Over a year ago, I installed Xen on my Debian Sarge server. There were many howto's available, but I still had a helluva time getting it up and running. I just chalked it up to inexperience and didn't think too much about it after.
Fast forward to a couple weeks ago. I inherited a new machine to use as my server, so I wanted to take the opportunity to do everything right, with time not being a factor, as I still have my old server running.
This time I followed 3 different howto's to a tee, right from the initial Debian install. Of the 3 methods I tried, only 1 worked - building xen from source.
First attempt: The Perfect Xen 3.0.3 Setup For Debian Sarge from howtoforge.com (using pre-compiled binaries section).
The Debian install was smooth enough, as was the installation of the pre-compiled xen binaries, but upon rebooting into the xen kernel, I immediately got a kernel panic where the root partition was not detected. I played around with it for a bit, but to no avail.
Second attempt: Xen from Backports on Debian Sarge from debian-administration.org.
This method involved enabling the backports repository (xen packages are available for Debian Testing) and installing xen using apt-get. Same problem when booting the xen kernel. Kernel panic because the root partition was not detected.
Third attempt: The Perfect Xen 3.0.3 Setup For Debian Sarge from howtoforge.com (using "build from source" section).
This is the one that did the trick. After following the instructions, I had no problem at all booting the xen kernel, and was able to create new virtual servers without any trouble.
Each attempt I made was on a fresh install, formatted after each failed attempt. I assume that there must be very limited hardware support in the stock xen kernels (though my root partition was on an ide drive using ext3).
Once I booted into the new xen kernel, I used xen-tools to create virtual servers with a single command. Very slick!
So if you're planning to give xen an honest go, and are running Debian, stick with building from source. It may seem more tedious and un-debian-like, but trust me, it can save you a headache.
I am still currently getting my virtual servers configured just right so I can let them take over the functions of my current "production" virtual servers on my older box. This will involve, at the final stage, swapping my software RAID1 array over to the new box for use with the virtual file server (I hope to post details on how I did this). Once completed, I will have the old server for testing purposes, and can hopefully generate some useful howtos for all to benefit from.
Feel free to post any Debian/xen experiences; or if you know why the pre-compiled kernels might not be working for me, I'd love to hear it.
04/11/07: Xen on Debian Sarge
Over a year ago, I installed Xen on my Debian Sarge server. There were many howto's available, but I still had a helluva time getting it up and running. I just chalked it up to inexperience and didn't think too much about it after.Fast forward to a couple weeks ago. I inherited a new machine to use as my server, so I wanted to take the opportunity to do everything right, with time not being a factor, as I still have my old server running.
This time I followed 3 different howto's to a tee, right from the initial Debian install. Of the 3 methods I tried, only 1 worked - building xen from source.
First attempt: The Perfect Xen 3.0.3 Setup For Debian Sarge from howtoforge.com (using pre-compiled binaries section).
The Debian install was smooth enough, as was the installation of the pre-compiled xen binaries, but upon rebooting into the xen kernel, I immediately got a kernel panic where the root partition was not detected. I played around with it for a bit, but to no avail.
Second attempt: Xen from Backports on Debian Sarge from debian-administration.org.
This method involved enabling the backports repository (xen packages are available for Debian Testing) and installing xen using apt-get. Same problem when booting the xen kernel. Kernel panic because the root partition was not detected.
Third attempt: The Perfect Xen 3.0.3 Setup For Debian Sarge from howtoforge.com (using "build from source" section).
This is the one that did the trick. After following the instructions, I had no problem at all booting the xen kernel, and was able to create new virtual servers without any trouble.
Each attempt I made was on a fresh install, formatted after each failed attempt. I assume that there must be very limited hardware support in the stock xen kernels (though my root partition was on an ide drive using ext3).
Once I booted into the new xen kernel, I used xen-tools to create virtual servers with a single command. Very slick!
So if you're planning to give xen an honest go, and are running Debian, stick with building from source. It may seem more tedious and un-debian-like, but trust me, it can save you a headache.
I am still currently getting my virtual servers configured just right so I can let them take over the functions of my current "production" virtual servers on my older box. This will involve, at the final stage, swapping my software RAID1 array over to the new box for use with the virtual file server (I hope to post details on how I did this). Once completed, I will have the old server for testing purposes, and can hopefully generate some useful howtos for all to benefit from.
Feel free to post any Debian/xen experiences; or if you know why the pre-compiled kernels might not be working for me, I'd love to hear it.