RE: [Xen-users] Bare Metal Installation of Xen

["Petersson, Mats" <Mats.Petersson@xxxxxxx>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
> [mailto:xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of 
> Brandon E Taylor
> Sent: 01 June 2006 18:55
> To: xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [Xen-users] Bare Metal Installation of Xen
> 
> Is there a documented approach somewhere for performing an 
> unattended 'bare metal' install of Xen?
> 
> The Xen Users' Manual describes an installation flow that 
> requires a host OS on the target machine. This host OS is 
> used for installation of Xen, but Xen does not execute "on 
> top of" this OS (rather Xen executes directly "on top of" the 
> hardware platform). Correct?

Yes, the Service OS (Dom0) is executing ON TOP OF Xen. But Xen in itself
isn't an operating system [1], so you do need something that will allow
you to use the system living on top of Xen, and since you'd have a
chicken/egg situation if you installed Xen on it's own "first", it's
makes life much easier for the Xen developers to install a Linux
distribution first, and then install the Xen files and insert a
Xen-boot-line in the boot-configuration afterwards... Once you boot
using this new line in the boot config, you will have Xen loaded first,
then the Xen-Linux [2] on top of it.

[1] Obviously, it's sort of an OS-kernel, but it doesn't have drivers
for much of anything (serial ports, VGA-Text-mode, keyboard is about
it), so you do need something that is capable of talking to disks,
network, sound cards, advanced graphics cards, etc.

[2]The service OS doesn't HAVE to be Linux. As long as the service OS
can talk to Xen, it's fine to use ANY OS. It's just much harder to
modify for example Windows to match.

--
Mats
> 
> Thanks.
> 
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