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In Novell® Open Enterprise Server (OES) 2, the NetWare® operating system has been modified to run in paravirtual mode on a Xen virtual machine.
The documentation of OES Netware virtual machines is discussed in a separate document. For more information on this topic see http://www.novell.com/documentation/oes2/virtualization.html.
The documentation of OES Linux virtual machines is discussed in a separate document. For more information on this topic see http://www.novell.com/documentation/oes2/inst_oes_lx/data/b9kmg9x.html.
On host computers running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP4, the following SUSE Linux operating systems are supported as guests.
SUSE Linux operating systems supported as guest operating systems, such as SUSE Linux 10 SP1 or later and SUSE Linux 9 SP3 or later, can be installed as guests on a host that is running any of the following combinations of domain 0 and hypervisor architecture.
Table 6.1. Virtual Machines and Host Architectures¶
Typically, the guest operating system on a virtual machine can be updated using the same procedures as if running on a physical machine. However, SLE 10 virtual machines created on a SLE 10 host need to be updated to SLE 10 SP1 by recreating the virtual machine from the settings stored in the virtual machine’s configuration file.
SLE 10 virtual machines created on a SLE 10 SP1 host do not need to follow the same procedures to be updated to SP1. In addition, SLE 10 did not support SLE 10 fully virtual machines.
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In SLE 10, changing the configuration of a virtual machine by editing
its configuration file
( |
To update a SLE 10 virtual machine to SLE 10 SP1, complete the following procedure.
Make sure the host computer is running the most recent SLE updates. The host computer must be running software that is more recent than the software planned for the virtual machine update.
Prepare the virtual machine’s operating system environment for the update by completing any prerequisite tasks. It is recommended to make a copy of the entire virtual disk.
Shut down the virtual machine you want to update.
View or print the virtual machine’s configuration file located at
etc/xen/vm/vm_name
.
On Domain0, use Virtual Machine Manager to create a new virtual machine.
Choose the selection to install an operating system.
Specify the settings for the new virtual machine as the same settings specified in the VM’s configuration file.
Make sure the following settings in Virtual Machine Manager match those in the VM’s configuration file.
Network MAC address
Memory size
Virtual disk size
Make sure to select or specify the virtual machine’s already-created
disk or disk image, for example, hda
, as the
virtual disk.
For example, if the SLE 10 virtual machine was using
/var/lib/xen/images/sles10/disk0
as its disk, the updated virtual
machine should specify the same disk.
Specify the virtual machine operating system installation source as the SLE 10 SP1 installation media.
In the
section, add the following argument in :root=/dev/xvda2
where /dev/xvda2 is the path and drive designation for the root partition that contains the virtual machine’s boot files.
Click
to create the virtual machine and start the SLE 10 SP1 installation program.A new window displaying the installation program opens on the Domain0.
If the new windows does not display, select the virtual machine in Virtual Machine Manager, and click
.During the installation program, select
from the screen.If you receive a message stating that an error occurred while installing GRUB, click
.If you receive a message stating that an error occurred during boot loader installation, click
.Continue the installation/update by following the instructions on the screen.
The installation program continues by booting the virtual machine and displaying the rest of the installation in text mode.
After the installation program is completed, the virtual machine should run SLE 10 SP1 and be registered with xend.
Log in to the SLE 10 SP1 virtual machine.
If you want the SLE 10 SP1 virtual machine to run in GUI mode, complete the following from its command line:
Enter init 3.
Enter sax2 to configure the GUI environment.
Enter init 5 to restart the GUI.
Open the virtual machine’s /etc/inittab
file
with a text editor.
Find the section titled
# getty-programs for the normal runlevels
After the line that begins with 1:2345:respan:sbin/mingetty, add the following lines:
2:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty2 3:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty3 4:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty4 5:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty5 6:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty6
Save the file and restart the virtual machine’s operating system.
If the mouse pointer stops working within the virtual machine, you might need to restart the GUI on the virtual machine host by entering init 3 then init 5 on the host’s command line.
After completing these instructions, the updated SLE 10 SP1 virtual machine should perform correctly. Configuration changes should be made using Virtual Machine Manager or by modifying xend settings.
The Add-On Products program is available during the SLE operating system installation and after installation at
+ + . It allows you to install additional products that may reside on a separate CD, ISO image file, or installation source.Because paravirtual machines present removable media, such as a CD inserted in the CD reader, as a non-removable disk device, the Add-On Product program does not recognize inserted CD as valid add-on product media.
To use the Add-On Products program on a paravirtual machine, you must set up the add-on product media as a network installation source or copy the ISO image file to the virtual machine’s filesystem.
On fully virtual machines, you can use the Add-On Products program to specify add-on product media as a network installation source, an ISO image file, or as a CD inserted in the host’s CD reader.
When booting, virtual machines get their initial clock time from their host. After getting their initial clock time, fully virtual machines manage their time independently from the host. Paravirtual machines manage clock time according to their independent wallclock setting. If the independent wallclock is enabled, the virtual machine manages its time independently and does not synchronize with the host. If the independent wallclock is disabled, the virtual machine periodically synchronizes its time with the host clock.
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OES 2 NetWare virtual machines manage clock time independently after booting. They do not synchronize with the host clock time. |
If a guest operating system is configured for NTP and the virtual machine's independent wallclock setting is disabled, it will still periodically synchronize its time with the host time. This dual type of configuration can result in time drift between virtual machines that need to be synchronized. To effectively use an external time source, such as NTP, for time synchronization on a virtual machine, the virtual machine's independent wallclock setting must be enabled (set to 1). Otherwise, it will continue to synchronize its time with its host.
Procedure 6.1. Viewing the Independent Wallclock Setting
Log in to the virtual machine’s operating system as
root
.
In the virtual machine environment, enter
cat /proc/sys/xen/independent_wallclock
0 means that the virtual machine is getting its time from the host and is not using independent wallclock.
1 means that the virtual machine is using independent wallclock and managing its time independently from the host.
Procedure 6.2. Permanently Changing the Independent Wallclock Setting
Log in to the virtual machine environment as
root
.
Edit the virtual machine’s /etc/sysctl.conf
file.
Add or change the following entry:
xen.independent_wallclock=1
Enter 1 to enable or 0 to disable the wallclock setting.
Save the file and reboot the virtual machine operating system.
While booting, a virtual machine gets its initial clock time from the
host. Then, if the wallclock setting is set to 1 in the
sysctl.conf
file, it manages its clock time
independently and does not synchronize with the host clock time.
Procedure 6.3. Temporarily Changing the Independent Wallclock Setting
Log in to the virtual machine environment as
root
.
Enter the following command:
echo "1" > /proc/sys/xen/independent_wallclock
Enter 1 to enable or 0 to disable the wallclock settting.
Add or change the following entry:
xen.independent_wallclock=1
Enter 1 to enable or 0 to disable the wallclock setting.
Although the current status of the independent wallclock changes
immediately, its clock time might not be immediately synchronized.
The setting persists until the virtual
machine reboots. Then, it gets its initial clock time from the host
and uses the independent wallclock according to setting specified in
the sysctl.conf
file.
The installation of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 is only supported from a network
installation source. To have the right device names supported in
Xen, you must update the kernel
and
initrd
that are used to install the system.
Furthermore, the updated kernel must be available in the
installation source. In the following example, the network
installation source is found at /srv/ftp
.
Create this directory manually, if it does not exist already.
Get the latest kernel package for your system from the Novell Customer Center.
Create a directory for executables in your home directory: mkdir -p $HOME/bin
Copy the script create_update_source.sh from
http://www.suse.de/~ug/tools/create_update_source.sh
to the bin/
directory and make it executable.
cd $HOME/bin wget http://www.suse.de/~ug/tools/create_update_source.sh chmod 755 create_update_source.sh
Install the package inst-source-utils
. Then,
change your working directory to your network installation
source.
Run the command $HOME/bin/create_update_source.sh /srv/ftp.
Copy all updated packages to the directory
/srv/ftp/updates/suse/<arch>/
.
Run the following commands to make all the new packages known to the installation source:
cd /srv/ftp/updates/suse; perl /usr/bin/create_package_descr -x setup/descr/EXTRA_PROV
Create the checksums needed for the installation process with the commands:
cd /srv/ftp/updates/suse/setup/descr for i in *; do echo -n "META SHA1 "; \ sha1sum $i|awk '{ORS=""; print $1}'; \ echo -n " "; basename $i; done >> /srv/ftp/updates/content
After this procedure, the packages that are copied to the updates directory are available during the installation. However, they will only be used if they are newer than the packages provided by the installation itself.
Note, that in order to use a new kernel during the installation,
you must also create an appropriate installation
initrd
as it is found in
/srv/ftp/boot/
.
The installation of Windows virtual machines is supported by the virtual machine manager. To install a Windows VM Guest, select the respective system from the list provided there.
To get the best available support for Windows systems, install the driver pack. For more information about this, see Section 7.5, “SUSE Drivers for Windows on Xen”.