Re: [Xen-users] PXE + XEN

[Konrad Scherer <konrad.scherer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 04/03/2012 09:42 AM, M N wrote:
> Hello
>
> I would like to ask about XEN (paravirtualization)+  PXE working together ....
>
> I have xen environment and would like to install few clients using PXE 
> (everything on debian)  ...
> Is it possible at all?
>
> It's hard to find any useful information on that (even official FAQ has not 
> working link)
> please check here the question:
> Is it possible to start a VM that contains just gpxe?
> http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_FAQ_Installation#Is_it_possible_to_start_a_VM_that_contains_just_gpxe.3F
>
> I found some information about gpxy and pypxeboot but i can't make it work...
>
> For pypxeboot it needs udhcp - but it's not used any more - it's in busybox 
> now...
>
> so could someone confirm that it is possible to make it work ?
I have been using koan[1] from the cobbler project[2] to handle the PXE boot of 
my PV guests. Koan connects to the cobbler server to get all details about 
kernel, initrd, vm RAM size, etc. Koan handles the transfer of kernel and 
creation of the vm. The cobbler server handles all the DHCP, DNS and TFTP 
infrastructure. It works quite well. There are some minor caveats of course.
- Cobbler is not in Debian. I was able to take the Ubuntu packaging [3] and with 
a few minor changes (remove upstart and change python version) was able to build 
and install it on Squeeze. There were some other minor issues so contact me off 
list if you are interested in this.
- Koan uses libvirt which doesn't create cfg files. This prevents auto boot of 
the vms from working. I am sure there is a workaround but it hasn't bothered me 
enough to look for one.
Let me know if you would like more details.

[1] https://github.com/cobbler/cobbler/wiki/Koan
[2] http://cobbler.github.com/
[3] https://launchpad.net/cobbler

--
Konrad Scherer, Sr. Engineer, Linux Products Group, Wind River
direct 613-963-1342   fax 613-592-2283

_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xen.org/xen-users