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Wed Dec 24 16:02:49 2014 UTC (8 years, 5 months ago) by gdt
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Add section on build problems.

Introduction ============ [![[Xen screenshot]](http://www.netbsd.org/gallery/in-Action/hubertf-xens.png)](../../gallery/in-Action/hubertf-xen.png) Xen is a virtual machine monitor or hypervisor for x86 hardware (i686-class or higher), which supports running multiple guest operating systems on a single physical machine. With Xen, one uses the Xen kernel to control the CPU, memory and console, a dom0 operating system which mediates access to other hardware (e.g., disks, network, USB), and one or more domU operating systems which operate in an unprivileged virtualized environment. IO requests from the domU systems are forwarded by the hypervisor (Xen) to the dom0 to be fulfilled. Xen supports two styles of guests. The original is Para-Virtualized (PV) which means that the guest OS does not attempt to access hardware directly, but instead makes hypercalls to the hypervisor. This is analogous to a user-space program making system calls. (The dom0 operating system uses PV calls for some functions, such as updating memory mapping page tables, but has direct hardware access for disk and network.) PV guests must be specifically coded for Xen. The more recent style is HVM, which means that the guest does not have code for Xen and need not be aware that it is running under Xen. Attempts to access hardware registers are trapped and emulated. This style is less efficient but can run unmodified guests. Generally any amd64 machine will work with Xen and PV guests. In theory i386 computers without amd64 support can be used for Xen <= 4.2, but we have no recent reports of this working (this is a hint). For HVM guests, the VT or VMX cpu feature (Intel) or SVM/HVM/VT (amd64) is needed; "cpuctl identify 0" will show this. TODO: Clean up and check the above features. At boot, the dom0 kernel is loaded as a module with Xen as the kernel. The dom0 can start one or more domUs. (Booting is explained in detail in the dom0 section.) NetBSD supports Xen in that it can serve as dom0, be used as a domU, and that Xen kernels and tools are available in pkgsrc. This HOWTO attempts to address both the case of running a NetBSD dom0 on hardware and running domUs under it (NetBSD and other), and also running NetBSD as a domU in a VPS. Some versions of Xen support "PCI passthrough", which means that specific PCI devices can be made available to a specific domU instead of the dom0. This can be useful to let a domU run X11, or access some network interface or other peripheral. Prerequisites ------------- Installing NetBSD/Xen is not extremely difficult, but it is more complex than a normal installation of NetBSD. In general, this HOWTO is occasionally overly restrictive about how things must be done, guiding the reader to stay on the established path when there are no known good reasons to stray. This HOWTO presumes a basic familiarity with the Xen system architecture. This HOWTO presumes familiarity with installing NetBSD on i386/amd64 hardware and installing software from pkgsrc. See also the [Xen website](http://www.xenproject.org/). History ------- NetBSD used to support Xen2; this has been removed. Before NetBSD's native bootloader could support Xen, the use of grub was recommended. If necessary, see the [old grub information](/ports/xen/howto-grub/). Versions of Xen and NetBSD ========================== Most of the installation concepts and instructions are independent of Xen version and NetBSD version. This section gives advice on which version to choose. Versions not in pkgsrc and older unsupported versions of NetBSD are intentionally ignored. Xen --- In NetBSD, xen is provided in pkgsrc, via matching pairs of packages xenkernel and xentools. We will refer only to the kernel versions, but note that both packages must be installed together and must have matching versions. xenkernel3 and xenkernel33 provide Xen 3.1 and 3.3. These no longer receive security patches and should not be used. Xen 3.1 supports PCI passthrough. Xen 3.1 supports non-PAE on i386. xenkernel41 provides Xen 4.1. This is no longer maintained by Xen, but as of 2014-12 receives backported security patches. It is a reasonable although trailing-edge choice. xenkernel42 provides Xen 4.2. This is maintained by Xen, but old as of 2014-12. Ideally newer versions of Xen will be added to pkgsrc. Note that NetBSD support is called XEN3. It works with 3.1 through 4.2 because the hypercall interface has been stable. Xen command program ------------------- Early Xen used a program called "xm" to manipulate the system from the dom0. Starting in 4.1, a replacement program with similar behavior called "xl" is provided. In 4.2 and later, "xl" is preferred. 4.4 is the last version that has "xm". NetBSD ------ The netbsd-5, netbsd-6, netbsd-7, and -current branches are all reasonable choices, with more or less the same considerations for non-Xen use. Therefore, netbsd-6 is recommended as the stable version of the most recent release for production use. For those wanting to learn Xen or without production stability concerns, netbsd-7 is likely most appropriate. As of NetBSD 6, a NetBSD domU will support multiple vcpus. There is no SMP support for NetBSD as dom0. (The dom0 itself doesn't really need SMP; the lack of support is really a problem when using a dom0 as a normal computer.) Architecture ------------ Xen itself can run on i386 or amd64 machines. (Practically, almost any computer where one would want to run Xen supports amd64.) If using an i386 NetBSD kernel for the dom0, PAE is required (PAE versions are built by default). While i386 dom0 works fine, amd64 is recommended as more normal. Xen 4.2 is the last version to support i386 as a host. TODO: Clarify if this is about the CPU having to be amd64, or about the dom0 kernel having to be amd64. One can then run i386 domUs and amd64 domUs, in any combination. If running an i386 NetBSD kernel as a domU, the PAE version is required. (Note that emacs (at least) fails if run on i386 with PAE when built without, and vice versa, presumably due to bugs in the undump code.) Recommendation -------------- Therefore, this HOWTO recommends running xenkernel42 (and xentools42), xl, the NetBSD 6 stable branch, and to use an amd64 kernel as the dom0. Either the i386 or amd64 of NetBSD may be used as domUs. Build problems -------------- Ideally, all versions of Xen in pkgsrc would build on all versions of NetBSD on both i386 and amd64. However, that isn't the case. Besides aging code and aging compilers, qemu (included in xentools for HVM support) is difficult to build. The following are known to fail: xenkernel3 netbsd-6 i386 xentools42 netbsd-6 i386 The following are known to work: xenkernel41 netbsd-5 amd64 xentools41 netbsd-5 amd64 xenkernel41 netbsd-6 i386 xentools41 netbsd-6 i386 NetBSD as a dom0 ================ NetBSD can be used as a dom0 and works very well. The following sections address installation, updating NetBSD, and updating Xen. Note that it doesn't make sense to talk about installing a dom0 OS without also installing Xen itself. We first address installing NetBSD, which is not yet a dom0, and then adding Xen, pivoting the NetBSD install to a dom0 install by just changing the kernel and boot configuration. Styles of dom0 operation ------------------------ There are two basic ways to use Xen. The traditional method is for the dom0 to do absolutely nothing other than providing support to some number of domUs. Such a system was probably installed for the sole purpose of hosting domUs, and sits in a server room on a UPS. The other way is to put Xen under a normal-usage computer, so that the dom0 is what the computer would have been without Xen, perhaps a desktop or laptop. Then, one can run domUs at will. Purists will deride this as less secure than the previous approach, and for a computer whose purpose is to run domUs, they are right. But Xen and a dom0 (without domUs) is not meaingfully less secure than the same things running without Xen. One can boot Xen or boot regular NetBSD alternately with little problems, simply refraining from starting the Xen daemons when not running Xen. Note that NetBSD as dom0 does not support multiple CPUs. This will limit the performance of the Xen/dom0 workstation approach. Installation of NetBSD ---------------------- First, [install NetBSD/amd64](/guide/inst/) just as you would if you were not using Xen. However, the partitioning approach is very important. If you want to use RAIDframe for the dom0, there are no special issues for Xen. Typically one provides RAID storage for the dom0, and the domU systems are unaware of RAID. The 2nd-stage loader bootxx_* skips over a RAID1 header to find /boot from a filesystem within a RAID partition; this is no different when booting Xen. There are 4 styles of providing backing storage for the virtual disks used by domUs: raw partitions, LVM, file-backed vnd(4), and SAN, With raw partitions, one has a disklabel (or gpt) partition sized for each virtual disk to be used by the domU. (If you are able to predict how domU usage will evolve, please add an explanation to the HOWTO. Seriously, needs tend to change over time.) One can use [lvm(8)](/guide/lvm/) to create logical devices to use for domU disks. This is almost as efficient as raw disk partitions and more flexible. Hence raw disk partitions should typically not be used. One can use files in the dom0 filesystem, typically created by dd'ing /dev/zero to create a specific size. This is somewhat less efficient, but very convenient, as one can cp the files for backup, or move them between dom0 hosts. Finally, in theory one can place the files backing the domU disks in a SAN. (This is an invitation for someone who has done this to add a HOWTO page.) Installation of Xen ------------------- In the dom0, install sysutils/xenkernel42 and sysutils/xentools42 from pkgsrc (or another matching pair). See [the pkgsrc documentation](http://www.NetBSD.org/docs/pkgsrc/) for help with pkgsrc. For Xen 3.1, support for HVM guests is in sysutils/xentool3-hvm. More recent versions have HVM support integrated in the main xentools package. It is entirely reasonable to run only PV guests. Next you need to install the selected Xen kernel itself, which is installed by pkgsrc as "/usr/pkg/xen*-kernel/xen.gz". Copy it to /. For debugging, one may copy xen-debug.gz; this is conceptually similar to DIAGNOSTIC and DEBUG in NetBSD. xen-debug.gz is basically only useful with a serial console. Then, place a NetBSD XEN3_DOM0 kernel in /, copied from releasedir/amd64/binary/kernel/netbsd-XEN3_DOM0.gz of a NetBSD build. Both xen and NetBSD may be left compressed. (If using i386, use releasedir/i386/binary/kernel/netbsd-XEN3PAE_DOM0.gz.) In a dom0 kernel, kernfs is mandatory for xend to comunicate with the kernel, so ensure that /kern is in fstab. Because you already installed NetBSD, you have a working boot setup with an MBR bootblock, either bootxx_ffsv1 or bootxx_ffsv2 at the beginning of your root filesystem, /boot present, and likely /boot.cfg. (If not, fix before continuing!) See boot.cfg(5) for an example. The basic line is "menu=Xen:load /netbsd-XEN3_DOM0.gz console=pc;multiboot /xen.gz dom0_mem=256M" which specifies that the dom0 should have 256M, leaving the rest to be allocated for domUs. As with non-Xen systems, you should have a line to boot /netbsd (a kernel that works without Xen) and fallback versions of the non-Xen kernel, Xen, and the dom0 kernel. The [HowTo on Installing into RAID-1](http://mail-index.NetBSD.org/port-xen/2006/03/01/0010.html) explains how to set up booting a dom0 with Xen using grub with NetBSD's RAIDframe. (This is obsolete with the use of NetBSD's native boot.) Configuring Xen --------------- Now, you have a system that will boot Xen and the dom0 kernel, and just run the dom0 kernel. There will be no domUs, and none can be started because you still have to configure the dom0 tools. The daemons which should be run vary with Xen version and with whether one is using xm or xl. Note that xend is for supporting "xm", and should only be used if you plan on using "xm". Do NOT enable xend if you plan on using "xl" as it will cause problems. TODO: Give 3.1 advice (or remove it from pkgsrc). For 3.3 (and thus xm), add to rc.conf (but note that you should have installed 4.1 or 4.2): xend=YES xenbackendd=YES For 4.1 (and thus xm; xl is believed not to work well), add to rc.conf: xend=YES xencommons=YES TODO: Explain why if xm is preferred on 4.1, rc.d/xendomains has xl. Or fix the package. For 4.2 with xm, add to rc.conf xend=YES xencommons=YES For 4.2 with xl (preferred), add to rc.conf: TODO: explain if there is a xend replacement xencommons=YES TODO: Recommend for/against xen-watchdog. After you have configured the daemons and rebooted, run the following to inspect Xen's boot messages, available resources, and running domains: xm dmesg xm info xm list Updating NetBSD in a dom0 ------------------------- This is just like updating NetBSD on bare hardware, assuming the new version supports the version of Xen you are running. Generally, one replaces the kernel and reboots, and then overlays userland binaries and adjusts /etc. Note that one must update both the non-Xen kernel typically used for rescue purposes and the DOM0 kernel used with Xen. To convert from grub to /boot, install an mbr bootblock with fdisk, bootxx_ with installboot, /boot and /boot.cfg. This really should be no different than completely reinstalling boot blocks on a non-Xen system. Updating Xen versions --------------------- Updating Xen is conceptually not difficult, but can run into all the issues found when installing Xen. Assuming migration from 4.1 to 4.2, remove the xenkernel41 and xentools41 packages and install the xenkernel42 and xentools42 packages. Copy the 4.2 xen.gz to /. Ensure that the contents of /etc/rc.d/xen* are correct. Enable the correct set of daemons. Ensure that the domU config files are valid for the new version. Unprivileged domains (domU) =========================== This section describes general concepts about domUs. It does not address specific domU operating systems or how to install them. The config files for domUs are typically in /usr/pkg/etc/xen, and are typically named so that the file anme, domU name and the domU's host name match. The domU is provided with cpu and memory by Xen, configured by the dom0. The domU is provided with disk and network by the dom0, mediated by Xen, and configured in the dom0. Entropy in domUs can be an issue; physical disks and network are on the dom0. NetBSD's /dev/random system works, but is often challenged. CPU and memory -------------- A domain is provided with some number of vcpus, less than the number of cpus seen by the hypervisor. For a dom0, this is controlled by the boot argument "dom0_max_vcpus=1". For a domU, it is controlled from the config file. A domain is provided with memory, In the straightforward case, the sum of the the memory allocated to the dom0 and all domUs must be less than the available memory. Xen also provides a "balloon" driver, which can be used to let domains use more memory temporarily. TODO: Explain better, and explain how well it works with NetBSD. Virtual disks ------------- With the file/vnd style, typically one creates a directory, e.g. /u0/xen, on a disk large enough to hold virtual disks for all domUs. Then, for each domU disk, one writes zeros to a file that then serves to hold the virtual disk's bits; a suggested name is foo-xbd0 for the first virtual disk for the domU called foo. Writing zeros to the file serves two purposes. One is that preallocating the contents improves performance. The other is that vnd on sparse files has failed to work. TODO: give working/notworking NetBSD versions for sparse vnd. Note that the use of file/vnd for Xen is not really different than creating a file-backed virtual disk for some other purpose, except that xentools handles the vnconfig commands. With the lvm style, one creates logical devices. They are then used similarly to vnds. Virtual Networking ------------------ TODO: explain xvif concept, and that it's general. There are two normal styles: bridging and NAT. With bridging, the domU perceives itself to be on the same network as the dom0. For server virtualization, this is usually best. With NAT, the domU perceives itself to be behind a NAT running on the dom0. This is often appropriate when running Xen on a workstation. One can construct arbitrary other configurations, but there is no script support. Sizing domains -------------- Modern x86 hardware has vast amounts of resources. However, many virtual servers can function just fine on far less. A system with 256M of RAM and a 4G disk can be a reasonable choice. Note that it is far easier to adjust virtual resources than physical ones. For memory, it's just a config file edit and a reboot. For disk, one can create a new file and vnconfig it (or lvm), and then dump/restore, just like updating physical disks, but without having to be there and without those pesky connectors. Config files ------------ TODO: give example config files. Use both lvm and vnd. TODO: explain the mess with 3 arguments for disks and how to cope (0x1). Starting domains ---------------- TODO: Explain "xm start" and "xl start". Explain rc.d/xendomains. TODO: Explain why 4.1 rc.d/xendomains has xl, when one should use xm on 4.1. Creating specific unprivileged domains (domU) ============================================= Creating domUs is almost entirely independent of operating system. We first explain NetBSD, and then differences for Linux and Solaris. Creating an unprivileged NetBSD domain (domU) --------------------------------------------- Once you have *domain0* running, you need to start the xen tool daemon (`/usr/pkg/share/examples/rc.d/xend start`) and the xen backend daemon (`/usr/pkg/share/examples/rc.d/xenbackendd start` for Xen3\*, `/usr/pkg/share/examples/rc.d/xencommons start` for Xen4.\*). Make sure that `/dev/xencons` and `/dev/xenevt` exist before starting `xend`. You can create them with this command: # cd /dev && sh MAKEDEV xen xend will write logs to `/var/log/xend.log` and `/var/log/xend-debug.log`. You can then control xen with the xm tool. 'xm list' will show something like: # xm list Name Id Mem(MB) CPU State Time(s) Console Domain-0 0 64 0 r---- 58.1 'xm create' allows you to create a new domain. It uses a config file in PKG\_SYSCONFDIR for its parameters. By default, this file will be in `/usr/pkg/etc/xen/`. On creation, a kernel has to be specified, which will be executed in the new domain (this kernel is in the *domain0* file system, not on the new domain virtual disk; but please note, you should install the same kernel into *domainU* as `/netbsd` in order to make your system tools, like savecore(8), work). A suitable kernel is provided as part of the i386 and amd64 binary sets: XEN3\_DOMU. Here is an /usr/pkg/etc/xen/nbsd example config file: # -*- mode: python; -*- #============================================================================ # Python defaults setup for 'xm create'. # Edit this file to reflect the configuration of your system. #============================================================================ #---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Kernel image file. This kernel will be loaded in the new domain. kernel = "/home/bouyer/netbsd-XEN3_DOMU" #kernel = "/home/bouyer/netbsd-INSTALL_XEN3_DOMU" # Memory allocation (in megabytes) for the new domain. memory = 128 # A handy name for your new domain. This will appear in 'xm list', # and you can use this as parameters for xm in place of the domain # number. All domains must have different names. # name = "nbsd" # The number of virtual CPUs this domain has. # vcpus = 1 #---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Define network interfaces for the new domain. # Number of network interfaces (must be at least 1). Default is 1. nics = 1 # Define MAC and/or bridge for the network interfaces. # # The MAC address specified in ``mac'' is the one used for the interface # in the new domain. The interface in domain0 will use this address XOR'd # with 00:00:00:01:00:00 (i.e. aa:00:00:51:02:f0 in our example). Random # MACs are assigned if not given. # # ``bridge'' is a required parameter, which will be passed to the # vif-script called by xend(8) when a new domain is created to configure # the new xvif interface in domain0. # # In this example, the xvif is added to bridge0, which should have been # set up prior to the new domain being created -- either in the # ``network'' script or using a /etc/ifconfig.bridge0 file. # vif = [ 'mac=aa:00:00:50:02:f0, bridge=bridge0' ] #---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Define the disk devices you want the domain to have access to, and # what you want them accessible as. # # Each disk entry is of the form: # # phy:DEV,VDEV,MODE # # where DEV is the device, VDEV is the device name the domain will see, # and MODE is r for read-only, w for read-write. You can also create # file-backed domains using disk entries of the form: # # file:PATH,VDEV,MODE # # where PATH is the path to the file used as the virtual disk, and VDEV # and MODE have the same meaning as for ``phy'' devices. # # VDEV doesn't really matter for a NetBSD guest OS (it's just used as an index), # but it does for Linux. # Worse, the device has to exist in /dev/ of domain0, because xm will # try to stat() it. This means that in order to load a Linux guest OS # from a NetBSD domain0, you'll have to create /dev/hda1, /dev/hda2, ... # on domain0, with the major/minor from Linux :( # Alternatively it's possible to specify the device number in hex, # e.g. 0x301 for /dev/hda1, 0x302 for /dev/hda2, etc ... disk = [ 'phy:/dev/wd0e,0x1,w' ] #disk = [ 'file:/var/xen/nbsd-disk,0x01,w' ] #disk = [ 'file:/var/xen/nbsd-disk,0x301,w' ] #---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Set the kernel command line for the new domain. # Set root device. This one does matter for NetBSD root = "xbd0" # extra parameters passed to the kernel # this is where you can set boot flags like -s, -a, etc ... #extra = "" #---------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Set according to whether you want the domain restarted when it exits. # The default is False. #autorestart = True # end of nbsd config file ==================================================== When a new domain is created, xen calls the `/usr/pkg/etc/xen/vif-bridge` script for each virtual network interface created in *domain0*. This can be used to automatically configure the xvif?.? interfaces in *domain0*. In our example, these will be bridged with the bridge0 device in *domain0*, but the bridge has to exist first. To do this, create the file `/etc/ifconfig.bridge0` and make it look like this: create !brconfig $int add ex0 up (replace `ex0` with the name of your physical interface). Then bridge0 will be created on boot. See the bridge(4) man page for details. So, here is a suitable `/usr/pkg/etc/xen/vif-bridge` for xvif?.? (a working vif-bridge is also provided with xentools20) configuring: #!/bin/sh #============================================================================ # $NetBSD: howto.mdwn,v 1.36 2014/12/24 16:02:49 gdt Exp $ # # /usr/pkg/etc/xen/vif-bridge # # Script for configuring a vif in bridged mode with a dom0 interface. # The xend(8) daemon calls a vif script when bringing a vif up or down. # The script name to use is defined in /usr/pkg/etc/xen/xend-config.sxp # in the ``vif-script'' field. # # Usage: vif-bridge up|down [var=value ...] # # Actions: # up Adds the vif interface to the bridge. # down Removes the vif interface from the bridge. # # Variables: # domain name of the domain the interface is on (required). # vifq vif interface name (required). # mac vif MAC address (required). # bridge bridge to add the vif to (required). # # Example invocation: # # vif-bridge up domain=VM1 vif=xvif1.0 mac="ee:14:01:d0:ec:af" bridge=bridge0 # #============================================================================ # Exit if anything goes wrong set -e echo "vif-bridge $*" # Operation name. OP=$1; shift # Pull variables in args into environment for arg ; do export "${arg}" ; done # Required parameters. Fail if not set. domain=${domain:?} vif=${vif:?} mac=${mac:?} bridge=${bridge:?} # Optional parameters. Set defaults. ip=${ip:-''} # default to null (do nothing) # Are we going up or down? case $OP in up) brcmd='add' ;; down) brcmd='delete' ;; *) echo 'Invalid command: ' $OP echo 'Valid commands are: up, down' exit 1 ;; esac # Don't do anything if the bridge is "null". if [ "${bridge}" = "null" ] ; then exit fi # Don't do anything if the bridge doesn't exist. if ! ifconfig -l | grep "${bridge}" >/dev/null; then exit fi # Add/remove vif to/from bridge. ifconfig x${vif} $OP brconfig ${bridge} ${brcmd} x${vif} Now, running xm create -c /usr/pkg/etc/xen/nbsd should create a domain and load a NetBSD kernel in it. (Note: `-c` causes xm to connect to the domain's console once created.) The kernel will try to find its root file system on xbd0 (i.e., wd0e) which hasn't been created yet. wd0e will be seen as a disk device in the new domain, so it will be 'sub-partitioned'. We could attach a ccd to wd0e in *domain0* and partition it, newfs and extract the NetBSD/i386 or amd64 tarballs there, but there's an easier way: load the `netbsd-INSTALL_XEN3_DOMU` kernel provided in the NetBSD binary sets. Like other install kernels, it contains a ramdisk with sysinst, so you can install NetBSD using sysinst on your new domain. If you want to install NetBSD/Xen with a CDROM image, the following line should be used in the `/usr/pkg/etc/xen/nbsd` file: disk = [ 'phy:/dev/wd0e,0x1,w', 'phy:/dev/cd0a,0x2,r' ] After booting the domain, the option to install via CDROM may be selected. The CDROM device should be changed to `xbd1d`. Once done installing, `halt -p` the new domain (don't reboot or halt, it would reload the INSTALL\_XEN3\_DOMU kernel even if you changed the config file), switch the config file back to the XEN3\_DOMU kernel, and start the new domain again. Now it should be able to use `root on xbd0a` and you should have a second, functional NetBSD system on your xen installation. When the new domain is booting you'll see some warnings about *wscons* and the pseudo-terminals. These can be fixed by editing the files `/etc/ttys` and `/etc/wscons.conf`. You must disable all terminals in `/etc/ttys`, except *console*, like this: console "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" vt100 on secure ttyE0 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" vt220 off secure ttyE1 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" vt220 off secure ttyE2 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" vt220 off secure ttyE3 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" vt220 off secure Finally, all screens must be commented out from `/etc/wscons.conf`. It is also desirable to add powerd=YES in rc.conf. This way, the domain will be properly shut down if `xm shutdown -R` or `xm shutdown -H` is used on the domain0. Your domain should be now ready to work, enjoy. Creating an unprivileged Linux domain (domU) -------------------------------------------- Creating unprivileged Linux domains isn't much different from unprivileged NetBSD domains, but there are some details to know. First, the second parameter passed to the disk declaration (the '0x1' in the example below) disk = [ 'phy:/dev/wd0e,0x1,w' ] does matter to Linux. It wants a Linux device number here (e.g. 0x300 for hda). Linux builds device numbers as: (major \<\< 8 + minor). So, hda1 which has major 3 and minor 1 on a Linux system will have device number 0x301. Alternatively, devices names can be used (hda, hdb, ...) as xentools has a table to map these names to devices numbers. To export a partition to a Linux guest we can use: disk = [ 'phy:/dev/wd0e,0x300,w' ] root = "/dev/hda1 ro" and it will appear as /dev/hda on the Linux system, and be used as root partition. To install the Linux system on the partition to be exported to the guest domain, the following method can be used: install sysutils/e2fsprogs from pkgsrc. Use mke2fs to format the partition that will be the root partition of your Linux domain, and mount it. Then copy the files from a working Linux system, make adjustments in `/etc` (fstab, network config). It should also be possible to extract binary packages such as .rpm or .deb directly to the mounted partition using the appropriate tool, possibly running under NetBSD's Linux emulation. Once the filesystem has been populated, umount it. If desirable, the filesystem can be converted to ext3 using tune2fs -j. It should now be possible to boot the Linux guest domain, using one of the vmlinuz-\*-xenU kernels available in the Xen binary distribution. To get the linux console right, you need to add: extra = "xencons=tty1" to your configuration since not all linux distributions auto-attach a tty to the xen console. Creating an unprivileged Solaris domain (domU) ---------------------------------------------- Download an Opensolaris [release](http://opensolaris.org/os/downloads/) or [development snapshot](http://genunix.org/) DVD image. Attach the DVD image to a MAN.VND.4 device. Copy the kernel and ramdisk filesystem image to your dom0 filesystem. dom0# mkdir /root/solaris dom0# vnconfig vnd0 osol-1002-124-x86.iso dom0# mount /dev/vnd0a /mnt ## for a 64-bit guest dom0# cp /mnt/boot/amd64/x86.microroot /root/solaris dom0# cp /mnt/platform/i86xpv/kernel/amd64/unix /root/solaris ## for a 32-bit guest dom0# cp /mnt/boot/x86.microroot /root/solaris dom0# cp /mnt/platform/i86xpv/kernel/unix /root/solaris dom0# umount /mnt Keep the MAN.VND.4 configured. For some reason the boot process stalls unless the DVD image is attached to the guest as a "phy" device. Create an initial configuration file with the following contents. Substitute */dev/wd0k* with an empty partition at least 8 GB large. memory = 640 name = 'solaris' disk = [ 'phy:/dev/wd0k,0,w' ] disk += [ 'phy:/dev/vnd0d,6:cdrom,r' ] vif = [ 'bridge=bridge0' ] kernel = '/root/solaris/unix' ramdisk = '/root/solaris/x86.microroot' # for a 64-bit guest extra = '/platform/i86xpv/kernel/amd64/unix - nowin -B install_media=cdrom' # for a 32-bit guest #extra = '/platform/i86xpv/kernel/unix - nowin -B install_media=cdrom' Start the guest. dom0# xm create -c solaris.cfg Started domain solaris v3.3.2 chgset 'unavailable' SunOS Release 5.11 Version snv_124 64-bit Copyright 1983-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Use is subject to license terms. Hostname: opensolaris Remounting root read/write Probing for device nodes ... WARNING: emlxs: ddi_modopen drv/fct failed: err 2 Preparing live image for use Done mounting Live image Make sure the network is configured. Note that it can take a minute for the xnf0 interface to appear. opensolaris console login: jack Password: jack Sun Microsystems Inc. SunOS 5.11 snv_124 November 2008 jack@opensolaris:~$ pfexec sh sh-3.2# ifconfig -a sh-3.2# exit Set a password for VNC and start the VNC server which provides the X11 display where the installation program runs. jack@opensolaris:~$ vncpasswd Password: solaris Verify: solaris jack@opensolaris:~$ cp .Xclients .vnc/xstartup jack@opensolaris:~$ vncserver :1 From a remote machine connect to the VNC server. Use `ifconfig xnf0` on the guest to find the correct IP address to use. remote$ vncviewer 172.18.2.99:1 It is also possible to launch the installation on a remote X11 display. jack@opensolaris:~$ export DISPLAY=172.18.1.1:0 jack@opensolaris:~$ pfexec gui-install After the GUI installation is complete you will be asked to reboot. Before that you need to determine the ZFS ID for the new boot filesystem and update the configuration file accordingly. Return to the guest console. jack@opensolaris:~$ pfexec zdb -vvv rpool | grep bootfs bootfs = 43 ^C jack@opensolaris:~$ The final configuration file should look like this. Note in particular the last line. memory = 640 name = 'solaris' disk = [ 'phy:/dev/wd0k,0,w' ] vif = [ 'bridge=bridge0' ] kernel = '/root/solaris/unix' ramdisk = '/root/solaris/x86.microroot' extra = '/platform/i86xpv/kernel/amd64/unix -B zfs-bootfs=rpool/43,bootpath="/xpvd/xdf@0:a"' Restart the guest to verify it works correctly. dom0# xm destroy solaris dom0# xm create -c solaris.cfg Using config file "./solaris.cfg". v3.3.2 chgset 'unavailable' Started domain solaris SunOS Release 5.11 Version snv_124 64-bit Copyright 1983-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Use is subject to license terms. WARNING: emlxs: ddi_modopen drv/fct failed: err 2 Hostname: osol Configuring devices. Loading smf(5) service descriptions: 160/160 svccfg import warnings. See /var/svc/log/system-manifest-import:default.log . Reading ZFS config: done. Mounting ZFS filesystems: (6/6) Creating new rsa public/private host key pair Creating new dsa public/private host key pair osol console login: Using PCI devices in guest domains ---------------------------------- The domain0 can give other domains access to selected PCI devices. This can allow, for example, a non-privileged domain to have access to a physical network interface or disk controller. However, keep in mind that giving a domain access to a PCI device most likely will give the domain read/write access to the whole physical memory, as PCs don't have an IOMMU to restrict memory access to DMA-capable device. Also, it's not possible to export ISA devices to non-domain0 domains (which means that the primary VGA adapter can't be exported. A guest domain trying to access the VGA registers will panic). This functionality is only available in NetBSD-5.1 (and later) domain0 and domU. If the domain0 is NetBSD, it has to be running Xen 3.1, as support has not been ported to later versions at this time. For a PCI device to be exported to a domU, is has to be attached to the `pciback` driver in domain0. Devices passed to the domain0 via the pciback.hide boot parameter will attach to `pciback` instead of the usual driver. The list of devices is specified as `(bus:dev.func)`, where bus and dev are 2-digit hexadecimal numbers, and func a single-digit number: pciback.hide=(00:0a.0)(00:06.0) pciback devices should show up in the domain0's boot messages, and the devices should be listed in the `/kern/xen/pci` directory. PCI devices to be exported to a domU are listed in the `pci` array of the domU's config file, with the format `'0000:bus:dev.func'` pci = [ '0000:00:06.0', '0000:00:0a.0' ] In the domU an `xpci` device will show up, to which one or more pci busses will attach. Then the PCI drivers will attach to PCI busses as usual. Note that the default NetBSD DOMU kernels do not have `xpci` or any PCI drivers built in by default; you have to build your own kernel to use PCI devices in a domU. Here's a kernel config example: include "arch/i386/conf/XEN3_DOMU" #include "arch/i386/conf/XENU" # in NetBSD 3.0 # Add support for PCI busses to the XEN3_DOMU kernel xpci* at xenbus ? pci* at xpci ? # Now add PCI and related devices to be used by this domain # USB Controller and Devices # PCI USB controllers uhci* at pci? dev ? function ? # Universal Host Controller (Intel) # USB bus support usb* at uhci? # USB Hubs uhub* at usb? uhub* at uhub? port ? configuration ? interface ? # USB Mass Storage umass* at uhub? port ? configuration ? interface ? wd* at umass? # SCSI controllers ahc* at pci? dev ? function ? # Adaptec [23]94x, aic78x0 SCSI # SCSI bus support (for both ahc and umass) scsibus* at scsi? # SCSI devices sd* at scsibus? target ? lun ? # SCSI disk drives cd* at scsibus? target ? lun ? # SCSI CD-ROM drives NetBSD as a domU in a VPS ========================= The bulk of the HOWTO is about using NetBSD as a dom0 on your own hardware. This section explains how to deal with Xen in a domU as a virtual private server where you do not control or have access to the dom0. TODO: Perhaps reference panix, prmgr, amazon as interesting examples. TODO: Somewhere, discuss pvgrub and py-grub to load the domU kernel from the domU filesystem.