Using Xen With LVM-Based VMs Instead Of Image-Based VMs (Debian Etch)

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Submitted by falko (Contact Author) (Forums) on Mon, 2009-01-12 18:08. :: Debian | Xen | Virtualization

Using Xen With LVM-Based VMs Instead Of Image-Based VMs (Debian Etch)

Version 1.0
Author: Falko Timme <ft [at] falkotimme [dot] com>
Last edited 12/13/2008

This guide explains how you can set up LVM-based virtual machines on a Xen host running on Debian Etch instead of virtual machines that use disk images. Virtual machines that use disk images are very slow and heavy on disk IO.

I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

1 Preliminary Note

In this example I'm using a Debian Etch host with the LVM volume group /dev/vg0 that has about 50GB of space. /dev/vg0 contains two logical volumes, /dev/vg0/root and /dev/vg0/swap_1 that consume about 7GB of space - the rest is not allocated and can be used to create logical volumes for our virtual machines:

vgdisplay

server1:~# vgdisplay
  --- Volume group ---
  VG Name               vg0
  System ID
  Format                lvm2
  Metadata Areas        1
  Metadata Sequence No  3
  VG Access             read/write
  VG Status             resizable
  MAX LV                0
  Cur LV                2
  Open LV               2
  Max PV                0
  Cur PV                1
  Act PV                1
  VG Size               49.76 GB
  PE Size               4.00 MB
  Total PE              12738
  Alloc PE / Size       1792 / 7.00 GB
  Free  PE / Size       10946 / 42.76 GB
  VG UUID               JbjZw7-aOGY-3iA4-iW0M-KAhu-86fz-Ap3wLw

server1:~#

lvdisplay

I'm assuming that you've already set up Xen - e.g. as described in the following two guides:

2 Creating LVM-Based Virtual Machines (domU)

We will use xen-tools to create virtual machines. xen-tools make it very easy to create virtual machines - please read this tutorial to learn more: http://www.howtoforge.com/xen_tools_xen_shell_argo. xen-tools are available as a Debian Etch package, so we install that one right now:

apt-get install xen-tools

Next we edit /etc/xen-tools/xen-tools.conf. This file contains the default values that are used by the xen-create-image script unless you specify other values on the command line. I changed the following values and left the rest untouched:

vi /etc/xen-tools/xen-tools.conf

[...]
lvm = vg0
[...]
dist   = etch    # Default distribution to install.
[...]
gateway   = 192.168.0.1
netmask   = 255.255.255.0
[...]
passwd = 1
[...]
kernel = /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-6-xen-vserver-686
initrd = /boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-6-xen-vserver-686
[...]
mirror = http://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian/
[...]

Make sure that you uncomment the lvm line and fill in the name of your volume group (vg0 in my case). At the same time make sure that the dir line is commented out!

The passwd = 1 line makes that you can specify a root password when you create a new guest domain.

In the kernel and initrd lines you must specify the domU kernel and initrd that you want to use for your guest domains. Normally this is /boot/vmlinuz- + the output of uname -r and /boot/initrd.img- + the output of uname -r, so if

uname -r

displays 2.6.18-6-xen-vserver-686, then this translates to /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-6-xen-vserver-686 and /boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-6-xen-vserver-686. You can find out which kernels and initrds are available by running

ls -l /boot/

In the mirror line specify a Debian mirror close to you.

Make sure you specify a gateway and netmask. If you don't, and you don't specify a gateway and netmask on the command line when using xen-create-image, your guest domains won't have networking even if you specified an IP address!

Now let's create our first guest domain, xen1.example.com, with the IP address 192.168.0.101:

xen-create-image --hostname=xen1.example.com --size=10Gb --swap=512Mb --ip=192.168.0.101 --force --memory=256Mb --arch=i386 --debootstrap

Options that you specify on the command line override the settings in /etc/xen-tools/xen-tools.conf. Options that are not specified on the command line are taken from /etc/xen-tools/xen-tools.conf.

(To learn more about the available options, take a look at the xen-create-image man page:

man xen-create-image

)

The xen-create-image command will now create the xen1.example.com virtual machine for us. This can take a few minutes. The output should be similar to this one:

server1:~# xen-create-image --hostname=xen1.example.com --size=10Gb --swap=512Mb --ip=192.168.0.101 --force --memory=256Mb --arch=i386 --debootstrap

General Infomation
--------------------
Hostname       :  xen1.example.com
Distribution   :  etch
Fileystem Type :  ext3

Size Information
----------------
Image size     :  10Gb
Swap size      :  512Mb
Image type     :  full
Memory size    :  256Mb
Kernel path    :  /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-6-xen-vserver-686
Initrd path    :  /boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-6-xen-vserver-686

Networking Information
----------------------
IP Address 1   : 192.168.0.101
Netmask        : 255.255.255.0
Gateway        : 192.168.0.1

Creating ext3 filesystem on /dev/vg0/xen1.example.com-disk
Done

Installing your system with debootstrap mirror http://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian/
Done

Running hooks
Done

No role script specified.  Skipping

Creating Xen configuration file
Done
Setting up root password
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully
All done

Logfile produced at:
         /var/log/xen-tools/xen1.example.com.log
server1:~#

As you see from the output, xen-create-image has created a new logical volume for our VM in the vg0 volume group, /dev/vg0/xen1.example.com-disk, for the VM's root filesystem. Take a look at

lvdisplay

and you will see that it has also created a second logical volume, /dev/vg0/xen1.example.com-swap, for the VM's swap:

server1:~# lvdisplay
  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Name                /dev/vg0/root
  VG Name                vg0
  LV UUID                HH15eU-MoDJ-NfPg-HMZ6-Fczf-uPQO-I0NDzp
  LV Write Access        read/write
  LV Status              available
  # open                 1
  LV Size                5.00 GB
  Current LE             1280
  Segments               1
  Allocation             inherit
  Read ahead sectors     0
  Block device           254:0

  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Name                /dev/vg0/swap_1
  VG Name                vg0
  LV UUID                GV0SC0-oZLA-rQZS-pe3k-fi2N-YU9q-A73rm3
  LV Write Access        read/write
  LV Status              available
  # open                 1
  LV Size                2.00 GB
  Current LE             512
  Segments               1
  Allocation             inherit
  Read ahead sectors     0
  Block device           254:1

  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Name                /dev/vg0/xen1.example.com-disk
  VG Name                vg0
  LV UUID                yya7Uj-klRJ-hN9z-nKVk-YgIV-vI1j-KXT53a
  LV Write Access        read/write
  LV Status              available
  # open                 0
  LV Size                10.00 GB
  Current LE             2560
  Segments               1
  Allocation             inherit
  Read ahead sectors     0
  Block device           254:2

  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Name                /dev/vg0/xen1.example.com-swap
  VG Name                vg0
  LV UUID                pJcl71-YFPf-t0mr-hSIN-4s8J-xkWD-BEvtNv
  LV Write Access        read/write
  LV Status              available
  # open                 0
  LV Size                512.00 MB
  Current LE             128
  Segments               1
  Allocation             inherit
  Read ahead sectors     0
  Block device           254:3

server1:~#

There should now be a xen1.example.com configuration file - /etc/xen/xen1.example.com.cfg. The disk line contains physical devices (the two logical volumes created by xen-create-image) instead of disk images:

cat /etc/xen/xen1.example.com.cfg

#
#  Configuration file for the Xen instance xen1.example.com, created on
# Sat Dec 13 02:01:35 2008.
#


#
#  Kernel + memory size
#
kernel  = '/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-6-xen-vserver-686'
ramdisk = '/boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-6-xen-vserver-686'

memory  = '256'


#
#  Disk device(s).
#
root    = '/dev/sda1 ro'

disk    = [ 'phy:vg0/xen1.example.com-disk,sda1,w', 'phy:vg0/xen1.example.com-swap,sda2,w' ]

#
#  Hostname
#
name    = 'xen1.example.com'


#
#  Networking
#
vif  = [ 'ip=192.168.0.101' ]

#
#  Behaviour
#
on_poweroff = 'destroy'
on_reboot   = 'restart'
on_crash    = 'restart'

(If we had used disk images instead of logical volumes, the disk line would look similar to this one:

disk = [ 'file:/path/to/xen1.example.com/disk.img,hda1,w', 'file:/path/to/xen1.example.com/swap.img,hda2,w' ]

)

To start the virtual machine, run

xm create /etc/xen/xen1.example.com.cfg

Run

xm console xen1.example.com

to log in on that virtual machine (type CTRL+] if you are at the console, or CTRL+5 if you're using PuTTY to go back to dom0), or use an SSH client to connect to it (192.168.0.101).

To get a list of running virtual machines, type

xm list

The output should look like this:

server1:~# xm list
Name                                      ID Mem(MiB) VCPUs State   Time(s)
Domain-0                                   0      747     1 r-----   1402.9
xen1.example.com                           1      256     1 -b----     55.8
server1:~#

To shut down xen1.example.com, do this:

xm shutdown xen1.example.com

If you want xen1.example.com to start automatically at the next boot of the system, then do this:

ln -s /etc/xen/xen1.example.com.cfg /etc/xen/auto

Here are the most important Xen commands:

xm create -c /path/to/config - Start a virtual machine.
xm shutdown <name> - Stop a virtual machine.
xm destroy <name> - Stop a virtual machine immediately without shutting it down. It's as if you switch off the power button.
xm list - List all running systems.
xm console <name> - Log in on a virtual machine.
xm help - List of all commands.

A list of all virtual machines that were created with the xen-create-image command is available under

xen-list-images

server1:~# xen-list-images
Name: xen1.example.com
Memory: 256
IP: 192.168.0.101
server1:~#

To learn more about what you can do with xen-tools, take a look at this tutorial: http://www.howtoforge.com/xen_tools_xen_shell_argo