Virtualization system requirements
Xen version 4.16 or later in HVM mode is required to install and launch vESR.
Creating a virtual machine
1) Create the virtual disk on which vESR will be stored, using the dd utility:
dd if=/dev/zero of=vesr_xen.img bs=1M count=1024 |
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As a result, an empty 1 GB file must be created.
2) Create the configuration file with the following content:
type='hvm'
name='vesr_xen'
memory=4096
vcpus='4'
disk=['<full_path_to_virtual_disk>,,hdc,w', '<full_path_to_installer_image>,,hdb:cdrom,r']
boot='d' |
where:
type — the virtual machine domain type. vESR requires the HVM domain type, which indicates that the virtual machine is a fully virtualized computer with an emulated BIOS, disk and network peripherals, etc.;name — the name of the virtual machine to be created;memory — the amount of allocated RAM;vcpus — the number of virtual cores;disk — the list of disks:<full_path_to_virtual_disk> — the path to the disk file starting from the root directory "/".hdc — the guest disk.w — the access level. The disk is available for both reading and writing.<full_path_to_installer_image> — the path to the ISO image file starting from the root directory "/".cdrom — a pointer to the CD-ROM device type.
boot — the boot disk type. The type "d" means booting from CD-ROM.
type='hvm'
name='vesr_xen'
memory=4096
vcpus='4'
disk=['/root/vesr/vesr_xen.img,,hdc,w', '/root/vesr/vesr-1.28.0-build7.firmware,,hdb:cdrom,r']
boot='d' |
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Installing vESR
1) To start the installation, launch the virtual machine, passing its configuration as a parameter:
sudo xl create /root/vesr/vesr_xen.conf |
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2) After the virtual machine is launched, connect to the console using the Xen tools:
The next vESR installation steps are detailed in the vESR installation process section.
3) After the installation is complete, shut down vESR:
4) In the configuration file, change the value of the boot parameter from 'd' to 'c', which means that the boot will be performed from the hard disk on which vESR was installed.
5) Launch the virtual machine, passing the modified configuration as a parameter:
sudo xl create /root/vesr/vesr_xen.conf |
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Connecting network interfaces
1) Shut down vESR:
2) Add the following parameters to the configuration file:
vif=['mac=<MAC_address>, model=<network_card_model>, bridge=<bridge_name>'] |
where:
vif — the list of emulated network interfaces.
It is specified as a list of virtual interfaces:
vif = [ 'vifspec', 'vifspec', ... |
where:
mac — the MAC address of the network card. This parameter is mandatory; if it is not specified explicitly, Xen will generate a MAC address automatically.model — the model of the emulated network card. An optional parameter; if it is not specified explicitly, Xen will set this parameter automatically.bridge — the name of the network bridge to which the virtual machine must be connected.
For the system to operate successfully, the network bridge must be configured. Its configuration must be described in the network tools of your distribution.
3) Launch the virtual machine, passing the modified configuration as a parameter:
sudo xl create /root/vesr/vesr_xen.conf |
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Connecting a serial port (optional)
The settings in this section are optional and do not affect system operation. |
1) Shut down vESR:
2) Add the following parameter to the configuration file:
where:
pty — a pseudo-terminal in the host system, allocated automatically.
To find out the required pseudo-terminal number, view the content of the file:
/var/log/xen/qemu-dm-<machine_name>.log |
esr@esr:# cat /var/log/xen/qemu-dm-vesr.log
char device redirected to /dev/pts/6 (label serial0)
VNC server running on 127.0.0.1:5900
qemu-system-i386: terminating on signal 1 from pid 47254 (/usr/lib/xen-4.16/bin/xl) |
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The pseudo-terminal number is specified in the following line:
char device redirected to /dev/pts/6 (label serial0) |
3) Launch the virtual machine, passing the modified configuration as a parameter:
sudo xl create /root/vesr/vesr_xen.conf |
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