Coretanium » Xen

Adding an ISO repository on XenServer 5.5

admin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 09:38:24 +0000

In order to do advanced installs or installations where there are no templates under XenCenter and you wish to use your own custom ISO images, you can add an ISO repository. The following steps outlines what needs to be done;

mkdir -p /var/opt/xen/iso_import

Copy your ISO image to this directly, but be careful as the control domain filesystem has limited space and if this fills up, unpredictable behaviour will follow.

Next up you need to create the repository by running

xe sr-create name-label=ISOs type=iso device-config:location=/var/opt/xen/iso_import device-config:legacy_mode=true content-type=iso

You need to mount the new repository so it’s available on XenCenter

xe-mount-iso-sr /var/opt/xen/iso_import

You can now proceed to create your VM using the ISO repository you just added.

Debian xenserver updates apt repository missing GPG key

admin — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 06:34:46 +0000

After you’ve installed XenTools on your VM and you try to do a apt-get update you are greeted with a GPG error message saying that the repository isn’t trusted. This is because the GPG key Citrix use to sign their packages has not been added to the apt keyring.

To fix it, run;

wget -q http://updates.vmd.citrix.com/XenServer/5.5.0/GPG-KEY -O- | apt-key add —

error: xenconsole: Could not open tty `/dev/pts/2': No such file or directory

admin — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 06:26:39 +0000

Error: xenconsole: Could not open tty `/dev/pts/2′: No such file or directory

Check whether xenconsoled is running, if not;

/etc/init.d/xend start

xenconsoled

PTY allocation request failed on channel 0

admin — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:58:47 +0000

After creating a new VM on Debian Lenny, I got the following when trying to ssh into the DomU;

PTY allocation request failed on channel 0

stdin: is not a tty

Run the following to fix the issue;

apt-get install udev

Xen on Debian Etch

admin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:53:47 +0000

I’ve been testing out a few virtualization systems and am sofar very pleased with Xen. Installing on Debian Etch couldn’t be easier and it worked straight out the box – I had my first virtual server running in under 15 minutes flat!

Use the following commands to install Xen on a Debian Etch machine:

apt-get install xen-linux-system-2.6.18-4-xen-686 libc6-xen bridge-utils

This will install the Xen kernel (2.6.18-5-xen-686 #1 SMP), the libc6-xen libraries which is optimized for the Xen hypervisor and the utilities for configuring the Linux ethernet bridge.

Next up is a reboot into your newly installed kernel:

reboot

Once the machine is back online you need to install the xen-tools package which allows you easily create new guest Xen domains on your Debian Etch host:

apt-get install xen-tools

Next, modify the Xen config file (/etc/xen/xend-config.sxp) and enable:

(network-script network-bridge)

You also need to modify /etc/xen-tools/xen-tools.conf to set kernel and initrd parameters as well as the disk and sizing options for your vistual servers.

You can easily find out what your kernel and initrd image is named by typing:

ls /boot/vmlinuz* /boot/initrd*

This will list the kernel and initrd names for your system. Remember, your after the xen kernel and initrd images!

/boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-5-xen-686

/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-5-xen-686

Continue and edit the xen-tools configuration file

vi /etc/xen-tools/xen-tools.conf

#
# Default kernel and ramdisk to use for the virtual servers
#
kernel = /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-5-xen-686
initrd = /boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-5-xen-686

dir = /data/vservers
debootstrap = 1
gateway   = 172.16.0.1
netmask   = 255.255.255.0

size   = 6Gb
memory = 256Mb
swap   = 256Mb
fs     = ext3
dist   = etch
image  = sparse

Next, create the directory where your virtual servers will reside:

mkdir -p /data/vservers/domains

Now your ready to create your first virtual server! Use the following command to create it:

xen-create-image -hostname=dns -ip=172.16.0.25 -passwd

It will take a minute or two to create the virtual server after which you can fire it up by using:

xm create dns.cfg

Your virtual server should be started up and ready for you to use.. You can either ssh to the IP you created the server with or attach to it from the host using:

xm console dns

Have fun with your Xen virtual machine!