Xen users - Aug 2010 - top ten excuses to not use OpenSuSE as Xen dom0

rl-3 = runlevel 3, aka cmdline

1- Poor domU tools
  OpenSuSE has nothing similar to debootstrap. The debian world has debootstrap.

Breaking news: you can find or build yourself a debootstrap RPM to install via
bootstrap any debian/ubuntu xen guest in any rpm based distro like suse.

2- Bloated installer that has too few options for partitioning

  zypper has options and switches which allow complete freedom during installs.
zypper can initiate a bootstrap/chroot type install with --root and --plus-repo
switches. When you need maximum freedom don''t use the installer, use
zypper in a chroot.

3- Too much influence from MS in business and in OS architecture (Mono)
   You can do a custom install that is completely free of Mono.

4- Weak or non-existent cmdline package tools for rl-3 use

   nothing weak about zypper/rpm combo

5- Too difficult to setup a minimal server

you can use patterns, but avoid xen_server pattern and explicitly install the
5-6 xen related rpm

xen-libs-4.0.0_21091_05-78.3.x86_64
xen-4.0.0_21091_05-78.3.x86_64
kernel-xen-devel-2.6.34.3-1.1.x86_64
xen-tools-4.0.0_21091_05-78.3.x86_64
kernel-xen-base-2.6.34.3-1.1.x86_64
xen-devel-4.0.0_21091_05-78.3.x86_64
kernel-xen-2.6.34.3-1.1.x86_64

6- Late to catch the pv_ops wave - still using a xenlinux kernel (kernel-xen)

   this is a strength, not a weakness.

7- Yast2 applets are too visual and add bloat

  ncurses are supported in rl-3.You can launch all yast2 applets via cmdline. Do
yast2 --list (to see all the choices)
  ''yast2 runlevel'' makes service configs easy

8- Forces use of Libvirt and its tools

   Avoid xen_server pattern which includes Libvirt.
   ouch: zypper in -t pattern xen_server  (requires 220 packages)

9- Still behind in Grub version(0.97)

   very flexible and supports symlinks
   no need to write explicit xen & kernel versions in boot lines

10- Straying too far from linux standard base (lsb).

   Yast2 is what makes OpenSuSE unique. That it can work in rl-3 via   
   ncurses and cmdline is in the tradition of lsb.

11- latest release (11.3) has a severe bug in kernel-xen.

    OBS build service has this covered.
   
http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Kernel:/openSUSE-11.3/openSUSE_11.3/

-- 
Mark




      

_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users

> 6- Late to catch the pv_ops wave - still using a xenlinux kernel
(kernel-xen)
> 
>    this is a strength, not a weakness.
Especially agree with that. I lost about two weeks trying to find way to
get maxmem working with pv_ops kernel. No documentation, strange
behavior (inflating/deflating balloon below initial mem size working,
higher than inital mem - not).

Right now we are using Gentoo 2.6.34 kernel (even for debian) wich one
come from SUSE''s xen patches.

If we adds that default Debian linux-image-2.6.26-xen-686 have bug with
ballooning wich can cause crash on heavy loaded machine, SUSE become
source of salvation. 

PS But I still do not like RPM-based distros (f.e. kickstart do not
accept all parameters via kernel args). And it is fat (Centos/rhel,
SUSE, etc).



_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users