Re: [Xen-users] Request for review: Ubuntu Community Xen Docs

[Mark Dokter <dokter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 06/29/2012 03:13 PM, Ian Campbell wrote:
> On Fri, 2012-06-29 at 11:58 +0100, George Dunlap wrote:
>> I've just posted a new set of docs for Xen at the Ubuntu community wiki:
>>
>> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Xen
>>
>> This is basically a complete re-write, written by Todd Deshane; I've
>> gone through and "beta-tested" most of it as well, making updates and
>> corrections as I go along.
>>
>> The plan is for this web page to be included in the Ubuntu 12.04
>> Server Guide.  So I'd appreciate it if users could go through and give
>> feedback, particularly on things that are confusing or missing.
> 
> Looks good, few random thoughts as I read it:
> 
> You might want to link to
> http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/HostConfiguration/Networking from the "Network
> Configuration" section, it gives a few more details and examples of
> other configurations etc.
> 
> "Creating vms" could link to
> http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Category:Guest_Install for info on installing a
> variety of guests on Ubuntu.
> 
> From the context I think "sudo pvs" should be "sudo vgs" (you want to
> get a list of volume groups, not the underlying physical volumes)
> 
> Is "sudo ln -s /usr/lib/xen-4.1/bin/pygrub /usr/bin/pygrub" really
> needed? If so then that's strictly speaking a bug in Ubuntu. I'm pretty
> sure that was fixed in Debian, so it might just be a case of synching
> the relevant patch. Let me know if you want me to dig out what the
> change was.
> 

I installed a ubuntu 12.04 xen host recently and yes, this still seems
to be necessary.

> http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Debian_Guest_Installation_Using_Debian_Installer 
> mostly applies to Ubuntu too, although perhaps linking it would a bit 
> confusing if there were any differences.
> 
> You might want to reference xmdomain.cfg(5) and/or
> http://xenbits.xen.org/docs/unstable/man/xmdomain.cfg.5.html when giving
> example configurations?
> 
> At:
>         sudo reboot
>         sudo /etc/init.d/xend stop
> I think you'd be better recommending the relevant "update-rc.d xend
> disable" rune, followed by a reboot.
> 
> mirror.clarkson.edu might not appreciate having a bunch of ubuntu newbie
> Xen users hammering their system... Reference some Fedora mirror list
> instead?
> 

The line reads:
sudo virt-install --name ubuntu --ram 256 --disk <path to LV or disk
image> --location
http://mirror.clarkson.edu/fedora/linux/releases/16/Fedora/x86_64/os/

Why would somebody install a fedora guest named ubuntu anyway ?

> I might steel the libvirt bit for a Debian page ;-)
> 

Why libvirt needs a xend is still a miracle to me (and I didn't mind
asking on the libvirt list - I just don't use that anymore).

Further remarks:
- /usr/share/qemu/keymaps is provided by the package qemu-common.
Without that I didn't manage to sucessfully create VMs (using xl).

- None of the xen packages creates /var/lib/xen. Without that little bit
of info, one can get frustrated with xen on ubuntu quickly (again there
won't be any VM booting). You might want to mention that mkdir command a
little more up the page.

- as many xen hosts are headless or at least not running X, you might
add some paragraph about letting vnc listen to some nic, set a password
and connect from remote (or a pointer to an ssh tunneling howto).

- maybe promote xl a little more :)

- something like:
'tap2:aio:/srv/xen/images/drupal/disk.img,xvda1,w'
works very well on that 12.04 xen host I set up recently. You might want
to promote that as well using file based images - since that is probably
what many starters would try first if they don't want to dig into volume
management right from the start.

hth,
Mark

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