What is Xen?
The Xen hypervisor, the powerful open source industry standard for virtualization, offers a powerful, efficient, and secure feature set for virtualization of x86, x86_64, IA64, ARM, and other CPU architectures. It supports a wide range of guest operating systems including Windows, Linux, Solaris, and various versions of the BSD operating systems.
Preliminary Note:
I’m using a CentOS 5.4 x86_64 base installation in this tutorial
* server1.example.co.za (IP 10.0.0.100): CentOS 5.4 x86_64 Base installation
Install the Gitco repository
Browse to and grab the latest repo for your arch. (in this case x86_64)
# cd /etc/yum.repos.d/
# wget GITCO-XEN3.4.1_x86_64.repo
Remove previous installations of XEN before re-installing XEN 3.4.1
# yum groupremove Virtualization
# yum groupinstall Virtualization
Edit grub.conf to reflect the correct default Kernel
# vi /etc/grub.conf
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| # grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title CentOS (2.6.18-128.7.1.el5xen)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /xen.gz-3.4.1
module /vmlinuz-2.6.18-128.7.1.el5xen ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
module /initrd-2.6.18-128.7.1.el5xen.img
title CentOS (2.6.18-128.1.16.el5xen)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /xen.gz-3.4.1
module /vmlinuz-2.6.18-128.1.16.el5xen ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
module /initrd-2.6.18-128.1.16.el5xen.img
title CentOS (2.6.18-128.el5xen)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /xen.gz-3.4.1
module /vmlinuz-2.6.18-128.el5xen ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
module /initrd-2.6.18-128.el5xen.img
title CentOS (2.6.18-164.el5xen)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /xen.gz-3.4.1
module /vmlinuz-2.6.18-164.el5xen ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
module /initrd-2.6.18-164.el5xen.img |
Reboot the machine for new XEN kernel to take effect
# reboot
After the reboot check the Kernel to reflect the change
# uname -r
2.6.18-128.7.1.el5xen
Related posts:
- Installing XEN on CentOS 5.x
- CentOS LVM Resizing Guide