and processor/RAM boxes. adding extra storage or processing power means just plugging it in and adding it to the respective tables. no more software installing! -- Javier _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
On Thu, 7 Aug 2008, Denis J. Cirulis wrote:> I want to implement a diskless xen hypervisor. The way I suppose it will work is xen booted over pxe and > getting iscsi san storage to store vm images. > > Is solution like that usable ?It is... but if you manage to shrink it any further than 128MB tell us how :) Stefan _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
On Thu, 7 Aug 2008, Javier Guerra wrote:> On Thu, Aug 7, 2008 at 9:48 AM, Denis J. Cirulis <denis@opensource.lv> wrote: > > Hello, > > > > I want to implement a diskless xen hypervisor. The way I suppose it will work is xen booted over pxe and > > getting iscsi san storage to store vm images. > > > > Is solution like that usable ? > > it certainly is. i believe somebody here did that, but using AoE > instead of iSCSI.... > > the result is extremely neat, splitting your hardware needs in two > types of boxes: storage boxes, and processor/RAM boxes. adding extra > storage or processing power means just plugging it in and adding it to > the respective tables. no more software installing!For now I stick with NFS-root, but there in no reason not to go to PXE/initrd entirely... Stefan _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Check openqrm http://www.openqrm.org/ Marco Strullato 2008/8/7 Denis J. Cirulis <denis@opensource.lv>:> Hello, > > I want to implement a diskless xen hypervisor. The way I suppose it will work is xen booted over pxe and > getting iscsi san storage to store vm images. > > Is solution like that usable ? > > _______________________________________________ > 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
Stefan de Konink schrieb:> On Thu, 7 Aug 2008, Javier Guerra wrote: > > >> On Thu, Aug 7, 2008 at 9:48 AM, Denis J. Cirulis <denis@opensource.lv> wrote: >> >>> Hello, >>> >>> I want to implement a diskless xen hypervisor. The way I suppose it will work is xen booted over pxe and >>> getting iscsi san storage to store vm images. >>> >>> Is solution like that usable ? >>> >> it certainly is. i believe somebody here did that, but using AoE >> instead of iSCSI.... >> >> the result is extremely neat, splitting your hardware needs in two >> types of boxes: storage boxes, and processor/RAM boxes. adding extra >> storage or processing power means just plugging it in and adding it to >> the respective tables. no more software installing! >> > > For now I stick with NFS-root, but there in no reason not to go to > PXE/initrd entirely... > > > Stefan > >I played around with this, too. But if I make initrd to big. Maybe 128MB, then the System will not boot, saying something like, not enough memory to boot xen hypervisor. Anyone had this issue, too? Cheers, Alex> _______________________________________________ > Xen-users mailing list > Xen-users@lists.xensource.com > http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users > > __________ Hinweis von ESET NOD32 Antivirus, Signaturdatenbank-Version 3337 (20080807) __________ > > E-Mail wurde geprüft mit ESET NOD32 Antivirus. > > http://www.eset.com > > > >_______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
My alternative implementation has been to use solid state storage - thumbdrives, CF cards with CF to SATA/IDE adapters, or disk-on-module SATA or IDE devices. http://www.google.com/products?q=flash+module+sata&btnG=Search+Products&show=dd http://images.google.com/images?q=flash%20module%20sata&show=dd&sa=N&tab=fi http://www.e-itx.com/sata-flash-adapters.html http://www.e-itx.com/apacer-udm-embedded-usb-disk-module.html http://www.e-itx.com/apacer-adm-iii-disk-on-module.html http://ec.transcendusa.com/product/ItemDetail.asp?ItemID=TS2GSDOM22V http://www.logicsupply.com/products/sfm20i_4g Any of these will do the trick and leave you with enough space on the module for log files, etc. It''s not quite diskless, but it''s very low power and heat, and significantly less prone to failure than hard disks. Also, I strongly recommend you consider getting something like this for connectivity to the iSCSI SAN: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106020 Bond those 4 into a dedicated 4gbit interface to the SAN. My configuration actually has two of these in each server - one for SAN, and one for migration traffic (live migration goes FAST over 4gbit :) ). Hope this helps a bit. Nathan -----Original Message----- From: xen-users-bounces@lists.xensource.com [mailto:xen-users-bounces@lists.xensource.com] On Behalf Of Denis J. Cirulis Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 7:48 AM To: xen-users@lists.xensource.com Subject: [Xen-users] Diskless xen Hello, I want to implement a diskless xen hypervisor. The way I suppose it will work is xen booted over pxe and getting iscsi san storage to store vm images. Is solution like that usable ? _______________________________________________ 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
On Thu, Aug 7, 2008 at 11:34 AM, Alexander Hoßdorf <xen-users@hossdorf.eu> wrote:> I played around with this, too. > But if I make initrd to big. Maybe 128MB, then the System will not boot, > saying something like, not enough memory to boot xen hypervisor.it's easy to make small systems, especially with BusyBox, unfortunately, it would be really hard to make Xen work without Python, and that alone takes several megabytes. maybe the easiest non-NFSroot setup would be: a small initrd sets iSCSI and mounts a r/o partition with the system. add tmpfs for /var, /tmp, and maybe NFS for /home -- Javier _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
> Hello, > > I want to implement a diskless xen hypervisor. The way I suppose itwill> work is xen booted over pxe and > getting iscsi san storage to store vm images. > > Is solution like that usable ?I used AoE via a few custom scripts in Debian''s mkinitramfs. It worked great for what I wanted. iSCSI is a bit more involved to set up, but as long as you can boot Linux over iSCSI, Xen shouldn''t add any complications. James _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
I''m using a targets iscsi to remote virtual machines boot using debian initramfs-tools. The parameter is passed in virtual machines config files. You certainly needs change the cmdline size into the kernel to suport more that 256 characters. See more about in http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=419408 Cheers, On Thu, Aug 7, 2008 at 9:43 PM, James Harper <james.harper@bendigoit.com.au> wrote:>> Hello, >> >> I want to implement a diskless xen hypervisor. The way I suppose it > will >> work is xen booted over pxe and >> getting iscsi san storage to store vm images. >> >> Is solution like that usable ? > > I used AoE via a few custom scripts in Debian''s mkinitramfs. It worked > great for what I wanted. iSCSI is a bit more involved to set up, but as > long as you can boot Linux over iSCSI, Xen shouldn''t add any > complications. > > James > > > _______________________________________________ > Xen-users mailing list > Xen-users@lists.xensource.com > http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users >-- Marco Sinhoreli _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
On Thu, Aug 07, 2008 at 10:09:11PM -0300, Marco Sinhoreli wrote:> I''m using a targets iscsi to remote virtual machines boot using debian > initramfs-tools. The parameter is passed in virtual machines config > files. You certainly needs change the cmdline size into the kernel to > suport more that 256 characters. See more about in > http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=419408 >Dunno if anyone has implemented iBFT support into Xen yet, but I think that would help with iscsi root setups.. Vanilla/upstream Linux kernel now has iBFT support, and there are scripts for parsing information in iBFT table and configuring open-iscsi accordingly (in initrd) for root volume.. RHEL 5.2 kernel and (mk)initrd supports iBFT already. -- Pasi> Cheers, > > On Thu, Aug 7, 2008 at 9:43 PM, James Harper > <james.harper@bendigoit.com.au> wrote: > >> Hello, > >> > >> I want to implement a diskless xen hypervisor. The way I suppose it > > will > >> work is xen booted over pxe and > >> getting iscsi san storage to store vm images. > >> > >> Is solution like that usable ? > > > > I used AoE via a few custom scripts in Debian''s mkinitramfs. It worked > > great for what I wanted. iSCSI is a bit more involved to set up, but as > > long as you can boot Linux over iSCSI, Xen shouldn''t add any > > complications. > > > > James > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Xen-users mailing list > > Xen-users@lists.xensource.com > > http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users > > > > > > -- > Marco Sinhoreli > > _______________________________________________ > 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