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PXE + XEN

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nichuspam at gmail

Apr 3, 2012, 6:42 AM

Post #1 of 9 (554 views)
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PXE + XEN

Hello

I would like to ask about XEN (paravirtualization) + PXE working together ....

I have xen environment and would like to install few clients using PXE
(everything on debian) ...
Is it possible at all?

It's hard to find any useful information on that (even official FAQ
has not working link)
please check here the question:
Is it possible to start a VM that contains just
gpxe?http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_FAQ_Installation#Is_it_possible_to_start_a_VM_that_contains_just_gpxe.3F

I found some information about gpxy and pypxeboot but i can't make it work...

For pypxeboot it needs udhcp - but it's not used any more - it's in
busybox now...

so could someone confirm that it is possible to make it work ?

Regards,
nichu

Ian.Campbell at citrix

Apr 3, 2012, 7:03 AM

Post #2 of 9 (528 views)
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Re: PXE + XEN [In reply to]

On Tue, 2012-04-03 at 14:42 +0100, M N wrote:
> Hello
>
> I would like to ask about XEN (paravirtualization) + PXE working together ....
>
> I have xen environment and would like to install few clients using PXE (everything on debian) ...
> Is it possible at all?

It's not exactly PXE but I think tools/misc/xenpvnetboot can do network
boot of various guest types for installation purposes. It is currently
only in xen-unstable but it should be pretty independent so I should
think you could grab it from there and use it with any release

You might also find
http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Debian_Guest_Installation_Using_Debian_Installer useful, it describes doing a netboot installation of Debian. A little bit of scripting is all it would take to automate that and have something a bit like PXE.

> Is it possible to start a VM that contains just gpxe?

gpxe is only available for HVM guests, not PV ones.

> I found some information about gpxy and pypxeboot but i can't make it work...
>
> For pypxeboot it needs udhcp - but it's not used any more - it's in busybox now...
>
> so could someone confirm that it is possible to make it work ?

I do the netboot style of install quite a lot, following the method in
the wiki page above.

Ian.

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itobin at tidyhosts

Apr 3, 2012, 12:43 PM

Post #3 of 9 (527 views)
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Re: PXE + XEN [In reply to]

Hi,

Not sure about

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On 3 Apr 2012, at 20:31, "M N" <nichuspam [at] gmail> wrote:

> Hello
>
> I would like to ask about XEN (paravirtualization) + PXE working together ....
>
> I have xen environment and would like to install few clients using PXE (everything on debian) ...
> Is it possible at all?
>
> It's hard to find any useful information on that (even official FAQ has not working link)
> please check here the question:
> Is it possible to start a VM that contains just gpxe?
> http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_FAQ_Installation#Is_it_possible_to_start_a_VM_that_contains_just_gpxe.3F
>
> I found some information about gpxy and pypxeboot but i can't make it work...
>
> For pypxeboot it needs udhcp - but it's not used any more - it's in busybox now...
>
> so could someone confirm that it is possible to make it work ?
>
> Regards,
> nichu
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-users mailing list
> Xen-users [at] lists
> http://lists.xen.org/xen-users

itobin at tidyhosts

Apr 3, 2012, 12:45 PM

Post #4 of 9 (521 views)
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Re: PXE + XEN [In reply to]

Hi,

Not sure about para guests but with him you can boot from network by pressing F12 at boot time

Not tried it personally though

Cheers

Ian

On 3 Apr 2012, at 20:31, "M N" <nichuspam [at] gmail> wrote:

> Hello
>
> I would like to ask about XEN (paravirtualization) + PXE working together ....
>
> I have xen environment and would like to install few clients using PXE (everything on debian) ...
> Is it possible at all?
>
> It's hard to find any useful information on that (even official FAQ has not working link)
> please check here the question:
> Is it possible to start a VM that contains just gpxe?
> http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_FAQ_Installation#Is_it_possible_to_start_a_VM_that_contains_just_gpxe.3F
>
> I found some information about gpxy and pypxeboot but i can't make it work...
>
> For pypxeboot it needs udhcp - but it's not used any more - it's in busybox now...
>
> so could someone confirm that it is possible to make it work ?
>
> Regards,
> nichu
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-users mailing list
> Xen-users [at] lists
> http://lists.xen.org/xen-users

joseph.glanville at orionvm

Apr 3, 2012, 1:43 PM

Post #5 of 9 (528 views)
Permalink

Re: PXE + XEN [In reply to]

On 4 April 2012 05:45, Ian Tobin <itobin [at] tidyhosts> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Not sure about para guests but with him you can boot from network by
> pressing F12 at boot time

Not sure if the keyboard press will work.
However if you specify boot="n" in the config file the guest will DHCP
and PXE boot via the network.

>
> Not tried it personally though
>
> Cheers
>
> Ian
>
>
> On 3 Apr 2012, at 20:31, "M N" <nichuspam [at] gmail> wrote:
>
> Hello
>
> I would like to ask about XEN (paravirtualization) + PXE working together
> ....
>
> I have xen environment and would like to install few clients using PXE
> (everything on debian) ...
> Is it possible at all?
>
> It's hard to find any useful information on that (even official FAQ has not
> working link)
> please check here the question:
> Is it possible to start a VM that contains just gpxe?
> http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_FAQ_Installation#Is_it_possible_to_start_a_VM_that_contains_just_gpxe.3F
>
> I found some information about gpxy and pypxeboot but i can't make it
> work...
>
> For pypxeboot it needs udhcp - but it's not used any more - it's in busybox
> now...
>
> so could someone confirm that it is possible to make it work ?
>
> Regards,
> nichu
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> Xen-users mailing list
> Xen-users [at] lists
> http://lists.xen.org/xen-users
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-users mailing list
> Xen-users [at] lists
> http://lists.xen.org/xen-users

Joseph.

--
Founder | Director | VP Research
Orion Virtualisation Solutions�|�www.orionvm.com.au�| Phone: 1300 56
99 52 | Mobile: 0428 754 846

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alk at ondore

Apr 3, 2012, 2:52 PM

Post #6 of 9 (519 views)
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Re: PXE + XEN [In reply to]

El 03/04/12 15:43, Joseph Glanville escribi�:
> On 4 April 2012 05:45, Ian Tobin<itobin [at] tidyhosts> wrote:
>> Not sure about para guests but with him you can boot from network by
>> pressing F12 at boot time
>
> Not sure if the keyboard press will work.
> However if you specify boot="n" in the config file the guest will DHCP
> and PXE boot via the network.

That is correct, boot="n" option works fine.

Other thing you should have in mind if you use bridged network, is
gPXE's timeout vs bridge forward delay. In short, by default gPXE get
desperate of not getting DHCP answer before the bridge become operation,
and fails to boot. Can be fixed manually with "brctl setfd $BRIDGENAME
5" or in your network configuration file.

I don't use network-bridge script, my Debian's /etc/network/interfaces
looks like this (note that Dom0 has no IP on that interface in my setup):
iface xenbr22 inet manual
bridge_ports eth1.22
bridge_stp off
bridge_fd 5

All this works for HVM VM's. I do also boot PV VM's form network, but i
have found nothing better than copy the VM's kernel and initrd to to
Dom0 and boot them as normal DomU (kernel parameters instruct the VM to
get rootfs from network). Probably, I will end up writing some wrapper
to be used with "bootloader" option. I would talks to TFTP, get
specified pxelinux config file, parse it, download the kernel and
inirtd, than start up the VM. Although, it has not been written yet.

Greetings.

--
Alexandre Kouznetsov

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list at fajar

Apr 3, 2012, 3:34 PM

Post #7 of 9 (529 views)
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Re: PXE + XEN [In reply to]

On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 4:52 AM, Alexandre Kouznetsov <alk [at] ondore> wrote:
> Other thing you should have in mind if you use bridged network, is gPXE's
> timeout vs bridge forward delay. In short, by default gPXE get desperate of
> not getting DHCP answer before the bridge become operation, and fails to
> boot. Can be fixed manually with "brctl setfd $BRIDGENAME 5" or in your
> network configuration file.
>
> I don't use network-bridge script, my Debian's /etc/network/interfaces looks
> like this (note that Dom0 has no IP on that interface in my setup):
> iface xenbr22 inet manual
> �bridge_ports eth1.22
> �bridge_stp off
> �bridge_fd 5

Any particular reason to use "5"? Why not "0", or "1"?

> Probably, I will end up writing some wrapper to be used with
> "bootloader" option. I would talks to TFTP, get specified pxelinux config
> file, parse it, download the kernel and inirtd, than start up the VM.
> Although, it has not been written yet.

Isn't that what pypxeboot does? http://grid.ie/pypxeboot/

--
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alk at ondore

Apr 3, 2012, 3:50 PM

Post #8 of 9 (519 views)
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Re: PXE + XEN [In reply to]

El 03/04/12 17:34, Fajar A. Nugraha escribi�:
> On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 4:52 AM, Alexandre Kouznetsov<alk [at] ondore> wrote:
>> I don't use network-bridge script, my Debian's /etc/network/interfaces looks
>> like this (note that Dom0 has no IP on that interface in my setup):
>> iface xenbr22 inet manual
>> bridge_ports eth1.22
>> bridge_stp off
>> bridge_fd 5
>
> Any particular reason to use "5"? Why not "0", or "1"?
Just the personal policy to stay as much close to the defaults as
possible. I assume that FD is not set to something so small for some
reason, which I wish not to have to find under pressure of something not
working. I found 5 was small enough. (:

>> Probably, I will end up writing some wrapper to be used with
>> "bootloader" option. I would talks to TFTP, get specified pxelinux config
>> file, parse it, download the kernel and inirtd, than start up the VM.
>> Although, it has not been written yet.
>
> Isn't that what pypxeboot does? http://grid.ie/pypxeboot/
The words "modified version", "patch", and "build" scares me.

But basically, yes, pypxeboot should work. Did not think about building
a .deb of it instead of custom script.

--
Alexandre Kouznetsov

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konrad.scherer at windriver

Apr 5, 2012, 7:08 AM

Post #9 of 9 (518 views)
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Re: PXE + XEN [In reply to]

On 04/03/2012 09:42 AM, M N wrote:
> Hello
>
> I would like to ask about XEN (paravirtualization)+ PXE working together ....
>
> I have xen environment and would like to install few clients using PXE (everything on debian) ...
> Is it possible at all?
>
> It's hard to find any useful information on that (even official FAQ has not working link)
> please check here the question:
> Is it possible to start a VM that contains just gpxe?
> http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_FAQ_Installation#Is_it_possible_to_start_a_VM_that_contains_just_gpxe.3F
>
> I found some information about gpxy and pypxeboot but i can't make it work...
>
> For pypxeboot it needs udhcp - but it's not used any more - it's in busybox now...
>
> so could someone confirm that it is possible to make it work ?

I have been using koan[1] from the cobbler project[2] to handle the PXE boot of
my PV guests. Koan connects to the cobbler server to get all details about
kernel, initrd, vm RAM size, etc. Koan handles the transfer of kernel and
creation of the vm. The cobbler server handles all the DHCP, DNS and TFTP
infrastructure. It works quite well. There are some minor caveats of course.

- Cobbler is not in Debian. I was able to take the Ubuntu packaging [3] and with
a few minor changes (remove upstart and change python version) was able to build
and install it on Squeeze. There were some other minor issues so contact me off
list if you are interested in this.

- Koan uses libvirt which doesn't create cfg files. This prevents auto boot of
the vms from working. I am sure there is a workaround but it hasn't bothered me
enough to look for one.

Let me know if you would like more details.

[1] https://github.com/cobbler/cobbler/wiki/Koan
[2] http://cobbler.github.com/
[3] https://launchpad.net/cobbler

--
Konrad Scherer, Sr. Engineer, Linux Products Group, Wind River
direct 613-963-1342 fax 613-592-2283

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