Re: [Xen-users] I'm looking for the right distribution to run Xen

[Boris Derzhavets <bderzhavets@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- On Wed, 2/4/09, Thomas Goirand <thomas@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: Thomas Goirand <thomas@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Xen-users] I'm looking for the right distribution to run Xen
To:
Cc: xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wednesday, February 4, 2009, 8:47 AM

Marc wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> we'll start virtualization with Xen in our company and we're
looking for the
> right distribution. The most important Servers in DomUs are working with a
> MS OS (Win2000/2003/2008). I've read something about to accelerate
Windows
> with paravirtual drivers in some distributions. Other distributions have
> specific tools to install and support DomUs. And now I'm
 really
confused.

You are mistaking. The drivers are to be installed in Windows, not in
the dom0. You shall use the GPLPV drivers (the URL has been written here
MANY times).

> I need a distribution to run fast and stable Windows Servers. It should be
> easy to do the daily administration job for an experienced Linux system
> administrator. The distribution should support the hardware in an HP
> ProLiant ML350 G5 (Intel Xeon) with Raid 5 and shouldn't waste
hardware
> performance.
> 
> Is there a distribution that fulfills these requirements?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Marc

ANY distribution would do. Xen is just a modified Linux kernel, with a
layer on top of it (to make things simple). As in all distributions you
can make a custom kernel yourself, you can use ANY distribution. Your
problem is more to know if the current Xen compatible kernels can
support
 your hardware. 

Currently, Xen is available with the following
kernels version: 2.6.18, 2.6.26 (patch from Suse, 
also included in Debian) and 2.6.27. 

**************************************************************************************
Are you saying that Suse's Xen patch is included in stable
2.6.27 at kernel.org ?

# git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-2.6.27.y.git
# cd linux-2.6.27.y
# make menuconfig

Didn't provide me an option for Xen Dom0 support.

Just Xen DomU support as for previous versions.
Maybe wrong kernel has been taken ?

I was able to get Suse's kernel only via :-
# hg clone http://xenbits.xensource.com/ext/linux-2.6.27-xen.hg

**************************************************************************************



Note that only kernel 2.6.18 is officially supported
by upstream currently,
 and that Xen dom0 support is said to be available
in the kernel.org kernels only in the next 2.6.29
**************************************************************************************************************
This kernel,finally, may or may not support pv_ops in Dom0 :-

root@ServerUbuntu:/boot# file vmlinuz-2.6.27.5
vmlinuz-2.6.27.5: gzip compressed data, from Unix, last modified: Thu Jan 29 06:54:29 2009, max compression

root@ServerUbuntu:/boot# file vmlinuz-2.6.29-rc3-tip
vmlinuz-2.6.29-rc3-tip: Linux kernel x86 boot executable RO-rootFS, root_dev 0x811, swap_dev 0x2, Normal VGA

For now i am just unable to load the last kernel under Xen Unstable on the box with
standard Intel AHCI SATA Controller, first one works pretty smoothly (it's xen-ified).
**************************************************************************************************************


(but nobody can tell if this will happen
 or not for this version, it's just hopes that the
patches will be accepted).

I hope that helps.

Thomas


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