[Fedora-xen] Re: easy way to configure domU

[Hope Dundas]

On Wed, 18 Jul 2007, Bill Jenkins wrote:

> I've found an easy way is just to use dd.
>
> dd if=/dev/VolGroup00/virtual-1 of=/dev/VolGroup00/virtual-2 bs=1M
>
> I've tried LVM snapshots, but found that sometimes they seemed to run 
> slowly, and if you made a copy of a copy, they ran even more slowly. 
> Perhaps they work fine under some conditions, but they didn't for me. 
> dd, however, has never failed me.  Just remember to start it up in 
> console mode first, and change the ip address.  Also, (you probably know 
> this, but), don't forget to change the mac address and uuid when you 
> copy the xen config file (and rename the machine, too.)
>
> Bill Jenkins
> CAIT, Western Illinois University

Hi Bill,

I've been grappling with just this issue (at least, I *think* we're 
talking about the same thing) - trying to take an existing 'image' of a 
virtual box and tweak it to use as a base for creating other virtual 
boxes.

One thing, though - if you're using full virtualization (as we are, under 
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5), can you still use the console? I've been 
trying to start the base domU using 'xm create domainname -c', but it just 
bounces me to a '?' prompt that doesn't allow any input, and the only way 
I can get out of it is to use another connection to shutdown the domain. 
I've also tried using 'xm console domainname' to connect to the domain 
when it is already running, but I get the same response.

Many thanks,

 	Hope Dundas

~~~
Hope Dundas, hope.dundas at umich.edu
Database/Systems Administrator
Housing Information Technology Office
University of Michigan