Hi Chuck, Please keep the discussion on the list, that way other might be able to help as well. On 08/03/2010 05:17 PM, Chuck Davis wrote:

Thanks Robert. Let's take it a step at a time and I don't care if it takes a month (well I do but I don't -- I need to learn this technology). I don't want to user VirtualBox because I read an article recently that it is a dead-end product. So I'm learning Xen if I can or KVM (if Xen doesn't work).

I use KVM, thus I can only help on a limited basis with Xen.

1) Do I need to install another instance of openSuse into a domU after dom0 is running on a regular install booted into Xen kernel?

Yes, dom0 is the hypervisor. The nice thing about installing openSUSE and then adding Xen is that the hypervisor (dom0) is also fully functional as basically all parts of the distro are installed. Each virtual machine (domU) needs an install of an OS.

2) Once Xen is installed how do I create a vif? I tried in the virtual machine manger but I get a message that the virtual manager does not support defining storage and interfaces. If the manager does not yet work but the interface must be defined I can find the command in "Book of Xen".

I do not know the command or the setup, you will need to consult the documentation, or maybe someone else on the list can jump in here.

If 1) is "Yes" how can I use 11.3 dvd to install? I've tried about 6 times (defining installation source as dvd) but always fails because it cannot access something or cannot find a kernel.

The cannot find the kernel problem may be a bug. There was I believe an order change somewhere that might cause this. Hopefully someone else on the list has more information or has tested this in some way and can respond here. Just to test things out you can go to susestudio.com and set up a Xen domU image with openSUSE 11.2 (openSUSE 11.3 is not yet available). Download the image and fire it up. This should give you an idea how everything is supposed to work together.

My preference is to use a physical protocol to a partition on the hard drive where "disk" is defined.

So far everything I've tried has failed.

My experimental hardware: AMD Phenom 4x, Asus Crosshair MB, 300 gig SATA hd, 8G memory. OpenSuse runs like a bandit. Even windows 7 installed separately runs well. The MB has a Marvell NIC. Installing Xen appears to build the bridge successfully but networking no longer works from openSuse host

Some investigation using YaST should help you to get this fixed. The bridge needs to be configured to bind to a certain network interface, eth0 or other. NetworkManager needs to be off as it doesn't deal with bridges. Then configure the bridge with your network settings. HTH, Robert

nor can I configure using virtualization manager as discussed above.

Thanks much for your assistance.

Chuck

On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 1:05 PM, Robert Schweikert <rschweikert@novell.com> wrote:

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On 08/03/2010 03:41 PM, Chuck Davis wrote:

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Hi Robert:

Thanks for your interest.

First, do I need to reinstall openSuse again using the virtualization manager? Following info in "Book of Xen" I tried to do it but if I choose "I have a disk with installed..." it vomits. If I indicate I need to install an OS it vomits on ALL the repositories.

Sorry, I do not follow you on this one. Not sure how repositories come into play here.

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It also will not install from the dvd because it does not find a kernel. I decided this evening I will download the *.iso image and see if it will do anything with that.

I don't have a problem with Xen dom0 working. That's a piece of cake. I just can't do anything with it! Does installing and running Xen (i.e. openSuse builds the bridge) not create a vif windows can find?

No. The bridge is in dom0 and allows VMs to connect to the network. However, if no virtual network interface is setup inside the VM than there is no network. I do not know how to do this in Xen, sorry, but I would expect that virt-manager or the Xen GUI have some kind of option to set this up. Alternatively you can set this up in the NAME.xenconfig file.

Robert

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I will go grab the document at the link you provided.

Many thanks.

Chuck

On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 10:00 AM, Robert Schweikert <rschweikert@novell.com> wrote:

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On 08/03/2010 12:20 PM, Chuck Davis wrote:

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I'm entirely new to virtualization. Xen install on 11.3 does not appear to work. I bought a couple of books but haven't figured out what to do yet since openSuse does not appear to do a complete install.

I want to run 11.3 and windows 7 on the same machine (windows is required at work).

This should work with Xen. However, you might find using VirtualBox a bit easier.

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In the "Book of Xen" the author installs CentOS, then Xen, then a virtualized version of CentOS. Does one need to install the Xen host (in this case openSuse 11.3) again as a virtual machine? If so, why does openSuse not have the defaults required to do so? It selects one of the defined repositories but the install will not happen because defaults are incorrect. Is there a way to successfully install openSuse on itself again?

There certainly is. First you will need to have a host, aka dom0. So on your machine you want to fist complete a regular install of openSUSE 11.3. Once this is complete in the software manager install the kernel-xen package. Alternatively in YaST you can simply select "Install Hypervisor an Tools". This will install everything you need.

When everything is installed you will need to reboot the machine and select the Xen kernel in the grub menu. Now you have your hypervisor, or dom0 running.

With virtmanager you can now create virtual machines and pretty much install most OSs.

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When I try to install windows it gets nearly finished then craps out because it can't find a virtual interface. It appears when I install Xen that the bridge is created but obviously windows can't find it and neither can I access the network from host openSuse anymore; get an error "Network unreachable".

This is most likely due to the fact that no virtual network device is configured in the VM.

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Is it possible to get this combination to work? I'd like to have both environments running on my desktop.

Thanks for any assistance or a pointer to a document explaining how to do it.

The xen-doc-{html,pdf} package should have the information you need to know to get things working, including networking etc.

This may also be helpful: http://www.novell.com/documentation/vmserver/

HTH, Robert -- Robert Schweikert MAY THE SOURCE BE WITH YOU Software Engineer Consultant LINUX rschweikert@novell.com 781-464-8147

Novell Making IT Work As One -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

-- Robert Schweikert MAY THE SOURCE BE WITH YOU Software Engineer Consultant LINUX rschweikert@novell.com 781-464-8147

Novell Making IT Work As One

-- Robert Schweikert MAY THE SOURCE BE WITH YOU Software Engineer Consultant LINUX rschweikert@novell.com 781-464-8147 Novell Making IT Work As One -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org