Matthew Law
2010-Mar-09 14:54 UTC
[Xen-users] Does XCP support network boot/diskless dom0?
either PXE or iSCSI. I am investigating a move to XCP at our next hardware refresh and going diskless with the dom0s would nice. Thanks, Matt. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Dave Scott
2010-Mar-09 17:58 UTC
RE: [Xen-users] Does XCP support network boot/diskless dom0?
> either PXE or iSCSI. I am investigating a move to XCP at our next > hardware refresh and going diskless with the dom0s would nice.Not yet... I believe Alex [cc:d] has some early prototype code which enables this kind of thing. Alex, could you describe what it can do/ roughly how it works? Thanks, Dave _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Martinx
2010-Mar-09 18:50 UTC
Re: [Xen-users] Does XCP support network boot/diskless dom0?
Just for curiosity... I have in my lab, two dom0 working within the LTSP project... I mean, I have used the LTSP to deploy a network of Xen servers instead of a network of Desktops.... :-D And each dom0 is a live system, technically close to the Xen Live CD! Cheers! Thiago On 9 March 2010 14:58, Dave Scott <Dave.Scott@eu.citrix.com> wrote:> > either PXE or iSCSI. I am investigating a move to XCP at our next > > hardware refresh and going diskless with the dom0s would nice. > > Not yet... > > I believe Alex [cc:d] has some early prototype code which enables this kind > of thing. Alex, could you describe what it can do/ roughly how it works? > > Thanks, > Dave > > _______________________________________________ > 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
Grant McWilliams
2010-Mar-09 20:29 UTC
Re: [Xen-users] Does XCP support network boot/diskless dom0?
On Tue, Mar 9, 2010 at 10:50 AM, Martinx <thiagocmartinsc@gmail.com> wrote:> Just for curiosity... > > I have in my lab, two dom0 working within the LTSP project... I mean, I > have used the LTSP to deploy a network of Xen servers instead of a network > of Desktops.... :-D > > And each dom0 is a live system, technically close to the Xen Live CD! > > Cheers! > Thiago > > > On 9 March 2010 14:58, Dave Scott <Dave.Scott@eu.citrix.com> wrote: > >> > either PXE or iSCSI. I am investigating a move to XCP at our next >> > hardware refresh and going diskless with the dom0s would nice. >> >> Not yet... >> >> I believe Alex [cc:d] has some early prototype code which enables this >> kind of thing. Alex, could you describe what it can do/ roughly how it >> works? >> >> Thanks, >> Dave >> >> _______________________________________________ >> >I''m looking into deploying a XCP cloud as well using PXE. I''ve not begun this process but it would seem that if you manually set up a machine to boot via PXE then there''d not be a problem no matter if XCP supported it or not. Is there anything in XCP that would stop my nodes from booting off the network? Grant McWilliams _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Alex Zeffertt
2010-Mar-10 10:39 UTC
Re: [Xen-users] Does XCP support network boot/diskless dom0?
Dave Scott wrote:>> either PXE or iSCSI. I am investigating a move to XCP at our next >> hardware refresh and going diskless with the dom0s would nice. > > Not yet... > > I believe Alex [cc:d] has some early prototype code which enables this kind of thing. Alex, could you describe what it can do/ roughly how it works? > > Thanks, > Dave >Hi Dave/Matt, The diskless support that I have been working on is based on booting an iSCSI disk. Accesses to this disk is via a software initiator. Both dom0 and the host-installer need to be told what disk to access and how to access it. This is done via the iBFT (iSCSI Boot Firmware Table) in low memory. This table is either written by the BIOS (if the BIOS supports boot from iSCSI), or by a boot ROM in a NIC (if there is a NIC that supports boot from iSCSI), or even by a PXE network boot program like gPXE. However, NICs listed in the iBFT are reserved for root disk access and cannot be used for management or by VMs. If you don''t have a BIOS that supports boot-from-iSCSI it can be quite tricky to set up a PXE server with the right configuration so that the diskless servers download the correct gPXE binary which sets up the iBFT correctly before running the host-installer or booting the iSCSI LUN. For this reason, I''ve created an appliance VM which I''m calling the XenBootServer. This provides an ncurses UI for commissioning new diskless XenServers and provides the PXE server, online install media, and answerfiles for you. All you have to do is answer a few simple questions. Regards, Alex _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Pasi Kärkkäinen
2010-Mar-31 15:50 UTC
Re: [Xen-users] Does XCP support network boot/diskless dom0?
On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 10:39:33AM +0000, Alex Zeffertt wrote:> Dave Scott wrote: >>> either PXE or iSCSI. I am investigating a move to XCP at our next >>> hardware refresh and going diskless with the dom0s would nice. >> >> Not yet... >> >> I believe Alex [cc:d] has some early prototype code which enables this kind of thing. Alex, could you describe what it can do/ roughly how it works? >> >> Thanks, >> Dave >> > > Hi Dave/Matt, > > The diskless support that I have been working on is based on booting an > iSCSI disk. Accesses to this disk is via a software initiator. > > Both dom0 and the host-installer need to be told what disk to access and > how to access it. This is done via the iBFT (iSCSI Boot Firmware Table) > in low memory. This table is either written by the BIOS (if the BIOS > supports boot from iSCSI), or by a boot ROM in a NIC (if there is a NIC > that supports boot from iSCSI), or even by a PXE network boot program > like gPXE. However, NICs listed in the iBFT are reserved for root disk > access and cannot be used for management or by VMs. > > If you don''t have a BIOS that supports boot-from-iSCSI it can be quite > tricky to set up a PXE server with the right configuration so that the > diskless servers download the correct gPXE binary which sets up the iBFT > correctly before running the host-installer or booting the iSCSI LUN. > For this reason, I''ve created an appliance VM which I''m calling the > XenBootServer. This provides an ncurses UI for commissioning new > diskless XenServers and provides the PXE server, online install media, > and answerfiles for you. All you have to do is answer a few simple > questions. >Nice project! is it available already from somewhere? Another question: Have you thought about making XCP totally stateless? ie. make XCP run from PXE-booted ramdisk root? And have all the state/configuration on some management server/node.. This is how VirtualIron (using Xen) used to work.. -- Pasi _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Dave Scott
2010-Apr-01 09:40 UTC
RE: [Xen-users] Does XCP support network boot/diskless dom0?
> Nice project! is it available already from somewhere?I think the necessary host-installer and filesystem changes will end up in the next XCP snapshot build -- is that right, Alex?> Another question: Have you thought about making XCP totally stateless? > ie. make XCP run from PXE-booted ramdisk root? And have all the > state/configuration > on some management server/node.. > > This is how VirtualIron (using Xen) used to work..That''s certainly an interesting idea. One of the problems we have atm is that we don''t have a good list of all the files in dom0 which contain bits of state. Cheers, Dave _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Martinx - ジェームズ
2010-Apr-01 19:37 UTC
Re: [Xen-users] Does XCP support network boot/diskless dom0?
Hi! I think if we do a XCP Live CD, just like the Xen Live CD v2.0, the same root file system of the XCP live session can be used to make XCP run from PXE-booted ramdisk root. Since it will be a live system, the entire system will naturally have its root rw fs at the RAM... In fact, I''m planning to add a PXE server into the Xen Live CD, so when you boot the Xen Live CD in your network, it will automatically provide a network of diskless Xen servers using the same root file system of the live CD itself, for the Xen diskless dom0s... About the state files thats need to survive across XCP reboots can live in another place... Maybe creating a dedicated shared storage for this data will solve the problem... Any thoughts?! PS.: Sorry, my english is terrible, I know! ^_^ - Thiago On 1 April 2010 06:40, Dave Scott <Dave.Scott@eu.citrix.com> wrote:> > > Nice project! is it available already from somewhere? > > I think the necessary host-installer and filesystem changes will end up in > the next XCP snapshot build -- is that right, Alex? > > > Another question: Have you thought about making XCP totally stateless? > > ie. make XCP run from PXE-booted ramdisk root? And have all the > > state/configuration > > on some management server/node.. > > > > This is how VirtualIron (using Xen) used to work.. > > That''s certainly an interesting idea. One of the problems we have atm is > that we don''t have a good list of all the files in dom0 which contain bits > of state. > > Cheers, > Dave > > > _______________________________________________ > 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
Alex Zeffertt
2010-Apr-06 09:52 UTC
Re: [Xen-users] Does XCP support network boot/diskless dom0?
Thiago, There is currently support in XCP for diskless booting from an iSCSI root disk, although it was only recently added and don''t know if has been built yet. To install to/boot from an iSCSI LUN you need a BIOS or boot ROM that supports iBFT. (This is a low memory table that allows the BIOS or boot ROM to communicate the settings to the OS.) Alternatively you can use a PXE server with gPXE as this can also create an iBFT. To install, the BIOS or boot ROM must set up the iBFT - but not boot it - so that the iBFT is available to the host installer. At install time you need to start the host-installer in debug mode and append --use_ibft to the host installer command line. After that everything should be straight forward. At boot time the BIOS or boot ROM will setup the iBFT, load the boot loader off the LUN and then pass control to it. After the kernel has booted it uses the iBFT to find the LUN, and attaches to the LUN using open-iscsi. To simplify the process of setting up a PXE server we have created a XenServer appliance called xenbootserver.xva. This probably isn''t available yet but the code is there and it could be released as part of the next build. This appliance provides the install media and also an ncurses wizard for creating per-host PXE and answerfile configurations. It serves a modified version of gPXE that can specify a redundant path in the iBFT so that multipath booting is supported. It also has iscsitarget installed (but not enabled) so that you can use the appliance as the iSCSI target too (if you really want to!) To use the appliance simply import and follow the instructions in the appliance console. Regards, Alex Zeffertt Martinx - ジェームズ wrote:> Hi! > > I think if we do a XCP Live CD, just like the Xen Live CD v2.0, the > same root file system of the XCP live session can be used to make XCP > run from PXE-booted ramdisk root. Since it will be a live system, the > entire system will naturally have its root rw fs at the RAM... > > In fact, I''m planning to add a PXE server into the Xen Live CD, so when > you boot the Xen Live CD in your network, it will automatically provide > a network of diskless Xen servers using the same root file system of the > live CD itself, for the Xen diskless dom0s... > > About the state files thats need to survive across XCP reboots can live > in another place... Maybe creating a dedicated shared storage for this > data will solve the problem... > > Any thoughts?! > > PS.: Sorry, my english is terrible, I know! ^_^ > > - > Thiago > > On 1 April 2010 06:40, Dave Scott <Dave.Scott@eu.citrix.com > <mailto:Dave.Scott@eu.citrix.com>> wrote: > > > > Nice project! is it available already from somewhere? > > I think the necessary host-installer and filesystem changes will end > up in the next XCP snapshot build -- is that right, Alex? > > > Another question: Have you thought about making XCP totally > stateless? > > ie. make XCP run from PXE-booted ramdisk root? And have all the > > state/configuration > > on some management server/node.. > > > > This is how VirtualIron (using Xen) used to work.. > > That''s certainly an interesting idea. One of the problems we have > atm is that we don''t have a good list of all the files in dom0 which > contain bits of state. > > Cheers, > Dave > > > _______________________________________________ > Xen-users mailing list > Xen-users@lists.xensource.com <mailto: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
I am a student working on a Xen project. I am creating a web based VM provisioning system. I have completed several minor tasks, but need help with the following. Does anyone have any concrete C# samples that does the following: 1) (Most Imoprtant). Allow a user with vncviewer to remotely connect to a newly created VM. I mean connect to the booting console of the VM and not just the desktop. The later I can easily do with RDP or VNC inside a guest. But I want to do what XenCenter does without using XenCenter. 2) Increase the size of a virtual disk for a VM 3) Add a new virtual disk to a VM 4) Change an existing Virtual NIC of a VM to connect to a virtual LAN with a specific vlanid. Several vlans already exists I just want to connect a vm to such a vlan given its vlanid. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
On Tue, Apr 06, 2010 at 08:34:03AM -0700, Faraz Khan wrote:> I am a student working on a Xen project. I am creating a web based VM provisioning system. I have completed several minor tasks, but need help with the following. Does anyone have any concrete C# samples that does the following: > > 1) (Most Imoprtant). Allow a user with vncviewer to remotely connect to a newly created VM. I mean connect to the booting console of the VM and not just the desktop. The later I can easily do with RDP or VNC inside a guest. But I want to do what XenCenter does without using XenCenter. >Check out: http://www.xvpsource.org/ -- Pasi> 2) Increase the size of a virtual disk for a VM > 3) Add a new virtual disk to a VM > 4) Change an existing Virtual NIC of a VM to connect to a virtual LAN with a specific vlanid. Several vlans already exists I just want to connect a vm to such a vlan given its vlanid.> _______________________________________________ > 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
Pasi Kärkkäinen
2010-Apr-08 19:36 UTC
Re: [Xen-users] Does XCP support network boot/diskless dom0?
On Thu, Apr 01, 2010 at 10:40:34AM +0100, Dave Scott wrote:> > > Nice project! is it available already from somewhere? > > I think the necessary host-installer and filesystem changes will end up in the next XCP snapshot build -- is that right, Alex? >Ok. Any ideas when the next XCP release is coming out?> > Another question: Have you thought about making XCP totally stateless? > > ie. make XCP run from PXE-booted ramdisk root? And have all the > > state/configuration > > on some management server/node.. > > > > This is how VirtualIron (using Xen) used to work.. > > That''s certainly an interesting idea. > One of the problems we have atm is that we don''t have a good list > of all the files in dom0 which contain bits of state. >This would be really nice and cool GSOC project for someone.. should we add it to the wiki page? -- Pasi _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Dave Scott
2010-Apr-08 20:11 UTC
RE: [Xen-users] Does XCP support network boot/diskless dom0?
> On Thu, Apr 01, 2010 at 10:40:34AM +0100, Dave Scott wrote: > > > > > Nice project! is it available already from somewhere? > > > > I think the necessary host-installer and filesystem changes will end > up in the next XCP snapshot build -- is that right, Alex? > > > > Ok. Any ideas when the next XCP release is coming out?Since most of the recent XCP updates have been bugfixes I was going to propose creating explicit ''unstable'' vs ''stable'' branches. The ''unstable'' branch could then be refreshed more often (eg automatically after a build passes a certain number of regression tests). What do you think?> > > Another question: Have you thought about making XCP totally > stateless? > > > ie. make XCP run from PXE-booted ramdisk root? And have all the > > > state/configuration > > > on some management server/node.. > > > > > > This is how VirtualIron (using Xen) used to work.. > > > > That''s certainly an interesting idea. > > One of the problems we have atm is that we don''t have a good list > > of all the files in dom0 which contain bits of state. > > > > This would be really nice and cool GSOC project for someone.. > should we add it to the wiki page?Sounds good to me... Cheers, Dave _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Pasi Kärkkäinen
2010-Apr-08 20:25 UTC
Re: [Xen-users] Does XCP support network boot/diskless dom0?
On Thu, Apr 08, 2010 at 09:11:42PM +0100, Dave Scott wrote:> > > On Thu, Apr 01, 2010 at 10:40:34AM +0100, Dave Scott wrote: > > > > > > > Nice project! is it available already from somewhere? > > > > > > I think the necessary host-installer and filesystem changes will end > > up in the next XCP snapshot build -- is that right, Alex? > > > > > > > Ok. Any ideas when the next XCP release is coming out? > > Since most of the recent XCP updates have been bugfixes I was going to propose creating explicit ''unstable'' vs ''stable'' branches. The ''unstable'' branch could then be refreshed more often (eg automatically after a build passes a certain number of regression tests). What do you think? >Yeah, it sounds like a good idea!> > > > > Another question: Have you thought about making XCP totally > > stateless? > > > > ie. make XCP run from PXE-booted ramdisk root? And have all the > > > > state/configuration > > > > on some management server/node.. > > > > > > > > This is how VirtualIron (using Xen) used to work.. > > > > > > That''s certainly an interesting idea. > > > One of the problems we have atm is that we don''t have a good list > > > of all the files in dom0 which contain bits of state. > > > > > > > This would be really nice and cool GSOC project for someone.. > > should we add it to the wiki page? > > Sounds good to me... >Ok. I''ll write something there.. -- Pasi _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users