Feature Name
Summary
Dom0 support for pvops-based kernel
to support hosting of Xen guests which has been lacking since Fedora 8.
Owner
- Name: None
Previously involved: EduardoHabkost, MarkMcLoughlin, Stephen Tweedie, Chris Wright, Juan Quintela, Markus Armbruster, Glauber Costa, DanielBerrange, ...
Current status
- Last updated: 2009-04-02
- Percentage of completion: 0%
- Targeted release: F12
- Dom0 status: awaiting upstream kernel support
- Fedora 10 shipped 2008-11-25 with Xen i686 and x86_64 DomU support enabled in the stock kernel. Work to get dom0
support into the upstream kernel is ongoing and hopes are high that some support will be included in 2.6.30 and F12.
- Background:
- Upstream status,
- Upstream patches:
- xen-tip/master - known-working branch, with only tested changes
- xen-tip/next - current bleeding edge; should at least compile
Detailed Description
See Features/XenPvops for a rationale. This feature just continues the paravirt_ops Xen effort to bring it back to feature parity with Fedora 8 Xen.
Scope
Work items:
- Implement Dom0 support in upstream kernel (JeremyFitzhardinge)
- Allow the hypervisor to boot bzImage kernels (see this patch included since xen-3.3.1-3.fc11)
- Make 'new-kernel-pkg' aware of HYPERVISOR setting in /etc/sysconfig/xen
- Wait for that upstream kernel version to be pulled into Fedora
How To Test
- Install a Fedora host/Dom0 system
- Turn on Xen Hypervisor by setting 'HYPERVISOR=/boot/xen-3.3.gz' in /etc/sysconfig/kernel and running some tool (TBD)
- Turn on Xen Userspace by running 'chkconfig xend on'
- Reboot
- Observe presence of Xen via /sys/hypervisor/
- Run 'xm list' and observe Domain-0
- Use virt-install to deploy a Fedora 9/10 paravirt guest
- Use virt-install to deploy a Fedora 8 paravirt guest
- Use virt-install to deploy a Fedora 8/9/10 fullyvirt guest
- Use 'virsh' to save & restore a PV guest and HVM guest
- Balloon down memory of a guest with virsh.
User Experience
- Stock Fedora kernel supports Xen
- The Xen kernel does not lag behind the Fedora kernel
- All features and hardware supported on baremetal also works on Xen Dom0
- Can enable/disable use of HV via a /etc/sysconfig setting
Dependencies
- Update to 'new-kernel-pkg' to know how to install HV
Contingency Plan
If Dom0 support is not ready, continue the status quo of only shipping with DomU support.