XEN in 12.3 and Para Virt Machines.

OpenSuse no longer allows paraVirt Machines to be installed from install CD , Like openSuse I had a number of paraVirt machines, had to upgrade to 12.3 from 12.2 to get them running, now stuff like my Network has two devices the working xen device and an uninstalled real device listed, the xen device is working well. Can some one tell just what happened, It looks like ParaVirt hosts creation works fine for the paid novel version, Has this been removed by them from openSuse to encourage purchase of the paid version…?

Just confused and frustrated as paravirt machines are somewhat more efficient!

Thanks
Brian

One More Question, there is a small icon when clicked says I can create them from import or URL, WHAT IS THE URL? And if I can import one, how are they created?

Brian

Ok, So I was frustrated trying to restore my server , I have figured out how to install update my old paravirt machines from http URL from OpenSuse, and it seems to be working well.

My previous posts were in frustration… Sorry!

But why does the detection determine that OS is Debian Wheezy???

Brian

OK next problem, the install does not see my disk drive, I am providing a physical disk sda to the VM-Guest as the drive to use, The standard install does not contain the required drivers for the use and access of a whole disk. But I have discovered that the live version of the 12.2 install does contain the correct driver and I am able to install from that and use my disk and still have it readable ext4 format outside of the virtual machine.

Will the correct driver be included into the next revision of Open Suse? So We can allocate physical drives to the virtual machines?

It appears it needs to be in the kernel to boot system from the drive. So why was it working before?

Thanks
Brian

You should

  • List your repositories. Skimming past posts on ths List, there are several with similar symptoms who have had Tumbleweed enabled
zypper lr -d
  • How new is your base system? Since it was either upgraded or newly installed, did you update the system at least once?
zypper up
  • Which method and tools are you using to manage and create virtual machines? Command line, libvirt (vm manager and vm install) or something else?

  • I haven’t looked deeply but everythng I’ve seen suggests that a “virtual machine type” is set when the vm is first created and is carried forward in the metadata but isn’t any concern. You can always modify specific parameters later that suit your needs.

TSU

Ok here what I have done.

  In order to get the machines to work correctly I ran an upgrade on them all to 12.3 from 12.2. Thought this might help as I had to rebuild the virtual Machine server after a disk crash. so all machines the same version. (except my one ubuntu VM which just worked My Mail server open zimbra appliance full virt).

  They have all been updated after being loaded using yast online update. I never did get the full drive to work so just cut it up and assigned partitions which seem to work fine.

  Frankly I just gave up had to completely reload OS and restore data for the machine which used the disk as a whole. Frustrating experience, vm's clearly not portable between versions. Who tested this stuff anyway. In the next round I would like to volunteer as a tester for this who should I talk to.


  I used the yast virt-manager interface, both the create drop down and the full script. used xm  to assign usb things and xl to set cpu pinning thru scripts... I really need to do a lot more reading and practice, the simple tools really don't help me much any more. Devices are added thru the virt-manager interface I think that's originally from the fedora tool set. No work is done on the network, just bridges being used I need to learn a little more about that too.

 The dropdown on the virt-manager does not allow creation of para-virt machines unless you import from an existing machine, or install from an online repository. But if you click the new button the script comes up and allows you to create them from any source. Other strange behavior, like some machines allow setting boot device, some have no options at all, even if created from same source. Some decide the device is IDE, and allow choice others define xen device..... even if both are created using the same path...

 Hence my need to be able to manage build definitions and control manually the configuration of the machines...... more research reading to be done would have been nice if the tools just worked.

 One more interesting side effect of the upgrade, the NFS system is putting journals for recovery I guess into the usr/lib/nfs directory which blew away my root partition pretty quick maybe it has for a while, but I never noticed it grow so fast, now I am trying to figure out how to move the usr root to a different partition, but since there are now   system dependant startup things n this usr hierarchy it not a simple as copy and mount. I guess! fun days!

repositories used following message

repositories



  Upgraded using this 
  │ 99 (Default)│        │            │openSUSE-12.3-1.7                                    cd:///?devices=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-HL-DT-ST_DVDRAM_GSA-H40N_M0077BG1651,/dev/sr0 

Updated after from here after upgrade
     99 (Default)│   x   │     x     │Packman Repository                                http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/packman/suse/openSUSE_12.3/   
  │ 99 (Default)│   x   │     x     │libdvdcss repository                                  http://opensuse-guide.org/repo/12.3/ 
  │ 99 (Default)│   x   │     x     │openSUSE-12.3-Non-Oss                          http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/12.3/repo/non-oss/  
  │ 99 (Default)│   x   │     x     │openSUSE-12.3-Oss                                 http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/12.3/repo/oss/     
  │ 99 (Default)│   x   │     x     │openSUSE-12.3-Update                             http://download.opensuse.org/update/12.3/       
  │ 99 (Default)│   x   │     x     │openSUSE-12.3-Update-Non-Oss               http://download.opensuse.org/update/12.3-non-oss/     
  │ 99 (Default)│   x   │     x     │security                                                    http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/security/openSUSE_12.3


Yes I read separate-usr-is-broken regarding /usr…

Sounds like you found your own solution.
I wouldn’t criticize a “pave and re-build” but it does mean that whatever was causing your original problem will remain a mystery. And the repos you listed obviously is from after your re-build so won’t provide any clues to a problem before.

I don’t think I’ve tried to run 12.3 VMs on a 12.2 host.
But, I have not had any problem running 12.2 VMs (even those created on a 12.2 host) on a 12.3 host.

Am a bit curious what management features you find lacking with vm manager. To me, it probably would support most needs for “smaller” networks, eg up to 50 VMs, more or less (and that’s a subjective limit). There are certainly other options if you want full datacenter-style management, create VMs on demand from common images, authentication/authorization, more extensive graphical reporting, more.

TSU