Xen users - Aug 2009 - HOWTO use Virtual Hard Disk - VHD with Xen domUs?

Hi guys!
 I want to use the Virtual Hard Disk format, I mean, I want a 40G base image
and 10 Windows servers on top of this image, using the differential feature
for save space on my storage... how to do that?

 What version of open source Xen supports VHD file format?

 Have Citrix XenServer 5.5 (Free) support for it?

Cheers!
Thiago


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On Thursday 06 August 2009 02:28:24 Thiago Camargo Martins Cordeiro
wrote:
> Hi guys!
>  I want to use the Virtual Hard Disk format, I mean, I want a 40G base
> image and 10 Windows servers on top of this image, using the differential
> feature for save space on my storage... how to do that?
>
>  What version of open source Xen supports VHD file format?
>
>  Have Citrix XenServer 5.5 (Free) support for it?
>
> Cheers!
> Thiago
Hi Thiago,

I''m not sure if VHD is (or will be) supported with Xen. Someone else
might be
able to answer that question.

But why not look into using LVM and COW (Copy-On-Write) volumes?
This would allow you to create a base image and link the Guests to COW-volumes 
based on this image.

The end result would be the same and LVM is a proven technology.

--
Joost Roeleveld

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On Thu, 6 Aug 2009, Thiago Camargo Martins Cordeiro
wrote:
> Hi guys!
>  I want to use the Virtual Hard Disk format, I mean, I want a 40G base
image and 10 Windows servers on top of this image,
> using the differential feature for save space on my storage... how to do
that?
> 
>  What version of open source Xen supports VHD file format?
> 
>  Have Citrix XenServer 5.5 (Free) support for it?
> 
Using blktap2 is possible to use vhd files, you just need to use the
tap:aio:vhd prefix in the config file, for example:

disk = [ ''tap:aio:vhd:/root/images/winxp.vhd,hda,w'' ]

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Hi!

 You believe that I''m already using it without seeing it was what
I''m
looking for!? That is funny!

 I have a domU with a Logical Volume for its root partition and sometime
ago, I need to boot a "clone" of the domU, so I just made a LVM
Snapshot,
configure another VM (with another MAC Addres, etc) using the snapshot as
read-write root partition...

 I didn''t realise what I have in my hands!

Thanks!

-
Thiago

2009/8/6 J. Roeleveld <joost@antarean.org>
> On Thursday 06 August 2009 02:28:24 Thiago Camargo Martins Cordeiro wrote:
> > Hi guys!
> >  I want to use the Virtual Hard Disk format, I mean, I want a 40G base
> > image and 10 Windows servers on top of this image, using the
differential
> > feature for save space on my storage... how to do that?
> >
> >  What version of open source Xen supports VHD file format?
> >
> >  Have Citrix XenServer 5.5 (Free) support for it?
> >
> > Cheers!
> > Thiago
>
> Hi Thiago,
>
> I''m not sure if VHD is (or will be) supported with Xen. Someone
else might
> be
> able to answer that question.
>
> But why not look into using LVM and COW (Copy-On-Write) volumes?
> This would allow you to create a base image and link the Guests to
> COW-volumes
> based on this image.
>
> The end result would be the same and LVM is a proven technology.
>
> --
> Joost Roeleveld
>
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-devel mailing list
> Xen-devel@lists.xensource.com
> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel
>

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Really nice!
 As the VHD format seems to be the default for Hyper-V and it is open
source, is good to now that this is working smoothly.
 I''ll try it!

Thanks!

-
Thiago

2009/8/6 Stefano Stabellini <stefano.stabellini@eu.citrix.com>
> On Thu, 6 Aug 2009, Thiago Camargo Martins Cordeiro wrote:
> > Hi guys!
> >  I want to use the Virtual Hard Disk format, I mean, I want a 40G base
> image and 10 Windows servers on top of this image,
> > using the differential feature for save space on my storage... how to
do
> that?
> >
> >  What version of open source Xen supports VHD file format?
> >
> >  Have Citrix XenServer 5.5 (Free) support for it?
> >
>
> Using blktap2 is possible to use vhd files, you just need to use the
> tap:aio:vhd prefix in the config file, for example:
>
> disk = [ ''tap:aio:vhd:/root/images/winxp.vhd,hda,w'' ]
>

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