Re: [Xen-users] HVM and physical VDBs

[Steve Dobbelstein <steved@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Mathieu Guillaume <mat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote on 05/24/2006 08:07:06 AM:

> I recently got my hands on a VMX-supporting processor and I've been
> trying to install different OSes.
> I managed to get a Windows XP guest working in HVM mode (with SDL, VNC
> gives me messed up input) but I'm having issues with the install on the
> linux guest.
>
> Until that's fixed, I'm setting up the linux guest as a paravirtualized
> host. I'm using a physical device (lvm volume) as my main partition like
> this:
> ['phy:/dev/Guests/Guest1,sda1,w']
>
> If I want to migrate this system later to a HVM guest, can I keep this
> same partition? If so, how would I go about it? My understanding is that
> the ioemu system we need for the hardware virtualization emulates disks,
> while paravirtualized hosts use partitions, but it's still all pretty
> obscure to me.

For a paravirtualized domain the physical device contains the root file
system and hence can appear as a partition (e.g., sda1) in the domU.  Xen
does the loading of the kernel; all the domU needs is a device with the
root file system.

For an HVM domain the physical device contains the boot *disk* which
contains everything a normal Linux system needs to boot -- a boot loader, a
partition table, a partition that contains /boot with the kernel and initrd
(if used) and a root file system (or the root file system can be in another
partition), and any other partitions as desired (such as one for /home).

Creating the boot disk on the physical device can be tricky.  See
http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/InstallGuestImage for some starting tips
on how to create one.

Steve D.


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