Fedora/Xen

[malshade]

Hoping someone is a bit more proficient w/ Linux/Xen than I am and can help me out w/ this. I'm new to both Linux and Xen so this has been a challenge from the get go. I installed Fedora no problem but Xen is testing me a bit. During the installation procedure the installer couldn't find a hard drive...does Xen require a separate partition/disk. Below is the output from the tail end of the installation as well as me trying to restart a virtual server I made (hopefully someone can make heads/tails of it all, THANKS!!):

Starting VNC...
The VNC server is now running.
Please connect to 10.10.10.10:1 to begin the install...
Starting graphical installation...


Press <enter> for a shell
XKB extension not present on :1

sh-3.1# sending termination signals...done
sending kill signals...done
disabling swap...
unmounting filesystems...
/mnt/runtime done
disabling /dev/loop0
/proc done
/dev/pts done
/sys done
/tmp/ramfs done
/selinux done
rebooting system
Restarting system.
If your install completed successfully, you can restart your
guest by running 'xm create -c Baelrog'.
You have new mail in /var/spool/mail/root
[root@fedora ~]# xm create -c Baelrog
Using config file "/etc/xen/Baelrog".
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/pygrub", line 256, in ?
cf = get_config(file, isconfig)
File "/usr/bin/pygrub", line 110, in get_config
if is_disk_image(fn):
File "/usr/bin/pygrub", line 78, in is_disk_image
buf = os.read(fd, 512)
OSError: [Errno 21] Is a directory
Error: Boot loader didn't return any data!
[root@fedora ~]#

Also, if any of you know where I can find a DETAILED guide on the installation of Xen, as well as, the creation of virtual machines, I'd really appreciate it.

 

[QatQat]

HI there,

Xen is not an easy package to install and run.
Xen requires a patched kernel to run.

FC5 should have some kernels already configured to run xen.

I found a DVD on one of the latest LinuxUSer magazine and it had Fedora Core 5 and kernels ready to use Xen.

So, unless you are familiar with kernel compiling / patching / modules loading and all kernel related stuff I recommend you find something similar to that.

ALternatively, very detailed instruction on how to prepare your kernel for Fedora Core 4 (not as cool as FC5 and probably slower than FC3) were on may edition of Linux Format. I tested xen following the instructions and it worked fine. I was not impressed with Xen performance though.

Although the two things are fundamentally different, if I have to run a virtual machine, VMware does just fine for me with a tenth of the effort needed by Xen. Both of them, at the end, will let you run another system on your existing one so think well before you get messy with your kernel.

I know that VMWare is not free but you can get a VMWare player free of charge and find a friend with VMware to do an install for you.


Cheers

QatQat

Life is what happens when you are making other plans.

 

[Annihilannic]

VMware Server is freely available as well.

Annihilannic.

 

[QatQat]

Hi Annihilannic,


yes you are correct, and to my knowledge you can host more than one virtual machine but you still have to get an image done using a full license. Am I correct? it is quite an interesting software 'cause we have a license at work that we could use to create images and then run virtual machines on my home pc.
Does it have any other restrictions I am not aware of?

Cheers

QatQat

Life is what happens when you are making other plans.

 

[Annihilannic]

Hi QatQat. I'm not sure what you mean by 'get an image done'? Do you mean to convert a 'real' machine to a VM?

The only restriction I'm aware of (apart from lacking the feature set of their full-blown products such as ESX) is that it is still considered beta software and it has built-in expiry dates, so you need to update it about once a month. They assure us that it will continue to be free once it is out of beta though, this mechanism is just to make sure that beta testers are using recent versions and not reporting old bugs. There is some useful information in the forums on vmware.com.

Annihilannic.

 

[QatQat]

I was under the impression that you could not install a vm from scratch but needed to get a VMWare virtual machine image from (config files and .vmdk files) from a full license.

I will do more research.

QatQat

Life is what happens when you are making other plans.

 

[Annihilannic]

No, it's only the VMware player that you can't create VMs from scratch with.

I recently migrated my Linux box from an old P-233 to a VM on my XP box for convenience using VMware Server... very happy with it, and one less box under the desk.

Annihilannic.

 

[QatQat]

Cool to know,

thanks a lot.


QatQat

Life is what happens when you are making other plans.