On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 8:34 AM, Fajar A. Nugraha
On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 8:11 PM, Russ Brewer <
usna78@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> My understanding of para-virtualization is that whichever distro I choose
> for dom0, I am thereafter limited in the variety of domU's I can install.
>
> For example if I use Centos 5.7 for the dom0, I can not use Solaris as a
> domU because of kernel compatibility differences.
Not exactly.
opensolaris (and derivaties/successor, including solaris 11) supports
running as PV domU. The kernel is on /platform/i86xpv/ instead of the
usual /platform/i86pc You might need newer version of xen though
(can't remember the exact version required), and possibly putting
kernel/initrd in dom0 instead of using pygrub.
> But could I use other
> versions of Linux as a domU, such as a recent Fedora? How similar do the
> kernels have to be when using para-virtualization?
As long as domU's kernel can run as PV domU, they should work
regardless of version.
>
> More questions:
> 1) If I use a 64bit Linux distribution for dom0, does the lack of VT-x
> capability in the CPUs limit me to 32bit domU installations of the same
> distro?
64 dom0 (or to be accurate, 64bit hypervisor) can run both 32 and 64bit domU
>
> 2) If I must use 32bit domU installs, uniformity might favor a 32bit Dom0.
> Would a 64bit dom0 running 32bit domU's pose any special problems in
> comparison to a 32bit dom0 running the same 32bit domU installs?
Nope. In fact, you should always use 64bit hypervisor whenever possible.
The dom0 and domU can be 32bit on 64bit, as long as the hypervisor is
64bit. Most distros only supply 64bit hypervisor in 64bit distro
version (and thus, 64bit dom0) though.
>
> 3) When a pre-built kernel is listed in a Linux repository as a "xen"
> kernel, does that mean it can server equally well for dom0 installs as for
> domU installs?
Should be.
--
Fajar
