Re: [Xen-users] xen on a remote computer, installing virtual machines without cds

[CLIFFORD ILKAY <clifford_ilkay@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On September 28, 2005 18:25, Sueveges Gyoergy wrote:
> Hi All,
>
>   I have just downloaded xen. We rent a computer with suse 9.3
> (1000km from here, access with ssh2). I'd like to install 2 virtual
> machines (both with suse), of course without CD or floppy (due to
> distance). So I have no X and no CD. In this case what can be the
> best way to install xen, and the virtual machines?
>
> Thnx
>   George
>
> ps: As I see in the documentation, xen can be configured only with
> grub. I have lilo, so xen with lilo is not possible?

What you are trying to do is fraught with dangers. It is not 
impossible but one minor mistake and you will have no remote access. 
I have done a remote server installation with no remote hands but it 
was not easy. I had a means of power cycling the server and 
specifying PXE boot on the next boot. I could then attempt to fix the 
problem on the previous boot from the hard disk though it was not 
always obvious what the problem was. If the problem was before 
syslogd started, there would be no indication of it in the logs. It 
took some trial and error to get it working but I eventually got it 
working.

Make sure to include kernel modules for your hardware and filesystems. 
I built my dom0 and domU kernels as monolithic kernels and disabled 
support for module loading.

Some (many?) colocation facilities assign static IPs via dhcp. I got 
bitten by this once when this possibility did not occur to me until I 
had the provider reimage the drive of the server with their custom 
Red Hat distro. Once I realized that their installation was getting 
its IP via dhcp, I made the necessary change to my installation of 
Mandrake and I was off to the races. In your case, you already have a 
working installation so you should be able to use that as a point of 
reference.

Once you have the kernel booted, be very careful with iptables rules. 
You can easily lock yourself out. Until you get this sorted out, you 
might want to specify one IP address that you have access to, not 
necessarily the one that you are using for the remote configuration 
and testing, for which everything is allowed.
-- 
Regards,

Clifford Ilkay
Dinamis Corporation
3266 Yonge Street, Suite 1419
Toronto, ON
Canada  M4N 3P6

+1 416-410-3326

_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users