Contents
SUSE® Linux Enterprise Virtual Machine Driver Pack contains disk and network device drivers for a number of third-party operating systems in order to enable the high-performance hosting of these unmodified guest operating systems on top of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. The guest operating systems supported by this driver pack are:
Windows Server* 2008
Windows Vista*
Red Hat* Enterprise Linux* 4
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
Windows Server 2003
Windows XP*
Windows 2000 Server
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
Virtualization allows the consolidation of Linux workloads on newer, more powerful, energy-efficient hardware. Paravirtualized operating systems such as SUSE Linux Enterprise Server are aware of the underlying virtualization platform, and can therefore interact efficiently with it. Unmodified operating systems are unaware of the virtualization platform and expect to interact directly with the hardware. Because this is not possible when consolidating servers, the hardware must be emulated for the operating system. Emulation can be slow, but it is especially troubling for high-throughput disk and network subsystems. Most performance loss occurs in this area.
The device drivers in SUSE Linux Enterprise Virtual Machine Driver Pack bring many of the performance advantages of paravirtualized operating systems to unmodified operating systems because only the paravirtualized device driver (not the rest of the operating system) is aware of the virtualization platform. For example, a paravirtualized disk device driver appears as a normal, physical disk to the operating system. However, the device driver interacts directly with the virtualization platform (with no emulation) to efficiently deliver disk access, allowing the disk and network subsystems to operate at near native speeds in a virtualized environment, without requiring changes to existing operating systems.
![]() | Best Practices |
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Before installing SUSE Linux Enterprise Virtual Machine Driver Pack in your production environment, we strongly recommend that you run it in a test environment to ensure that it functions properly with your system. |
The customer support you receive for the SUSE Linux Enterprise Virtual Machine Driver Pack is at the same level as your SUSE Linux Enterprise support subscription. You can choose the following levels of support:
Basic
Standard
Priority
Descriptions of these levels of support and how to buy them are found at SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 How to Buy.
Download the SLES-Virtual-Machine-Driver-Pack-10.iso file to your SUSE Linux Enterprise Server virtual machine host server.
Open YaST.
Select
, then click .Click
, then click .![]() |
Select the
box, then browse to the location of the driver pack ISO image you downloaded.Select the driver pack ISO, then click
. Click .Select
from the drop-down list. The drivers are located under Virtual Machine Driver Pack.Select the drivers you want to install, then click
.When asked if you want to install more packages, click
.
The drivers are now on your system in the
/opt/novell/vm-driver-pack
directory.
This section provides instructions for installing, uninstalling, and upgrading the SUSE Drivers for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 on Xen.
Open a terminal.
Locate the RPM package you want to install (
opt/novell/vm-driver-pack
).
If you are installing from the binary RPM included with the driver pack, the RPM is located on the driver pack ISO. .
(Optional) If you are installing from an RPM that you built, the RPM
is located in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/
, where
arch
arch
is the architecture of the virtual
machine. See Section 7.3.5, “Building Your Own RPMs”
for more information.
Set up the ISO image or CD as a virtual CD reader by following the instructions in Section 5.1, “Virtual CD Readers”.
Enter rpm -U xxx
.rpm ,
where xxx
is the RPM filename.
Edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst
file and make the
following change:
For each drive specified in the virtual machine configuration file
(for example, hda and hdb), append
hdx
=noprobe to the kernel line
for the updated kernel, where hdx
is the
drive specification found in the virtual machine configuration file.
Shut down the virtual machine.
On the virtualization host server, open a terminal and enter xm delete vm_name to delete the virtual machine’s reference in the xenstore so it is no longer managed.
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Enter xm list to see the name of the virtual
machine ( |
Open the virtual machine configuration file located on the
virtualization host server (
/etc/xen/vm/vm_cfgfile
where
vm_cfgfile
is usually the same as the name
of the virtual machine).
Remove all parameters from the vif= line except the mac=mac_address parameter. Make sure to leave the single quotes.
For example, change the line
vif=[ 'mac=00:16:3e:55:24:21,model=pcnet,type=ioemu', ]
to
vif=[ 'mac=00:16:3e:55:24:21', ]
At the terminal, enter xm new
vm_cfgfile
to reference the
virtual machine in the xenstore so it is managed again.
Restart the virtual machine.
Open a terminal.
Locate the RPM package you want to install (
opt/novell/vm-driver-pack
).
If you are installing from the binary RPM included with the driver pack, the RPM is located on the driver pack ISO. Refer to Section 5.1, “Virtual CD Readers”. for instructions on using the ISO image.
(Optional) If you are installing from an RPM that you built, the RPM
is located in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/
, where
xxx
xxx
is the architecture of the virtual
machine. See Section 7.3.5, “Building Your Own RPMs”
for more information.
Ener rpm -U --force xxx
.rpm
, where xxx
is the filename of
the new RPM.
Install the new kernel packages.
Edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst
file and remove all
hdx=noprobe
entries from the kernel line.
Restart the virtual machine.
Upgrade the driver pack (see Section 7.3.3, “Upgrading the RHEL 4 Drivers”).
Edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst
file and make the
following change:
For each drive specified in the virtual machine configuration file
(for example, hda and hdb), append
hdx
=noprobe to the kernel line
for the updated kernel, where hdx
is the
drive specification found in the virtual machine configuration file.
If you do not have a driver pack that was built for your Linux kernel, you can build your own SUSE Drivers for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 on Xen RPM.
Open a terminal.
Mount the driver pack ISO. Instructions for using the ISO are available in Section 5.1, “Virtual CD Readers”.
Enter rpmbuild -–rebuild
xxx
.src.rpm , where
xxx
is the name for the source RPM. This
creates a binary RPM in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/
, where
arch
/ arch
is the architecture of the virtual
machine.
This section provides instructions for installing, uninstalling, and updating the SUSE Drivers for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 on Xen.
Open a terminal.
Mount the driver pack ISO. For instructions on how to use the ISO images see Section 5.1, “Virtual CD Readers”.
(Optional) If you are installing from an RPM that you built, the RPM
is located in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/
, where
arch
arch
is the architecture of the virtual
machine. See Section 7.4.5, “Building Your Own RPMs”
for more information.
Install the RPM.
Open a terminal.
Enter rpm -U xxx
.rpm
, where xxx
is the RPM
filename.
Edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst
file and make the
following changes:
Set the default= xxx
(where
xxx
is the old boot entry) to
default=0, which is the boot entry with the latest initrd.
For each drive specified in the virtual machine configuration
file (for example, hda and hdb), append
hdx
=noprobe to the kernel
line for the updated kernel, where hdx
is the drive specification found in the virtual machine
configuration file.
Shut down the virtual machine.
On the virtualization host server, open a terminal and enter xm delete vm_name to delete the virtual machine’s reference in xenstore so it is no longer managed.
![]() | |
Enter xm list to see the name of the virtual
machine ( |
Open the virtual machine configuration file located on virtualization
host server ( /etc/xen/vm/vm_cfgfile
where
vm_cfgfile
is usually the same as the name
of the virtual machine).
Remove all parameters from the vif= line except the mac=mac_address parameter. Make sure to leave the single quotes.
For example, change the line
vif=[ 'mac=00:16:3e:55:24:21,model=pcnet,type=ioemu', ]
to
vif=[ 'mac=00:16:3e:55:24:21', ]
At the terminal, enter xm new
vm_cfgfile
to reference the
virtual machine in the xenstore so it is managed again.
Restart the virtual machine.
Open a terminal.
Enter rpm -e kmod-vmdp-rhel5- xxx
, where xxx
is the version of
the installed driver pack.
![]() | |
Enter rpm -qa | grep vmdp to find out what you have installed. |
Edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst
and make the
following changes:
Set the default= xxx
(where
xxx
is the old boot entry) to default=0,
which is the boot entry with the latest initrd.
Remove all hdx
=noprobe
entries from the kernel line.
Restart the virtual machine.
Open a terminal.
Mount the driver pack ISO. For instructions on how to use the ISO images see Section 5.1, “Virtual CD Readers”.
(Optional) If you are installing from an RPM that you built, the RPM
is located in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/
, where
arch
arch
is the architecture of the virtual
machine. See Section 7.4.5, “Building Your Own RPMs”
for more information.
Enter rpm -U xxx
.rpm ,
where xxx
is the name of the newer driver
pack RPM.
Verify that the default kernel is the one with the latest initrd in
the /boot/grub/menu.list
.
Install the kernel.
![]() | |
Do not reboot the virtual machine. |
Before rebooting the virtual machine, make sure all the following
directories are present in /lib/modules/
(where
xxx
/weak-updates/vmdp xxx
is the new kernel version):
blkfront
netfront
platform-pci
util
xenbus
If these files are not present, do the following:
Edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst
file and remove all
hdx=noprobe
entries from the kernel line.
Restart the virtual machine.
Upgrade the driver pack (see Section 7.4.3, “Upgrading the RHEL 5 Drivers”).
Edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst
file and make the
following change:
For each drive specified in the virtual machine configuration file
(for example, hda and hdb), append
hdx
=noprobe to the kernel line
for the updated kernel, where hdx
is the
drive specification found in the virtual machine configuration file.
Reboot the virtual machine.
If you do not have a driver pack that is compatible with your Linux kernel, you can build your own SUSE Drivers for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 on Xen RPM.
Open a terminal.
Mount the driver pack ISO. For instructions on how to use the ISO images see Section 5.1, “Virtual CD Readers”.
Enter rpmbuild -–rebuild
xxx
.src.rpm , where
xxx
is the name for the source RPM. This
creates a binary RPM in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/
, where
arch
/ arch
is the architecture of the virtual
machine.
![]() | |
Do not give the server a fixed IP address before installing the driver pack, otherwise you have to switch to a different intermediate IP address before finishing the installation. |
Launch the Virtual Machine Manager and start your Windows* virtual machine.
Set up the ISO image or CD of the drivers you want to install as a
virtual CD reader by following the instructions at Section 5.1.3, “Adding Virtual CD Readers”. The ISO images are
found in the SLES 10 virtual machine host
opt/novell/vm-driver-pack/xen
directory.
Right-click the virtual CD-ROM you just added, then click
.If a security alert appears, indicating the Bus driver has not been properly signed, click
to install the Bus driver software. It is important that you do not click .![]() |
The Novell Virtual Device Driver Installer launches.
![]() |
Click
.The End User License Agreement window appears.
![]() |
Click
, then click .A software installation note appears, indicating that the software has not passed Windows logo testing.
If you are installing Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, you see the following:
![]() |
If you are installing Windows 2000, you see the following:
![]() |
Click
or click for each occurrence of this window.A Congratulations window indicates that the drivers were installed.
![]() |
![]() | |
on this screen does not cancel the installation. If you want to cancel, you have to uninstall (see |
Click
.A message appears, indicating that you must restart the system.
![]() |
Click
.The system restarts. The Found New Hardware Wizard appears, indicating that it has found new hardware.
![]() |
Click
, then click .![]() |
Click
, then click .A software installation note appears, indicating that the software has not passed Windows logo testing.
If you are installing Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, you see the following:
![]() |
If you are installing Windows 2000, you see the following:
![]() |
Click
or click .A message indicates the Found New Hardware Wizard is done.
![]() |
Click
.If you are installing the Windows 2000 Server, you must reboot the system again.
Make sure the installation CD is detached from the virtual machine.
Browse to c:\Program Files\Novell\XenDrv
.
Double-click uninstall.exe
.
You will be prompted to reboot the system.
Close all applications that are running and click
.The system restarts. The Found New Hardware Wizard appears, indicating that new hardware has been found.
Click
, then click .The wizard asks to install software for the PCI Device.
![]() |
Click
.The driver pack is now uninstalled from your system.
To upgrade to a newer version of the driver pack follow these steps:
Uninstall the current driver pack (see Section 7.5.1, “Uninstalling the Driver Pack”).
Download and install the new driver pack.
In the event of a catastrophic failure caused by the driver pack, you can safely remove the driver pack and return to your previous system configuration.
Shut down the virtual machine and reboot in safe mode.
Uninstall the driver pack (see Section 7.5.1, “Uninstalling the Driver Pack”).
To avoid problems and potential failure of the device drivers in the driver pack, you should avoid the following actions:
Using the Device Manager to manage (update, disable, uninstall, etc.) the device drivers in the driver pack.
Deleting driver files manually. Always use the uninstall utility (see Section 7.5.1, “Uninstalling the Driver Pack”).
Uninstalling the driver pack with the installation CD attached to the virtual machine.
Canceling the installation when you see security alert that indicates that the Bus driver has not been properly signed. Click
to continue the installation.Upgrading the Linux* kernel of the virtual machine host without upgrading the driver pack at the same time.
Installing or uninstalling the driver pack by any other process than what is documented in this guide (see Section 7.5, “SUSE Drivers for Windows on Xen” and Section 7.5.1, “Uninstalling the Driver Pack”).
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The drivers for SUSE Linux Enterprise are not included in the driver pack. They are available through the standard update channels. |
This section provides instructions for running SUSE Linux Enterprise as a fully virtual guest with Xen drivers. Running SUSE Linux Enterprise requires a VM Host Server based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP2 or later.
The supported guest systems are SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 SP4 or later.
Create a new fully virtual machine or start an existing fully virtual machine. Use
+ + .Get the latest updates for the operating system from your update channel.
Verify that the Xen drivers are installed.
Launch YaST by entering yast2 at a terminal.
Select
+ .
Search for xen-kmp
and make sure that the
appropriate drivers are installed for your system.
If they are not selected, select them and click
to complete the installation.Setup your virtual machine to use the paravirtualized disk drivers:
In the VM Guest, edit the file
/boot/grub/menu.lst
. At the kernel
line, append a parameter hdx=noprobe
where
hdx
is the drive designation
specified in the virtual machine configuration file.
For example, the disk specification in your configuration file
may look as follows:
disk=['file:/var/lib/xen/images/vm1/disk0,ioemu:hda,w', \ 'file:/var/lib/xen/images/vm1/disk1,ioemu:hdb,w' ]
In this example, the virtual machine configuration file
specifies two virtual disks hda
and
hdb
. If you want both disks to use the
Xen drivers, add the parameters
hda=noprobe
and hdb=noprobe
to your kernel command line as follows:
kernel vmlinuz-kernel_ver <other_options> hda=noprobe hdb=noprobe
Now, the devices /dev/hda
and
/dev/hdb
are disabled, and the machine must
be prepared to use the paravirtualized disk drivers. At the
kernel line, change the root device to the paravirtualized disk
device. For example, if the kernel line contains
root=/dev/disk/by-id/xxx
, change this entry
to root=/dev/hdaX
, where
hdaX
is the disk and partition of your root
partition. For example, this will look like
root=/dev/hda2
.
Shutdown your VM Guest. The Xen paravirtualized disk driver will be used the next time you reboot this VM Guest.
If your VM Guest is running, first shut it down.
On the VM Host Server, open a terminal and enter xm delete vm_name to delete the virtual machine’s reference in the Xen store so it is no longer managed.
![]() | |
Enter xm list to see the name of the virtual
machine ( |
Open the virtual machine configuration file located on virtualization
host server (/etc/xen/vm/vm_cfgfile
, where
vm_cfgfile
is usually the same as the name
of the virtual machine).
Remove all parameters from the vif= line except the mac=mac_address parameter. Make sure to leave the single quotes.
For example, change the line
vif=[ 'mac=00:16:3e:55:24:21,model=pcnet,type=ioemu', ]
to
vif=[ 'mac=00:16:3e:55:24:21,type=netfront', ]
At the terminal, enter xm new
vm_cfgfile
to reference the
virtual machine in the Xen store so it is managed again.
Restart the virtual machine by using
+ + .You can also restart the virtual machine by using xm start vm_cfgfile, but make sure to connect to it with a viewer.
The first time the virtual machine boots, you might see a message indicating that new hardware was found. This message can be safely canceled.
Run YaST.
Make sure you are logged in as root.
Open a terminal.
Enter YaST2.
In YaST, click
.Click
, then select and delete each network card that is already configured.Click
, then change the ethx parameter to a network card number identified above. Repeat the process to add all virtual network cards.