Mailing List Archive: "disks" -- Not understanding the docs at all

"disks" -- Not understanding the docs at all

Apr 18, 2005, 1:30 PM

Post #1 of 6 (1482 views)

I'm really not following the 'disks' documentation at all.
If anyone could clear things up for me, I would appreciate
it.

I have 2 drives and intend to configure more than 1 domain.

1. sda = Contains Fedora Core 3 + Twisted + iproute2 +
brctl + Xen binary distribution.

sda1 = /
sda2 = swap
sda3 = /tmp
sda5 = /var
sda6 = /data

2. sdb = Contains a fresh install of Fedora Core 3 to
be used for domains, as prompted by the following:

"The first step in creating a new domain is
to prepare a root filesystem for it to boot off.
Typically, this might be stored in a normal
partition, an LVM or other volume manager partition,
a disk file or on an NFS server. A simple way to
do this is simply to boot from your standard OS
install CD and install the distribution into
another partition on your hard drive."

sdb1 = /
sdb2 = swap
sdb3 = /tmp
sdb5 = /var
sdb6 = /data

From here, I completely don't grasp what it is I am supposed
to do.

"disk

Set the first entry in this list to calculate the
offset of the domain's root partition, based on the
domain ID. Set the second to the location of /usr if you
are sharing it between domains (e.g. disk =
['phy:your_hard_drive%d,sda1,w' % (base_partition_number
+ vmid), 'phy:your_usr_partition,sda6,r' ]"

I understand the Python array creation in that and nothing
else :)

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Re: "disks" -- Not understanding the docs at all [ In reply to ]

mark.williamson at cl

Apr 18, 2005, 1:13 PM

Post #2 of 6 (1463 views)

Permalink

> 2. sdb = Contains a fresh install of Fedora Core 3 to
> be used for domains, as prompted by the following:
>
> "The first step in creating a new domain is
> to prepare a root filesystem for it to boot off.
> Typically, this might be stored in a normal
> partition, an LVM or other volume manager partition,
> a disk file or on an NFS server. A simple way to
> do this is simply to boot from your standard OS
> install CD and install the distribution into
> another partition on your hard drive."
>
> sdb1 = /
> sdb2 = swap
> sdb3 = /tmp
> sdb5 = /var
> sdb6 = /data

Try:
disks = ['phy:sdb,sdb,w']

If that doesn't work (I can't remember if exporting whole disks works) then
export the partitions individually:
disks = [ 'phy:sdb1,sdb1,w', 'phy:sdb2,sdb2,w', 'phy:sdb3,sdb3,w' ... and so
on.

> Set the first entry in this list to calculate the> offset of the
domain's root partition, based on the
> domain ID. Set the second to the location of /usr if you
> are sharing it between domains (e.g. disk =
> ['phy:your_hard_drive%d,sda1,w' % (base_partition_number
> + vmid), 'phy:your_usr_partition,sda6,r' ]"
>
> I understand the Python array creation in that and nothing
> else :)

This is a more advanced feature of the comfig files, intended to allow you to
pass an additional variable "vmid" into "xm create" and automatically
generate the disk, network, etc settings for several domains using a single
config file. It's rarely used and for your configuration you should probably
ignore it.

Cheers,
Mark

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Re: "disks" -- Not understanding the docs at all [ In reply to ]

jblaine at mitre

Apr 18, 2005, 1:54 PM

Post #3 of 6 (1457 views)

Permalink

Thanks Mark.

The whole disk naming method did not work. The specific
method did work.

I mknod'd /dev/console and /dev/null to fix the "Warning:
unable to open initial console" message/hang and have
VM1 running now.

Mark Williamson wrote:
>>2. sdb = Contains a fresh install of Fedora Core 3 to
>> be used for domains, as prompted by the following:
>>
>> "The first step in creating a new domain is
>> to prepare a root filesystem for it to boot off.
>> Typically, this might be stored in a normal
>> partition, an LVM or other volume manager partition,
>> a disk file or on an NFS server. A simple way to
>> do this is simply to boot from your standard OS
>> install CD and install the distribution into
>> another partition on your hard drive."
>>
>> sdb1 = /
>> sdb2 = swap
>> sdb3 = /tmp
>> sdb5 = /var
>> sdb6 = /data
>
>
> Try:
> disks = ['phy:sdb,sdb,w']
>
> If that doesn't work (I can't remember if exporting whole disks works) then
> export the partitions individually:
> disks = [. 'phy:sdb1,sdb1,w', 'phy:sdb2,sdb2,w', 'phy:sdb3,sdb3,w' ... and so
> on.
>
>
>> Set the first entry in this list to calculate the> offset of the
>
> domain's root partition, based on the
>
>> domain ID. Set the second to the location of /usr if you
>> are sharing it between domains (e.g. disk =
>> ['phy:your_hard_drive%d,sda1,w' % (base_partition_number
>> + vmid), 'phy:your_usr_partition,sda6,r' ]"
>>
>>I understand the Python array creation in that and nothing
>>else :)
>
>
> This is a more advanced feature of the comfig files, intended to allow you to
> pass an additional variable "vmid" into "xm create" and automatically
> generate the disk, network, etc settings for several domains using a single
> config file. It's rarely used and for your configuration you should probably
> ignore it.
>
> Cheers,
> Mark
>

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RE: "disks" -- Not understanding the docs at all [ In reply to ]

m+Ian.Pratt at cl

Apr 18, 2005, 3:42 PM

Post #4 of 6 (1464 views)

Permalink

> The whole disk naming method did not work. The specific
> method did work.

If you're using a Linux 2.6 dom0 you need to be using 2.0-testing or
xen-unstable for this to work. 2.0.6 will have the fix when it is
relased.

Ian

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Re: "disks" -- Not understanding the docs at all [ In reply to ]

fernando.souto.maior at gmail

Apr 20, 2005, 4:30 AM

Post #5 of 6 (1467 views)

Permalink

Jeff,

You should have a set of separate partitions (/, swap at least) for
each domain. Otherwise, when two or more domains try to write
on swap or any other file inside /, you may have a very bad
situation.

Also, how will you configure /etc files if you have only one /etc
for all domains?

2005/4/18, Ian Pratt <m+Ian.Pratt@cl.cam.ac.uk>:
>
> > The whole disk naming method did not work. The specific
> > method did work.
>
> If you're using a Linux 2.6 dom0 you need to be using 2.0-testing or
> xen-unstable for this to work. 2.0.6 will have the fix when it is
> relased.
>
> Ian
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-users mailing list
> Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
>

--
Bye,
Fernando Maior
LPIC/1 31908

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Re: "disks" -- Not understanding the docs at all [ In reply to ]

jblaine at mitre

Apr 20, 2005, 6:08 AM

Post #6 of 6 (1464 views)

Permalink

Indeed, Fernando - I came to this realization late yesterday
myself :) I appreciate the reply.

I have taken the 36GB sdb and mounted it as /vm-images in
domain 0 where I will use the sparse files method.

Is there no tidy way (yet) to make images from some root?
Just curious.

Fernando Maior wrote:
> Jeff,
>
> You should have a set of separate partitions (/, swap at least) for
> each domain. Otherwise, when two or more domains try to write
> on swap or any other file inside /, you may have a very bad
> situation.
>
> Also, how will you configure /etc files if you have only one /etc
> for all domains?
>
> 2005/4/18, Ian Pratt <m+Ian.Pratt@cl.cam.ac.uk>:
>
>>>The whole disk naming method did not work. The specific
>>>method did work.
>>
>>If you're using a Linux 2.6 dom0 you need to be using 2.0-testing or
>>xen-unstable for this to work. 2.0.6 will have the fix when it is
>>relased.
>>
>>Ian
>>
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Xen-users mailing list
>>Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
>>http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
>>
>
>
>

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