Re: Easier interface for kickstarting Xen VMs

["Edward Z. Yang" <ezyang@MIT.EDU>]

Excerpts from Stefano Stabellini's message of Tue Sep 21 12:46:53 -0400 2010:
> You should be aware that we are trying to move away from xend to xl,
> that generally supports the same VM config file format with just one
> exception: embedded python.

Stefano, that's really interested!  None of our current team was aware of
this fact; probably because we're still on Ubuntu 8.04 due to Xen's
special packaging situation on this platforms.

> Considering that kickstarting Xen VMs is a common problem and probably
> the main headache for sysadmins when moving from xend to xl, I would
> welcome a clean and small solution to this problem that doesn't involve
> embedded python.

That's great to hear.  The point of the solution is to do away with the
embedded Python.

> If we go with the temporary fs strategy, I guess there isn't any actual
> code to be committed to xen-unstable, but rather a wiki page to
> describe the solution and a link to the initrd? 

Considering that any given Kickstart file needs to be converted into an
initrd, there would be code involved.  I am also unconvinced that Anaconda
actually /works/ with layered initrd, see my post here:

    https://www.redhat.com/archives/kickstart-list/2010-September/msg00015.html

Cheers,
Edawrd