Xen users - Nov 2009 - Problem using Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS deployment on XEN VMs

Hello,

We are currently testing the compatibility of our software with XEN guests 
and seem to have hit a limitation of the virtualization kernel of XEN.

In order to orchestrate the automated provisioning operations, our 
software uses a small proprietary protected-mode kernel that takes control 
at every boot to dispatch between the various actions to perform during an 
OS install. Our code uses task gates for task switching, and in particular 
call to task gates. In response to a call to a task gate, the CPU is 
supposed to setup the back link of the target task to point to the calling 
task, and whenever an IRET is hit with the NT flag set, the CPU should 
return back to the previous task. I know this is not the method used for 
task switching in mainstream OSes, but it is nevertheless supposed to work 
according to the specs. VMWare and Hyper-V handle that properly, and more 
recently KVM supports that as well.

Is there already a patch available to apply to XEN to fix this issue ?

Marc
_________________________
Marc Vuilleumier Stückelberg
Tivoli OS Provisioning
IBM Software Group
vui@zurich.ibm.com


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