Annotation of wikisrc/ports/xen/howto.mdwn, revision 1.116
1.5 mspo 1: Introduction
1.13 gdt 2: ============
1.1 mspo 3:
4: [![[Xen
1.57 gdt 5: screenshot]](http://www.netbsd.org/gallery/in-Action/hubertf-xens.png)](http://www.netbsd.org/gallery/in-Action/hubertf-xen.png)
1.1 mspo 6:
1.58 gdt 7: Xen is a hypervisor (or virtual machine monitor) for x86 hardware
1.12 gdt 8: (i686-class or higher), which supports running multiple guest
1.58 gdt 9: operating systems on a single physical machine. Xen is a Type 1 or
10: bare-metal hypervisor; one uses the Xen kernel to control the CPU,
11: memory and console, a dom0 operating system which mediates access to
12: other hardware (e.g., disks, network, USB), and one or more domU
13: operating systems which operate in an unprivileged virtualized
14: environment. IO requests from the domU systems are forwarded by the
15: hypervisor (Xen) to the dom0 to be fulfilled.
1.12 gdt 16:
17: Xen supports two styles of guests. The original is Para-Virtualized
18: (PV) which means that the guest OS does not attempt to access hardware
19: directly, but instead makes hypercalls to the hypervisor. This is
20: analogous to a user-space program making system calls. (The dom0
21: operating system uses PV calls for some functions, such as updating
22: memory mapping page tables, but has direct hardware access for disk
23: and network.) PV guests must be specifically coded for Xen.
24:
25: The more recent style is HVM, which means that the guest does not have
26: code for Xen and need not be aware that it is running under Xen.
27: Attempts to access hardware registers are trapped and emulated. This
28: style is less efficient but can run unmodified guests.
29:
1.29 gdt 30: Generally any amd64 machine will work with Xen and PV guests. In
31: theory i386 computers without amd64 support can be used for Xen <=
32: 4.2, but we have no recent reports of this working (this is a hint).
1.116 ! gdt 33: For HVM guests, hardware support is needed, but it is common on recent
! 34: machines. For Intel CPUs, one needs the VT-x extension, shown in
! 35: "cpuctl identify 0" as VMX. For AMD CPus, one needs the AMD-V
! 36: extensions, shown in "cpuctl identify 0" as SVM. There are further
! 37: features for IOMMU virtualization, Intel's VT-d and AMD's AMD-Vi.
! 38: TODO: Explain whether Xen on NetBSD makes use of these features.
! 39: TODO: Review by someone who really understands this.
1.19 gdt 40:
1.27 jnemeth 41: At boot, the dom0 kernel is loaded as a module with Xen as the kernel.
1.12 gdt 42: The dom0 can start one or more domUs. (Booting is explained in detail
43: in the dom0 section.)
44:
45: NetBSD supports Xen in that it can serve as dom0, be used as a domU,
46: and that Xen kernels and tools are available in pkgsrc. This HOWTO
47: attempts to address both the case of running a NetBSD dom0 on hardware
1.24 gdt 48: and running domUs under it (NetBSD and other), and also running NetBSD
49: as a domU in a VPS.
1.12 gdt 50:
1.20 gdt 51: Some versions of Xen support "PCI passthrough", which means that
52: specific PCI devices can be made available to a specific domU instead
53: of the dom0. This can be useful to let a domU run X11, or access some
54: network interface or other peripheral.
55:
1.111 wiz 56: NetBSD 6 and earlier supported Xen 2; support was removed from NetBSD
1.104 gdt 57: 7. Xen 2 has been removed from pkgsrc.
1.54 gdt 58:
1.12 gdt 59: Prerequisites
1.13 gdt 60: -------------
1.12 gdt 61:
62: Installing NetBSD/Xen is not extremely difficult, but it is more
63: complex than a normal installation of NetBSD.
1.15 gdt 64: In general, this HOWTO is occasionally overly restrictive about how
65: things must be done, guiding the reader to stay on the established
66: path when there are no known good reasons to stray.
1.12 gdt 67:
68: This HOWTO presumes a basic familiarity with the Xen system
1.16 gdt 69: architecture. This HOWTO presumes familiarity with installing NetBSD
70: on i386/amd64 hardware and installing software from pkgsrc.
1.27 jnemeth 71: See also the [Xen website](http://www.xenproject.org/).
1.1 mspo 72:
1.15 gdt 73: Versions of Xen and NetBSD
74: ==========================
75:
1.27 jnemeth 76: Most of the installation concepts and instructions are independent
77: of Xen version and NetBSD version. This section gives advice on
78: which version to choose. Versions not in pkgsrc and older unsupported
79: versions of NetBSD are intentionally ignored.
1.15 gdt 80:
81: Xen
82: ---
83:
1.111 wiz 84: In NetBSD, Xen is provided in pkgsrc, via matching pairs of packages
1.15 gdt 85: xenkernel and xentools. We will refer only to the kernel versions,
86: but note that both packages must be installed together and must have
87: matching versions.
88:
1.104 gdt 89: xenkernel3 provides Xen 3.1. It is no longer maintained by Xen, and the last applied security patch was in
90: 2011. Thus, it should not be used. It supports PCI passthrough,
91: which is why people use it anyway. Xen 3.1 supports i386, both PAE and
92: non-PAE.
93:
94: xenkernel33 provides Xen 3.3. It is no longer maintained by Xen, and
95: the last applied security patch was in 2012. Thus, it should not be
96: used. Xen 3.3 supports i386, but only in PAE mode. There are no good
97: reasons to run this version.
98:
99: xenkernel41 provides Xen 4.1. It is no longer maintained by Xen, but
1.112 gdt 100: as of 2016-12 received backported security patches. Xen 4.1 supports
1.104 gdt 101: i386, but only in PAE mode. There are no good reasons to run this
102: version.
1.102 gdt 103:
1.104 gdt 104: xenkernel42 provides Xen 4.2. It is no longer maintained by Xen, but
1.112 gdt 105: as of 2016-12 received backported security patches. Xen 4.2 supports
1.104 gdt 106: i386, but only in PAE mode. The only reason to run this is if you
107: need to use xm instead of xl, or if you need to run an i386 dom0
108: (because your hardware is i386 only).
109:
1.114 gdt 110: xenkernel45 provides Xen 4.5. As of 2016-12, security patches were
111: released by Xen and applied to pkgsrc. Xen 4.5 requires an amd64
1.104 gdt 112: dom0, but domUs can be amd64 or i386 PAE. TODO: It is either a
113: conservative choice or somewhat old.
114:
1.115 gdt 115: xenkernel46 provides Xen 4.6. It is new to pkgsrc as of 2016-05. As
1.114 gdt 116: of 2016-12, security patches were released by Xen and applied to
117: pkgsrc. Xen 4.6 requires an amd64 dom0, but domUs can be amd64 or
1.104 gdt 118: i386 PAE. TODO: It is either a somewhat aggressive choice or the
119: standard choice
1.85 gdt 120:
1.114 gdt 121: Xen 4.7 (released 2016-06) and 4.8 (released 2016-12) are not yet in
122: pkgsrc.
1.113 gdt 123:
1.96 gdt 124: See also the [Xen Security Advisory page](http://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/).
125:
1.85 gdt 126: Note that NetBSD support is called XEN3. It works with Xen 3 and Xen
127: 4 because the hypercall interface has been stable.
1.20 gdt 128:
1.19 gdt 129: Xen command program
130: -------------------
131:
1.79 gdt 132: Early Xen used a program called xm to manipulate the system from the
1.19 gdt 133: dom0. Starting in 4.1, a replacement program with similar behavior
1.79 gdt 134: called xl is provided, but it does not work well in 4.1. In 4.2, both
135: xm and xl work fine. 4.4 is the last version that has xm. You must
136: choose one or the other, because it affects which daemons you run.
1.106 gdt 137: However, the rc.d scripts provided by xentools packages expect a
138: particular version, and you should use the version used by the
139: scripts.
1.19 gdt 140:
1.15 gdt 141: NetBSD
142: ------
143:
1.105 gdt 144: The netbsd-6, netbsd-7, and -current branches are all reasonable
145: choices, with more or less the same considerations for non-Xen use.
146: Therefore, netbsd-7 is recommended as the stable version of the most
147: recent release for production use. For those wanting to learn Xen or
148: without production stability concerns, netbsd-7 is still likely most
1.107 gdt 149: appropriate, but -current is also a reasonable choice. Xen runs fine
150: on netbsd-5, but the xentools packages are likely difficult to build.
1.15 gdt 151:
152: As of NetBSD 6, a NetBSD domU will support multiple vcpus. There is
153: no SMP support for NetBSD as dom0. (The dom0 itself doesn't really
1.105 gdt 154: need SMP for dom0 functions; the lack of support is really a problem
155: when using a dom0 as a normal computer.)
1.15 gdt 156:
1.18 gdt 157: Architecture
158: ------------
159:
1.108 gdt 160: Xen itself can run on i386 (Xen < 3.1) or amd64 machines (all Xen
1.105 gdt 161: versions). (Practically, almost any computer where one would want to
162: run Xen today supports amd64.)
1.99 gdt 163:
164: Xen, the dom0 kernel, and each domU kernel can be either i386 or
165: amd64. When building a xenkernel package, one obtains i386 on an i386
1.111 wiz 166: host, and amd64 on an amd64 host. If the Xen kernel is i386, then the
167: dom0 kernel and all domU kernels must be i386. With an amd64 Xen
1.105 gdt 168: kernel, an amd64 dom0 kernel is known to work, and an i386PAE dom0
1.111 wiz 169: kernel should in theory work. An amd64 Xen/dom0 is known to support
1.105 gdt 170: both i386PAE and amd64 domUs.
1.99 gdt 171:
1.101 gdt 172: i386 dom0 and domU kernels must be PAE (except for Xen 3.1); these are
173: built by default. (Note that emacs (at least) fails if run on i386
174: with PAE when built without, and vice versa, presumably due to bugs in
175: the undump code.)
1.99 gdt 176:
177: Because of the above, the standard approach is to use amd64 for the
178: dom0.
1.29 gdt 179:
180: Xen 4.2 is the last version to support i386 as a host. TODO: Clarify
1.111 wiz 181: if this is about the CPU, the Xen kernel, or the dom0 kernel having to
1.100 gdt 182: be amd64.
183:
1.29 gdt 184:
1.89 gdt 185: Stability
186: ---------
187:
188: Mostly, NetBSD as a dom0 or domU is quite stable.
189: However, there are some open PRs indicating problems.
190:
1.91 gdt 191: - [PR 48125](http://gnats.netbsd.org/48125)
192: - [PR 47720](http://gnats.netbsd.org/47720)
1.89 gdt 193:
194: Note also that there are issues with sparse vnd(4) instances, but
1.105 gdt 195: these are not about Xen -- they just are noticed with sparse vnd(4)
196: instances in support of virtual disks in a dom0.
1.89 gdt 197:
1.15 gdt 198: Recommendation
199: --------------
200:
1.105 gdt 201: Therefore, this HOWTO recommends running xenkernel45 or xenkernel46,
202: xl, the NetBSD 7 stable branch, and to use an amd64 kernel as the
203: dom0. Either the i386PAE or amd64 version of NetBSD may be used as
204: domUs.
1.15 gdt 205:
1.36 gdt 206: Build problems
207: --------------
208:
209: Ideally, all versions of Xen in pkgsrc would build on all versions of
210: NetBSD on both i386 and amd64. However, that isn't the case. Besides
211: aging code and aging compilers, qemu (included in xentools for HVM
1.62 gdt 212: support) is difficult to build. The following are known to work or FAIL:
1.36 gdt 213:
1.62 gdt 214: xenkernel3 netbsd-5 amd64
1.63 gdt 215: xentools3 netbsd-5 amd64
1.64 gdt 216: xentools3=hvm netbsd-5 amd64 ????
1.62 gdt 217: xenkernel33 netbsd-5 amd64
1.63 gdt 218: xentools33 netbsd-5 amd64
1.36 gdt 219: xenkernel41 netbsd-5 amd64
220: xentools41 netbsd-5 amd64
1.62 gdt 221: xenkernel42 netbsd-5 amd64
1.64 gdt 222: xentools42 netbsd-5 amd64
1.62 gdt 223:
224: xenkernel3 netbsd-6 i386 FAIL
225: xentools3 netbsd-6 i386
1.63 gdt 226: xentools3-hvm netbsd-6 i386 FAIL (dependencies fail)
227: xenkernel33 netbsd-6 i386
228: xentools33 netbsd-6 i386
1.36 gdt 229: xenkernel41 netbsd-6 i386
230: xentools41 netbsd-6 i386
1.63 gdt 231: xenkernel42 netbsd-6 i386
1.64 gdt 232: xentools42 netbsd-6 i386 *MIXED
233:
1.69 gdt 234: (all 3 and 33 seem to FAIL)
235: xenkernel41 netbsd-7 i386
236: xentools41 netbsd-7 i386
237: xenkernel42 netbsd-7 i386
238: xentools42 netbsd-7 i386 ??FAIL
239:
1.64 gdt 240: (*On netbsd-6 i386, there is a xentools42 in the 2014Q3 official builds,
241: but it does not build for gdt.)
1.36 gdt 242:
1.15 gdt 243: NetBSD as a dom0
244: ================
245:
246: NetBSD can be used as a dom0 and works very well. The following
247: sections address installation, updating NetBSD, and updating Xen.
1.19 gdt 248: Note that it doesn't make sense to talk about installing a dom0 OS
249: without also installing Xen itself. We first address installing
250: NetBSD, which is not yet a dom0, and then adding Xen, pivoting the
251: NetBSD install to a dom0 install by just changing the kernel and boot
252: configuration.
1.15 gdt 253:
1.45 gdt 254: For experimenting with Xen, a machine with as little as 1G of RAM and
255: 100G of disk can work. For running many domUs in productions, far
256: more will be needed.
257:
1.15 gdt 258: Styles of dom0 operation
259: ------------------------
260:
261: There are two basic ways to use Xen. The traditional method is for
262: the dom0 to do absolutely nothing other than providing support to some
263: number of domUs. Such a system was probably installed for the sole
264: purpose of hosting domUs, and sits in a server room on a UPS.
265:
266: The other way is to put Xen under a normal-usage computer, so that the
267: dom0 is what the computer would have been without Xen, perhaps a
268: desktop or laptop. Then, one can run domUs at will. Purists will
269: deride this as less secure than the previous approach, and for a
270: computer whose purpose is to run domUs, they are right. But Xen and a
1.93 gdt 271: dom0 (without domUs) is not meaningfully less secure than the same
1.15 gdt 272: things running without Xen. One can boot Xen or boot regular NetBSD
273: alternately with little problems, simply refraining from starting the
274: Xen daemons when not running Xen.
275:
276: Note that NetBSD as dom0 does not support multiple CPUs. This will
1.51 gdt 277: limit the performance of the Xen/dom0 workstation approach. In theory
278: the only issue is that the "backend drivers" are not yet MPSAFE:
279: http://mail-index.netbsd.org/netbsd-users/2014/08/29/msg015195.html
1.15 gdt 280:
1.19 gdt 281: Installation of NetBSD
282: ----------------------
1.13 gdt 283:
1.19 gdt 284: First,
1.27 jnemeth 285: [install NetBSD/amd64](/guide/inst/)
1.19 gdt 286: just as you would if you were not using Xen.
287: However, the partitioning approach is very important.
288:
289: If you want to use RAIDframe for the dom0, there are no special issues
290: for Xen. Typically one provides RAID storage for the dom0, and the
1.22 gdt 291: domU systems are unaware of RAID. The 2nd-stage loader bootxx_* skips
1.111 wiz 292: over a RAID1 header to find /boot from a file system within a RAID
1.22 gdt 293: partition; this is no different when booting Xen.
1.19 gdt 294:
295: There are 4 styles of providing backing storage for the virtual disks
1.93 gdt 296: used by domUs: raw partitions, LVM, file-backed vnd(4), and SAN.
1.19 gdt 297:
298: With raw partitions, one has a disklabel (or gpt) partition sized for
299: each virtual disk to be used by the domU. (If you are able to predict
300: how domU usage will evolve, please add an explanation to the HOWTO.
301: Seriously, needs tend to change over time.)
302:
1.27 jnemeth 303: One can use [lvm(8)](/guide/lvm/) to create logical devices to use
304: for domU disks. This is almost as efficient as raw disk partitions
305: and more flexible. Hence raw disk partitions should typically not
306: be used.
1.19 gdt 307:
1.111 wiz 308: One can use files in the dom0 file system, typically created by dd'ing
1.19 gdt 309: /dev/zero to create a specific size. This is somewhat less efficient,
310: but very convenient, as one can cp the files for backup, or move them
311: between dom0 hosts.
312:
313: Finally, in theory one can place the files backing the domU disks in a
314: SAN. (This is an invitation for someone who has done this to add a
315: HOWTO page.)
1.1 mspo 316:
1.19 gdt 317: Installation of Xen
318: -------------------
1.1 mspo 319:
1.20 gdt 320: In the dom0, install sysutils/xenkernel42 and sysutils/xentools42 from
321: pkgsrc (or another matching pair).
322: See [the pkgsrc
323: documentation](http://www.NetBSD.org/docs/pkgsrc/) for help with pkgsrc.
324:
325: For Xen 3.1, support for HVM guests is in sysutils/xentool3-hvm. More
326: recent versions have HVM support integrated in the main xentools
327: package. It is entirely reasonable to run only PV guests.
328:
329: Next you need to install the selected Xen kernel itself, which is
330: installed by pkgsrc as "/usr/pkg/xen*-kernel/xen.gz". Copy it to /.
331: For debugging, one may copy xen-debug.gz; this is conceptually similar
332: to DIAGNOSTIC and DEBUG in NetBSD. xen-debug.gz is basically only
333: useful with a serial console. Then, place a NetBSD XEN3_DOM0 kernel
334: in /, copied from releasedir/amd64/binary/kernel/netbsd-XEN3_DOM0.gz
1.75 gdt 335: of a NetBSD build. If using i386, use
336: releasedir/i386/binary/kernel/netbsd-XEN3PAE_DOM0.gz. (If using Xen
337: 3.1 and i386, you may use XEN3_DOM0 with the non-PAE Xen. But you
338: should not use Xen 3.1.) Both xen and the NetBSD kernel may be (and
339: typically are) left compressed.
340:
1.111 wiz 341: In a dom0 kernel, kernfs is mandatory for xend to communicate with the
1.75 gdt 342: kernel, so ensure that /kern is in fstab. TODO: Say this is default,
343: or file a PR and give a reference.
1.20 gdt 344:
345: Because you already installed NetBSD, you have a working boot setup
346: with an MBR bootblock, either bootxx_ffsv1 or bootxx_ffsv2 at the
1.111 wiz 347: beginning of your root file system, /boot present, and likely
1.20 gdt 348: /boot.cfg. (If not, fix before continuing!)
349:
1.76 gdt 350: Add a line to to /boot.cfg to boot Xen. See boot.cfg(5) for an
351: example. The basic line is
1.20 gdt 352:
1.37 gdt 353: menu=Xen:load /netbsd-XEN3_DOM0.gz console=pc;multiboot /xen.gz dom0_mem=256M
1.20 gdt 354:
355: which specifies that the dom0 should have 256M, leaving the rest to be
1.77 gdt 356: allocated for domUs. To use a serial console, use
357:
358: menu=Xen:load /netbsd-XEN3_DOM0.gz console=com0;multiboot /xen.gz dom0_mem=256M console=com1 com1=9600,8n1
359:
360: which will use the first serial port for Xen (which counts starting
361: from 1), forcing speed/parity, and also for NetBSD (which counts
362: starting at 0). In an attempt to add performance, one can also add
1.37 gdt 363:
364: dom0_max_vcpus=1 dom0_vcpus_pin
365:
366: to force only one vcpu to be provided (since NetBSD dom0 can't use
1.111 wiz 367: more) and to pin that vcpu to a physical CPU. TODO: benchmark this.
1.20 gdt 368:
1.93 gdt 369: Xen has [many boot
370: options](http://xenbits.xenproject.org/docs/4.5-testing/misc/xen-command-line.html),
1.111 wiz 371: and other than dom0 memory and max_vcpus, they are generally not
1.93 gdt 372: necessary.
373:
1.20 gdt 374: As with non-Xen systems, you should have a line to boot /netbsd (a
375: kernel that works without Xen) and fallback versions of the non-Xen
376: kernel, Xen, and the dom0 kernel.
1.1 mspo 377:
1.76 gdt 378: Now, reboot so that you are running a DOM0 kernel under Xen, rather
379: than GENERIC without Xen.
380:
1.54 gdt 381: Using grub (historic)
382: ---------------------
383:
384: Before NetBSD's native bootloader could support Xen, the use of
385: grub was recommended. If necessary, see the
386: [old grub information](/ports/xen/howto-grub/).
387:
1.28 gdt 388: The [HowTo on Installing into
389: RAID-1](http://mail-index.NetBSD.org/port-xen/2006/03/01/0010.html)
390: explains how to set up booting a dom0 with Xen using grub with
391: NetBSD's RAIDframe. (This is obsolete with the use of NetBSD's native
392: boot.)
393:
1.21 gdt 394: Configuring Xen
395: ---------------
396:
1.53 gdt 397: Xen logs will be in /var/log/xen.
398:
1.76 gdt 399: Now, you have a system that will boot Xen and the dom0 kernel, but not
400: do anything else special. Make sure that you have rebooted into Xen.
401: There will be no domUs, and none can be started because you still have
1.102 gdt 402: to configure the dom0 daemons.
1.21 gdt 403:
1.102 gdt 404: The daemons which should be run vary with Xen version and with whether
405: one is using xm or xl. The Xen 3.1 and 3.3 packages use xm. Xen 4.1
406: and higher packages use xl. While is is possible to use xm with some
407: 4.x versions (TODO: 4.1 and 4.2?), the pkgsrc-provided rc.d scripts do
408: not support this as of 2014-12-26, and thus the HOWTO does not support
409: it either. (Make sure your packages are reasonably recent.)
1.43 gdt 410:
1.102 gdt 411: For "xm" (3.1 and 3.3), you should enable xend and xenbackendd (but
412: note that you should be using 4.x):
1.31 gdt 413:
1.32 gdt 414: xend=YES
415: xenbackendd=YES
1.31 gdt 416:
1.102 gdt 417: For "xl" (4.x), you should enabled xend and xencommons (xenstored).
418: Trying to boot 4.x without xencommons=YES will result in a hang; it is
1.111 wiz 419: necessary to hit ^C on the console to let the machine finish booting.
1.102 gdt 420: TODO: explain why xend is installed by the package.
1.31 gdt 421:
1.53 gdt 422: xencommons=YES
1.31 gdt 423:
1.102 gdt 424: The installation of NetBSD should already have created devices for xen
425: (xencons, xenevt), but if they are not present, create them:
1.31 gdt 426:
1.102 gdt 427: cd /dev && sh MAKEDEV xen
1.86 gdt 428:
1.31 gdt 429: TODO: Recommend for/against xen-watchdog.
1.27 jnemeth 430:
1.53 gdt 431: After you have configured the daemons and either started them (in the
1.79 gdt 432: order given) or rebooted, use xm or xl to inspect Xen's boot messages,
1.102 gdt 433: available resources, and running domains. An example with xl follows:
1.34 gdt 434:
1.102 gdt 435: # xl dmesg
1.43 gdt 436: [xen's boot info]
1.102 gdt 437: # xl info
1.43 gdt 438: [available memory, etc.]
1.102 gdt 439: # xl list
1.43 gdt 440: Name Id Mem(MB) CPU State Time(s) Console
441: Domain-0 0 64 0 r---- 58.1
1.33 gdt 442:
1.88 gdt 443: ### Issues with xencommons
444:
445: xencommons starts xenstored, which stores data on behalf of dom0 and
446: domUs. It does not currently work to stop and start xenstored.
447: Certainly all domUs should be shutdown first, following the sort order
448: of the rc.d scripts. However, the dom0 sets up state with xenstored,
449: and is not notified when xenstored exits, leading to not recreating
450: the state when the new xenstored starts. Until there's a mechanism to
451: make this work, one should not expect to be able to restart xenstored
452: (and thus xencommons). There is currently no reason to expect that
453: this will get fixed any time soon.
454:
1.41 gdt 455: anita (for testing NetBSD)
456: --------------------------
457:
1.82 gdt 458: With the setup so far (assuming 4.2/xl), one should be able to run
459: anita (see pkgsrc/misc/py-anita) to test NetBSD releases, by doing (as
460: root, because anita must create a domU):
461:
462: anita --vmm=xl test file:///usr/obj/i386/
463:
464: Alternatively, one can use --vmm=xm to use xm-based domU creation
465: instead (and must, on Xen <= 4.1). TODO: confirm that anita xl really works.
466:
1.40 gdt 467: Xen-specific NetBSD issues
468: --------------------------
469:
470: There are (at least) two additional things different about NetBSD as a
471: dom0 kernel compared to hardware.
472:
1.111 wiz 473: One is that the module ABI is different because some of the #defines
1.109 gdt 474: change, so one must build modules for Xen. As of netbsd-7, the build
475: system does this automatically. TODO: check this. (Before building
476: Xen modules was added, it was awkward to use modules to the point
477: where it was considered that it did not work.)
1.40 gdt 478:
479: The other difference is that XEN3_DOM0 does not have exactly the same
480: options as GENERIC. While it is debatable whether or not this is a
481: bug, users should be aware of this and can simply add missing config
482: items if desired.
483:
1.15 gdt 484: Updating NetBSD in a dom0
485: -------------------------
486:
487: This is just like updating NetBSD on bare hardware, assuming the new
488: version supports the version of Xen you are running. Generally, one
489: replaces the kernel and reboots, and then overlays userland binaries
490: and adjusts /etc.
491:
492: Note that one must update both the non-Xen kernel typically used for
493: rescue purposes and the DOM0 kernel used with Xen.
494:
1.55 gdt 495: Converting from grub to /boot
496: -----------------------------
497:
498: These instructions were [TODO: will be] used to convert a system from
499: grub to /boot. The system was originally installed in February of
500: 2006 with a RAID1 setup and grub to boot Xen 2, and has been updated
501: over time. Before these commands, it was running NetBSD 6 i386, Xen
502: 4.1 and grub, much like the message linked earlier in the grub
503: section.
504:
1.111 wiz 505: # Install MBR bootblocks on both disks.
1.55 gdt 506: fdisk -i /dev/rwd0d
507: fdisk -i /dev/rwd1d
508: # Install NetBSD primary boot loader (/ is FFSv1) into RAID1 components.
509: installboot -v /dev/rwd0d /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffsv1
510: installboot -v /dev/rwd1d /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffsv1
511: # Install secondary boot loader
512: cp -p /usr/mdec/boot /
1.111 wiz 513: # Create boot.cfg following earlier guidance:
1.55 gdt 514: menu=Xen:load /netbsd-XEN3PAE_DOM0.gz console=pc;multiboot /xen.gz dom0_mem=256M
515: menu=Xen.ok:load /netbsd-XEN3PAE_DOM0.ok.gz console=pc;multiboot /xen.ok.gz dom0_mem=256M
516: menu=GENERIC:boot
517: menu=GENERIC single-user:boot -s
518: menu=GENERIC.ok:boot netbsd.ok
519: menu=GENERIC.ok single-user:boot netbsd.ok -s
520: menu=Drop to boot prompt:prompt
521: default=1
522: timeout=30
523:
524: TODO: actually do this and fix it if necessary.
1.22 gdt 525:
1.102 gdt 526: Upgrading Xen versions
1.15 gdt 527: ---------------------
528:
1.110 gdt 529: Minor version upgrades are trivial. Just rebuild/replace the
530: xenkernel version and copy the new xen.gz to / (where /boot.cfg
531: references it), and reboot.
532:
533: Major version upgrades are conceptually not difficult, but can run
534: into all the issues found when installing Xen. Assuming migration
535: from 4.1 to 4.2, remove the xenkernel41 and xentools41 packages and
536: install the xenkernel42 and xentools42 packages. Copy the 4.2 xen.gz
537: to /.
1.21 gdt 538:
1.102 gdt 539: Ensure that the contents of /etc/rc.d/xen* are correct. Specifically,
540: they must match the package you just installed and not be left over
541: from some previous installation.
542:
543: Enable the correct set of daemons; see the configuring section above.
544: (Upgrading from 3.x to 4.x without doing this will result in a hang.)
545:
546: Ensure that the domU config files are valid for the new version.
1.110 gdt 547: Specifically, for 4.x remove autorestart=True, and ensure that disks
548: are specified with numbers as the second argument, as the examples
549: above show, and not NetBSD device names.
1.15 gdt 550:
1.97 gdt 551: Hardware known to work
552: ----------------------
553:
554: Arguably, this section is misplaced, and there should be a page of
555: hardware that runs NetBSD/amd64 well, with the mostly-well-founded
556: assumption that NetBSD/xen runs fine on any modern hardware that
557: NetBSD/amd64 runs well on. Until then, we give motherboard/CPU/RAM
558: triples to aid those choosing a motherboard. Note that Xen systems
559: usually do not run X, so a listing here does not imply that X works at
560: all.
561:
562: Supermicro X9SRL-F, Xeon E5-1650 v2, 96 GiB ECC
563: Supermicro ??, Atom C2758 (8 core), 32 GiB ECC
564: ASUS M5A78L-M/USB3 AM3+ microATX, AMD Piledriver X8 4000MHz, 16 GiB ECC
565:
566: Older hardware:
567:
1.98 gdt 568: Intel D915GEV, Pentium4 CPU 3.40GHz, 4GB 533MHz Synchronous DDR2
1.28 gdt 569:
1.82 gdt 570: Running Xen under qemu
571: ----------------------
572:
573: The astute reader will note that this section is somewhat twisted.
574: However, it can be useful to run Xen under qemu either because the
575: version of NetBSD as a dom0 does not run on the hardware in use, or to
576: generate automated test cases involving Xen.
577:
1.84 gdt 578: In 2015-01, the following combination was reported to mostly work:
1.82 gdt 579:
580: host OS: NetBSD/amd64 6.1.4
581: qemu: 2.2.0 from pkgsrc
582: Xen kernel: xenkernel42-4.2.5nb1 from pkgsrc
583: dom0 kernel: NetBSD/amd64 6.1.5
584: Xen tools: xentools42-4.2.5 from pkgsrc
585:
1.91 gdt 586: See [PR 47720](http://gnats.netbsd.org/47720) for a problem with dom0
587: shutdown.
1.84 gdt 588:
1.28 gdt 589: Unprivileged domains (domU)
590: ===========================
591:
592: This section describes general concepts about domUs. It does not
1.33 gdt 593: address specific domU operating systems or how to install them. The
594: config files for domUs are typically in /usr/pkg/etc/xen, and are
1.60 wiki 595: typically named so that the file name, domU name and the domU's host
1.33 gdt 596: name match.
597:
1.111 wiz 598: The domU is provided with CPU and memory by Xen, configured by the
1.33 gdt 599: dom0. The domU is provided with disk and network by the dom0,
600: mediated by Xen, and configured in the dom0.
601:
602: Entropy in domUs can be an issue; physical disks and network are on
603: the dom0. NetBSD's /dev/random system works, but is often challenged.
604:
1.48 gdt 605: Config files
606: ------------
607:
608: There is no good order to present config files and the concepts
609: surrounding what is being configured. We first show an example config
610: file, and then in the various sections give details.
611:
612: See (at least in xentools41) /usr/pkg/share/examples/xen/xmexample*,
613: for a large number of well-commented examples, mostly for running
614: GNU/Linux.
615:
616: The following is an example minimal domain configuration file
617: "/usr/pkg/etc/xen/foo". It is (with only a name change) an actual
618: known working config file on Xen 4.1 (NetBSD 5 amd64 dom0 and NetBSD 5
619: i386 domU). The domU serves as a network file server.
620:
621: # -*- mode: python; -*-
622:
623: kernel = "/netbsd-XEN3PAE_DOMU-i386-foo.gz"
624: memory = 1024
625: vif = [ 'mac=aa:00:00:d1:00:09,bridge=bridge0' ]
626: disk = [ 'file:/n0/xen/foo-wd0,0x0,w',
627: 'file:/n0/xen/foo-wd1,0x1,w' ]
628:
629: The domain will have the same name as the file. The kernel has the
630: host/domU name in it, so that on the dom0 one can update the various
631: domUs independently. The vif line causes an interface to be provided,
632: with a specific mac address (do not reuse MAC addresses!), in bridge
633: mode. Two disks are provided, and they are both writable; the bits
634: are stored in files and Xen attaches them to a vnd(4) device in the
1.111 wiz 635: dom0 on domain creation. The system treats xbd0 as the boot device
1.48 gdt 636: without needing explicit configuration.
637:
638: By default xm looks for domain config files in /usr/pkg/etc/xen. Note
639: that "xm create" takes the name of a config file, while other commands
640: take the name of a domain. To create the domain, connect to the
641: console, create the domain while attaching the console, shutdown the
642: domain, and see if it has finished stopping, do (or xl with Xen >=
643: 4.2):
644:
645: xm create foo
646: xm console foo
647: xm create -c foo
648: xm shutdown foo
1.90 gdt 649: xm list
1.48 gdt 650:
651: Typing ^] will exit the console session. Shutting down a domain is
652: equivalent to pushing the power button; a NetBSD domU will receive a
653: power-press event and do a clean shutdown. Shutting down the dom0
654: will trigger controlled shutdowns of all configured domUs.
655:
656: domU kernels
657: ------------
658:
659: On a physical computer, the BIOS reads sector 0, and a chain of boot
660: loaders finds and loads a kernel. Normally this comes from the root
1.111 wiz 661: file system. With Xen domUs, the process is totally different. The
1.48 gdt 662: normal path is for the domU kernel to be a file in the dom0's
1.111 wiz 663: file system. At the request of the dom0, Xen loads that kernel into a
1.48 gdt 664: new domU instance and starts execution. While domU kernels can be
665: anyplace, reasonable places to store domU kernels on the dom0 are in /
666: (so they are near the dom0 kernel), in /usr/pkg/etc/xen (near the
667: config files), or in /u0/xen (where the vdisks are).
668:
1.59 gdt 669: Note that loading the domU kernel from the dom0 implies that boot
670: blocks, /boot, /boot.cfg, and so on are all ignored in the domU.
1.48 gdt 671: See the VPS section near the end for discussion of alternate ways to
672: obtain domU kernels.
673:
1.33 gdt 674: CPU and memory
675: --------------
676:
1.48 gdt 677: A domain is provided with some number of vcpus, less than the number
1.111 wiz 678: of CPUs seen by the hypervisor. (For a dom0, this is controlled by
1.48 gdt 679: the boot argument "dom0_max_vcpus=1".) For a domU, it is controlled
680: from the config file by the "vcpus = N" directive.
681:
682: A domain is provided with memory; this is controlled in the config
683: file by "memory = N" (in megabytes). In the straightforward case, the
684: sum of the the memory allocated to the dom0 and all domUs must be less
1.33 gdt 685: than the available memory.
686:
687: Xen also provides a "balloon" driver, which can be used to let domains
688: use more memory temporarily. TODO: Explain better, and explain how
689: well it works with NetBSD.
1.28 gdt 690:
691: Virtual disks
692: -------------
693:
1.33 gdt 694: With the file/vnd style, typically one creates a directory,
695: e.g. /u0/xen, on a disk large enough to hold virtual disks for all
696: domUs. Then, for each domU disk, one writes zeros to a file that then
697: serves to hold the virtual disk's bits; a suggested name is foo-xbd0
698: for the first virtual disk for the domU called foo. Writing zeros to
699: the file serves two purposes. One is that preallocating the contents
700: improves performance. The other is that vnd on sparse files has
701: failed to work. TODO: give working/notworking NetBSD versions for
702: sparse vnd. Note that the use of file/vnd for Xen is not really
703: different than creating a file-backed virtual disk for some other
1.39 gdt 704: purpose, except that xentools handles the vnconfig commands. To
705: create an empty 4G virtual disk, simply do
706:
707: dd if=/dev/zero of=foo-xbd0 bs=1m count=4096
1.33 gdt 708:
1.89 gdt 709: Do not use qemu-img-xen, because this will create sparse file. There
710: have been recent (2015) reports of sparse vnd(4) devices causing
711: lockups, but there is apparently no PR.
712:
1.33 gdt 713: With the lvm style, one creates logical devices. They are then used
1.48 gdt 714: similarly to vnds. TODO: Add an example with lvm.
715:
716: In domU config files, the disks are defined as a sequence of 3-tuples.
717: The first element is "method:/path/to/disk". Common methods are
718: "file:" for file-backed vnd. and "phy:" for something that is already
719: a (TODO: character or block) device.
720:
721: The second element is an artifact of how virtual disks are passed to
722: Linux, and a source of confusion with NetBSD Xen usage. Linux domUs
723: are given a device name to associate with the disk, and values like
724: "hda1" or "sda1" are common. In a NetBSD domU, the first disk appears
725: as xbd0, the second as xbd1, and so on. However, xm/xl demand a
726: second argument. The name given is converted to a major/minor by
1.49 gdt 727: calling stat(2) on the name in /dev and this is passed to the domU.
728: In the general case, the dom0 and domU can be different operating
1.48 gdt 729: systems, and it is an unwarranted assumption that they have consistent
730: numbering in /dev, or even that the dom0 OS has a /dev. With NetBSD
731: as both dom0 and domU, using values of 0x0 for the first disk and 0x1
1.49 gdt 732: for the second works fine and avoids this issue. For a GNU/Linux
733: guest, one can create /dev/hda1 in /dev, or to pass 0x301 for
734: /dev/hda1.
1.48 gdt 735:
736: The third element is "w" for writable disks, and "r" for read-only
737: disks.
1.28 gdt 738:
739: Virtual Networking
740: ------------------
741:
1.111 wiz 742: Xen provides virtual Ethernets, each of which connects the dom0 and a
1.46 gdt 743: domU. For each virtual network, there is an interface "xvifN.M" in
744: the dom0, and in domU index N, a matching interface xennetM (NetBSD
745: name). The interfaces behave as if there is an Ethernet with two
1.111 wiz 746: adapters connected. From this primitive, one can construct various
1.46 gdt 747: configurations. We focus on two common and useful cases for which
748: there are existing scripts: bridging and NAT.
1.28 gdt 749:
1.48 gdt 750: With bridging (in the example above), the domU perceives itself to be
751: on the same network as the dom0. For server virtualization, this is
752: usually best. Bridging is accomplished by creating a bridge(4) device
753: and adding the dom0's physical interface and the various xvifN.0
754: interfaces to the bridge. One specifies "bridge=bridge0" in the domU
755: config file. The bridge must be set up already in the dom0; an
756: example /etc/ifconfig.bridge0 is:
1.46 gdt 757:
758: create
759: up
760: !brconfig bridge0 add wm0
1.28 gdt 761:
762: With NAT, the domU perceives itself to be behind a NAT running on the
763: dom0. This is often appropriate when running Xen on a workstation.
1.48 gdt 764: TODO: NAT appears to be configured by "vif = [ '' ]".
1.28 gdt 765:
1.49 gdt 766: The MAC address specified is the one used for the interface in the new
1.53 gdt 767: domain. The interface in dom0 will use this address XOR'd with
1.49 gdt 768: 00:00:00:01:00:00. Random MAC addresses are assigned if not given.
769:
1.33 gdt 770: Sizing domains
771: --------------
772:
773: Modern x86 hardware has vast amounts of resources. However, many
774: virtual servers can function just fine on far less. A system with
775: 256M of RAM and a 4G disk can be a reasonable choice. Note that it is
776: far easier to adjust virtual resources than physical ones. For
777: memory, it's just a config file edit and a reboot. For disk, one can
778: create a new file and vnconfig it (or lvm), and then dump/restore,
779: just like updating physical disks, but without having to be there and
780: without those pesky connectors.
781:
1.48 gdt 782: Starting domains automatically
783: ------------------------------
1.28 gdt 784:
1.48 gdt 785: To start domains foo at bar at boot and shut them down cleanly on dom0
786: shutdown, in rc.conf add:
1.28 gdt 787:
1.48 gdt 788: xendomains="foo bar"
1.28 gdt 789:
1.111 wiz 790: Note that earlier versions of the xentools41 xendomains rc.d script
791: used xl, when one should use xm with 4.1.
1.28 gdt 792:
793: Creating specific unprivileged domains (domU)
794: =============================================
1.14 gdt 795:
796: Creating domUs is almost entirely independent of operating system. We
1.49 gdt 797: have already presented the basics of config files. Note that you must
798: have already completed the dom0 setup so that "xl list" (or "xm list")
799: works.
1.14 gdt 800:
801: Creating an unprivileged NetBSD domain (domU)
802: ---------------------------------------------
1.1 mspo 803:
1.49 gdt 804: See the earlier config file, and adjust memory. Decide on how much
805: storage you will provide, and prepare it (file or lvm).
806:
1.111 wiz 807: While the kernel will be obtained from the dom0 file system, the same
1.49 gdt 808: file should be present in the domU as /netbsd so that tools like
809: savecore(8) can work. (This is helpful but not necessary.)
810:
811: The kernel must be specifically for Xen and for use as a domU. The
812: i386 and amd64 provide the following kernels:
813:
814: i386 XEN3_DOMU
815: i386 XEN3PAE_DOMU
1.95 gdt 816: amd64 XEN3_DOMU
1.5 mspo 817:
1.49 gdt 818: Unless using Xen 3.1 (and you shouldn't) with i386-mode Xen, you must
819: use the PAE version of the i386 kernel.
820:
821: This will boot NetBSD, but this is not that useful if the disk is
822: empty. One approach is to unpack sets onto the disk outside of xen
823: (by mounting it, just as you would prepare a physical disk for a
824: system you can't run the installer on).
825:
826: A second approach is to run an INSTALL kernel, which has a miniroot
827: and can load sets from the network. To do this, copy the INSTALL
828: kernel to / and change the kernel line in the config file to:
1.5 mspo 829:
1.49 gdt 830: kernel = "/home/bouyer/netbsd-INSTALL_XEN3_DOMU"
1.5 mspo 831:
1.49 gdt 832: Then, start the domain as "xl create -c configname".
1.1 mspo 833:
1.49 gdt 834: Alternatively, if you want to install NetBSD/Xen with a CDROM image, the following
835: line should be used in the config file.
1.1 mspo 836:
1.3 mspo 837: disk = [ 'phy:/dev/wd0e,0x1,w', 'phy:/dev/cd0a,0x2,r' ]
1.1 mspo 838:
839: After booting the domain, the option to install via CDROM may be
1.49 gdt 840: selected. The CDROM device should be changed to `xbd1d`.
1.1 mspo 841:
1.49 gdt 842: Once done installing, "halt -p" the new domain (don't reboot or halt,
843: it would reload the INSTALL_XEN3_DOMU kernel even if you changed the
844: config file), switch the config file back to the XEN3_DOMU kernel,
845: and start the new domain again. Now it should be able to use "root on
846: xbd0a" and you should have a, functional NetBSD domU.
1.1 mspo 847:
1.49 gdt 848: TODO: check if this is still accurate.
1.1 mspo 849: When the new domain is booting you'll see some warnings about *wscons*
850: and the pseudo-terminals. These can be fixed by editing the files
1.5 mspo 851: `/etc/ttys` and `/etc/wscons.conf`. You must disable all terminals in
852: `/etc/ttys`, except *console*, like this:
1.1 mspo 853:
1.3 mspo 854: console "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" vt100 on secure
855: ttyE0 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" vt220 off secure
856: ttyE1 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" vt220 off secure
857: ttyE2 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" vt220 off secure
858: ttyE3 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" vt220 off secure
1.1 mspo 859:
1.5 mspo 860: Finally, all screens must be commented out from `/etc/wscons.conf`.
1.1 mspo 861:
862: It is also desirable to add
863:
1.49 gdt 864: powerd=YES
1.1 mspo 865:
1.5 mspo 866: in rc.conf. This way, the domain will be properly shut down if
1.53 gdt 867: `xm shutdown -R` or `xm shutdown -H` is used on the dom0.
1.1 mspo 868:
1.92 gdt 869: It is not strictly necessary to have a kernel (as /netbsd) in the domU
1.111 wiz 870: file system. However, various programs (e.g. netstat) will use that
1.92 gdt 871: kernel to look up symbols to read from kernel virtual memory. If
872: /netbsd is not the running kernel, those lookups will fail. (This is
873: not really a Xen-specific issue, but because the domU kernel is
874: obtained from the dom0, it is far more likely to be out of sync or
875: missing with Xen.)
876:
1.14 gdt 877: Creating an unprivileged Linux domain (domU)
1.5 mspo 878: --------------------------------------------
1.1 mspo 879:
880: Creating unprivileged Linux domains isn't much different from
881: unprivileged NetBSD domains, but there are some details to know.
882:
883: First, the second parameter passed to the disk declaration (the '0x1' in
884: the example below)
885:
1.3 mspo 886: disk = [ 'phy:/dev/wd0e,0x1,w' ]
1.1 mspo 887:
888: does matter to Linux. It wants a Linux device number here (e.g. 0x300
1.49 gdt 889: for hda). Linux builds device numbers as: (major \<\< 8 + minor).
890: So, hda1 which has major 3 and minor 1 on a Linux system will have
891: device number 0x301. Alternatively, devices names can be used (hda,
892: hdb, ...) as xentools has a table to map these names to devices
893: numbers. To export a partition to a Linux guest we can use:
1.1 mspo 894:
1.49 gdt 895: disk = [ 'phy:/dev/wd0e,0x300,w' ]
896: root = "/dev/hda1 ro"
1.1 mspo 897:
898: and it will appear as /dev/hda on the Linux system, and be used as root
899: partition.
900:
1.49 gdt 901: To install the Linux system on the partition to be exported to the
902: guest domain, the following method can be used: install
903: sysutils/e2fsprogs from pkgsrc. Use mke2fs to format the partition
904: that will be the root partition of your Linux domain, and mount it.
905: Then copy the files from a working Linux system, make adjustments in
906: `/etc` (fstab, network config). It should also be possible to extract
907: binary packages such as .rpm or .deb directly to the mounted partition
908: using the appropriate tool, possibly running under NetBSD's Linux
1.111 wiz 909: emulation. Once the file system has been populated, umount it. If
910: desirable, the file system can be converted to ext3 using tune2fs -j.
1.49 gdt 911: It should now be possible to boot the Linux guest domain, using one of
912: the vmlinuz-\*-xenU kernels available in the Xen binary distribution.
1.1 mspo 913:
1.111 wiz 914: To get the Linux console right, you need to add:
1.1 mspo 915:
1.3 mspo 916: extra = "xencons=tty1"
1.1 mspo 917:
1.111 wiz 918: to your configuration since not all Linux distributions auto-attach a
1.1 mspo 919: tty to the xen console.
920:
1.14 gdt 921: Creating an unprivileged Solaris domain (domU)
1.5 mspo 922: ----------------------------------------------
1.1 mspo 923:
1.50 gdt 924: See possibly outdated
925: [Solaris domU instructions](/ports/xen/howto-solaris/).
1.5 mspo 926:
1.1 mspo 927:
1.52 gdt 928: PCI passthrough: Using PCI devices in guest domains
929: ---------------------------------------------------
1.1 mspo 930:
1.53 gdt 931: The dom0 can give other domains access to selected PCI
1.52 gdt 932: devices. This can allow, for example, a non-privileged domain to have
933: access to a physical network interface or disk controller. However,
934: keep in mind that giving a domain access to a PCI device most likely
935: will give the domain read/write access to the whole physical memory,
936: as PCs don't have an IOMMU to restrict memory access to DMA-capable
1.53 gdt 937: device. Also, it's not possible to export ISA devices to non-dom0
1.52 gdt 938: domains, which means that the primary VGA adapter can't be exported.
939: A guest domain trying to access the VGA registers will panic.
940:
1.53 gdt 941: If the dom0 is NetBSD, it has to be running Xen 3.1, as support has
1.52 gdt 942: not been ported to later versions at this time.
943:
944: For a PCI device to be exported to a domU, is has to be attached to
945: the "pciback" driver in dom0. Devices passed to the dom0 via the
946: pciback.hide boot parameter will attach to "pciback" instead of the
947: usual driver. The list of devices is specified as "(bus:dev.func)",
1.5 mspo 948: where bus and dev are 2-digit hexadecimal numbers, and func a
949: single-digit number:
1.1 mspo 950:
1.52 gdt 951: pciback.hide=(00:0a.0)(00:06.0)
1.1 mspo 952:
1.52 gdt 953: pciback devices should show up in the dom0's boot messages, and the
1.5 mspo 954: devices should be listed in the `/kern/xen/pci` directory.
1.1 mspo 955:
1.52 gdt 956: PCI devices to be exported to a domU are listed in the "pci" array of
957: the domU's config file, with the format "0000:bus:dev.func".
1.1 mspo 958:
1.52 gdt 959: pci = [ '0000:00:06.0', '0000:00:0a.0' ]
1.1 mspo 960:
1.52 gdt 961: In the domU an "xpci" device will show up, to which one or more pci
1.111 wiz 962: buses will attach. Then the PCI drivers will attach to PCI buses as
1.52 gdt 963: usual. Note that the default NetBSD DOMU kernels do not have "xpci"
964: or any PCI drivers built in by default; you have to build your own
965: kernel to use PCI devices in a domU. Here's a kernel config example;
966: note that only the "xpci" lines are unusual.
967:
968: include "arch/i386/conf/XEN3_DOMU"
969:
1.111 wiz 970: # Add support for PCI buses to the XEN3_DOMU kernel
1.52 gdt 971: xpci* at xenbus ?
972: pci* at xpci ?
973:
974: # PCI USB controllers
975: uhci* at pci? dev ? function ? # Universal Host Controller (Intel)
976:
977: # USB bus support
978: usb* at uhci?
979:
980: # USB Hubs
981: uhub* at usb?
982: uhub* at uhub? port ? configuration ? interface ?
983:
984: # USB Mass Storage
985: umass* at uhub? port ? configuration ? interface ?
986: wd* at umass?
987: # SCSI controllers
988: ahc* at pci? dev ? function ? # Adaptec [23]94x, aic78x0 SCSI
989:
990: # SCSI bus support (for both ahc and umass)
991: scsibus* at scsi?
992:
993: # SCSI devices
994: sd* at scsibus? target ? lun ? # SCSI disk drives
995: cd* at scsibus? target ? lun ? # SCSI CD-ROM drives
1.1 mspo 996:
997:
1.28 gdt 998: NetBSD as a domU in a VPS
999: =========================
1000:
1001: The bulk of the HOWTO is about using NetBSD as a dom0 on your own
1002: hardware. This section explains how to deal with Xen in a domU as a
1003: virtual private server where you do not control or have access to the
1.70 gdt 1004: dom0. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of VPS providers;
1005: only a few are mentioned that specifically support NetBSD.
1.28 gdt 1006:
1.52 gdt 1007: VPS operators provide varying degrees of access and mechanisms for
1008: configuration. The big issue is usually how one controls which kernel
1.111 wiz 1009: is booted, because the kernel is nominally in the dom0 file system (to
1010: which VPS users do not normally have access). A second issue is how
1.70 gdt 1011: to install NetBSD.
1.52 gdt 1012: A VPS user may want to compile a kernel for security updates, to run
1013: npf, run IPsec, or any other reason why someone would want to change
1014: their kernel.
1015:
1.111 wiz 1016: One approach is to have an administrative interface to upload a kernel,
1.68 gdt 1017: or to select from a prepopulated list. Other approaches are pygrub
1.59 gdt 1018: (deprecated) and pvgrub, which are ways to have a bootloader obtain a
1.111 wiz 1019: kernel from the domU file system. This is closer to a regular physical
1.59 gdt 1020: computer, where someone who controls a machine can replace the kernel.
1.52 gdt 1021:
1.74 gdt 1022: A second issue is multiple CPUs. With NetBSD 6, domUs support
1023: multiple vcpus, and it is typical for VPS providers to enable multiple
1024: CPUs for NetBSD domUs.
1025:
1.68 gdt 1026: pygrub
1.59 gdt 1027: -------
1.52 gdt 1028:
1.111 wiz 1029: pygrub runs in the dom0 and looks into the domU file system. This
1030: implies that the domU must have a kernel in a file system in a format
1.68 gdt 1031: known to pygrub. As of 2014, pygrub seems to be of mostly historical
1032: interest.
1.52 gdt 1033:
1.59 gdt 1034: pvgrub
1035: ------
1036:
1037: pvgrub is a version of grub that uses PV operations instead of BIOS
1038: calls. It is booted from the dom0 as the domU kernel, and then reads
1.111 wiz 1039: /grub/menu.lst and loads a kernel from the domU file system.
1.59 gdt 1040:
1.70 gdt 1041: [Panix](http://www.panix.com/) lets users use pvgrub. Panix reports
1.71 gdt 1042: that pvgrub works with FFsv2 with 16K/2K and 32K/4K block/frag sizes
1043: (and hence with defaults from "newfs -O 2"). See [Panix's pvgrub
1.70 gdt 1044: page](http://www.panix.com/v-colo/grub.html), which describes only
1.74 gdt 1045: Linux but should be updated to cover NetBSD :-).
1.70 gdt 1046:
1047: [prgmr.com](http://prgmr.com/) also lets users with pvgrub to boot
1048: their own kernel. See then [prgmr.com NetBSD
1.74 gdt 1049: HOWTO](http://wiki.prgmr.com/mediawiki/index.php/NetBSD_as_a_DomU)
1050: (which is in need of updating).
1.59 gdt 1051:
1.70 gdt 1052: It appears that [grub's FFS
1053: code](http://xenbits.xensource.com/hg/xen-unstable.hg/file/bca284f67702/tools/libfsimage/ufs/fsys_ufs.c)
1054: does not support all aspects of modern FFS, but there are also reports
1.72 gdt 1055: that FFSv2 works fine. At prgmr, typically one has an ext2 or FAT
1.70 gdt 1056: partition for the kernel with the intent that grub can understand it,
1057: which leads to /netbsd not being the actual kernel. One must remember
1.111 wiz 1058: to update the special boot partition.
1.59 gdt 1059:
1060: Amazon
1061: ------
1062:
1.95 gdt 1063: See the [Amazon EC2 page](../amazon_ec2/).
1.44 gdt 1064:
1065: Using npf
1066: ---------
1067:
1.81 gdt 1068: In standard kernels, npf is a module, and thus cannot be loaded in a
1.44 gdt 1069: DOMU kernel.
1070:
1.95 gdt 1071: TODO: Explain how to compile npf into a custom kernel, answering (but
1072: note that the problem was caused by not booting the right kernel)
1073: [this email to
1074: netbsd-users](http://mail-index.netbsd.org/netbsd-users/2014/12/26/msg015576.html).
1.65 gdt 1075:
1076: TODO items for improving NetBSD/xen
1077: ===================================
1078:
1.93 gdt 1079: * Make the NetBSD dom0 kernel work with SMP.
1080: * Test the Xen 4.5 packages adequately to be able to recommend them as
1081: the standard approach.
1082: * Get PCI passthrough working on Xen 4.5
1.65 gdt 1083: * Get pvgrub into pkgsrc, either via xentools or separately.
1084: * grub
1.70 gdt 1085: * Check/add support to pkgsrc grub2 for UFS2 and arbitrary
1.66 gdt 1086: fragsize/blocksize (UFS2 support may be present; the point is to
1.111 wiz 1087: make it so that with any UFS1/UFS2 file system setup that works
1.66 gdt 1088: with NetBSD grub will also work).
1.70 gdt 1089: See [pkg/40258](http://gnats.netbsd.org/40258).
1.65 gdt 1090: * Push patches upstream.
1091: * Get UFS2 patches into pvgrub.
1092: * Add support for PV ops to a version of /boot, and make it usable as
1093: a kernel in Xen, similar to pvgrub.
1.93 gdt 1094: * Solve somehow the issue with modules for GENERIC not being loadable
1095: in a Xen dom0 or domU kernel.
1096:
1097: Random pointers
1098: ===============
1099:
1100: TODO: This section contains links from elsewhere not yet integrated
1101: into the HOWTO.
1102:
1103: * http://www.lumbercartel.ca/library/xen/
1104: * http://pbraun.nethence.com/doc/sysutils/xen_netbsd_dom0.html
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