Ubuntu server upgrading Xen and RAM

[wxman]

I have a working Ubuntu 8.04 64bit server, that has an old copy of Xen on it. It's showing release: 2.6.24-23-xen, and I'm not sure how to get the actual Xen version. Info shows "xen_caps: xen-3.0-x86_64 xen-3.0-x86_32p" but I don't know if that's the version.
I also want to increase the amount of physical RAM I have from 2Gb to 4Gb.
When I ran aptitude safe-upgrade I get this in the results:

The following packages have been automatically kept back:
  linux-xen
The following packages have been kept back:
  linux-image-server linux-image-xen linux-restricted-modules-xen linux-server
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 5 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 0B will be used.

Has anyone had any problems upgrading Xen, and ran into something like this?

Also, after I add the extra 2Gb of RAM, I'm guessing I only need to change the .cfg file for my dom1 so the memory = '1282' setting is increased to whatever is available after the upgrade, then restart it?

[falko]

Originally Posted by wxman

I have a working Ubuntu 8.04 64bit server, that has an old copy of Xen on it. It's showing release: 2.6.24-23-xen, and I'm not sure how to get the actual Xen version. Info shows "xen_caps: xen-3.0-x86_64 xen-3.0-x86_32p" but I don't know if that's the version.
I also want to increase the amount of physical RAM I have from 2Gb to 4Gb.
When I ran aptitude safe-upgrade I get this in the results:

The following packages have been automatically kept back:
  linux-xen
The following packages have been kept back:
  linux-image-server linux-image-xen linux-restricted-modules-xen linux-server
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 5 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 0B will be used.

Has anyone had any problems upgrading Xen, and ran into something like this?

The Ubuntu 8.04 repos only have xen-3.0, not a newer version, so I recommend you stay with that version.

Originally Posted by wxman

Also, after I add the extra 2Gb of RAM, I'm guessing I only need to change the .cfg file for my dom1 so the memory = '1282' setting is increased to whatever is available after the upgrade, then restart it?

Yes, that's right.

[wxman]

Thanks Falko. I'll give it shot this week.

[wxman]

Just to let you know, this worked without any problems.

Does anyone know if I might have made a mistake jumping on the Xen bandwagon for Ubuntu? Are there plans to upgrade Xen in the repositories, or have they abandoned it?

[falko]

AFAIK, Ubuntu (just as Fedora) only has Xen domU kernels in its repos, but no dom0 kernel, and I don't think this will change anytime soon. Seems as if KVM is the way to go as it is part of the kernel.

On the other hand, Debian Lenny still has a dom0 kernel in its repos, but I don't know what will be in future Debian releases...

[wxman]

Great! I can just see me trying to switch everything over to KVM. That's a disaster in the works.