Topic: How to install SME 7.3 under Xen virtualization.

[SoftDux]

SME and xen are completely compatible.  That is how I do all my testing.  There are also a few other testers that are using xen installs of sme. 

Would you mind giving us a howto on how to install Xen on SME 7.3 & then install SME 8.0 or any other OS on it?

[cactus]

Would you mind giving us a howto on how to install Xen on SME 7.3 & then install SME 8.0 or any other OS on it?

I think we need to be a bit clearer, you will have to setup a Xen host (dom0 I believe) by installing a Linux OS of your choice, I would go for CentOS. Once the Xen environment is configured you can install SME Server into this environment as a guest OS, you can not use SME Server to host a Xen environment and install other OS-es in it, the Xen kernel on the CD is a Xen kernel, which knows how to behave in a Xen environment, it does know how to provide such an environment AFAIK

[SoftDux]

not according to slords' post. I understand that he's got Xen running on top of SME, which he then uses for testing purposes.

Even if the default SME kernel doesn't have Xen support, one should be able to use a standard CentOS 4.6 kernel with Xen support, since SME doesn't do mods to the kernel, but use what the upstram provider supplies

[compdoc]

There is a xen kernel for SME 7.3. I use the free citrix xencenter express edition, which has a Windows GUI very much like vmware's server. It runs on IVT or AMD-V hardware, and allows vm's to run automatically at boot, so its a true VM server. It allows you to import & export the vm's, and clone them.

It uses templates to load the OS, or you can load with a CD using the 'Other Install Media' template. The OS templates load using urls that contain the install tree, and automatically selects the correct (xen) kernel, etc when it loads.

For SME 7.3, I selected the Centos 4.6 template, and then pasted the following site into the Install Url in the Location section:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/smeserver/releases/7/smeos/i386/

I gave it 512 megs ram, and 8 gigs of storage. 

Loading an OS over the web is a bit slower, but when its finished you'll have a xen-aware VM. You will still have to install xs-tools when its done, but thats simple...

I backed up my stand-alone SME box and restored it to the VM, and I'm just running down the tweaks I've done that arent working (that werent transferred in the backup). But it runs very much faster than it used to.

My next project is to transfer my trixbox server to VM, and then I can shut off two servers...

[cactus]

not according to slords' post. I understand that he's got Xen running on top of SME, which he then uses for testing purposes.

Nope you have understood that wrong, slords wrote this:

SME and xen are completely compatible.  That is how I do all my testing.  There are also a few other testers that are using xen installs of sme. 

As he states some users, including slords self, is using XEN installs of SME Server, not XEN installs on SME Server.

[maaraujo]

I've tried to follow the suggestions on this post without success.

What I've done:

CentOS 5.3 with Xen up and running, with 2 DomU CentOS 5.3 paravirtualized guests (one for scripts testing and the other one for a trouble ticket system), enough RAM for more VMs.

Downloaded smeserver-7.4-i386.iso on /img.
Loopback mounted on /mnt
# mount /img/smeserver-7.4-i386.iso /mnt -o loop

Create a VM with virt-manager (GUI) or virt-install
# virt-install --paravirt --name hermes --ram 1024 --file /dev/vg0/hermes --nographics --location /mnt

hermes in an empty LVM volume.

If I replace "/mnt" with http://distro/.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/smeserver/releases/7/iso/i386 to do a network install, I invariably receive the same message: "Could not find an installable distribution".

I know this is not a bug as SME has been stated to work perfectly with Xen.

Would someone please point me in the right direction?

Regards,
Miguel Angel Araujo

[compdoc]

is that a typo, or are you really trying to open:

http://distro/.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/smeserver/releases/7/iso/i386

Paste that into a browser and see what you get.

[maaraujo]

It's a typo.

[cactus]

Downloaded smeserver-7.4-i386.iso on /img.
Loopback mounted on /mnt
# mount /img/smeserver-7.4-i386.iso /mnt -o loop

AFAIK you do not need to mount the iso, have a look at the command switches of virt-install and you will see the -f/--filename option:

Code: [Select]

  -f DISKFILE, --file=DISKFILE
                        File to use as the disk image

I know this is not a bug as SME has been stated to work perfectly with Xen.

Although installation might need some tweaks AFAIK.

[maaraujo]

From man virt-install, the -f/--filename option is "Path to the file, disk partition, or logical volume to use as the backing store for the guest’s virtual disk."

Do you mean the --location option?

[cactus]

From man virt-install, the -f/--filename option is "Path to the file, disk partition, or logical volume to use as the backing store for the guest’s virtual disk."

Oops... my mistake.

Do you mean the --location option?

No, from the same man page (I had to take a second look as I have not installed from ISO a long time, as I have a local mirror that I can use):

Code: [Select]

       -l LOCATION, --location=LOCATION
           Installation source for guest virtual machine kernel+initrd pair.
           This is required for paravirtualized guests. Fully virtualized
           guests must use either "--location" to specify a kernel+initrd, or
           the "--cdrom" parameter to specify an ISO/CDROM image. The
           "LOCATION" can take one of the following forms:

           DIRECTORY
               Path to a local directory containing an installable
               distribution image

           nfs:host:/path
               An NFS server location containing an installable distribution
               image

           http://host/path
               An HTTP server location containing an installable distribution
               image

           ftp://host/path
               An FTP server location containing an installable distribution
               image

According to this it should be the -c/--cdrom switch:

Code: [Select]

       -c CDROM, --cdrom=CDROM
           File to use a virtual CD-ROM device for fully virtualized guests.
           It can be path to an ISO image, or to a CDROM device. It can also
           be a URL from which to fetch/access a minimal boot ISO image. The
           URLs take the same format as described for the "--location"
           argument. If this parameter is omitted then the "--location"
           argument must be given to specify a location for the kernel and
           initrd, or the "--pxe" argument used to install from the network.


[maaraujo]

The --cdrom switch is for "fully virtualized guests", my server's CPU doesn't have hardware assisted virtualization support, so I have to use paravirtualization.