Re: [Xen-users] PXE installation of domU

["Andrew D. Ball" <aball@xxxxxxxxxx>]

OpenSuSE's YaST2 has some domU installation support already, but it does
not use PXE.  PXE makes lots of sense for hardware assisted full
virtualization.  I actually plan to work on this shortly, it's a fun
assignment that hopefully won't be incredibly difficult.  I believe
people have succesfully used PXE from QEMU using things like the netboot
project [I want a full PXE environment with UNDI].

Having virtual block devices modelled as partitions instead of whole
disks, or at least decoupling domU kernels from domU root filesystems
[especially /lib/modules] makes life interesting, especially for
upgrading domU's.  It's initially harder to deal with full disk virtual
block devices for things like reading the domU kernel while loading a
domU, but I think the initial cost would be worth it, given the
complexities of interactions between domU kernels and kernel modules
with the current setup.  Hopefully I'm missing something here.

Regards.
Andrew D. Ball
aball@xxxxxxxxxx

On Wed, 2005-12-14 at 19:46 -0800, Brian Lavender wrote:
> On Tue, 2005-12-13 at 12:22 -0800, Kevin Fox wrote:
> > Is there a way to support the execution of a PXE installation on a newly
> > created domU?
> 
> Do you mean to do an installation? I don't think you need the pxe boot.
> You just need to boot the kernel and the ramdisk for the installer? Only
> thing is you will have to use a Xen kernel, and then you will have to go
> into the ramdisk and replace the modules with the modules for the Xen
> kernel.
> 
> Next problem I can think of is when you go to partition the disk. I am
> not sure what would happen there. I wonder if you export a partition if
> the installer will format it? 
> 
> Then it's going to have to install the Xen kernel into the VM at the
> finish of install. 
> 
> But it would be cool to have an installer that would install a VM.
> 
> brian


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