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List:       xen-users
Subject:    Re: [Xen-users] Longtime *nix user/admin planning on making the move to Xen
From:       Alexandre Kouznetsov <alk () ondore ! com>
Date:       2012-10-31 22:03:50
Message-ID: 5091A046.3000402 () ondore ! com
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Hi.

El 31/10/12 11:18, Braindead escribi=F3:
> My first thought was to make my life simple and go with the XCP
(Maybe some Xen developer will read this and even wish to do =

corrections. In any case, this is a feedback.)

In my own very personal perception, XCP is a nice system to be =

integrated into an ecosystem, where you have multiple nodes that come =

and go, orchestration solution, maybe centralized storage, etc. In the =

other hand, when it's about a single (or few) host system with local =

storage, administrated by the same person who is the principal user, a =

regular Linux distribution with Xen is more suitable.

They say SuSE, as distribution, is a good starting point, since they are =

very involved in Xen development.
Personally, my distribution of choice has been Debian, which has been =

working marvelously as Dom0 and as DomU in many roles. The package =

xen-tools has everything needed to get started and do proof-of-concept =

tests.

> I'm planning on moving a mythtv backend into a domU, so I'll need to
> compile kernel support for the pcHDTV HD-5500 tuner card. Which I
> suspect means custom kernel build anyway? Presumably I can use the
> PCI passthrough feature to make the domU system see the 5500..hopefully.
Make sure your hardware has IOMMU support, which is needed for for PCI =

Passthrough.
The custom kernel is not a problem at all. The most regular way to boot =

a PV guest (at least in Debian) is taking the kernel imiage and initrd =

form the Dom0 system, but you can install any (xen enabled) kernel =

within a DomU and boot it using pygrub or something similar.

The obvious advice would be to keep Dom0 as clean as possible, moving =

services and applications to DomUs. Customize (and keep reference of) =

the xen-tools configs and templates, so you can get a very reproducible =

results each time you do a new deploy.

I always install early a cache/proxy server to use as distribution =

repository ("approx" for Debian or Ubuntu), so when I deploy a new VM =

with xen-create-image using debootstrap, it comes out fast and fresh.

-- =

Alexandre Kouznetsov


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