Topic: Xen Virtual Machine Monitor GPL alternative to VMWare GSX

[guest22]

Recently Garret mentioned using Xen ( http://www.xensource.com )as a VMM environment for Virtual SME installs. Interesting...

Does anybody have more knowledge / hints / tips / how-tos on this subject?

I played a bit with the Xen 2.0.5 tarball, but it fails a 100% install. Matters that popped up where:
- Grub
- Twisted

But then again, I am just starting to learn a bit about the conceptual level of things. Let alone the technical and hands-on stuff

Thanks for sharing.[/url]

[guest22]

Anybody have any interest to share or take a look at this promising technology. (although it has status robust)

guest

[dmac]

Are you installing Xen on the SME server, or is your intent to run SME inside Xen.  In the user manual, http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/Research/SRG/netos/xen/readmes/user/#SECTION02110000000000000000 it refers to installing Xen on a stripped down Debian.  I would be interested in running this, but have run out of systems to work on.  I'll try to build a test system and install.

Darin

[guest22]

Are you installing Xen on the SME server, or is your intent to run SME inside Xen.

I am trying to install Xen on SME Server. Maybe not the most wise thing to do, but next to the little diskspace overhead, many services could be disabled to mae SME Server as 'dumb' as possible.

Main reason is that I want to reuse my knowledge of SME Server and not have a learning curve on another OS. If I have this working, then I can install another OS as a guest host and mess that up

So looking at things, I believe I need the kernel sources and adjust the kernel config to meet the Xen requierements. Get Grub installed and running and grab some other small things to have a proof of concept going. Maybe 1 day we could have an RPM that will install the customized SME Kernel, fix any dependencies. Reboot and select 'Xen SME Server'.

Want to join this small 'project'? Appreciate any feedback, Thanks!

guest

[duncan]

Its hardly an alternative to GSX Server. Pricewise it might be attractive, but it wont do microsoft enviroments.

[guest22]

Its hardly an alternative to GSX Server. Pricewise it might be attractive, but it wont do microsoft enviroments.

Well, I do not need windows so to me it is an alternative to VMWare GSX But then again windows is listed on the Xen roadpath.

For anybody that is interested what Xen exactly is, please visit www.xensource.com or their community pages at http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/Research/SRG/netos/xen/
The Xen FAQ: http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenFaq

guest

[guest22]

Anybody else interested in this little 'project'?

'SME Server 7.0 as Xen host to host multiple copies of SME Server 7.0, 6.x'


Objective(s)
- Figure out what is required to run Xen on SME Server 7.x
- Figure out what (kernel) changes a guest SME Server needs
- Package them nicely into RPM's

It would be great to have a "Xen-SME Server" (see this link for a nice Xen usage example: www.unixshell.com , NO commercial intention here)

"Xen is developed to operate and perform like mainframe servers on commodity Intel and AMD servers. Xen is currently in use at companies such as IBM, HP, RedHat, Novell, and Los Alamos National Laboratory as a replacement for aging mainframe systems. Performance of Xen is very good with very little overhead for the virtualization layer, with the worst case being 8% and average overhead being 2%. Xen currently supports running Linux, Plan 9, NetBSD, and FreeBSD servers."

For those that never heard of Xen;

-----
Modern computers are sufficiently powerful to use virtualization to present the illusion of many smaller virtual machines (VMs), each running a separate operating system instance. Successful partitioning of a machine to support the concurrent execution of multiple operating systems poses several challenges. Firstly, virtual machines must be isolated from one another: it is not acceptable for the execution of one to adversely affect the performance of another. This is particularly true when virtual machines are owned by mutually untrusting users. Secondly, it is necessary to support a variety of different operating systems to accommodate the heterogeneity of popular applications. Thirdly, the performance overhead introduced by virtualization should be small.

Xen is a virtual machine monitor for x86 that supports execution of multiple guest operating systems with unprecedented levels of performance and resource isolation. Xen is Open Source software, released under the terms of the GNU General Public License. We have a fully functional ports of Linux 2.4 and 2.6 running over Xen, and regularly use it for running demanding applications like MySQL, Apache and PostgreSQL. Any Linux distribution (RedHat, SuSE, Debian, Mandrake) should run unmodified over the ported OS.
----
(from www.xensource.com )

guest

[guest22]

I really could use some help here guys... please?

guest

[CharlieBrady]

I really could use some help here guys... please?

You got grub instead of lilo in latest 7.0alpha. Now you want more??

[CharlieBrady]

Anybody else interested in this little 'project'?

Sure.

Objective(s)
- Figure out what is required to run Xen on SME Server 7.x

As you pointed out, grub instead of lilo. You've got it, in 7.0alpha15. No pretty splash screen yet.

- Figure out what (kernel) changes a guest SME Server needs

Probably none, except compilation of suitable encryption modules for pptp.

[guest22]

Heya Charlie,

I did not install grub yet due to the lack of physical hardware. Mathias was so kind to lay out the procedure when you have physical hardware, but I am testing on a vmware machine for now. That is why I could not report back yet.

I'll have a go at SME7a15 shortly and Xen since I have now 'confiscated' an old P3's

I'll post back to the bugtracker what I find on basic SME7a15 and right here what I find out about SME7.x and Xen.

I chatted with Garret the other day and mentioned that it would be great to have a SME Server that could handle Xen guest OS's as easy as Ibay's, where Guest OS images are stored in an ibay themselves.

- Create new VM
- Select OS from drop down list
- Select partition (selection build from available resources)
- Enter kernel parameters (maybe choose default set per OS)
- Select wether this VM should start at host boot time or not
- Other fine tuning radio buttons
- Create

The listing of Virtual Machines could have options like reboot, shutdown, start.

Dreaming is fun!

guest

(typo edit)

[guest22]

Ok, I have created initial wiki pages about 'SME Server and the art of Xen '

http://no.longer.valid/phpwiki/index.php/SME%20Server%20as%20Xen%20host%20and%20guest

Everyone is welcome to share their thoughts/work on these pages.

Thanks.

guest

[guest22]

http://no.longer.valid/phpwiki/index.php/SME%20Server%20as%20Xen%20host%20and%20guest

Well I started my own little adventure with this and wrote down my first steps and experiences. It seems that it _should_ be fairly easily possible _IF_ you know what you are doing and I do not...

Anybody want to take a look and see where I go wrong please?

TIA

[KaiNeR]

any updates with this xen-smeserver contrib ? and what happened to the old info about it on the old wiki ?

[perelandra]

Yes! There are some handmade contribs from the famous German IT magazine CT:

http://www.heise.de/ct/Redaktion/ps/downloads.shtml

c't 8/2007, S. 184: Leichter LinuXEN
Xen-taugliche glibc-RPM-Pakete fuer CentOS & Co

gebaut nach einer Anleitung des Department of Mathematics an der The Ohio State University
glibc-2.3.4-2.25.i386.rpm
glibc-common-2.3.4-2.25.i386.rpm
glibc-debuginfo-2.3.4-2.25.i386.rpm
glibc-debuginfo-common-2.3.4-2.25.i386.rpm
glibc-devel-2.3.4-2.25.i386.rpm
glibc-headers-2.3.4-2.25.i386.rpm
glibc-profile-2.3.4-2.25.i386.rpm
glibc-utils-2.3.4-2.25.i386.rpm
nptl-devel-2.3.4-2.25.i386.rpm
nscd-2.3.4-2.25.i386.rpm

Vor dem Download und der Installation bitte prüfen, welche Bibliotheken überhaupt gebraucht werden und ob die Versionen passen (rpm -qa | grep glibc). Das Installieren gelingt etwa mit rpm -U --force glibc-common-2.3.4-2.25.i386.rpm glibc-2.3.4-2.25.i386.rpm. Dadurch verschwinden "4gb fixup"-Meldungen

I think there are people here who can use these contribs and make something from it. It seems a long awaited feature of SME!