Finnix Forums » Ideas & Suggestions

Is Xen-dom0 an option?


  1. rfinnie
    Administrator

    Submitted by SourceForge user raken42

    I'm fiddeling around with finnix as xen-dom0. Until now to no avail. I can't get a combination of xen, unionfs, squashfs and linux-kernel (tried in multiple versions) compiling&working together. (*dreaming of a xen-dom0 coming out of a worm-hole in finnix 86.3*) Any pointers or hints are appreciated.

    Finnix with 'toram' is in my option a natural choice for a virtualisation-base. This is a very "context"-free type of environment, nice for clean decoupling of a) booting a functional os b) usable filesystem (depending on likewise devices, crypto, lvm, raid ...) c) providing environment for applications

    With little additions (eg boot-option netfinnix=tftp://<ip>/FINNIX :)) it's viable to create a virtualisation-base with autodetection of disks, starting xen-domU's from hd or net in uniform manner, config dependend on ip/hostname. If you have a reliable store (nas or san) you have a very flexible foundation to adapt to varying situations. After failure of a server, you can migrate/reboot the domU's on any remaining server. A new server is easily integrated. If new hardware demands updated drivers (or linux version), only the slim finnix distro must fit without mangling with the effective application environment (domU).

    2 cents, raken

    http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1436262&group_id=3892&atid=103892
    Posted Wed, 21 Jun 2006 15:44:19 -0700

  2. rfinnie
    Administrator

    Currently, all released versions are not capable of booting as a dom0. This is because the init scripts look for /proc/xen, and then just assume that if it exists, it's a domU and disables about half the autodetection (like would happen for a UML guest). However, current dev snapshots differentiate between a dom0 and a domU, so you may want to give that a try.

    Additionally, I'm not sure what sort of problems you had compiling a dom0 kernel with squashfs and unionfs support. I was able to verify dom0 functionality by compiling a 2.6.16 kernel from Xen's -testing tree a few weeks ago without problem. Just be sure that 1) you use the correct unionfs version; as of now 1.2 is required for 2.6.16, and 2) if you are compiling a kernel for the Finnix dev snapshots, you use squashfs 3.0 instead of 2.2. Unfortunately, I didn't save that test kernel after I was done with it.
    Posted Thu, 22 Jun 2006 05:36:10 -0700

  3. rfinnie
    Administrator

    Finnix 88.0 (coming out next week) will be able to boot as a dom0. Again, it's up to you to compile a correct dom0, but it's now at least possible.
    Posted Fri, 28 Jul 2006 12:43:05 -0700