Virtualization in 2009.06 (Part 1, xVM)

Install xVM

It seems that i have started a little tutorial trail for working with OSOL 2009.06. A few of my friends are about to install this release, so i thought i might as well make it a few blog entries, there are probably other people out there that want some help to get a quick start of OSOL 2009.06.

This will be the first entry about virtualization, first we get xVM running, later entries will describe some basic setup of Solaris zones and VirtualBox.

Install the xVM packages:

pfexec pkg install xvm-gui SUNWvdisk

Edit /rpool/boot/grub/menu.lst, copy your current entry and modify it to something similar to this:

title OpenSolaris 2009.06 xVM
findroot (pool_rpool,1,a)
bootfs rpool/ROOT/opensolaris
kernel$ /boot/$ISADIR/xen.gz
module$ /platform/i86xpv/kernel/$ISADIR/unix /platform/i86xpv/kernel/$ISADIR/unix -B $ZFS-BOOTFS,console=text
module$ /platform/i86pc/$ISADIR/boot_archive

Reboot into this grub entry and if everything works set this as your default boot entry:

$ bootadm list-menu
the location for the active GRUB menu is: /rpool/boot/grub/menu.lst
default 0
timeout 30
0 OpenSolaris 2009.06
1 OpenSolaris 2009.06 xVM

$ bootadm set-menu default=1

Enable the xVM services

If you want to be able to connect to VNC over the network to perform the installation, make xen listen on external addresses for VNC connections:

$ pfexec svccfg -s xvm/xend setprop config/vnc-listen = astring: \"0.0.0.0\"

Enable the xVM services and set a password for VNC connections:

$ pfexec svccfg -s xvm/xend setprop config/vncpasswd = astring \"yourpass\"
$ pfexec svcadm refresh xvm/xend
$ pfexec svcadm enable -r xvm/virtd
$ pfexec svcadm enable -r xvm/domains

( Ignore messages about multiple instances for dependencies )

Installing domains

Now we should be able to create our domU instances, First we create a zvol to be used as disk for the domU:

$ pfexec zfs create -o compression=on -V 10G zpool01/myzvol

Install a paravirtualized domain e.g. OSOL 2009.06:

$ pfexec virt-install --nographics -p -r 1024 -n osol0906 -f /dev/zvol/zpool01/myzvol -l /zpool01/dump/osol-0906-x86.iso

Connect to the console and answer the language questions:

$ pfexec xm console osol0906

Back on dom0 get the address, port and password for the VNC console for the OSOL installation, first get the domain id:

$ pfexec virsh domid osol0906

Get the address, port and password using the domain id:

$ pfexec /usr/lib/xen/bin/xenstore-read /local/domain//ipaddr/0
$ pfexec /usr/lib/xen/bin/xenstore-read /local/domain//guest/vnc/port
$ pfexec /usr/lib/xen/bin/xenstore-read /local/domain//guest/vnc/passwd

Connect with a VNC client to address and port, authenticate using the password.

Install an OS without support for paravirtualization, e.g. Windows:

$ pfexec virt-install -v --vnc -n windows -r 1024 -f /dev/zvol/dsk/zpool01/myzvol -c /zpool01/dump/windows.iso --os-type=windows

Connect to the xVM VNC console using the password provided earlier with svccfg/vncpasswd.

When installation is done domains can be listed with xm list and started with xm start.