Annotation of wikisrc/ports/xen/howto.mdwn, revision 1.124
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:
1.123 gdt 30: Generally any machine that runs NetBSD/amd64 will work with Xen and PV
31: guests. In theory i386 computers (without x86_64/amd64 support) can
32: be used for Xen <= 4.2, but we have no recent reports of this working
33: (this is a hint). For HVM guests, hardware support is needed, but it
34: is common on recent machines. For Intel CPUs, one needs the VT-x
35: extension, shown in "cpuctl identify 0" as VMX. For AMD CPUs, one
36: needs the AMD-V extensions, shown in "cpuctl identify 0" as SVM.
37: There are further features for IOMMU virtualization, Intel's VT-d and
38: AMD's AMD-Vi. TODO: Explain whether Xen on NetBSD makes use of these
39: features. TODO: Review by someone who really understands this.
1.19 gdt 40:
1.123 gdt 41: Note that a FreeBSD dom0 requires VT-x and VT-d (or equivalent); this
42: is because the FreeBSD dom0 does not run in PV mode.
1.118 gdt 43:
1.27 jnemeth 44: At boot, the dom0 kernel is loaded as a module with Xen as the kernel.
1.12 gdt 45: The dom0 can start one or more domUs. (Booting is explained in detail
46: in the dom0 section.)
47:
48: NetBSD supports Xen in that it can serve as dom0, be used as a domU,
49: and that Xen kernels and tools are available in pkgsrc. This HOWTO
50: attempts to address both the case of running a NetBSD dom0 on hardware
1.24 gdt 51: and running domUs under it (NetBSD and other), and also running NetBSD
52: as a domU in a VPS.
1.12 gdt 53:
1.123 gdt 54: Xen 3.1 in pkgsrc supports "PCI passthrough", which means that
1.20 gdt 55: specific PCI devices can be made available to a specific domU instead
56: of the dom0. This can be useful to let a domU run X11, or access some
57: network interface or other peripheral.
58:
1.111 wiz 59: NetBSD 6 and earlier supported Xen 2; support was removed from NetBSD
1.104 gdt 60: 7. Xen 2 has been removed from pkgsrc.
1.54 gdt 61:
1.12 gdt 62: Prerequisites
1.13 gdt 63: -------------
1.12 gdt 64:
65: Installing NetBSD/Xen is not extremely difficult, but it is more
66: complex than a normal installation of NetBSD.
1.15 gdt 67: In general, this HOWTO is occasionally overly restrictive about how
68: things must be done, guiding the reader to stay on the established
69: path when there are no known good reasons to stray.
1.12 gdt 70:
71: This HOWTO presumes a basic familiarity with the Xen system
1.123 gdt 72: architecture, with installing NetBSD on i386/amd64 hardware, and with
73: installing software from pkgsrc. See also the [Xen
74: website](http://www.xenproject.org/).
1.1 mspo 75:
1.15 gdt 76: Versions of Xen and NetBSD
77: ==========================
78:
1.27 jnemeth 79: Most of the installation concepts and instructions are independent
80: of Xen version and NetBSD version. This section gives advice on
81: which version to choose. Versions not in pkgsrc and older unsupported
82: versions of NetBSD are intentionally ignored.
1.15 gdt 83:
84: Xen
85: ---
86:
1.111 wiz 87: In NetBSD, Xen is provided in pkgsrc, via matching pairs of packages
1.15 gdt 88: xenkernel and xentools. We will refer only to the kernel versions,
89: but note that both packages must be installed together and must have
90: matching versions.
91:
1.104 gdt 92: xenkernel3 provides Xen 3.1. It is no longer maintained by Xen, and the last applied security patch was in
93: 2011. Thus, it should not be used. It supports PCI passthrough,
94: which is why people use it anyway. Xen 3.1 supports i386, both PAE and
95: non-PAE.
96:
97: xenkernel33 provides Xen 3.3. It is no longer maintained by Xen, and
98: the last applied security patch was in 2012. Thus, it should not be
99: used. Xen 3.3 supports i386, but only in PAE mode. There are no good
100: reasons to run this version.
101:
102: xenkernel41 provides Xen 4.1. It is no longer maintained by Xen, but
1.112 gdt 103: as of 2016-12 received backported security patches. Xen 4.1 supports
1.104 gdt 104: i386, but only in PAE mode. There are no good reasons to run this
105: version.
1.102 gdt 106:
1.104 gdt 107: xenkernel42 provides Xen 4.2. It is no longer maintained by Xen, but
1.112 gdt 108: as of 2016-12 received backported security patches. Xen 4.2 supports
1.104 gdt 109: i386, but only in PAE mode. The only reason to run this is if you
110: need to use xm instead of xl, or if you need to run an i386 dom0
111: (because your hardware is i386 only).
112:
1.114 gdt 113: xenkernel45 provides Xen 4.5. As of 2016-12, security patches were
1.119 gdt 114: released by Xen and applied to pkgsrc. Xen 4.5 requires using a dom0
115: running NetBSD's amd64 port (Intel or AMD hardware is fine), but domUs
116: can be amd64 or i386 PAE. TODO: It is either a conservative choice or
117: somewhat old.
1.104 gdt 118:
1.115 gdt 119: xenkernel46 provides Xen 4.6. It is new to pkgsrc as of 2016-05. As
1.114 gdt 120: of 2016-12, security patches were released by Xen and applied to
1.119 gdt 121: pkgsrc. Xen 4.6 similarly requires a NetBSD/amd64 dom0, but domUs can
122: be amd64 or i386 PAE. TODO: It is either a somewhat aggressive choice
123: or the standard choice.
1.85 gdt 124:
1.114 gdt 125: Xen 4.7 (released 2016-06) and 4.8 (released 2016-12) are not yet in
126: pkgsrc.
1.113 gdt 127:
1.96 gdt 128: See also the [Xen Security Advisory page](http://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/).
129:
1.85 gdt 130: Note that NetBSD support is called XEN3. It works with Xen 3 and Xen
131: 4 because the hypercall interface has been stable.
1.20 gdt 132:
1.19 gdt 133: Xen command program
134: -------------------
135:
1.79 gdt 136: Early Xen used a program called xm to manipulate the system from the
1.19 gdt 137: dom0. Starting in 4.1, a replacement program with similar behavior
1.79 gdt 138: called xl is provided, but it does not work well in 4.1. In 4.2, both
139: xm and xl work fine. 4.4 is the last version that has xm. You must
140: choose one or the other, because it affects which daemons you run.
1.106 gdt 141: However, the rc.d scripts provided by xentools packages expect a
142: particular version, and you should use the version used by the
143: scripts.
1.19 gdt 144:
1.15 gdt 145: NetBSD
146: ------
147:
1.105 gdt 148: The netbsd-6, netbsd-7, and -current branches are all reasonable
149: choices, with more or less the same considerations for non-Xen use.
150: Therefore, netbsd-7 is recommended as the stable version of the most
1.117 gdt 151: recent release for production use. In addition, netbsd-7 and -current
152: have a important scheduler fix (in November of 2015) affecting
153: contention between dom0 and domUs; see
154: https://releng.netbsd.org/cgi-bin/req-7.cgi?show=1040 for a
155: description. For those wanting to learn Xen or without production
156: stability concerns, netbsd-7 is still likely most appropriate, but
157: -current is also a reasonable choice. (Xen runs ok on netbsd-5, but
158: the xentools packages are likely difficult to build, and netbsd-5 is
159: not supported.)
1.15 gdt 160:
161: As of NetBSD 6, a NetBSD domU will support multiple vcpus. There is
162: no SMP support for NetBSD as dom0. (The dom0 itself doesn't really
1.105 gdt 163: need SMP for dom0 functions; the lack of support is really a problem
164: when using a dom0 as a normal computer.)
1.15 gdt 165:
1.18 gdt 166: Architecture
167: ------------
168:
1.108 gdt 169: Xen itself can run on i386 (Xen < 3.1) or amd64 machines (all Xen
1.105 gdt 170: versions). (Practically, almost any computer where one would want to
171: run Xen today supports amd64.)
1.99 gdt 172:
173: Xen, the dom0 kernel, and each domU kernel can be either i386 or
174: amd64. When building a xenkernel package, one obtains i386 on an i386
1.111 wiz 175: host, and amd64 on an amd64 host. If the Xen kernel is i386, then the
176: dom0 kernel and all domU kernels must be i386. With an amd64 Xen
1.105 gdt 177: kernel, an amd64 dom0 kernel is known to work, and an i386PAE dom0
1.111 wiz 178: kernel should in theory work. An amd64 Xen/dom0 is known to support
1.105 gdt 179: both i386PAE and amd64 domUs.
1.99 gdt 180:
1.101 gdt 181: i386 dom0 and domU kernels must be PAE (except for Xen 3.1); these are
182: built by default. (Note that emacs (at least) fails if run on i386
183: with PAE when built without, and vice versa, presumably due to bugs in
184: the undump code.)
1.99 gdt 185:
186: Because of the above, the standard approach is to use amd64 for the
187: dom0.
1.29 gdt 188:
189: Xen 4.2 is the last version to support i386 as a host. TODO: Clarify
1.111 wiz 190: if this is about the CPU, the Xen kernel, or the dom0 kernel having to
1.100 gdt 191: be amd64.
192:
1.29 gdt 193:
1.89 gdt 194: Stability
195: ---------
196:
197: Mostly, NetBSD as a dom0 or domU is quite stable.
198: However, there are some open PRs indicating problems.
199:
1.91 gdt 200: - [PR 48125](http://gnats.netbsd.org/48125)
201: - [PR 47720](http://gnats.netbsd.org/47720)
1.89 gdt 202:
203: Note also that there are issues with sparse vnd(4) instances, but
1.105 gdt 204: these are not about Xen -- they just are noticed with sparse vnd(4)
205: instances in support of virtual disks in a dom0.
1.89 gdt 206:
1.15 gdt 207: Recommendation
208: --------------
209:
1.105 gdt 210: Therefore, this HOWTO recommends running xenkernel45 or xenkernel46,
211: xl, the NetBSD 7 stable branch, and to use an amd64 kernel as the
212: dom0. Either the i386PAE or amd64 version of NetBSD may be used as
213: domUs.
1.15 gdt 214:
1.36 gdt 215: Build problems
216: --------------
217:
1.120 gdt 218: Ideally, all versions of Xen in pkgsrc would build on all supported
1.121 gdt 219: versions of NetBSD/amd64, to the point where this section would be
220: silly. However, that has not always been the case. Besides aging
221: code and aging compilers, qemu (included in xentools for HVM support)
1.124 ! gdt 222: is difficult to build. Note that there is intentionally no data for
! 223: 4.5 and up for i386. The following are known to be ok or FAIL, with
! 224: the date last checked (generally on the most recent quarterly branch):
! 225:
! 226: xenkernel3 netbsd-6 i386 FAIL 201612
! 227: xenkernel33 netbsd-6 i386 FAIL 201612
! 228: xenkernel41 netbsd-6 i386 ok 201612
! 229: xenkernel42 netbsd-6 i386 ok 201612
1.122 gdt 230: xentools3 netbsd-6 i386 ok 201412
231: xentools3-hvm netbsd-6 i386 FAIL 201412
232: xentools33 netbsd-6 i386 ok 201412
233: xentools41 netbsd-6 i386 ok 201412
234: xentools42 netbsd-6 i386 mixed 201412
1.64 gdt 235:
1.124 ! gdt 236: xenkernel3 netbsd-7 i386 FAIL 201412
! 237: xenkernel33 netbsd-7 i386 FAIL 201412
1.122 gdt 238: xenkernel41 netbsd-7 i386 ok 201412
239: xenkernel42 netbsd-7 i386 ok 201412
240: xentools41 netbsd-7 i386 ok 201412
241: xentools42 netbsd-7 i386 ??FAIL 201412
1.121 gdt 242:
1.124 ! gdt 243: xenkernel3 netbsd-6 amd64 FAIL 201612
! 244: xenkernel33 netbsd-6 amd64 FAIL 201612
! 245: xenkernel41 netbsd-6 amd64 ok 201612
1.121 gdt 246: xenkernel42 netbsd-6 amd64 ok 201612
247: xenkernel45 netbsd-6 amd64 ok 201612
248: xenkernel46 netbsd-6 amd64 ok 201612
1.124 ! gdt 249: xentools41 netbsd-6 amd64 ok 201612
1.121 gdt 250: xentools42 netbsd-6 amd64 ok 201612
251: xentools45 netbsd-6 amd64 ok 201612
1.124 ! gdt 252: xentools46 netbsd-6 amd64 FAIL 201612
1.121 gdt 253:
254: xenkernel3 netbsd-7 amd64 ok 201612
255: xenkernel33 netbsd-7 amd64 ok 201612
256: xenkernel41 netbsd-7 amd64 ok 201612
257: xenkernel42 netbsd-7 amd64 ok 201612
258: xenkernel45 netbsd-7 amd64 ok 201612
259: xenkernel46 netbsd-7 amd64 ok 201612
260: xentools3 netbsd-7 amd64 ok 201612
261: xentools3-hvm netbsd-7 amd64 ok 201612
262: xentools33 netbsd-7 amd64 FAIL 201612
263: xentools41 netbsd-7 amd64 ok 201612
264: xentools42 netbsd-7 amd64 ok 201612
265: xentools45 netbsd-7 amd64 ok 201612
266: xentools46 netbsd-7 amd64 ok 201612
1.69 gdt 267:
1.15 gdt 268: NetBSD as a dom0
269: ================
270:
271: NetBSD can be used as a dom0 and works very well. The following
272: sections address installation, updating NetBSD, and updating Xen.
1.19 gdt 273: Note that it doesn't make sense to talk about installing a dom0 OS
274: without also installing Xen itself. We first address installing
275: NetBSD, which is not yet a dom0, and then adding Xen, pivoting the
276: NetBSD install to a dom0 install by just changing the kernel and boot
277: configuration.
1.15 gdt 278:
1.45 gdt 279: For experimenting with Xen, a machine with as little as 1G of RAM and
280: 100G of disk can work. For running many domUs in productions, far
281: more will be needed.
282:
1.15 gdt 283: Styles of dom0 operation
284: ------------------------
285:
286: There are two basic ways to use Xen. The traditional method is for
287: the dom0 to do absolutely nothing other than providing support to some
288: number of domUs. Such a system was probably installed for the sole
289: purpose of hosting domUs, and sits in a server room on a UPS.
290:
291: The other way is to put Xen under a normal-usage computer, so that the
292: dom0 is what the computer would have been without Xen, perhaps a
293: desktop or laptop. Then, one can run domUs at will. Purists will
294: deride this as less secure than the previous approach, and for a
295: computer whose purpose is to run domUs, they are right. But Xen and a
1.93 gdt 296: dom0 (without domUs) is not meaningfully less secure than the same
1.15 gdt 297: things running without Xen. One can boot Xen or boot regular NetBSD
298: alternately with little problems, simply refraining from starting the
299: Xen daemons when not running Xen.
300:
301: Note that NetBSD as dom0 does not support multiple CPUs. This will
1.51 gdt 302: limit the performance of the Xen/dom0 workstation approach. In theory
303: the only issue is that the "backend drivers" are not yet MPSAFE:
304: http://mail-index.netbsd.org/netbsd-users/2014/08/29/msg015195.html
1.15 gdt 305:
1.19 gdt 306: Installation of NetBSD
307: ----------------------
1.13 gdt 308:
1.19 gdt 309: First,
1.27 jnemeth 310: [install NetBSD/amd64](/guide/inst/)
1.19 gdt 311: just as you would if you were not using Xen.
312: However, the partitioning approach is very important.
313:
314: If you want to use RAIDframe for the dom0, there are no special issues
315: for Xen. Typically one provides RAID storage for the dom0, and the
1.22 gdt 316: domU systems are unaware of RAID. The 2nd-stage loader bootxx_* skips
1.111 wiz 317: over a RAID1 header to find /boot from a file system within a RAID
1.22 gdt 318: partition; this is no different when booting Xen.
1.19 gdt 319:
320: There are 4 styles of providing backing storage for the virtual disks
1.93 gdt 321: used by domUs: raw partitions, LVM, file-backed vnd(4), and SAN.
1.19 gdt 322:
323: With raw partitions, one has a disklabel (or gpt) partition sized for
324: each virtual disk to be used by the domU. (If you are able to predict
325: how domU usage will evolve, please add an explanation to the HOWTO.
326: Seriously, needs tend to change over time.)
327:
1.27 jnemeth 328: One can use [lvm(8)](/guide/lvm/) to create logical devices to use
329: for domU disks. This is almost as efficient as raw disk partitions
330: and more flexible. Hence raw disk partitions should typically not
331: be used.
1.19 gdt 332:
1.111 wiz 333: One can use files in the dom0 file system, typically created by dd'ing
1.19 gdt 334: /dev/zero to create a specific size. This is somewhat less efficient,
335: but very convenient, as one can cp the files for backup, or move them
336: between dom0 hosts.
337:
338: Finally, in theory one can place the files backing the domU disks in a
339: SAN. (This is an invitation for someone who has done this to add a
340: HOWTO page.)
1.1 mspo 341:
1.19 gdt 342: Installation of Xen
343: -------------------
1.1 mspo 344:
1.20 gdt 345: In the dom0, install sysutils/xenkernel42 and sysutils/xentools42 from
346: pkgsrc (or another matching pair).
347: See [the pkgsrc
348: documentation](http://www.NetBSD.org/docs/pkgsrc/) for help with pkgsrc.
349:
350: For Xen 3.1, support for HVM guests is in sysutils/xentool3-hvm. More
351: recent versions have HVM support integrated in the main xentools
352: package. It is entirely reasonable to run only PV guests.
353:
354: Next you need to install the selected Xen kernel itself, which is
355: installed by pkgsrc as "/usr/pkg/xen*-kernel/xen.gz". Copy it to /.
356: For debugging, one may copy xen-debug.gz; this is conceptually similar
357: to DIAGNOSTIC and DEBUG in NetBSD. xen-debug.gz is basically only
358: useful with a serial console. Then, place a NetBSD XEN3_DOM0 kernel
359: in /, copied from releasedir/amd64/binary/kernel/netbsd-XEN3_DOM0.gz
1.75 gdt 360: of a NetBSD build. If using i386, use
361: releasedir/i386/binary/kernel/netbsd-XEN3PAE_DOM0.gz. (If using Xen
362: 3.1 and i386, you may use XEN3_DOM0 with the non-PAE Xen. But you
363: should not use Xen 3.1.) Both xen and the NetBSD kernel may be (and
364: typically are) left compressed.
365:
1.111 wiz 366: In a dom0 kernel, kernfs is mandatory for xend to communicate with the
1.75 gdt 367: kernel, so ensure that /kern is in fstab. TODO: Say this is default,
368: or file a PR and give a reference.
1.20 gdt 369:
370: Because you already installed NetBSD, you have a working boot setup
371: with an MBR bootblock, either bootxx_ffsv1 or bootxx_ffsv2 at the
1.111 wiz 372: beginning of your root file system, /boot present, and likely
1.20 gdt 373: /boot.cfg. (If not, fix before continuing!)
374:
1.76 gdt 375: Add a line to to /boot.cfg to boot Xen. See boot.cfg(5) for an
376: example. The basic line is
1.20 gdt 377:
1.37 gdt 378: menu=Xen:load /netbsd-XEN3_DOM0.gz console=pc;multiboot /xen.gz dom0_mem=256M
1.20 gdt 379:
380: which specifies that the dom0 should have 256M, leaving the rest to be
1.77 gdt 381: allocated for domUs. To use a serial console, use
382:
383: menu=Xen:load /netbsd-XEN3_DOM0.gz console=com0;multiboot /xen.gz dom0_mem=256M console=com1 com1=9600,8n1
384:
385: which will use the first serial port for Xen (which counts starting
386: from 1), forcing speed/parity, and also for NetBSD (which counts
387: starting at 0). In an attempt to add performance, one can also add
1.37 gdt 388:
389: dom0_max_vcpus=1 dom0_vcpus_pin
390:
391: to force only one vcpu to be provided (since NetBSD dom0 can't use
1.111 wiz 392: more) and to pin that vcpu to a physical CPU. TODO: benchmark this.
1.20 gdt 393:
1.93 gdt 394: Xen has [many boot
395: options](http://xenbits.xenproject.org/docs/4.5-testing/misc/xen-command-line.html),
1.111 wiz 396: and other than dom0 memory and max_vcpus, they are generally not
1.93 gdt 397: necessary.
398:
1.20 gdt 399: As with non-Xen systems, you should have a line to boot /netbsd (a
400: kernel that works without Xen) and fallback versions of the non-Xen
401: kernel, Xen, and the dom0 kernel.
1.1 mspo 402:
1.76 gdt 403: Now, reboot so that you are running a DOM0 kernel under Xen, rather
404: than GENERIC without Xen.
405:
1.54 gdt 406: Using grub (historic)
407: ---------------------
408:
409: Before NetBSD's native bootloader could support Xen, the use of
410: grub was recommended. If necessary, see the
411: [old grub information](/ports/xen/howto-grub/).
412:
1.28 gdt 413: The [HowTo on Installing into
414: RAID-1](http://mail-index.NetBSD.org/port-xen/2006/03/01/0010.html)
415: explains how to set up booting a dom0 with Xen using grub with
416: NetBSD's RAIDframe. (This is obsolete with the use of NetBSD's native
417: boot.)
418:
1.21 gdt 419: Configuring Xen
420: ---------------
421:
1.53 gdt 422: Xen logs will be in /var/log/xen.
423:
1.76 gdt 424: Now, you have a system that will boot Xen and the dom0 kernel, but not
425: do anything else special. Make sure that you have rebooted into Xen.
426: There will be no domUs, and none can be started because you still have
1.102 gdt 427: to configure the dom0 daemons.
1.21 gdt 428:
1.102 gdt 429: The daemons which should be run vary with Xen version and with whether
430: one is using xm or xl. The Xen 3.1 and 3.3 packages use xm. Xen 4.1
431: and higher packages use xl. While is is possible to use xm with some
432: 4.x versions (TODO: 4.1 and 4.2?), the pkgsrc-provided rc.d scripts do
433: not support this as of 2014-12-26, and thus the HOWTO does not support
434: it either. (Make sure your packages are reasonably recent.)
1.43 gdt 435:
1.102 gdt 436: For "xm" (3.1 and 3.3), you should enable xend and xenbackendd (but
437: note that you should be using 4.x):
1.31 gdt 438:
1.32 gdt 439: xend=YES
440: xenbackendd=YES
1.31 gdt 441:
1.102 gdt 442: For "xl" (4.x), you should enabled xend and xencommons (xenstored).
443: Trying to boot 4.x without xencommons=YES will result in a hang; it is
1.111 wiz 444: necessary to hit ^C on the console to let the machine finish booting.
1.102 gdt 445: TODO: explain why xend is installed by the package.
1.31 gdt 446:
1.53 gdt 447: xencommons=YES
1.31 gdt 448:
1.102 gdt 449: The installation of NetBSD should already have created devices for xen
450: (xencons, xenevt), but if they are not present, create them:
1.31 gdt 451:
1.102 gdt 452: cd /dev && sh MAKEDEV xen
1.86 gdt 453:
1.31 gdt 454: TODO: Recommend for/against xen-watchdog.
1.27 jnemeth 455:
1.53 gdt 456: After you have configured the daemons and either started them (in the
1.79 gdt 457: order given) or rebooted, use xm or xl to inspect Xen's boot messages,
1.102 gdt 458: available resources, and running domains. An example with xl follows:
1.34 gdt 459:
1.102 gdt 460: # xl dmesg
1.43 gdt 461: [xen's boot info]
1.102 gdt 462: # xl info
1.43 gdt 463: [available memory, etc.]
1.102 gdt 464: # xl list
1.43 gdt 465: Name Id Mem(MB) CPU State Time(s) Console
466: Domain-0 0 64 0 r---- 58.1
1.33 gdt 467:
1.88 gdt 468: ### Issues with xencommons
469:
470: xencommons starts xenstored, which stores data on behalf of dom0 and
471: domUs. It does not currently work to stop and start xenstored.
472: Certainly all domUs should be shutdown first, following the sort order
473: of the rc.d scripts. However, the dom0 sets up state with xenstored,
474: and is not notified when xenstored exits, leading to not recreating
475: the state when the new xenstored starts. Until there's a mechanism to
476: make this work, one should not expect to be able to restart xenstored
477: (and thus xencommons). There is currently no reason to expect that
478: this will get fixed any time soon.
479:
1.41 gdt 480: anita (for testing NetBSD)
481: --------------------------
482:
1.82 gdt 483: With the setup so far (assuming 4.2/xl), one should be able to run
484: anita (see pkgsrc/misc/py-anita) to test NetBSD releases, by doing (as
485: root, because anita must create a domU):
486:
487: anita --vmm=xl test file:///usr/obj/i386/
488:
489: Alternatively, one can use --vmm=xm to use xm-based domU creation
490: instead (and must, on Xen <= 4.1). TODO: confirm that anita xl really works.
491:
1.40 gdt 492: Xen-specific NetBSD issues
493: --------------------------
494:
495: There are (at least) two additional things different about NetBSD as a
496: dom0 kernel compared to hardware.
497:
1.111 wiz 498: One is that the module ABI is different because some of the #defines
1.109 gdt 499: change, so one must build modules for Xen. As of netbsd-7, the build
500: system does this automatically. TODO: check this. (Before building
501: Xen modules was added, it was awkward to use modules to the point
502: where it was considered that it did not work.)
1.40 gdt 503:
504: The other difference is that XEN3_DOM0 does not have exactly the same
505: options as GENERIC. While it is debatable whether or not this is a
506: bug, users should be aware of this and can simply add missing config
507: items if desired.
508:
1.15 gdt 509: Updating NetBSD in a dom0
510: -------------------------
511:
512: This is just like updating NetBSD on bare hardware, assuming the new
513: version supports the version of Xen you are running. Generally, one
514: replaces the kernel and reboots, and then overlays userland binaries
515: and adjusts /etc.
516:
517: Note that one must update both the non-Xen kernel typically used for
518: rescue purposes and the DOM0 kernel used with Xen.
519:
1.55 gdt 520: Converting from grub to /boot
521: -----------------------------
522:
523: These instructions were [TODO: will be] used to convert a system from
524: grub to /boot. The system was originally installed in February of
525: 2006 with a RAID1 setup and grub to boot Xen 2, and has been updated
526: over time. Before these commands, it was running NetBSD 6 i386, Xen
527: 4.1 and grub, much like the message linked earlier in the grub
528: section.
529:
1.111 wiz 530: # Install MBR bootblocks on both disks.
1.55 gdt 531: fdisk -i /dev/rwd0d
532: fdisk -i /dev/rwd1d
533: # Install NetBSD primary boot loader (/ is FFSv1) into RAID1 components.
534: installboot -v /dev/rwd0d /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffsv1
535: installboot -v /dev/rwd1d /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffsv1
536: # Install secondary boot loader
537: cp -p /usr/mdec/boot /
1.111 wiz 538: # Create boot.cfg following earlier guidance:
1.55 gdt 539: menu=Xen:load /netbsd-XEN3PAE_DOM0.gz console=pc;multiboot /xen.gz dom0_mem=256M
540: menu=Xen.ok:load /netbsd-XEN3PAE_DOM0.ok.gz console=pc;multiboot /xen.ok.gz dom0_mem=256M
541: menu=GENERIC:boot
542: menu=GENERIC single-user:boot -s
543: menu=GENERIC.ok:boot netbsd.ok
544: menu=GENERIC.ok single-user:boot netbsd.ok -s
545: menu=Drop to boot prompt:prompt
546: default=1
547: timeout=30
548:
549: TODO: actually do this and fix it if necessary.
1.22 gdt 550:
1.102 gdt 551: Upgrading Xen versions
1.15 gdt 552: ---------------------
553:
1.110 gdt 554: Minor version upgrades are trivial. Just rebuild/replace the
555: xenkernel version and copy the new xen.gz to / (where /boot.cfg
556: references it), and reboot.
557:
558: Major version upgrades are conceptually not difficult, but can run
559: into all the issues found when installing Xen. Assuming migration
560: from 4.1 to 4.2, remove the xenkernel41 and xentools41 packages and
561: install the xenkernel42 and xentools42 packages. Copy the 4.2 xen.gz
562: to /.
1.21 gdt 563:
1.102 gdt 564: Ensure that the contents of /etc/rc.d/xen* are correct. Specifically,
565: they must match the package you just installed and not be left over
566: from some previous installation.
567:
568: Enable the correct set of daemons; see the configuring section above.
569: (Upgrading from 3.x to 4.x without doing this will result in a hang.)
570:
571: Ensure that the domU config files are valid for the new version.
1.110 gdt 572: Specifically, for 4.x remove autorestart=True, and ensure that disks
573: are specified with numbers as the second argument, as the examples
574: above show, and not NetBSD device names.
1.15 gdt 575:
1.97 gdt 576: Hardware known to work
577: ----------------------
578:
579: Arguably, this section is misplaced, and there should be a page of
580: hardware that runs NetBSD/amd64 well, with the mostly-well-founded
581: assumption that NetBSD/xen runs fine on any modern hardware that
582: NetBSD/amd64 runs well on. Until then, we give motherboard/CPU/RAM
583: triples to aid those choosing a motherboard. Note that Xen systems
584: usually do not run X, so a listing here does not imply that X works at
585: all.
586:
587: Supermicro X9SRL-F, Xeon E5-1650 v2, 96 GiB ECC
588: Supermicro ??, Atom C2758 (8 core), 32 GiB ECC
589: ASUS M5A78L-M/USB3 AM3+ microATX, AMD Piledriver X8 4000MHz, 16 GiB ECC
590:
591: Older hardware:
592:
1.98 gdt 593: Intel D915GEV, Pentium4 CPU 3.40GHz, 4GB 533MHz Synchronous DDR2
1.28 gdt 594:
1.82 gdt 595: Running Xen under qemu
596: ----------------------
597:
598: The astute reader will note that this section is somewhat twisted.
599: However, it can be useful to run Xen under qemu either because the
600: version of NetBSD as a dom0 does not run on the hardware in use, or to
601: generate automated test cases involving Xen.
602:
1.84 gdt 603: In 2015-01, the following combination was reported to mostly work:
1.82 gdt 604:
605: host OS: NetBSD/amd64 6.1.4
606: qemu: 2.2.0 from pkgsrc
607: Xen kernel: xenkernel42-4.2.5nb1 from pkgsrc
608: dom0 kernel: NetBSD/amd64 6.1.5
609: Xen tools: xentools42-4.2.5 from pkgsrc
610:
1.91 gdt 611: See [PR 47720](http://gnats.netbsd.org/47720) for a problem with dom0
612: shutdown.
1.84 gdt 613:
1.28 gdt 614: Unprivileged domains (domU)
615: ===========================
616:
617: This section describes general concepts about domUs. It does not
1.33 gdt 618: address specific domU operating systems or how to install them. The
619: config files for domUs are typically in /usr/pkg/etc/xen, and are
1.60 wiki 620: typically named so that the file name, domU name and the domU's host
1.33 gdt 621: name match.
622:
1.111 wiz 623: The domU is provided with CPU and memory by Xen, configured by the
1.33 gdt 624: dom0. The domU is provided with disk and network by the dom0,
625: mediated by Xen, and configured in the dom0.
626:
627: Entropy in domUs can be an issue; physical disks and network are on
628: the dom0. NetBSD's /dev/random system works, but is often challenged.
629:
1.48 gdt 630: Config files
631: ------------
632:
633: There is no good order to present config files and the concepts
634: surrounding what is being configured. We first show an example config
635: file, and then in the various sections give details.
636:
637: See (at least in xentools41) /usr/pkg/share/examples/xen/xmexample*,
638: for a large number of well-commented examples, mostly for running
639: GNU/Linux.
640:
641: The following is an example minimal domain configuration file
642: "/usr/pkg/etc/xen/foo". It is (with only a name change) an actual
643: known working config file on Xen 4.1 (NetBSD 5 amd64 dom0 and NetBSD 5
644: i386 domU). The domU serves as a network file server.
645:
646: # -*- mode: python; -*-
647:
648: kernel = "/netbsd-XEN3PAE_DOMU-i386-foo.gz"
649: memory = 1024
650: vif = [ 'mac=aa:00:00:d1:00:09,bridge=bridge0' ]
651: disk = [ 'file:/n0/xen/foo-wd0,0x0,w',
652: 'file:/n0/xen/foo-wd1,0x1,w' ]
653:
654: The domain will have the same name as the file. The kernel has the
655: host/domU name in it, so that on the dom0 one can update the various
656: domUs independently. The vif line causes an interface to be provided,
657: with a specific mac address (do not reuse MAC addresses!), in bridge
658: mode. Two disks are provided, and they are both writable; the bits
659: are stored in files and Xen attaches them to a vnd(4) device in the
1.111 wiz 660: dom0 on domain creation. The system treats xbd0 as the boot device
1.48 gdt 661: without needing explicit configuration.
662:
663: By default xm looks for domain config files in /usr/pkg/etc/xen. Note
664: that "xm create" takes the name of a config file, while other commands
665: take the name of a domain. To create the domain, connect to the
666: console, create the domain while attaching the console, shutdown the
667: domain, and see if it has finished stopping, do (or xl with Xen >=
668: 4.2):
669:
670: xm create foo
671: xm console foo
672: xm create -c foo
673: xm shutdown foo
1.90 gdt 674: xm list
1.48 gdt 675:
676: Typing ^] will exit the console session. Shutting down a domain is
677: equivalent to pushing the power button; a NetBSD domU will receive a
678: power-press event and do a clean shutdown. Shutting down the dom0
679: will trigger controlled shutdowns of all configured domUs.
680:
681: domU kernels
682: ------------
683:
684: On a physical computer, the BIOS reads sector 0, and a chain of boot
685: loaders finds and loads a kernel. Normally this comes from the root
1.111 wiz 686: file system. With Xen domUs, the process is totally different. The
1.48 gdt 687: normal path is for the domU kernel to be a file in the dom0's
1.111 wiz 688: file system. At the request of the dom0, Xen loads that kernel into a
1.48 gdt 689: new domU instance and starts execution. While domU kernels can be
690: anyplace, reasonable places to store domU kernels on the dom0 are in /
691: (so they are near the dom0 kernel), in /usr/pkg/etc/xen (near the
692: config files), or in /u0/xen (where the vdisks are).
693:
1.59 gdt 694: Note that loading the domU kernel from the dom0 implies that boot
695: blocks, /boot, /boot.cfg, and so on are all ignored in the domU.
1.48 gdt 696: See the VPS section near the end for discussion of alternate ways to
697: obtain domU kernels.
698:
1.33 gdt 699: CPU and memory
700: --------------
701:
1.48 gdt 702: A domain is provided with some number of vcpus, less than the number
1.111 wiz 703: of CPUs seen by the hypervisor. (For a dom0, this is controlled by
1.48 gdt 704: the boot argument "dom0_max_vcpus=1".) For a domU, it is controlled
705: from the config file by the "vcpus = N" directive.
706:
707: A domain is provided with memory; this is controlled in the config
708: file by "memory = N" (in megabytes). In the straightforward case, the
709: sum of the the memory allocated to the dom0 and all domUs must be less
1.33 gdt 710: than the available memory.
711:
712: Xen also provides a "balloon" driver, which can be used to let domains
713: use more memory temporarily. TODO: Explain better, and explain how
714: well it works with NetBSD.
1.28 gdt 715:
716: Virtual disks
717: -------------
718:
1.33 gdt 719: With the file/vnd style, typically one creates a directory,
720: e.g. /u0/xen, on a disk large enough to hold virtual disks for all
721: domUs. Then, for each domU disk, one writes zeros to a file that then
722: serves to hold the virtual disk's bits; a suggested name is foo-xbd0
723: for the first virtual disk for the domU called foo. Writing zeros to
724: the file serves two purposes. One is that preallocating the contents
725: improves performance. The other is that vnd on sparse files has
726: failed to work. TODO: give working/notworking NetBSD versions for
727: sparse vnd. Note that the use of file/vnd for Xen is not really
728: different than creating a file-backed virtual disk for some other
1.39 gdt 729: purpose, except that xentools handles the vnconfig commands. To
730: create an empty 4G virtual disk, simply do
731:
732: dd if=/dev/zero of=foo-xbd0 bs=1m count=4096
1.33 gdt 733:
1.89 gdt 734: Do not use qemu-img-xen, because this will create sparse file. There
735: have been recent (2015) reports of sparse vnd(4) devices causing
736: lockups, but there is apparently no PR.
737:
1.33 gdt 738: With the lvm style, one creates logical devices. They are then used
1.48 gdt 739: similarly to vnds. TODO: Add an example with lvm.
740:
741: In domU config files, the disks are defined as a sequence of 3-tuples.
742: The first element is "method:/path/to/disk". Common methods are
743: "file:" for file-backed vnd. and "phy:" for something that is already
744: a (TODO: character or block) device.
745:
746: The second element is an artifact of how virtual disks are passed to
747: Linux, and a source of confusion with NetBSD Xen usage. Linux domUs
748: are given a device name to associate with the disk, and values like
749: "hda1" or "sda1" are common. In a NetBSD domU, the first disk appears
750: as xbd0, the second as xbd1, and so on. However, xm/xl demand a
751: second argument. The name given is converted to a major/minor by
1.49 gdt 752: calling stat(2) on the name in /dev and this is passed to the domU.
753: In the general case, the dom0 and domU can be different operating
1.48 gdt 754: systems, and it is an unwarranted assumption that they have consistent
755: numbering in /dev, or even that the dom0 OS has a /dev. With NetBSD
756: as both dom0 and domU, using values of 0x0 for the first disk and 0x1
1.49 gdt 757: for the second works fine and avoids this issue. For a GNU/Linux
758: guest, one can create /dev/hda1 in /dev, or to pass 0x301 for
759: /dev/hda1.
1.48 gdt 760:
761: The third element is "w" for writable disks, and "r" for read-only
762: disks.
1.28 gdt 763:
764: Virtual Networking
765: ------------------
766:
1.111 wiz 767: Xen provides virtual Ethernets, each of which connects the dom0 and a
1.46 gdt 768: domU. For each virtual network, there is an interface "xvifN.M" in
769: the dom0, and in domU index N, a matching interface xennetM (NetBSD
770: name). The interfaces behave as if there is an Ethernet with two
1.111 wiz 771: adapters connected. From this primitive, one can construct various
1.46 gdt 772: configurations. We focus on two common and useful cases for which
773: there are existing scripts: bridging and NAT.
1.28 gdt 774:
1.48 gdt 775: With bridging (in the example above), the domU perceives itself to be
776: on the same network as the dom0. For server virtualization, this is
777: usually best. Bridging is accomplished by creating a bridge(4) device
778: and adding the dom0's physical interface and the various xvifN.0
779: interfaces to the bridge. One specifies "bridge=bridge0" in the domU
780: config file. The bridge must be set up already in the dom0; an
781: example /etc/ifconfig.bridge0 is:
1.46 gdt 782:
783: create
784: up
785: !brconfig bridge0 add wm0
1.28 gdt 786:
787: With NAT, the domU perceives itself to be behind a NAT running on the
788: dom0. This is often appropriate when running Xen on a workstation.
1.48 gdt 789: TODO: NAT appears to be configured by "vif = [ '' ]".
1.28 gdt 790:
1.49 gdt 791: The MAC address specified is the one used for the interface in the new
1.53 gdt 792: domain. The interface in dom0 will use this address XOR'd with
1.49 gdt 793: 00:00:00:01:00:00. Random MAC addresses are assigned if not given.
794:
1.33 gdt 795: Sizing domains
796: --------------
797:
798: Modern x86 hardware has vast amounts of resources. However, many
799: virtual servers can function just fine on far less. A system with
800: 256M of RAM and a 4G disk can be a reasonable choice. Note that it is
801: far easier to adjust virtual resources than physical ones. For
802: memory, it's just a config file edit and a reboot. For disk, one can
803: create a new file and vnconfig it (or lvm), and then dump/restore,
804: just like updating physical disks, but without having to be there and
805: without those pesky connectors.
806:
1.48 gdt 807: Starting domains automatically
808: ------------------------------
1.28 gdt 809:
1.48 gdt 810: To start domains foo at bar at boot and shut them down cleanly on dom0
811: shutdown, in rc.conf add:
1.28 gdt 812:
1.48 gdt 813: xendomains="foo bar"
1.28 gdt 814:
1.111 wiz 815: Note that earlier versions of the xentools41 xendomains rc.d script
816: used xl, when one should use xm with 4.1.
1.28 gdt 817:
818: Creating specific unprivileged domains (domU)
819: =============================================
1.14 gdt 820:
821: Creating domUs is almost entirely independent of operating system. We
1.49 gdt 822: have already presented the basics of config files. Note that you must
823: have already completed the dom0 setup so that "xl list" (or "xm list")
824: works.
1.14 gdt 825:
826: Creating an unprivileged NetBSD domain (domU)
827: ---------------------------------------------
1.1 mspo 828:
1.49 gdt 829: See the earlier config file, and adjust memory. Decide on how much
830: storage you will provide, and prepare it (file or lvm).
831:
1.111 wiz 832: While the kernel will be obtained from the dom0 file system, the same
1.49 gdt 833: file should be present in the domU as /netbsd so that tools like
834: savecore(8) can work. (This is helpful but not necessary.)
835:
836: The kernel must be specifically for Xen and for use as a domU. The
837: i386 and amd64 provide the following kernels:
838:
839: i386 XEN3_DOMU
840: i386 XEN3PAE_DOMU
1.95 gdt 841: amd64 XEN3_DOMU
1.5 mspo 842:
1.49 gdt 843: Unless using Xen 3.1 (and you shouldn't) with i386-mode Xen, you must
844: use the PAE version of the i386 kernel.
845:
846: This will boot NetBSD, but this is not that useful if the disk is
847: empty. One approach is to unpack sets onto the disk outside of xen
848: (by mounting it, just as you would prepare a physical disk for a
849: system you can't run the installer on).
850:
851: A second approach is to run an INSTALL kernel, which has a miniroot
852: and can load sets from the network. To do this, copy the INSTALL
853: kernel to / and change the kernel line in the config file to:
1.5 mspo 854:
1.49 gdt 855: kernel = "/home/bouyer/netbsd-INSTALL_XEN3_DOMU"
1.5 mspo 856:
1.49 gdt 857: Then, start the domain as "xl create -c configname".
1.1 mspo 858:
1.49 gdt 859: Alternatively, if you want to install NetBSD/Xen with a CDROM image, the following
860: line should be used in the config file.
1.1 mspo 861:
1.3 mspo 862: disk = [ 'phy:/dev/wd0e,0x1,w', 'phy:/dev/cd0a,0x2,r' ]
1.1 mspo 863:
864: After booting the domain, the option to install via CDROM may be
1.49 gdt 865: selected. The CDROM device should be changed to `xbd1d`.
1.1 mspo 866:
1.49 gdt 867: Once done installing, "halt -p" the new domain (don't reboot or halt,
868: it would reload the INSTALL_XEN3_DOMU kernel even if you changed the
869: config file), switch the config file back to the XEN3_DOMU kernel,
870: and start the new domain again. Now it should be able to use "root on
871: xbd0a" and you should have a, functional NetBSD domU.
1.1 mspo 872:
1.49 gdt 873: TODO: check if this is still accurate.
1.1 mspo 874: When the new domain is booting you'll see some warnings about *wscons*
875: and the pseudo-terminals. These can be fixed by editing the files
1.5 mspo 876: `/etc/ttys` and `/etc/wscons.conf`. You must disable all terminals in
877: `/etc/ttys`, except *console*, like this:
1.1 mspo 878:
1.3 mspo 879: console "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" vt100 on secure
880: ttyE0 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" vt220 off secure
881: ttyE1 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" vt220 off secure
882: ttyE2 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" vt220 off secure
883: ttyE3 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" vt220 off secure
1.1 mspo 884:
1.5 mspo 885: Finally, all screens must be commented out from `/etc/wscons.conf`.
1.1 mspo 886:
887: It is also desirable to add
888:
1.49 gdt 889: powerd=YES
1.1 mspo 890:
1.5 mspo 891: in rc.conf. This way, the domain will be properly shut down if
1.53 gdt 892: `xm shutdown -R` or `xm shutdown -H` is used on the dom0.
1.1 mspo 893:
1.92 gdt 894: It is not strictly necessary to have a kernel (as /netbsd) in the domU
1.111 wiz 895: file system. However, various programs (e.g. netstat) will use that
1.92 gdt 896: kernel to look up symbols to read from kernel virtual memory. If
897: /netbsd is not the running kernel, those lookups will fail. (This is
898: not really a Xen-specific issue, but because the domU kernel is
899: obtained from the dom0, it is far more likely to be out of sync or
900: missing with Xen.)
901:
1.14 gdt 902: Creating an unprivileged Linux domain (domU)
1.5 mspo 903: --------------------------------------------
1.1 mspo 904:
905: Creating unprivileged Linux domains isn't much different from
906: unprivileged NetBSD domains, but there are some details to know.
907:
908: First, the second parameter passed to the disk declaration (the '0x1' in
909: the example below)
910:
1.3 mspo 911: disk = [ 'phy:/dev/wd0e,0x1,w' ]
1.1 mspo 912:
913: does matter to Linux. It wants a Linux device number here (e.g. 0x300
1.49 gdt 914: for hda). Linux builds device numbers as: (major \<\< 8 + minor).
915: So, hda1 which has major 3 and minor 1 on a Linux system will have
916: device number 0x301. Alternatively, devices names can be used (hda,
917: hdb, ...) as xentools has a table to map these names to devices
918: numbers. To export a partition to a Linux guest we can use:
1.1 mspo 919:
1.49 gdt 920: disk = [ 'phy:/dev/wd0e,0x300,w' ]
921: root = "/dev/hda1 ro"
1.1 mspo 922:
923: and it will appear as /dev/hda on the Linux system, and be used as root
924: partition.
925:
1.49 gdt 926: To install the Linux system on the partition to be exported to the
927: guest domain, the following method can be used: install
928: sysutils/e2fsprogs from pkgsrc. Use mke2fs to format the partition
929: that will be the root partition of your Linux domain, and mount it.
930: Then copy the files from a working Linux system, make adjustments in
931: `/etc` (fstab, network config). It should also be possible to extract
932: binary packages such as .rpm or .deb directly to the mounted partition
933: using the appropriate tool, possibly running under NetBSD's Linux
1.111 wiz 934: emulation. Once the file system has been populated, umount it. If
935: desirable, the file system can be converted to ext3 using tune2fs -j.
1.49 gdt 936: It should now be possible to boot the Linux guest domain, using one of
937: the vmlinuz-\*-xenU kernels available in the Xen binary distribution.
1.1 mspo 938:
1.111 wiz 939: To get the Linux console right, you need to add:
1.1 mspo 940:
1.3 mspo 941: extra = "xencons=tty1"
1.1 mspo 942:
1.111 wiz 943: to your configuration since not all Linux distributions auto-attach a
1.1 mspo 944: tty to the xen console.
945:
1.14 gdt 946: Creating an unprivileged Solaris domain (domU)
1.5 mspo 947: ----------------------------------------------
1.1 mspo 948:
1.50 gdt 949: See possibly outdated
950: [Solaris domU instructions](/ports/xen/howto-solaris/).
1.5 mspo 951:
1.1 mspo 952:
1.52 gdt 953: PCI passthrough: Using PCI devices in guest domains
954: ---------------------------------------------------
1.1 mspo 955:
1.53 gdt 956: The dom0 can give other domains access to selected PCI
1.52 gdt 957: devices. This can allow, for example, a non-privileged domain to have
958: access to a physical network interface or disk controller. However,
959: keep in mind that giving a domain access to a PCI device most likely
960: will give the domain read/write access to the whole physical memory,
961: as PCs don't have an IOMMU to restrict memory access to DMA-capable
1.53 gdt 962: device. Also, it's not possible to export ISA devices to non-dom0
1.52 gdt 963: domains, which means that the primary VGA adapter can't be exported.
964: A guest domain trying to access the VGA registers will panic.
965:
1.53 gdt 966: If the dom0 is NetBSD, it has to be running Xen 3.1, as support has
1.52 gdt 967: not been ported to later versions at this time.
968:
969: For a PCI device to be exported to a domU, is has to be attached to
970: the "pciback" driver in dom0. Devices passed to the dom0 via the
971: pciback.hide boot parameter will attach to "pciback" instead of the
972: usual driver. The list of devices is specified as "(bus:dev.func)",
1.5 mspo 973: where bus and dev are 2-digit hexadecimal numbers, and func a
974: single-digit number:
1.1 mspo 975:
1.52 gdt 976: pciback.hide=(00:0a.0)(00:06.0)
1.1 mspo 977:
1.52 gdt 978: pciback devices should show up in the dom0's boot messages, and the
1.5 mspo 979: devices should be listed in the `/kern/xen/pci` directory.
1.1 mspo 980:
1.52 gdt 981: PCI devices to be exported to a domU are listed in the "pci" array of
982: the domU's config file, with the format "0000:bus:dev.func".
1.1 mspo 983:
1.52 gdt 984: pci = [ '0000:00:06.0', '0000:00:0a.0' ]
1.1 mspo 985:
1.52 gdt 986: In the domU an "xpci" device will show up, to which one or more pci
1.111 wiz 987: buses will attach. Then the PCI drivers will attach to PCI buses as
1.52 gdt 988: usual. Note that the default NetBSD DOMU kernels do not have "xpci"
989: or any PCI drivers built in by default; you have to build your own
990: kernel to use PCI devices in a domU. Here's a kernel config example;
991: note that only the "xpci" lines are unusual.
992:
993: include "arch/i386/conf/XEN3_DOMU"
994:
1.111 wiz 995: # Add support for PCI buses to the XEN3_DOMU kernel
1.52 gdt 996: xpci* at xenbus ?
997: pci* at xpci ?
998:
999: # PCI USB controllers
1000: uhci* at pci? dev ? function ? # Universal Host Controller (Intel)
1001:
1002: # USB bus support
1003: usb* at uhci?
1004:
1005: # USB Hubs
1006: uhub* at usb?
1007: uhub* at uhub? port ? configuration ? interface ?
1008:
1009: # USB Mass Storage
1010: umass* at uhub? port ? configuration ? interface ?
1011: wd* at umass?
1012: # SCSI controllers
1013: ahc* at pci? dev ? function ? # Adaptec [23]94x, aic78x0 SCSI
1014:
1015: # SCSI bus support (for both ahc and umass)
1016: scsibus* at scsi?
1017:
1018: # SCSI devices
1019: sd* at scsibus? target ? lun ? # SCSI disk drives
1020: cd* at scsibus? target ? lun ? # SCSI CD-ROM drives
1.1 mspo 1021:
1022:
1.28 gdt 1023: NetBSD as a domU in a VPS
1024: =========================
1025:
1026: The bulk of the HOWTO is about using NetBSD as a dom0 on your own
1027: hardware. This section explains how to deal with Xen in a domU as a
1028: virtual private server where you do not control or have access to the
1.70 gdt 1029: dom0. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of VPS providers;
1030: only a few are mentioned that specifically support NetBSD.
1.28 gdt 1031:
1.52 gdt 1032: VPS operators provide varying degrees of access and mechanisms for
1033: configuration. The big issue is usually how one controls which kernel
1.111 wiz 1034: is booted, because the kernel is nominally in the dom0 file system (to
1035: which VPS users do not normally have access). A second issue is how
1.70 gdt 1036: to install NetBSD.
1.52 gdt 1037: A VPS user may want to compile a kernel for security updates, to run
1038: npf, run IPsec, or any other reason why someone would want to change
1039: their kernel.
1040:
1.111 wiz 1041: One approach is to have an administrative interface to upload a kernel,
1.68 gdt 1042: or to select from a prepopulated list. Other approaches are pygrub
1.59 gdt 1043: (deprecated) and pvgrub, which are ways to have a bootloader obtain a
1.111 wiz 1044: kernel from the domU file system. This is closer to a regular physical
1.59 gdt 1045: computer, where someone who controls a machine can replace the kernel.
1.52 gdt 1046:
1.74 gdt 1047: A second issue is multiple CPUs. With NetBSD 6, domUs support
1048: multiple vcpus, and it is typical for VPS providers to enable multiple
1049: CPUs for NetBSD domUs.
1050:
1.68 gdt 1051: pygrub
1.59 gdt 1052: -------
1.52 gdt 1053:
1.111 wiz 1054: pygrub runs in the dom0 and looks into the domU file system. This
1055: implies that the domU must have a kernel in a file system in a format
1.68 gdt 1056: known to pygrub. As of 2014, pygrub seems to be of mostly historical
1057: interest.
1.52 gdt 1058:
1.59 gdt 1059: pvgrub
1060: ------
1061:
1062: pvgrub is a version of grub that uses PV operations instead of BIOS
1063: calls. It is booted from the dom0 as the domU kernel, and then reads
1.111 wiz 1064: /grub/menu.lst and loads a kernel from the domU file system.
1.59 gdt 1065:
1.70 gdt 1066: [Panix](http://www.panix.com/) lets users use pvgrub. Panix reports
1.71 gdt 1067: that pvgrub works with FFsv2 with 16K/2K and 32K/4K block/frag sizes
1068: (and hence with defaults from "newfs -O 2"). See [Panix's pvgrub
1.70 gdt 1069: page](http://www.panix.com/v-colo/grub.html), which describes only
1.74 gdt 1070: Linux but should be updated to cover NetBSD :-).
1.70 gdt 1071:
1072: [prgmr.com](http://prgmr.com/) also lets users with pvgrub to boot
1073: their own kernel. See then [prgmr.com NetBSD
1.74 gdt 1074: HOWTO](http://wiki.prgmr.com/mediawiki/index.php/NetBSD_as_a_DomU)
1075: (which is in need of updating).
1.59 gdt 1076:
1.70 gdt 1077: It appears that [grub's FFS
1078: code](http://xenbits.xensource.com/hg/xen-unstable.hg/file/bca284f67702/tools/libfsimage/ufs/fsys_ufs.c)
1079: does not support all aspects of modern FFS, but there are also reports
1.72 gdt 1080: that FFSv2 works fine. At prgmr, typically one has an ext2 or FAT
1.70 gdt 1081: partition for the kernel with the intent that grub can understand it,
1082: which leads to /netbsd not being the actual kernel. One must remember
1.111 wiz 1083: to update the special boot partition.
1.59 gdt 1084:
1085: Amazon
1086: ------
1087:
1.95 gdt 1088: See the [Amazon EC2 page](../amazon_ec2/).
1.44 gdt 1089:
1090: Using npf
1091: ---------
1092:
1.81 gdt 1093: In standard kernels, npf is a module, and thus cannot be loaded in a
1.44 gdt 1094: DOMU kernel.
1095:
1.95 gdt 1096: TODO: Explain how to compile npf into a custom kernel, answering (but
1097: note that the problem was caused by not booting the right kernel)
1098: [this email to
1099: netbsd-users](http://mail-index.netbsd.org/netbsd-users/2014/12/26/msg015576.html).
1.65 gdt 1100:
1101: TODO items for improving NetBSD/xen
1102: ===================================
1103:
1.93 gdt 1104: * Make the NetBSD dom0 kernel work with SMP.
1105: * Test the Xen 4.5 packages adequately to be able to recommend them as
1106: the standard approach.
1107: * Get PCI passthrough working on Xen 4.5
1.65 gdt 1108: * Get pvgrub into pkgsrc, either via xentools or separately.
1109: * grub
1.70 gdt 1110: * Check/add support to pkgsrc grub2 for UFS2 and arbitrary
1.66 gdt 1111: fragsize/blocksize (UFS2 support may be present; the point is to
1.111 wiz 1112: make it so that with any UFS1/UFS2 file system setup that works
1.66 gdt 1113: with NetBSD grub will also work).
1.70 gdt 1114: See [pkg/40258](http://gnats.netbsd.org/40258).
1.65 gdt 1115: * Push patches upstream.
1116: * Get UFS2 patches into pvgrub.
1117: * Add support for PV ops to a version of /boot, and make it usable as
1118: a kernel in Xen, similar to pvgrub.
1.93 gdt 1119: * Solve somehow the issue with modules for GENERIC not being loadable
1120: in a Xen dom0 or domU kernel.
1121:
1122: Random pointers
1123: ===============
1124:
1.117 gdt 1125: This section contains links from elsewhere not yet integrated into the
1126: HOWTO, and other guides.
1.93 gdt 1127:
1128: * http://www.lumbercartel.ca/library/xen/
1129: * http://pbraun.nethence.com/doc/sysutils/xen_netbsd_dom0.html
1.117 gdt 1130: * https://gmplib.org/~tege/xen.html
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