[Xen-devel] Re: Xen with RedHat 9 and 7.3 images working concurrently

[Ian P. <Ian...@cl...>]

> I was wondering how I would go about getting it working with
> RedHat 7.3?  I'm interested in having RedHat 9 and 7.3 images
> working concurrently for testing purposes.


The easiest way to do a joint RH7.3 and RH9 setup is install
each Linux version on different hard disk partitions, each with
their own swap etc. Use Grub as the boot loader.

Pick one of the installations as the one that you'll initially
boot in to (what we call 'domain0').

On that partition, install the Xen (image.gz) and Xen-Linux
kernel (xenolinux.gz) in the /boot directory. You can get these
from either the demo CD (/usr/boot/) or the binary tar ball
(install/boot).

Add an /etc/grub.conf menu option something like the following:

title Xen / XenoLinux 2.4.22
     kernel /boot/image.gz dom0_mem=131072 
     module /boot/xenolinux.gz root=/dev/hda1 ro console=tty0 console=xencons0

Selecting this image on boot will boot xen, then start linux
using the nominated partition as root. The 'dom0_mem' line
selects the maximum amount of memory that domain0 will be
allocated.

The system should boot into your chosen version of redhat just
fine.

The next step is to boot another domain running the other
installation of Linux. We can use the same on disk kernel image
for this.
You'll need to install the 'domain control' tools from the
/usr/local/bin directory of the CD, or the install/bin directory
from the build tar ball.

You'll need to edit the /etc/xenctl file depending on what IP
address you want the new domain to have, and what partition you
want it to use. Alternatively, you can set all these paramerters
on the "xenctl domain new" command line.

Next, you'll need to grant the new domain access to the physical
partition(s) that it is to use e.g. 

 xenctl physical grant -phda2 -w -n1

...to give read/write access to /dev/hda2 to domain 1 (domain
numbers are allocated sequentially). Remember to also grant
access to the swap partion if you've configured one.

Then, you can start the domain with "xenctl domain start -n1".
If you've previously run xen_read_console you should be able to
see your new domain booting.  You should then be able to ssh into
your new domain!

To make all the xenctl commands more convenient you can create a
xenctl script -- see /etc/xen-mynewdom

Apologies for the documentation being rather scant, but we're
slowly working on it. 

Thanks,
Ian



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