Re: FreeBSD Xen Dom0 Support

2012-05-30 Thread Carsten Heesch


> A couple of nits here, alc@ fixed the PV memory restrictions so the 850M
> limit isn't a thing anymore: [...]

Very good to hear that my statement was wrong/outdated :)

> And, I think, there is a 64bit PV config now in development at:
> http://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/projects/amd64_xen_pv/
> 
> This is prerequisite work for a dom0 on freebsd which is under
> development.  Stay tuned, things are happening!

Fantastic news!



Cheers
C.
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Re: FreeBSD Xen Dom0 Support

2012-05-30 Thread Hugo Silva

On 05/30/12 17:40, Sean Bruno wrote:

And, I think, there is a 64bit PV config now in development at:
http://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/projects/amd64_xen_pv/

This is prerequisite work for a dom0 on freebsd which is under
development.  Stay tuned, things are happening!


Interesting, Sean!

FreeBSD has certain things that would make it attractive as a dom0 - 
MAC, GEOM, ZFS, among others.


The amd64 PV port is also interesting by itself. I for one have always 
noticed dramatic performance losses when running HVM+PV, which has made 
me shy away from FreeBSD recently, as 95% of the stuff I admin is 
virtualized these days.



Anyway -  it's a good move on behalf of the project, I think Xen is here 
to stay, and good support for it is essential for the future!


Regards,

Hugo

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Re: FreeBSD Xen Dom0 Support

2012-05-30 Thread Witold Baryluk
On 05-30 14:55, Lukas Laukamp wrote:
> Am 29.05.2012 00:48, schrieb Witold Baryluk:
> >On 05-29 00:24, Lukas Laukamp wrote:
> >>Am 29.05.2012 00:03, schrieb Witold Baryluk:
> >>>On 05-28 20:47, Lukas Laukamp wrote:
> Am 28.05.2012 20:02, schrieb Carsten Heesch:
> >Hi Lukas,
> >
> >>[...] I don't know whether there is support for Xen Dom0 on FreeBSD.
> >Unfortunately there isn't.
> >
> >>I read that NetBSD support Xen Dom0 [...]
> >I haven't tried myself, but apparently NetBSD works rather well as Dom0. 
> >That has long been on my list of things to test, though :)
> >
> >Not sure if you are aware of it, but in order to run FreeBSD as DomU, 
> >you don't need FreeBSD or NetBSD as Dom0. That works just as well on 
> >your Debian Dom0. (With FreeBSD's known limitations as DomU, namely 
> >memory and architecture depending on PV or HVM virtualisation)
> >
> >
> >Cheers
> >C.
> >
> >
> Hello Carsten,
> 
> thanks for your fast answer. That FreeBSD as DomU runs on Linux I
> know. So I only think that it is a bit tricky to build a PV DomU of
> FreeBSD because the kernel must be modified. I wan't to have another
> system like Linux as the host because I think that the BSDs are
> better in the stability and a few other points. I read in the
> english Wikipedia article about Xen that there is support for
> NetBSD, OpenBSD and OpenSolaris
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xen#Host:_Unix-like_systems).
> 
> >>>BTW. I read yeasterday that Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V is able to
> >>>run XEN PV domU Linux on it. It probably is also able to run other Xen
> >>>domU guests, but probably nobody was trying to do so. I do not know
> >>>details, but it was what I read about Hyper-V hypervisor on Wikipedia.
> >>>In fact it looks like independent implementation of Xen compatible
> >>>hypervisor (it uses same hypercall api, but I do not know with which
> >>>version of Xen it is compatible) with Windows as dom0.
> >>>
> >>>Not that anybody would want to run it, but just saying.
> >>>
> >>Hello Witold,
> >>
> >>Hyper-V can do that because Microsoft has co-operation contracts
> >>with Citrix who is one of the primary maintainers of Xen. So the try
> >>to build compatibility between Xen and Hyper-V. Personaly I wouldn't
> >>use Hyper-V because it's not that great like for example VMWares
> >>vSphere.
> >>
> >Ah, yes Citrix. This makes sense.
> >
> >
> >>But for the productive working I use Xen and KVM at the moment. And
> >>as I started to think to change to BSD I first looked which
> >>virtualization technologies are available on BSD. I thought that the
> >>best solution would be Xen because KVM don't is available for BSD
> >>and other solutions like QEmu, VirtualBox or the BSD Hypervisor
> >>BHyVe are very great for testing and home and so I would say the
> >>development command and control center but not for server
> >>virtualization or other things which provides services which are
> >>needed for productive use.
> >>
> >>When I look at the wikis and read about the support for Xen on other
> >>unix like systems I only see NetBSD or Solaris (and it's forks) for
> >>a realy good Dom0.
> >>
> >>So does someone can explain the differences between FreeBSD and
> >>NetBSD? I see not so much without looking for the supported hardware
> >>platforms. The BSD with the most differences I think is OpenBSD.
> >>
> >>And the other thing is that I never worked with Solaris, but it
> >>seems that they have great Xen support. So I don't know whether it
> >>would be a good choice. I think that I will have much to learn to
> >>work good with a BSD but I hope it's possible for me.
> >>
> >I personally would like to switch to FreeBSD domO mainly due to the ZFS
> >storage (its snapshots, easier atomic backups and zvol, fast cloning,
> >and easier exporting via iSCSI). I know I can do almost all of it using
> >LVM, just not so easly and reliabiliy or automatically.
> >
> >I currently use Debian GNU/Linux, and I'm very happy, espcially due
> >package system, but considering there is Debian kfreebsd, I would like
> >to make switch in the future when domO will be available. I now use
> >kfreebsd (with 9.0 kernel) as domU without bigger issues.
> >
> >As of NetBSD i have no idea of good distinguishing differences. It is
> >more portable than FreeBSD for sure (which its domO support proofs), but
> >there is many small differences, including hardware drivers or various
> >subsystems scalability performance for examples. I belive there is still
> >code exchange between various BSD operating systems due similar
> >internals and libearal licensing (especially networking code and
> >networking drivers).
> >
> >I would somehow be carefull with Solaris, as Oracle isn't very
> >open-source friendly IMHO (despite its ocfs or btrfs work). I also
> >failed to run Solaris on the Xen, but it may be my incompetence. :(
> >
> 
> Hey all,
> 
> I answer

Re: FreeBSD Xen Dom0 Support

2012-05-30 Thread Sean Bruno
On Wed, 2012-05-30 at 07:56 -0700, Carsten Heesch wrote:
> However, if you intend to run 64bit, you are restricted to HVM (use
> the XENHVM kernel to get better performance from the optimised device
> drivers for HVM). 
> If you are planning on running 32bit, you can use PV.
> I think that is still valid for 9.0. And mind you, PV is (or was?)
> also limited to about 850M memory in the DomU. 
> 
> 

A couple of nits here, alc@ fixed the PV memory restrictions so the 850M
limit isn't a thing anymore:

FreeBSD ref9-xen32.freebsd.org 9.0-STABLE FreeBSD 9.0-STABLE #2 r231914:
Mon Feb 20 05:30:49 PST 2012
sbr...@ref9-xen32.freebsd.org:/var/tmp/dumpster/scratch/sbruno-scratch/9/sys/XEN
  i386
[sbruno@ref9-xen32 ~]$ sysctl hw.physmem
hw.physmem: 2136674304


And, I think, there is a 64bit PV config now in development at:
http://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/projects/amd64_xen_pv/

This is prerequisite work for a dom0 on freebsd which is under
development.  Stay tuned, things are happening!

Sean


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Re: FreeBSD Xen Dom0 Support

2012-05-30 Thread Carsten Heesch

Hi,

> I answer to this mail because it's related to the discussion in this thread. 
> As told I have my Debian Dom0s and now I wan't to create a FreeBSD Xen PV 
> DomU. Does I really need a HVM guest like described here: 
> http://wiki.sysconfig.org.uk/display/howto/Xen+FreeBSD+8.2+DomU+%28PV%29+--+Step+by+Step+Howto

As that is my blog/wiki and I wrote that article: No, you don't need to. Just 
carry on with "Create a PV guest - Fast Track" (further down in that article).
It describes how to create an image from any other FreeBSD installation. 

That tutorial is a guide to quickly walk you through the steps and differences. 
It's probably not complete and certainly not the only way.


However, if you intend to run 64bit, you are restricted to HVM (use the XENHVM 
kernel to get better performance from the optimised device drivers for HVM). 
If you are planning on running 32bit, you can use PV.
I think that is still valid for 9.0. And mind you, PV is (or was?) also limited 
to about 850M memory in the DomU. 


> I already downloaded the prepared DomU Image but it's version 8.2 and not 8.3 
> or 9.0 so could I simply upgrade the guest to 8.3 for example?

The image which I put together there? It's not up to date. You can update it, 
but make sure to compile the kernel appropriately. The Generic kernel will not 
offer any PV or HVM support.
Give it a go. The beauty of virtualisation is that you can quickly roll back if 
you break it :)  


Cheers
C.

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Re: FreeBSD Xen Dom0 Support

2012-05-30 Thread Lukas Laukamp

Am 29.05.2012 00:48, schrieb Witold Baryluk:

On 05-29 00:24, Lukas Laukamp wrote:
   

Am 29.05.2012 00:03, schrieb Witold Baryluk:
 

On 05-28 20:47, Lukas Laukamp wrote:
   

Am 28.05.2012 20:02, schrieb Carsten Heesch:
 

Hi Lukas,

   

[...] I don't know whether there is support for Xen Dom0 on FreeBSD.
 

Unfortunately there isn't.

   

I read that NetBSD support Xen Dom0 [...]
 

I haven't tried myself, but apparently NetBSD works rather well as Dom0. That 
has long been on my list of things to test, though :)

Not sure if you are aware of it, but in order to run FreeBSD as DomU, you don't 
need FreeBSD or NetBSD as Dom0. That works just as well on your Debian Dom0. 
(With FreeBSD's known limitations as DomU, namely memory and architecture 
depending on PV or HVM virtualisation)


Cheers
C.


   

Hello Carsten,

thanks for your fast answer. That FreeBSD as DomU runs on Linux I
know. So I only think that it is a bit tricky to build a PV DomU of
FreeBSD because the kernel must be modified. I wan't to have another
system like Linux as the host because I think that the BSDs are
better in the stability and a few other points. I read in the
english Wikipedia article about Xen that there is support for
NetBSD, OpenBSD and OpenSolaris
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xen#Host:_Unix-like_systems).

 

BTW. I read yeasterday that Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V is able to
run XEN PV domU Linux on it. It probably is also able to run other Xen
domU guests, but probably nobody was trying to do so. I do not know
details, but it was what I read about Hyper-V hypervisor on Wikipedia.
In fact it looks like independent implementation of Xen compatible
hypervisor (it uses same hypercall api, but I do not know with which
version of Xen it is compatible) with Windows as dom0.

Not that anybody would want to run it, but just saying.

   

Hello Witold,

Hyper-V can do that because Microsoft has co-operation contracts
with Citrix who is one of the primary maintainers of Xen. So the try
to build compatibility between Xen and Hyper-V. Personaly I wouldn't
use Hyper-V because it's not that great like for example VMWares
vSphere.

 

Ah, yes Citrix. This makes sense.


   

But for the productive working I use Xen and KVM at the moment. And
as I started to think to change to BSD I first looked which
virtualization technologies are available on BSD. I thought that the
best solution would be Xen because KVM don't is available for BSD
and other solutions like QEmu, VirtualBox or the BSD Hypervisor
BHyVe are very great for testing and home and so I would say the
development command and control center but not for server
virtualization or other things which provides services which are
needed for productive use.

When I look at the wikis and read about the support for Xen on other
unix like systems I only see NetBSD or Solaris (and it's forks) for
a realy good Dom0.

So does someone can explain the differences between FreeBSD and
NetBSD? I see not so much without looking for the supported hardware
platforms. The BSD with the most differences I think is OpenBSD.

And the other thing is that I never worked with Solaris, but it
seems that they have great Xen support. So I don't know whether it
would be a good choice. I think that I will have much to learn to
work good with a BSD but I hope it's possible for me.

 

I personally would like to switch to FreeBSD domO mainly due to the ZFS
storage (its snapshots, easier atomic backups and zvol, fast cloning,
and easier exporting via iSCSI). I know I can do almost all of it using
LVM, just not so easly and reliabiliy or automatically.

I currently use Debian GNU/Linux, and I'm very happy, espcially due
package system, but considering there is Debian kfreebsd, I would like
to make switch in the future when domO will be available. I now use
kfreebsd (with 9.0 kernel) as domU without bigger issues.

As of NetBSD i have no idea of good distinguishing differences. It is
more portable than FreeBSD for sure (which its domO support proofs), but
there is many small differences, including hardware drivers or various
subsystems scalability performance for examples. I belive there is still
code exchange between various BSD operating systems due similar
internals and libearal licensing (especially networking code and
networking drivers).

I would somehow be carefull with Solaris, as Oracle isn't very
open-source friendly IMHO (despite its ocfs or btrfs work). I also
failed to run Solaris on the Xen, but it may be my incompetence. :(

   


Hey all,

I answer to this mail because it's related to the discussion in this 
thread. As told I have my Debian Dom0s and now I wan't to create a 
FreeBSD Xen PV DomU. Does I really need a HVM guest like described here: 
http://wiki.sysconfig.org.uk/display/howto/Xen+FreeBSD+8.2+DomU+%28PV%29+--+Step+by+Step+Howto


I already downloaded the prepared DomU Image but it's version 8.2 a

Re: FreeBSD Xen Dom0 Support

2012-05-28 Thread Hugo Silva

On 05/28/12 19:47, Lukas Laukamp wrote:



What would be a good system as a Dom0 a BSD or Solaris?


AFAIK Oracle removed dom0 support from OpenSolaris (and thus it isn't in 
OpenIndiana) and I think from Solaris Express 11 as well.


NetBSD makes for an excellent dom0. One thing to consider (it will 
matter depending on your workload) is that SMP is not supported for 
dom0, altough support was added for domU recently.


I have several NetBSD 5.99.xx dom0's running OpenIndiana, NetBSD, 
FreeBSD HVM+PV and OpenBSD (HVM, sadly, as they have no Xen port or PV 
drivers..) and no complains.



I sugggest you give NetBSD 6.0-BETA2 as a dom0 a try, you probably won't 
be disappointed!

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Re: FreeBSD Xen Dom0 Support

2012-05-28 Thread Lukas Laukamp

Am 29.05.2012 00:48, schrieb Witold Baryluk:

On 05-29 00:24, Lukas Laukamp wrote:

Am 29.05.2012 00:03, schrieb Witold Baryluk:

On 05-28 20:47, Lukas Laukamp wrote:

Am 28.05.2012 20:02, schrieb Carsten Heesch:

Hi Lukas,


[...] I don't know whether there is support for Xen Dom0 on FreeBSD.

Unfortunately there isn't.


I read that NetBSD support Xen Dom0 [...]

I haven't tried myself, but apparently NetBSD works rather well as Dom0. That 
has long been on my list of things to test, though :)

Not sure if you are aware of it, but in order to run FreeBSD as DomU, you don't 
need FreeBSD or NetBSD as Dom0. That works just as well on your Debian Dom0. 
(With FreeBSD's known limitations as DomU, namely memory and architecture 
depending on PV or HVM virtualisation)


Cheers
C.



Hello Carsten,

thanks for your fast answer. That FreeBSD as DomU runs on Linux I
know. So I only think that it is a bit tricky to build a PV DomU of
FreeBSD because the kernel must be modified. I wan't to have another
system like Linux as the host because I think that the BSDs are
better in the stability and a few other points. I read in the
english Wikipedia article about Xen that there is support for
NetBSD, OpenBSD and OpenSolaris
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xen#Host:_Unix-like_systems).


BTW. I read yeasterday that Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V is able to
run XEN PV domU Linux on it. It probably is also able to run other Xen
domU guests, but probably nobody was trying to do so. I do not know
details, but it was what I read about Hyper-V hypervisor on Wikipedia.
In fact it looks like independent implementation of Xen compatible
hypervisor (it uses same hypercall api, but I do not know with which
version of Xen it is compatible) with Windows as dom0.

Not that anybody would want to run it, but just saying.


Hello Witold,

Hyper-V can do that because Microsoft has co-operation contracts
with Citrix who is one of the primary maintainers of Xen. So the try
to build compatibility between Xen and Hyper-V. Personaly I wouldn't
use Hyper-V because it's not that great like for example VMWares
vSphere.


Ah, yes Citrix. This makes sense.



But for the productive working I use Xen and KVM at the moment. And
as I started to think to change to BSD I first looked which
virtualization technologies are available on BSD. I thought that the
best solution would be Xen because KVM don't is available for BSD
and other solutions like QEmu, VirtualBox or the BSD Hypervisor
BHyVe are very great for testing and home and so I would say the
development command and control center but not for server
virtualization or other things which provides services which are
needed for productive use.

When I look at the wikis and read about the support for Xen on other
unix like systems I only see NetBSD or Solaris (and it's forks) for
a realy good Dom0.

So does someone can explain the differences between FreeBSD and
NetBSD? I see not so much without looking for the supported hardware
platforms. The BSD with the most differences I think is OpenBSD.

And the other thing is that I never worked with Solaris, but it
seems that they have great Xen support. So I don't know whether it
would be a good choice. I think that I will have much to learn to
work good with a BSD but I hope it's possible for me.


I personally would like to switch to FreeBSD domO mainly due to the ZFS
storage (its snapshots, easier atomic backups and zvol, fast cloning,
and easier exporting via iSCSI). I know I can do almost all of it using
LVM, just not so easly and reliabiliy or automatically.

I currently use Debian GNU/Linux, and I'm very happy, espcially due
package system, but considering there is Debian kfreebsd, I would like
to make switch in the future when domO will be available. I now use
kfreebsd (with 9.0 kernel) as domU without bigger issues.

As of NetBSD i have no idea of good distinguishing differences. It is
more portable than FreeBSD for sure (which its domO support proofs), but
there is many small differences, including hardware drivers or various
subsystems scalability performance for examples. I belive there is still
code exchange between various BSD operating systems due similar
internals and libearal licensing (especially networking code and
networking drivers).

I would somehow be carefull with Solaris, as Oracle isn't very
open-source friendly IMHO (despite its ocfs or btrfs work). I also
failed to run Solaris on the Xen, but it may be my incompetence. :(



Hello Witold,

for the ZFS problem: NetBSD has support for ZFS 
(http://wiki.netbsd.org/users/haad/porting_zfs/) so it should be no 
problem to have a NetBSD Dom0 with ZFS as filesystem. Also NetBSD have 
support for Xen 4.1 natively you only have to setup Xen with pkgsrc. So 
in my opinion it seems that NetBSD is the best BSD for a Xen Dom0. I 
think I will test it when I have time to do that.


best regards
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Re: FreeBSD Xen Dom0 Support

2012-05-28 Thread Witold Baryluk
On 05-29 00:24, Lukas Laukamp wrote:
> Am 29.05.2012 00:03, schrieb Witold Baryluk:
> >On 05-28 20:47, Lukas Laukamp wrote:
> >>Am 28.05.2012 20:02, schrieb Carsten Heesch:
> >>>Hi Lukas,
> >>>
> [...] I don't know whether there is support for Xen Dom0 on FreeBSD.
> >>>Unfortunately there isn't.
> >>>
> I read that NetBSD support Xen Dom0 [...]
> >>>I haven't tried myself, but apparently NetBSD works rather well as Dom0. 
> >>>That has long been on my list of things to test, though :)
> >>>
> >>>Not sure if you are aware of it, but in order to run FreeBSD as DomU, you 
> >>>don't need FreeBSD or NetBSD as Dom0. That works just as well on your 
> >>>Debian Dom0. (With FreeBSD's known limitations as DomU, namely memory and 
> >>>architecture depending on PV or HVM virtualisation)
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>Cheers
> >>>C.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>Hello Carsten,
> >>
> >>thanks for your fast answer. That FreeBSD as DomU runs on Linux I
> >>know. So I only think that it is a bit tricky to build a PV DomU of
> >>FreeBSD because the kernel must be modified. I wan't to have another
> >>system like Linux as the host because I think that the BSDs are
> >>better in the stability and a few other points. I read in the
> >>english Wikipedia article about Xen that there is support for
> >>NetBSD, OpenBSD and OpenSolaris
> >>(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xen#Host:_Unix-like_systems).
> >>
> >
> >BTW. I read yeasterday that Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V is able to
> >run XEN PV domU Linux on it. It probably is also able to run other Xen
> >domU guests, but probably nobody was trying to do so. I do not know
> >details, but it was what I read about Hyper-V hypervisor on Wikipedia.
> >In fact it looks like independent implementation of Xen compatible
> >hypervisor (it uses same hypercall api, but I do not know with which
> >version of Xen it is compatible) with Windows as dom0.
> >
> >Not that anybody would want to run it, but just saying.
> >
> Hello Witold,
> 
> Hyper-V can do that because Microsoft has co-operation contracts
> with Citrix who is one of the primary maintainers of Xen. So the try
> to build compatibility between Xen and Hyper-V. Personaly I wouldn't
> use Hyper-V because it's not that great like for example VMWares
> vSphere.
> 
Ah, yes Citrix. This makes sense.


> But for the productive working I use Xen and KVM at the moment. And
> as I started to think to change to BSD I first looked which
> virtualization technologies are available on BSD. I thought that the
> best solution would be Xen because KVM don't is available for BSD
> and other solutions like QEmu, VirtualBox or the BSD Hypervisor
> BHyVe are very great for testing and home and so I would say the
> development command and control center but not for server
> virtualization or other things which provides services which are
> needed for productive use.
> 
> When I look at the wikis and read about the support for Xen on other
> unix like systems I only see NetBSD or Solaris (and it's forks) for
> a realy good Dom0.
> 
> So does someone can explain the differences between FreeBSD and
> NetBSD? I see not so much without looking for the supported hardware
> platforms. The BSD with the most differences I think is OpenBSD.
> 
> And the other thing is that I never worked with Solaris, but it
> seems that they have great Xen support. So I don't know whether it
> would be a good choice. I think that I will have much to learn to
> work good with a BSD but I hope it's possible for me.
> 

I personally would like to switch to FreeBSD domO mainly due to the ZFS
storage (its snapshots, easier atomic backups and zvol, fast cloning,
and easier exporting via iSCSI). I know I can do almost all of it using
LVM, just not so easly and reliabiliy or automatically.

I currently use Debian GNU/Linux, and I'm very happy, espcially due
package system, but considering there is Debian kfreebsd, I would like
to make switch in the future when domO will be available. I now use
kfreebsd (with 9.0 kernel) as domU without bigger issues.

As of NetBSD i have no idea of good distinguishing differences. It is
more portable than FreeBSD for sure (which its domO support proofs), but
there is many small differences, including hardware drivers or various
subsystems scalability performance for examples. I belive there is still
code exchange between various BSD operating systems due similar
internals and libearal licensing (especially networking code and
networking drivers).

I would somehow be carefull with Solaris, as Oracle isn't very
open-source friendly IMHO (despite its ocfs or btrfs work). I also
failed to run Solaris on the Xen, but it may be my incompetence. :(

-- 
Witold Baryluk
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Re: FreeBSD Xen Dom0 Support

2012-05-28 Thread Lukas Laukamp

Am 29.05.2012 00:03, schrieb Witold Baryluk:

On 05-28 20:47, Lukas Laukamp wrote:

Am 28.05.2012 20:02, schrieb Carsten Heesch:

Hi Lukas,


[...] I don't know whether there is support for Xen Dom0 on FreeBSD.

Unfortunately there isn't.


I read that NetBSD support Xen Dom0 [...]

I haven't tried myself, but apparently NetBSD works rather well as Dom0. That 
has long been on my list of things to test, though :)

Not sure if you are aware of it, but in order to run FreeBSD as DomU, you don't 
need FreeBSD or NetBSD as Dom0. That works just as well on your Debian Dom0. 
(With FreeBSD's known limitations as DomU, namely memory and architecture 
depending on PV or HVM virtualisation)


Cheers
C.



Hello Carsten,

thanks for your fast answer. That FreeBSD as DomU runs on Linux I
know. So I only think that it is a bit tricky to build a PV DomU of
FreeBSD because the kernel must be modified. I wan't to have another
system like Linux as the host because I think that the BSDs are
better in the stability and a few other points. I read in the
english Wikipedia article about Xen that there is support for
NetBSD, OpenBSD and OpenSolaris
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xen#Host:_Unix-like_systems).



BTW. I read yeasterday that Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V is able to
run XEN PV domU Linux on it. It probably is also able to run other Xen
domU guests, but probably nobody was trying to do so. I do not know
details, but it was what I read about Hyper-V hypervisor on Wikipedia.
In fact it looks like independent implementation of Xen compatible
hypervisor (it uses same hypercall api, but I do not know with which
version of Xen it is compatible) with Windows as dom0.

Not that anybody would want to run it, but just saying.


Hello Witold,

Hyper-V can do that because Microsoft has co-operation contracts with 
Citrix who is one of the primary maintainers of Xen. So the try to build 
compatibility between Xen and Hyper-V. Personaly I wouldn't use Hyper-V 
because it's not that great like for example VMWares vSphere.


But for the productive working I use Xen and KVM at the moment. And as I 
started to think to change to BSD I first looked which virtualization 
technologies are available on BSD. I thought that the best solution 
would be Xen because KVM don't is available for BSD and other solutions 
like QEmu, VirtualBox or the BSD Hypervisor BHyVe are very great for 
testing and home and so I would say the development command and control 
center but not for server virtualization or other things which provides 
services which are needed for productive use.


When I look at the wikis and read about the support for Xen on other 
unix like systems I only see NetBSD or Solaris (and it's forks) for a 
realy good Dom0.


So does someone can explain the differences between FreeBSD and NetBSD? 
I see not so much without looking for the supported hardware platforms. 
The BSD with the most differences I think is OpenBSD.


And the other thing is that I never worked with Solaris, but it seems 
that they have great Xen support. So I don't know whether it would be a 
good choice. I think that I will have much to learn to work good with a 
BSD but I hope it's possible for me.


best regards
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Re: FreeBSD Xen Dom0 Support

2012-05-28 Thread Witold Baryluk
On 05-28 20:47, Lukas Laukamp wrote:
> Am 28.05.2012 20:02, schrieb Carsten Heesch:
> >Hi Lukas,
> >
> >>[...] I don't know whether there is support for Xen Dom0 on FreeBSD.
> >Unfortunately there isn't.
> >
> >>I read that NetBSD support Xen Dom0 [...]
> >I haven't tried myself, but apparently NetBSD works rather well as Dom0. 
> >That has long been on my list of things to test, though :)
> >
> >Not sure if you are aware of it, but in order to run FreeBSD as DomU, you 
> >don't need FreeBSD or NetBSD as Dom0. That works just as well on your Debian 
> >Dom0. (With FreeBSD's known limitations as DomU, namely memory and 
> >architecture depending on PV or HVM virtualisation)
> >
> >
> >Cheers
> >C.
> >
> >
> 
> Hello Carsten,
> 
> thanks for your fast answer. That FreeBSD as DomU runs on Linux I
> know. So I only think that it is a bit tricky to build a PV DomU of
> FreeBSD because the kernel must be modified. I wan't to have another
> system like Linux as the host because I think that the BSDs are
> better in the stability and a few other points. I read in the
> english Wikipedia article about Xen that there is support for
> NetBSD, OpenBSD and OpenSolaris
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xen#Host:_Unix-like_systems).
> 


BTW. I read yeasterday that Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V is able to
run XEN PV domU Linux on it. It probably is also able to run other Xen
domU guests, but probably nobody was trying to do so. I do not know
details, but it was what I read about Hyper-V hypervisor on Wikipedia.
In fact it looks like independent implementation of Xen compatible
hypervisor (it uses same hypercall api, but I do not know with which
version of Xen it is compatible) with Windows as dom0.

Not that anybody would want to run it, but just saying.

-- 
Witold Baryluk
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Re: FreeBSD Xen Dom0 Support

2012-05-28 Thread Witold Baryluk
On 05-28 20:47, Lukas Laukamp wrote:
> Am 28.05.2012 20:02, schrieb Carsten Heesch:
> >Hi Lukas,
> >
> >>[...] I don't know whether there is support for Xen Dom0 on FreeBSD.
> >Unfortunately there isn't.
> >
> >>I read that NetBSD support Xen Dom0 [...]
> >I haven't tried myself, but apparently NetBSD works rather well as Dom0. 
> >That has long been on my list of things to test, though :)
> >
> >Not sure if you are aware of it, but in order to run FreeBSD as DomU, you 
> >don't need FreeBSD or NetBSD as Dom0. That works just as well on your Debian 
> >Dom0. (With FreeBSD's known limitations as DomU, namely memory and 
> >architecture depending on PV or HVM virtualisation)
> >
> >
> >Cheers
> >C.
> >
> >
> 
> Hello Carsten,
> 
> thanks for your fast answer. That FreeBSD as DomU runs on Linux I
> know. So I only think that it is a bit tricky to build a PV DomU of
> FreeBSD because the kernel must be modified.

Debian distributes Xen enabled freebsd kernel images in official repository. 
This
is part of kfreebsd-* arch, but kernel images are also available for
i386 and amd64 distributions (on Linux kernel), for easy installation.

For example just do:

apt-get install kfreebsd-image-9.0-1-xen

and kernel should be available in the /boot/ directory.

You can use this kernel to install both kfreebsd-* as well official
freebsd using iso images.

It doesn't involve compiling anything at all. I can find old post where
I described it in detail. (it basically uses serial console to install
freebsd using standard installer and standard iso image).

Regards,
Witek

-- 
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Re: FreeBSD Xen Dom0 Support

2012-05-28 Thread Lukas Laukamp

Am 28.05.2012 20:02, schrieb Carsten Heesch:

Hi Lukas,


[...] I don't know whether there is support for Xen Dom0 on FreeBSD.

Unfortunately there isn't.


I read that NetBSD support Xen Dom0 [...]

I haven't tried myself, but apparently NetBSD works rather well as Dom0. That 
has long been on my list of things to test, though :)

Not sure if you are aware of it, but in order to run FreeBSD as DomU, you don't 
need FreeBSD or NetBSD as Dom0. That works just as well on your Debian Dom0. 
(With FreeBSD's known limitations as DomU, namely memory and architecture 
depending on PV or HVM virtualisation)


Cheers
C.




Hello Carsten,

thanks for your fast answer. That FreeBSD as DomU runs on Linux I know. 
So I only think that it is a bit tricky to build a PV DomU of FreeBSD 
because the kernel must be modified. I wan't to have another system like 
Linux as the host because I think that the BSDs are better in the 
stability and a few other points. I read in the english Wikipedia 
article about Xen that there is support for NetBSD, OpenBSD and 
OpenSolaris (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xen#Host:_Unix-like_systems).


What would be a good system as a Dom0 a BSD or Solaris?

best regards
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Re: FreeBSD Xen Dom0 Support

2012-05-28 Thread Carsten Heesch
Hi Lukas,

> [...] I don't know whether there is support for Xen Dom0 on FreeBSD.

Unfortunately there isn't. 

> I read that NetBSD support Xen Dom0 [...]

I haven't tried myself, but apparently NetBSD works rather well as Dom0. That 
has long been on my list of things to test, though :)

Not sure if you are aware of it, but in order to run FreeBSD as DomU, you don't 
need FreeBSD or NetBSD as Dom0. That works just as well on your Debian Dom0. 
(With FreeBSD's known limitations as DomU, namely memory and architecture 
depending on PV or HVM virtualisation)


Cheers
C.


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FreeBSD Xen Dom0 Support

2012-05-28 Thread Lukas Laukamp

Hello all,

the first thing I have to say that my english is not the best, sorry for 
that.


I have a question about the Dom0 support on FreeBSD. At the moment I 
have a few Debian Linux Dom0 systems running DomUs on Xen 4.0. In the 
future I want to migrate to FreeBSD but I don't know whether there is 
support for Xen Dom0 on FreeBSD. I read that NetBSD support Xen Dom0 but 
I can't find something about the support for Dom0 on FreeBSD. I have 
found some texts and tutorials about creating FreeBSD DomUs but I think 
they could first help me later.


When there is support for Dom0 on FreeBSD what would I have to do, to 
get Xen running. So I would say that I have to compile the hypervisor 
and have to compile a FreeBSD kernel with Dom0 and to have running PV 
guests DomU support. And would I be right that I simply can migrate 
running linux guests to a running FreeBSD Dom0 when I have a DomU aware 
linux kernel?


It would be great to get a few answers about Dom0 and DomU support on 
FreeBSD and what I would have to do. My aim is to get a FreeBSD Dom0 
with FreeBSD PV DomUs for services like mail and so on.


When there are documents which document such a setup it would be great 
to get them or links to them.


BEST REGARDS
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