Re: Alpine Linux Xen Dom0 LiveCD

Mark Schneider
Fri, 18 May 2012 11:47:21 -0000

Am 18.05.2012 12:33, schrieb Roger Pau Monne:
> Hello,
>
> Alpine Linux has just released a Xen Dom0 LiveCD that contains a Linux
> Kernel 3.3.6 with PaX and grsec patches and Xen 4.1.2 with the CVE
> fixes. This LiveCD doesn''t include any kind of X11 desktop, as it
is
> intended for server use only.
>
> The traditional GNU/Linux base system is over 100MB in size (excluding
> the kernel), while the base system in Alpine Linux is only 4-5MB in
> size (excluding the kernel).
> ...
> It''s great for experimenting: Since the system configuration can
be
> backed up to a single file, you will be able to test configurations
> before deploying them to production systems.
>
> ...
>
> Also, Alpine Linux has the option to run from RAM, even when installed
> to a HDD or USB, allowing the user to save it''s changes on a USB,
> floppy or other medium which then gets read at boot to leave the
> system as it was before the reboot. This is specially interesting for
> Xen Dom0, since it allows to have the whole system on RAM, which is
> immune to HDD crashes (you could have access to your Dom0 even after
> and HDD crash) and doesn''t consume I/O resources.
>
> This is still the first and experimental release of this LiveCD, so I
> would like to encourage Xen users to test it, and report back with the
> results.
>
> The LiveCD can be found at: http://alpinelinux.org/downloads

Roger,

Thanks a lot for this usefull image. I''m missing however a bootable USB
image. We are already in 21st century and many new systems simply don''t
have CD/DVD drives anymore. Most of my servers run without it as I use
*only* USB sticks as boot / install media instead of slow CD/DVD based
images.

Best regards, Mark

--
ms@it-infrastrukturen.org