Re: [Xen-users] Linux distributions supported by Xen as PVM domUs

[Steven Timm <timm@xxxxxxxx>]

It was certainly possible to run earlier versions than rhel4.5/centos4.5
if you downloaded the kernel tarballs from xen.org that were current
at the time.  I still have some xen 3.0.2 installations that are running
rhel4 update 2.  But the native xen kernel and all the redhat goodies
such as virt-install won't work with anything older than 4.5/5.0.

Two other points--if you can get your hands on version 5, update 2
of redhat or centos it is a lot more stable than 5.0 or 5.1 were.
Also, don't believe everything you see in Redhat's version string.
The rpm says xen 3.03 but when it boots the version string says 3.1.2.

Just about any 2.6 kernel and underlying OS can be run paravirtualized if 
you are a smart
enough kernel hacker.  I don't know of anyone who has done 
paravirtualization with linux host and freebsd or opensolaris domu's but
that doesn't mean it can't be done.

Steve

On Mon, 19 Jan 2009, Jason Voorhees wrote:

> Hi:
>
> Reading Red Hat's Website and a printed manual of RH184 (Red Hat
> Virtualization course) I see that RHEL 5 only supports RHEL 4.5 and
> RHEL 5 as paravirtualized guests. So I asume this is the same
> situation for CentOS 5, right?
>
> What's the dependency between Xen versions for paravirtualized guests?
> I ask this questions because I got this experiences:
>
> 1. Running CentOS 5 as Dom0
> - RHEL 4.5/CentOS 4.5 paravirtualized install, boot and works OK.
> - RHEL 5/CentOS 5 paravirtualized install, boot and works OK.
> - OpenSuSE 11 doesn't boot xen kernel.
>
> 2. Running OpenSuSE 11 as Dom0
> - RHEL 4.5 or RHEL 5 installs correctly but doesn't boot. I got errors.
>
> I don't have error messages right now (but I can get them if asked)
> but I see a common difference: RHEL 4.5/RHEL5 and OpenSuSE have
> different Xen versions. Also OpenSuSE uses domUloader (or something
> like that) as boot manager instead of pygrub (or are they the same
> thing?)
>
> So the final question is: What are the requirements to run a
> paravirtualized operating system? Are they fully dependent on Xen
> version?
> I would like to run different Linux distros paravirtualized, maybe
> Opensolaris or FreeBSD. Is it possible?
>
> Thanks, bytes!
>
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--
------------------------------------------------------------------
Steven C. Timm, Ph.D  (630) 840-8525
timm@xxxxxxxx  http://home.fnal.gov/~timm/
Fermilab Computing Division, Scientific Computing Facilities,
Grid Facilities Department, FermiGrid Services Group, Assistant Group Leader.

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