Setting up a xen server

i've configured and played with xen on laze.

to set create the parent server (out of date?)

as long as you don't read the documentation(at least, i found it very confusing and intimidating), it's actually not much more difficult than vserver.

apt-get install xen-linux-system-2.6.18-3-xen-vserver-686 xen-tools libc6-xen

(alternately, you could install xen-linux-system-2.6.18-3-xen-686, or xen-linux-system-2.6.18-3-xen-vserver-686)

martin noticed that you likely will need to edit

/etc/xen-tools/xen-tools.conf:

kernel = /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-3-xen-vserver-686
initrd = /boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-3-xen-vserver-686

to match the kernel you have installed

[1]

i've been unable to verify if this helps at all, but:

[2]

echo 'hwcap 0 nosegneg' > /etc/ld.so.conf.d/libc6-xen.conf

appears to not help at all, at least on laze.

to create an instance on the parent server

you create new xen instances with:

xen-create-image --hostname NAME --debootstrap --mirror http://some.debian.mirror/debian --dist etch

(you set some default values in /etc/xen-tools/xen-tools.conf)

you start a xen instance with:

xm create NAME.cfg

list the running xen instances and how much resources they're using:

xm list

to get networking to work, i had to uncomment in /etc/xen/xend-config.sxp: (network-script network-bridge)

and restart xend:

invoke-rc.d xend restart

reclaim memory for the host machine stolen by stopped xen instances:

xm mem-set Domain-0 700

(for 700MB of ram)

to get to a login screen on the vm, either ssh in, or:

xm console NAME

there's some mechanism to start instances at boot time i haven't yet explored, but it doesn't sound difficult.