When using using Yast and SLES11, Followed Steps in SLES10 Course Manual but instead of System > Virtual Machine Management, the option is under Virtualisation and create.
vkbd could not be connected
If process fails complaining of “vkbd could not be connected”, it may resolved this by editing the created config file /etc/xen/vm/sles10 as follows.
from:
disk=[ ‘file:/var/lib/xen/images/sles10/disk0 ...
to:
disk=[ ‘file:/dev/hda1 ... - this is a spare disk partition.
and commented the vfb= line
missing kernel
If paravirualisation fails complaining of missing kernel in /tmp. This was fixed by using full virtualisation.
Dell Sata disks
Some SATA disks require acpi=noirq as a boot parameter during the install.
Missing NIC in DomU
If the DomU doesn’t show a NIC in dmesg or when running lspci, it could be because the domain was built using type=netfront instead of type=ioemu. The former will remove the DomU NIC at boot.
Apache installs on DomU
On a DomU, installing apache also installs apache-utils which in turn installs xen-kmp-desktop. This causes the guest to fail to boot with the following errors:
INIT: Id “2” respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes[ 20.844360] end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 2116192
[ 20.856434] end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 2116192
/etc/initscript: line 137: /sbin/mingetty: Input/output error[ 20.871946] end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 2116192
[ 20.880545] end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 2116192
The HD used can be a logical volume on the host. This will then be the block device for the HD used during vm-install
Making the Domain Autostart
ensure that the following lines are in the xend configuration before adding the domain to xend management:
on_xend_start=”start”
on_xend_stop=”stop”
If they’re not:
mk-vmhost-1:~ # xm list --long mk-www-1| grep on_xend_st
(on_xend_start ignore)
(on_xend_stop ignore)
Then follow these steps:
shutdown the domain
xm shutdown domainName
edit the config file and add the lines
then remove the domain from xend management and re-add it
xm delete domainName
xm new /path/to/newDomainConfig
check it
xm list --long mk-www-1| grep on_xend_st
(on_xend_start start)
(on_xend_stop stop)
Booting from CD ROM
copy the domain config file
$ cp /path/to/domainConfig /path/to/domainConfig.cdboot
edit the new file and change the lines below:
name=”oldDomain” to name=”oldDomain.cdboot”
boot=”c” to boot=”d” - this option uses the the BIOS drive naming convention
boot the VM
$xm create -c -f mk-doc-1.cdboot
Disk space issues
Adding Disks to DomU and increasing Logical Volume Size
Expanding DomU Physical Volumes
couldn’t find device
If ever space has to be reduce and a disk removed from a guest, pvdisplay can return the following error:
root@mk-scripts-vmhost-1:/home/tmc# pvdisplay
Couldn’t find device with uuid ‘iWAqFf-57Q9-Ksmp-CtHD-m0gl-FFAV-OZH9VT’.
Couldn’t find device with uuid ‘iWAqFf-57Q9-Ksmp-CtHD-m0gl-FFAV-OZH9VT’
Run: & vgreduce --removemissing DomU-VG1