trying to get vmware working inside xen0 or xenU

trying to get vmware working inside xen0 or xenU

[Tupshin Harper]

I've seen a number of mentions of running xen in vmware, but none about 
running vmware in xen, which would seem to be much more desirable if 
somebody actually wanted to combine them in a production environment. 
Has anybody done this yet?

I first tried installing vmware (4.5.2 and 5.0 rc1) in a xenU. After 
pointing vmware's installer at the kernel headers, I encountered a 
number of compilation problems while trying to build the vmmon module 
(see error log at the bottom of this message).

I then tried installing it in xen0, with much stranger results. The 
modules built and load just fine, but when I try to run the vmware 
binary itself, I get the error immediately below. This is on a machine 
with 1GB ram, with 600M allocted to dom0, and no domU's running.

-Tupshin

------vmware on xen0 runtime problem-----------------
Feb 07 08:20:25: vmui| Log for VMware Workstation pid=5372 version=5.0.0 
build=build-12206 option=Release
Feb 07 08:20:25: vmui| Using log file /tmp/vmware-tupshin/ui-5372.log
Feb 07 08:20:25: vmui| VmdbVmCfg_GetDictionary: could not load 
dictionary file /home/tupshin/.vmware/preferences.
Feb 07 08:20:25: vmui| VMCLient_AllocVMClient failed: ret = Memory
Feb 07 08:20:25: vmui| Unable to initialize host: Memory
Feb 07 08:20:25: vmui| Backtrace:
Feb 07 08:20:25: vmui| Backtrace[0] 0xbfffecc8 eip 0x81febd5
Feb 07 08:20:25: vmui| Backtrace[1] 0xbfffece8 eip 0x8072638
Feb 07 08:20:25: vmui| Backtrace[2] 0xbfffee78 eip 0x80896aa
Feb 07 08:20:25: vmui| Backtrace[3] 0xbffff078 eip 0x80843b9
Feb 07 08:20:25: vmui| Backtrace[4] 0xbffff0f8 eip 0x8073fcb
Feb 07 08:20:25: vmui| Backtrace[5] 0xbffff408 eip 0x8072606
Feb 07 08:20:25: vmui| Backtrace[6] 0xbffff438 eip 0x40eb9dc6
Feb 07 08:20:25: vmui| Backtrace[7] 00000000 eip 0x80723d1
Feb 07 08:20:25: vmui| Msg_Post: Error
Feb 07 08:20:25: vmui| [msg.log.error.unrecoverable] VMware Workstation 
unrecoverable error: (vmui)
Feb 07 08:20:25: vmui| Unable to initialize host: Memory
Feb 07 08:20:25: vmui| [msg.panic.haveLog] A log file is available in 
"/tmp/vmware-tupshin/ui-5372.log".  [msg.panic.requestSupport.withLog] 
Please request support and include the contents of
  the log file.  [msg.panic.requestSupport.linux]
Feb 07 08:20:25: vmui| To collect files to submit to VMware support, run 
vm-support.
Feb 07 08:20:25: vmui| [msg.panic.response] We will respond on the basis 
of your support entitlement.
Feb 07 08:20:25: vmui| ----------------------------------------





-----vmware on xenU build problems-----------------------------
Building the vmmon module.

Using standalone build system.
make: Entering directory `/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only'
make[1]: Entering directory `/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only'
make[2]: Entering directory 
`/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/driver-2.6.10-xenU'
make[2]: Leaving directory 
`/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/driver-2.6.10-xenU'
make[2]: Entering directory 
`/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/driver-2.6.10-xenU'
In file included from /usr/src/include/linux/module.h:10,
                  from ../linux/driver.c:13:
/usr/src/include/linux/sched.h:200: warning: `struct vm_area_struct' 
declared inside parameter list
/usr/src/include/linux/sched.h:200: warning: its scope is only this 
definition or declaration, which is probably not what you want
/usr/src/include/linux/sched.h:201: warning: `struct vm_area_struct' 
declared inside parameter list
In file included from /usr/src/include/asm/pgtable.h:416,
                  from /usr/src/include/linux/mm.h:36,
                  from /usr/src/include/linux/poll.h:11,
                  from ../linux/driver.c:26:
/usr/include/asm-generic/pgtable.h:5: error: redefinition of 
`ptep_test_and_clear_young'
/usr/src/include/asm/pgtable.h:254: error: `ptep_test_and_clear_young' 
previously defined here
/usr/include/asm-generic/pgtable.h:14: error: redefinition of 
`ptep_test_and_clear_dirty'
/usr/src/include/asm/pgtable.h:247: error: `ptep_test_and_clear_dirty' 
previously defined here
/usr/include/asm-generic/pgtable.h:22: error: parse error before '{' token
/usr/include/asm-generic/pgtable.h:30: error: redefinition of 
`ptep_set_wrprotect'
/usr/src/include/asm/pgtable.h:260: error: `ptep_set_wrprotect' 
previously defined here
/usr/include/asm-generic/pgtable.h:36: error: redefinition of `ptep_mkdirty'
/usr/src/include/asm/pgtable.h:261: error: `ptep_mkdirty' previously 
defined here
In file included from ../linux/driver.h:18,
                  from ../linux/driver.c:38:
../include/compat_wait.h:60: error: conflicting types for `poll_initwait'
/usr/src/include/linux/poll.h:45: error: previous declaration of 
`poll_initwait'
../linux/driver.c:131: warning: initialization from incompatible pointer 
type
../linux/driver.c:135: warning: initialization from incompatible pointer 
type
make[2]: *** [driver.o] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory 
`/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/driver-2.6.10-xenU'
make[1]: *** [driver] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only'
make: *** [auto-build] Error 2
make: Leaving directory `/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only'
Unable to build the vmmon module.

For more information on how to troubleshoot module-related problems, please
visit our Web site at 
"http://www.vmware.com/download/modules/modules.html" and
"http://www.vmware.com/support/reference/linux/prebuilt_modules_linux.html".

Execution aborted.


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RE: trying to get vmware working inside xen0 or xenU

[Ian Pratt]

> I've seen a number of mentions of running xen in vmware, but 
> none about 
> running vmware in xen, which would seem to be much more desirable if 
> somebody actually wanted to combine them in a production environment. 
> Has anybody done this yet?

You'll probably need vmware source as I would imagine it expects to run
in ring 0...

Ian





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RE: trying to get vmware working inside xen0 or xenU

[William (Andy) Smith]

I'm in the situation Tupshin Harper describes in
http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=10771264.

We have a production environment where Xen is an excellent fit, but we want
to run Windows Server 2003 under a VM on our Debian host.

I saw Ian Pratt's response
(http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=10771267) and a slide
(http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~walpole/class/cs533/slides/152.ppt#269,11,Xen and
the CPU) indicating the rings of x86 privilege. Is there a definitive answer
on having VMWare (and Windows) co-exist with Xen domains? Could this answer
be posted in the FAQ for Xen along with reference material?

I also noticed http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2004/HPL-2004-207R1.pdf
which would have me use a normal host, then set up a Windows VM peer in
VMWare with a Xen machine in VMWare. If we have to handle VMWare + Xen this
way, it kinda sucks the value right out of Xen. The best solution we could
hope is to wipe our nice Debian install for Windows 2003 as the base, then
have Xen within a single VMWare. A difficult proposition with 1.2 TB online
under Reiserfs already.

Comments? Ideas? Suggestions? Directions?

--Romaq





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