[ANNOUNCE] Prebuilt Xen PV-HVM templates.

[ANNOUNCE] Prebuilt Xen PV-HVM templates.

[Joseph Glanville]

Hi guys,

I have started preparing a library of PV-HVM templates for use on Xen
4.X+ and PVOPS dom0.
This was brought up late last year as something that would make Xen
alot easier for beginners to try.
They are also great for testing - I will be setting up some stuff to
do automatic testing of distro kernel compatibility against
xen-unstable.

Mirror page is here:

    http://mirror.orionvm.com.au

You can browse what stuff I will be mirroring here:

    http://mirror.orionvm.com.au/pub/

Initially there is Debian 6, CentOS 6.2 and Ubuntu 12.04 available
(the final beta, will be updated to final shortly).
Included is an OS image, a config file, a README and the associated
licences etc.
The images are bz2 compressed blockdevice images suitable for use on
LVM or a file backed tapdisk if you have the appropriate backend.
(alternatively you can use the loop device but this is discouraged)
All images have serial console enabled, PV network and block devices,
fixed udev rules etc.

I will add more info about them, an FAQ about how they are setup and
what you should do to customize them, expand the disk image etc soon.

I am looking for someone to mirror these in the US for me, please
email me if you have spare bandwith.

Joseph.

-- 
Founder | Director | VP Research
Orion Virtualisation Solutions | www.orionvm.com.au | Phone: 1300 56
99 52 | Mobile: 0428 754 846

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Prebuilt Xen PV-HVM templates.

[Stefano Stabellini]

On Sun, 1 Apr 2012, Joseph Glanville wrote:
> Hi guys,
> 
> I have started preparing a library of PV-HVM templates for use on Xen
> 4.X+ and PVOPS dom0.
> This was brought up late last year as something that would make Xen
> alot easier for beginners to try.
> They are also great for testing - I will be setting up some stuff to
> do automatic testing of distro kernel compatibility against
> xen-unstable.
>
> Mirror page is here:
> 
>     http://mirror.orionvm.com.au
> 
> You can browse what stuff I will be mirroring here:
> 
>     http://mirror.orionvm.com.au/pub/
> 
> Initially there is Debian 6, CentOS 6.2 and Ubuntu 12.04 available
> (the final beta, will be updated to final shortly).
> Included is an OS image, a config file, a README and the associated
> licences etc.

Great idea! I am downloading the debian6 bz2 image right now, I'll let
you know if I find any issues.


> The images are bz2 compressed blockdevice images suitable for use on
> LVM or a file backed tapdisk if you have the appropriate backend.
> (alternatively you can use the loop device but this is discouraged)
> All images have serial console enabled, PV network and block devices,
> fixed udev rules etc.

I have just fixed the QDISK performance issues so as soon as the patches
are applied to xen-unstable one should be able to use QEMU as disk
backend just a easily.


Maybe we should write a wiki page about this and link
http://mirror.orionvm.com.au/pub/ from there.
Lars, what do you think about it?

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Prebuilt Xen PV-HVM templates.

[Ian Campbell]

On Mon, 2012-04-02 at 15:48 +0100, Stefano Stabellini wrote:

> Maybe we should write a wiki page about this and link
> http://mirror.orionvm.com.au/pub/ from there.

Joseph already wrote http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Guest_VM_Images if that's
what you meant.

Ian.

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Prebuilt Xen PV-HVM templates.

[Stefano Stabellini]

On Mon, 2 Apr 2012, Ian Campbell wrote:
> On Mon, 2012-04-02 at 15:48 +0100, Stefano Stabellini wrote:
> 
> > Maybe we should write a wiki page about this and link
> > http://mirror.orionvm.com.au/pub/ from there.
> 
> Joseph already wrote http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Guest_VM_Images if that's
> what you meant.

that is exactly what I meant

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Prebuilt Xen PV-HVM templates.

[Ian Campbell]

On Sun, 2012-04-01 at 19:16 +0100, Joseph Glanville wrote:
> Hi guys,
> 
> I have started preparing a library of PV-HVM templates for use on Xen
> 4.X+ and PVOPS dom0.
[...]
> Initially there is Debian 6, CentOS 6.2 and Ubuntu 12.04 available
> (the final beta, will be updated to final shortly).
> Included is an OS image, a config file, a README and the associated
> licences etc.

This is very cool, and you are correct that these will be very useful
for people trying to get something going quickly! Thanks Joseph.

> The images are bz2 compressed blockdevice images suitable for use on
> LVM or a file backed tapdisk if you have the appropriate backend.
> (alternatively you can use the loop device but this is discouraged)
> All images have serial console enabled, PV network and block devices,
> fixed udev rules etc.
> 
> I will add more info about them, an FAQ about how they are setup and
> what you should do to customize them, expand the disk image etc soon.
> 
> I am looking for someone to mirror these in the US for me, please
> email me if you have spare bandwith.
> 
> Joseph.
> 

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Prebuilt Xen PV-HVM templates.

[Joseph Glanville]

On 3 April 2012 02:11, Ian Campbell <Ian.Campbell@citrix.com> wrote:
> On Sun, 2012-04-01 at 19:16 +0100, Joseph Glanville wrote:
>> Hi guys,
>>
>> I have started preparing a library of PV-HVM templates for use on Xen
>> 4.X+ and PVOPS dom0.
> [...]
>> Initially there is Debian 6, CentOS 6.2 and Ubuntu 12.04 available
>> (the final beta, will be updated to final shortly).
>> Included is an OS image, a config file, a README and the associated
>> licences etc.
>
> This is very cool, and you are correct that these will be very useful
> for people trying to get something going quickly! Thanks Joseph.

No problem, I am working on a new dom0 livecd too.

I need some recommendations on what distro to base it on though...
Personally Gentoo is easiest for me but I think Ubuntu 12.04 is going
to be more enduring and a more beginner approachable alternative.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

>
>> The images are bz2 compressed blockdevice images suitable for use on
>> LVM or a file backed tapdisk if you have the appropriate backend.
>> (alternatively you can use the loop device but this is discouraged)
>> All images have serial console enabled, PV network and block devices,
>> fixed udev rules etc.
>>
>> I will add more info about them, an FAQ about how they are setup and
>> what you should do to customize them, expand the disk image etc soon.
>>
>> I am looking for someone to mirror these in the US for me, please
>> email me if you have spare bandwith.
>>
>> Joseph.
>>
>
>



-- 
Founder | Director | VP Research
Orion Virtualisation Solutions | www.orionvm.com.au | Phone: 1300 56
99 52 | Mobile: 0428 754 846

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Prebuilt Xen PV-HVM templates.

[Stefano Stabellini]

On Mon, 2 Apr 2012, Joseph Glanville wrote:
> On 3 April 2012 02:11, Ian Campbell <Ian.Campbell@citrix.com> wrote:
> > On Sun, 2012-04-01 at 19:16 +0100, Joseph Glanville wrote:
> >> Hi guys,
> >>
> >> I have started preparing a library of PV-HVM templates for use on Xen
> >> 4.X+ and PVOPS dom0.
> > [...]
> >> Initially there is Debian 6, CentOS 6.2 and Ubuntu 12.04 available
> >> (the final beta, will be updated to final shortly).
> >> Included is an OS image, a config file, a README and the associated
> >> licences etc.
> >
> > This is very cool, and you are correct that these will be very useful
> > for people trying to get something going quickly! Thanks Joseph.
> 
> No problem, I am working on a new dom0 livecd too.
> 
> I need some recommendations on what distro to base it on though...
> Personally Gentoo is easiest for me but I think Ubuntu 12.04 is going
> to be more enduring and a more beginner approachable alternative.
> 
> Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

I would definitely keep Ubuntu and maybe add OpenSUSE

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Prebuilt Xen PV-HVM templates.

[Ian Campbell]

On Mon, 2012-04-02 at 18:59 +0100, Joseph Glanville wrote:
> On 3 April 2012 02:11, Ian Campbell <Ian.Campbell@citrix.com> wrote:
> > On Sun, 2012-04-01 at 19:16 +0100, Joseph Glanville wrote:
> >> Hi guys,
> >>
> >> I have started preparing a library of PV-HVM templates for use on Xen
> >> 4.X+ and PVOPS dom0.
> > [...]
> >> Initially there is Debian 6, CentOS 6.2 and Ubuntu 12.04 available
> >> (the final beta, will be updated to final shortly).
> >> Included is an OS image, a config file, a README and the associated
> >> licences etc.
> >
> > This is very cool, and you are correct that these will be very useful
> > for people trying to get something going quickly! Thanks Joseph.
> 
> No problem, I am working on a new dom0 livecd too.
> 
> I need some recommendations on what distro to base it on though...
> Personally Gentoo is easiest for me but I think Ubuntu 12.04 is going
> to be more enduring and a more beginner approachable alternative.
> 
> Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

My personal preference would be Debian ;-) But pragmatically Ubuntu is,
I think, generally thought to be a good beginner distro and conveniently
it now contains support for Xen so that seems like a good choice.

Also on the plus side is that Ubuntu may well contain the "Debian Live"
packages/infrastructure which make building Live CDs easier (I presume,
I've never tried them). I don't know if that's actually what is used by
Ubuntu to make their live CDs, if not then I'd hope that infrastructure
was in Ubuntu too.

Ian.

> 
> >
> >> The images are bz2 compressed blockdevice images suitable for use on
> >> LVM or a file backed tapdisk if you have the appropriate backend.
> >> (alternatively you can use the loop device but this is discouraged)
> >> All images have serial console enabled, PV network and block devices,
> >> fixed udev rules etc.
> >>
> >> I will add more info about them, an FAQ about how they are setup and
> >> what you should do to customize them, expand the disk image etc soon.
> >>
> >> I am looking for someone to mirror these in the US for me, please
> >> email me if you have spare bandwith.
> >>
> >> Joseph.
> >>
> >
> >
> 
> 
> 

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Prebuilt Xen PV-HVM templates.

[Roger Pau Monne]

On Tue, Apr 03, 2012 at 11:46:47AM +0100, Ian Campbell wrote:
> On Mon, 2012-04-02 at 18:59 +0100, Joseph Glanville wrote:
> > On 3 April 2012 02:11, Ian Campbell <Ian.Campbell@citrix.com> wrote:
> > > On Sun, 2012-04-01 at 19:16 +0100, Joseph Glanville wrote:
> > >> Hi guys,
> > >>
> > >> I have started preparing a library of PV-HVM templates for use on Xen
> > >> 4.X+ and PVOPS dom0.
> > > [...]
> > >> Initially there is Debian 6, CentOS 6.2 and Ubuntu 12.04 available
> > >> (the final beta, will be updated to final shortly).
> > >> Included is an OS image, a config file, a README and the associated
> > >> licences etc.
> > >
> > > This is very cool, and you are correct that these will be very useful
> > > for people trying to get something going quickly! Thanks Joseph.
> > 
> > No problem, I am working on a new dom0 livecd too.
> > 
> > I need some recommendations on what distro to base it on though...
> > Personally Gentoo is easiest for me but I think Ubuntu 12.04 is going
> > to be more enduring and a more beginner approachable alternative.
> > 
> > Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
> 

I've been working with the Alpine Linux guys (http://alpinelinux.org/)
for some time, and we managed to get a working Xen LiveCD, next major 
release (2.4 I think) it's gonna come with Xen Dom0 LiveCDs, since all 
the necessary bits have been added to the upstream distro build 
scripts. You can take a look at the build scripts here:

http://git.alpinelinux.org/cgit/alpine-iso/

It's really easy to generate a LiveCD iso, you just need a working 
Alpine Linux install (which can be a VM) and the alpine-iso scripts.

> My personal preference would be Debian ;-) But pragmatically Ubuntu is,
> I think, generally thought to be a good beginner distro and conveniently
> it now contains support for Xen so that seems like a good choice.
> 
> Also on the plus side is that Ubuntu may well contain the "Debian Live"
> packages/infrastructure which make building Live CDs easier (I presume,
> I've never tried them). I don't know if that's actually what is used by
> Ubuntu to make their live CDs, if not then I'd hope that infrastructure
> was in Ubuntu too.
> 
> Ian.
> 
> > 
> > >
> > >> The images are bz2 compressed blockdevice images suitable for use on
> > >> LVM or a file backed tapdisk if you have the appropriate backend.
> > >> (alternatively you can use the loop device but this is discouraged)
> > >> All images have serial console enabled, PV network and block devices,
> > >> fixed udev rules etc.
> > >>
> > >> I will add more info about them, an FAQ about how they are setup and
> > >> what you should do to customize them, expand the disk image etc soon.
> > >>
> > >> I am looking for someone to mirror these in the US for me, please
> > >> email me if you have spare bandwith.
> > >>
> > >> Joseph.
> > >>
> > >
> > >
> > 
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-devel mailing list
> Xen-devel@lists.xen.org
> http://lists.xen.org/xen-devel

Re: [ANNOUNCE] Prebuilt Xen PV-HVM templates.

[Lars Kurth]

Thanks for the effort: do ping me when you guys are ready
Also when LiveCD's and the library is in place, that would be a great 
guest blog post on xen.org
Regards
Lars

On 03/04/2012 14:30, Roger Pau Monne wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 03, 2012 at 11:46:47AM +0100, Ian Campbell wrote:
>> On Mon, 2012-04-02 at 18:59 +0100, Joseph Glanville wrote:
>>> On 3 April 2012 02:11, Ian Campbell<Ian.Campbell@citrix.com>  wrote:
>>>> On Sun, 2012-04-01 at 19:16 +0100, Joseph Glanville wrote:
>>>>> Hi guys,
>>>>>
>>>>> I have started preparing a library of PV-HVM templates for use on Xen
>>>>> 4.X+ and PVOPS dom0.
>>>> [...]
>>>>> Initially there is Debian 6, CentOS 6.2 and Ubuntu 12.04 available
>>>>> (the final beta, will be updated to final shortly).
>>>>> Included is an OS image, a config file, a README and the associated
>>>>> licences etc.
>>>> This is very cool, and you are correct that these will be very useful
>>>> for people trying to get something going quickly! Thanks Joseph.
>>> No problem, I am working on a new dom0 livecd too.
>>>
>>> I need some recommendations on what distro to base it on though...
>>> Personally Gentoo is easiest for me but I think Ubuntu 12.04 is going
>>> to be more enduring and a more beginner approachable alternative.
>>>
>>> Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
> I've been working with the Alpine Linux guys (http://alpinelinux.org/)
> for some time, and we managed to get a working Xen LiveCD, next major
> release (2.4 I think) it's gonna come with Xen Dom0 LiveCDs, since all
> the necessary bits have been added to the upstream distro build
> scripts. You can take a look at the build scripts here:
>
> http://git.alpinelinux.org/cgit/alpine-iso/
>
> It's really easy to generate a LiveCD iso, you just need a working
> Alpine Linux install (which can be a VM) and the alpine-iso scripts.
>
>> My personal preference would be Debian ;-) But pragmatically Ubuntu is,
>> I think, generally thought to be a good beginner distro and conveniently
>> it now contains support for Xen so that seems like a good choice.
>>
>> Also on the plus side is that Ubuntu may well contain the "Debian Live"
>> packages/infrastructure which make building Live CDs easier (I presume,
>> I've never tried them). I don't know if that's actually what is used by
>> Ubuntu to make their live CDs, if not then I'd hope that infrastructure
>> was in Ubuntu too.
>>
>> Ian.
>>
>>>>> The images are bz2 compressed blockdevice images suitable for use on
>>>>> LVM or a file backed tapdisk if you have the appropriate backend.
>>>>> (alternatively you can use the loop device but this is discouraged)
>>>>> All images have serial console enabled, PV network and block devices,
>>>>> fixed udev rules etc.
>>>>>
>>>>> I will add more info about them, an FAQ about how they are setup and
>>>>> what you should do to customize them, expand the disk image etc soon.
>>>>>
>>>>> I am looking for someone to mirror these in the US for me, please
>>>>> email me if you have spare bandwith.
>>>>>
>>>>> Joseph.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Xen-devel mailing list
>> Xen-devel@lists.xen.org
>> http://lists.xen.org/xen-devel