Xen guest

• First, extract the downloaded file: .xen.tar.gz
• Afterward you will see a new subdirectory with two files: .raw and .xenconfig

Note: Xen only works with Linux systems.

Using Xen guests

You will need a Xen host system, which is a machine running the Xen domain 0 kernel. In other words, the machine must be booted with a special Xen-enabled kernel. To check this, run the command:xm list. The result should be at least one line starting with Domain–0

Edit the xenconfig configuration file you find in the downloaded appliance:

disk=[ "tap:aio:/root/xen/appliance.raw,xvda,w" ]

where /root/xen/appliance.raw is the path to the location where you unpacked the downloaded appliance.

Also,

vif=[ "bridge=xenbr0" ]

should be replaced with

vif=[ "bridge=br0" ]

On a Xen server, the following command needs to be executed to activate the guest system:

xm create -c file-with-suffix.xenconfig

Note that not all Xen kernel versions and guest/Domain–0 combinations work well. Currently, we recommend to use SLE11 Xen servers along with SLE11 Xen guests.

Xen and PXE

For building Xen guests on a PXE format, it is required to use mboot.c32 to be able to load the xen hypervisor via pxe. Here is an example how your pxelinux.0.config.xen file should look like:

DEFAULT KIWI-Boot

LABEL KIWI-Boot
        kernel mboot.c32
        append boot/xen.gz --- boot/linux !! kernel-options !! --- boot/initrd

LABEL Local-Boot
        localboot 0