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Fedora 11 Xen hypervisor package contains pv_ops dom0 kernel support, ie. it is able to boot bzImage format dom0 kernels, and pv_ops sysfs memory ballooning support is included as well. These features/patches are backported from Xen 3.4 development/unstable version to Fedora’s Xen 3.3.x. Our current target is to add two more change sets from Xen Unstable as patches to F11 xen-3.3.1-11.fc11.src.rpm to provide Xen 3.3.1 Dom0 support for OpenSolaris and Nevada PV Guests with images utilizing the most recent Sun ZFS

Fedora 11 Xen hypervisor package contains pv_ops dom0 kernel support, ie. it is able to boot bzImage format dom0 kernels, and pv_ops sysfs memory ballooning support is included as well. These features/patches are backported from Xen 3.4 development/unstable version to Fedora’s Xen 3.3.1. Xen-3.3.1-11.fc11.src.rpm may be rebuilt on F10 with the most recent updates installed. Obtained set of RPMS allow to install Xen 3.3.1 Hypervisor on F10,having same features as on F11, what was, actually, already done by Michael Young and Pasi Kärkkäinen.

To activate this nice new feature on Ubuntu Jaunty Server PV Domu installed at Xen 3.4 Dom0 with pvops enabled kernel i still had to activate traditional VNC to get access to Gnome Destop menu option ...

In general, Xen porting goes as usual . However, attempt to create initial ramdisk for 2.6.18.8-xen kernel fails due to known bug for mkinitrd in RHEL 5.3. Undocumented option <--allow-missing> provides a workaround to succeed with mkinitrd for xen-inified kernel. To port Xen 3.4-rc3-pre to xen disabled CentOS 5.3 instance (64 bit) install the most recent version of git and mercurial (hg).

This posting follows up recent discussion at xen-users mailing list regarding functionality of virt-install and virt-manager after Gitco’s Xen 3.3.1 Hypervisor Upgrade on CentOS 5.3(2). Via the posting bellow i try to demonstrate that Gitco’s upgrade of libvirt-python, python-virtinst,qemu packages and Xen Hypervisor itself seems to be a nice job with no serious issues keeping libvirt and virt-install (virt-manager) utility pretty stable at runtime. I also state that suggestion of use xen-tools & rinse on Xen Systems with libvirt abilities doesn’t look to me right way to manage vs utilizing debootstrap on Debian and Ubuntu Xen hosts, providing libvirt for the KVM only.

Posting bellow describes building Xen Unstable Dom0 with 2.6.29-tip pvops enabled kernel on top Ubuntu Intrepid Server (64-bit) with VNC setup for remote access via Gnome Desktop to Dom0. Fedora 10,CentOS 5.2, Solaris Nevada (b106), opensolaris 2008.11 PV DomUs have been successfully tested to run VNC sessions initiated via gnome terminals running at remote Dom0 desktop.

The most recent changes to Xen Unstable now allow to load Solaris Nevada and opensolaris 2008.11 PV DomUs with ZFS image via pygrub. Actually, Xen Unstable Dom0 with Suse’s 2.6.27 xen-ified kernel or standard 2.6.18 kernel will behave the same way.Moreover, install xen-ified kernel seems to be a preferable option due to 2.6.29-rc7 is under heavy development in meantime. My choice of pvops kernel for Dom0 is targeting test purposes first of all.

Due to recent migration Mercurial Repository for XenParavirtOps to Git Repository at kernel.org procedure of obtaining source code from from the Net has been changed. Base platform to start the test was Ubuntu Intrepid Server (64-bit) with Ubuntu Desktop installed via tasksel. Packages required by installation procedure have been installed: openssl,x11(xorg-dev),gettext,python-devel,gitk,git-core.

This posting is targeting install stubdom binaries at Xen-Unstable Dom0 with pv_ops enabled kernel and testing pv-grub and virtual frame buffer functionality in mentioned environment. Setup VNC at Dom0 exactly as on Ubuntu Intrepid Server with Ubuntu Desktop installed via “tasksel” to manage Dom0 remotely via Gnome Desktop interface.

Seems like 2.6.29 will be the first vanilla kernel supporting “pv_ops” in Dom0. Base platform to start the test was Ubuntu Intrepid Server (64-bit) with Ubuntu Desktop installed via tasksel. Packages required by Xen have been installed: openssl,x11,gettext,python-devel.

The root cause for port mentioned above to run 64-bit Solaris 10U6 HVM on SMP box with several vcpus. Install openssl,x11,gettext,python-devel packages required by Xen and bcc&libc6-dev-i386 via Synaptic Manager.The last two packages are needed to compile “hvmloader” and related binaries.

My experience with F10 PV DomU installs via profiles,described in details at recent post Xen 3.3.1rc1-pre port to CentOS 5.2 via http://bits.xensource.com mercurial repos and managing PV DomUs in graphical mode was negative, in regards of not providing an option to utilize local HTTP Mirror (NFS Share).Installer above just activated Xen Ethernet Interface at DomU and with no prompts addressed to Fedora's Internet Repositories,

As appears debootstrap RPM developed for Fedora 9 works fine at Xen 3.3.1 CentOS 5.2 Dom0 and provide an option to create Intrepid Server PV Guest via debootstrapped Ubuntu’s image in RH’s Xen Dom0 environment. Install F9’s rpm then debootstrap would understand non Ubuntu Environment.

I would also name this post xen-image-create&debootstrap vs python-vm-builder in regards of pre-building Xen Guests at Ubuntu Intrepid Server.View Bug #311943 at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu for details. Install Intrepid Server Dom0 with Novell’s Xen-ified kernel, enabling Dom0 and DomU support at a time. Tune xen-tools scripts and create Intrepid PV DomU. Actually, images been created via xen-create-image allow to upgrade DomU to real Intrepid Server PV DomU

This posting, in general, follows up Clayton Shepard's “Howto Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex 8.10 Xen Dom0". However, several things went different. First, i had to disable XFS Support building Novell’s kernel, otherwise build just failed with error. Second, i still had to comment out "xen" bridging initiated via /etc/xen/xend-config.sxp and manually add the bridge to /etc/network/interfaces configuration file. I didn’t take care of "xvc0" and used virtual frame buffer when tested CentOS 5.2 PV DomU and Ubuntu Intrepid Server HVM and PV DomUs at Xen 3.3.0 Intrepid Server Dom0 based on Novell's kernel

Attempting to reproduce How-To: Run Xen in Ubuntu Intrepid without compiling a Kernel by yourself from blog Chris’ World , i had to disable any xen bridge definitions inside /etc/xen/xend-config.sxp and manually add the bridge to /etc/network/interfaces configuration file. Otherwise, i wouldn’t be able get xen-bridging network running with debian 2.6.26-1-xen-amd64 kernel under Xen 3.3 Interpid Hypervisor installed on the system via Synaptic Manager.

Been creating Intrepid (lbex) HVM image,supposed to be loaded as PV DomU, i’ve got an issue with default LVM partitioning been done by Ubuntu Intrepid Server. Image been created may be easily loaded at Xen 3.3.X Dom0 via traditional xm-profile by not via “pygrub” or “pv-grub”, expecting /boot partition not of LVM’s type. Up on creating Intrepid HVM image, boot partition and LVM , containing “/” filesystem and swap partition have been setup

Xen 3.3.1-RC3 contains fix for bug SMP 64bit Solaris10u5 cause Xen crash RC3 & RC4 handle running mentioned 64-bit HVM with 2 vcpus (C2D box) , what causes openSUSE 11.1 Xen Host to reboot . Xen 3.3.1 openSUSE 11.1 host may run 64-bit S10U6 HVM with vcpus=1 only. Current build of Solaris Nevada (104) also allows only 1 vcpu for 64-bit S10U6 HVM Guest.

Recently Fred Oliver suggested an interesting patches to install Ubuntu Intrepid Server PV DomU at opensolaris 2008.11 (xvm 3.1.4) Dom0 on AMD Opteron based boxes, but not Intel. It appears that well known workaround helping to install mentioned PV DomU at Xen 3.3 Linux Dom0s may be successfully used to apply Fred's patches on Core2Duo based boxes without any virt-install involvement. In general, same technique should work also for RHEL 5.1 , F8 native Dom0s ( xen bits 3.1.2)

The most recent "Howto" mentioned in headline has been published about one week or latter then another one Installing Opensolaris 2008.11 RC2 on a Linux (RedHat/Centos) dom0