Xen

XEN: installation

see notes on Debian wiki
aptitude install xen-linux-image-2.6.32-5-xen-amd64 xen-tools xen-utils
backup /etc/xen/xend-config.sxp
edit /etc/xen/xend-config.sxp, and uncomment line "(network-script network-bridge)" or for a non-default interface ethX:

(network-script 'network-bridge netdev=ethX bridge=xenbr0')

reboot
aptitude remove --purge linux-image-2.6.32-5-amd64 linux-image-2.6-amd64
/etc/default/grub => GRUB_DEFAULT=2
update-grub
reboot
cat /proc/xen/capabilities #(to check xend is running)

XEN: guest creation

If you've a proxy it's much easier to have it defined in the environment variables:
- Edit /etc/environment

http_proxy=http://myproxy:port

- Logout/login
Edit the config file for creating images (/etc/xen-tools/xen-tools.conf) to your needs:

--- xen-tools.conf.orig 2010-05-30 22:42:25.000000000 +0200
+++ xen-tools.conf      2010-08-17 17:47:35.000000000 +0200
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@
 # LVM volume group here instead
 #
 ##
-# lvm = vg0
+lvm = vg0
 
 
 #
@@ -125,12 +125,12 @@
 #  Disk and Sizing options.
 ##
 #
-size   = 4Gb      # Disk image size.
+size   = 8Gb      # Disk image size.
 memory = 128Mb    # Memory size
 swap   = 128Mb    # Swap size
 # noswap = 1      # Don't use swap at all for the new system.
 fs     = ext3     # use the EXT3 filesystem for the disk image.
-dist   = `xt-guess-suite-and-mirror -s` # Default distribution to install.
+dist   = squeeze  # Default distribution to install.
 image  = sparse   # Specify sparse vs. full disk images.
 
 #
@@ -166,7 +166,7 @@
 #
 # Uncomment this if you wish the images to use DHCP
 #
-# dhcp = 1
+dhcp = 1
 
 
 ##
@@ -184,7 +184,7 @@
 # Uncomment the following line if you wish to interactively setup
 # a new root password for images.
 #
-# passwd = 1
+passwd = 1
 
 #
 # If you'd like all accounts on your host system which are not present
@@ -254,10 +254,10 @@
 #
 #  You may specify the things to use here:
 #
-# serial_device = hvc0 #default
+serial_device = hvc0 #default
 # serial_device = tty1
 #
-# disk_device = xvda #default
+disk_device = xvda #default
 # disk_device = sda
 #

Example:

xen-create-image --hostname=myguest1 --memory=1G --swap=1G --vcpus=20
WARNING strangely the default root password was disabled with a '*' in /etc/shadow so impossible to log in. I had to mount manually the lv (/dev/vg0/myguest1-disk) to remove the '*'
One may prefer to setup the password interactively when creating the image with xen-create-image ... --passwd (or setup passwd=1 in /etc/xen-tools/xen-tools.conf as I've now shown in the above diff file)
lvm> lvcreate -L 1000G -n myguest1-data vg0
/etc/xen/myguest1.cfg: add data volume:

root        = '/dev/xvda2 ro'
disk        = [
                  'phy:/dev/vg0/myguest1-disk,xvda2,w',
                  'phy:/dev/vg0/myguest1-swap,xvda1,w',
                  'phy:/dev/vg0/myguest1-data,xvda3,w',
              ]

xm create -c /etc/xen/myguest1.cfg
Hook the data drive as /home
- mkfs.ext4 /dev/xvda3
- In /etc/fstab: /dev/xvda3 /home ext4 noatime,nodiratime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
- mount /home

XEN quickref

Xen Tools, Xen Shell

XEN tuning

If you want xen1.example.com to start automatically at the next boot of the system, then do this (if XENDOMAINS_AUTO=/etc/xen/auto in /etc/default/xendomains):

mkdir -p /etc/xen/auto
ln -s /etc/xen/xen1.example.com.cfg /etc/xen/auto

By default it will attempt to save runing hosts when dom0 is halted. This means a "suspend-to-disk" of all domU in dom0 filesystem (/var/lib/xen/save). To prevent it and do regular shutdown of domU, edit /etc/default/xendomains and change:

#XENDOMAINS_SAVE=/var/lib/xen/save
XENDOMAINS_SAVE=""

Misc notes

Boot & DHCP

I've still sometimes some issues at boot time when the xenbr0 bridge doesn't catch its IP...
In those cases I find dhclient still hooked to the non-existing bnx1 IF (which was renamed pbnx1 by XEN). I've to kill it and start a similar dhclient on IF xenbr0.
Finally I renamed the default interface as eth0 and called the xen bridge script without parameters: (network-script network-bridge)

Allocating too much memory

I tried to create two guests with each 12Gb of RAM while the host had only 16Gb in total. I would have expected a nice handling of the error but it froze xend and I could even not shutdown properly.
And, oh, BTW, no, xen doesn't support memory overcommitment

Xen

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