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andreas-h
Asked: 2012-01-09 14:11:28 +0800 CST

How to create a Centos Xen domU on Debian Squeeze using xen-create-image

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I have a Xen host system based on Debian Squeeze, and installed xen-tools. I would like to setup a CentOS domU using xen-create-image. xen-tools already 'knows' of CentOS-5, but I cannot seem to get xen-create-image working correctly. I have trouble finding out the necessary parameters I need to pass to xen-create-image (especially mirror?). And, of course, it would be nicer to use CentOS-6.

So, how do I create a CentOS-6 (or 5) domU on a Debian Squeeze dom0 (both x86_64), preferably using xen-create-image?

xen centos debian-squeeze

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    This took a while to trudge through and shouldn't die in my notes. This is for Debian 6/Squeeze, xen4 on amd64 hardware.

    1. Edit /etc/rinse/centos-5.packages and add the following items (probably alpha sorted, but I haven't played around with this):
      • authconfig
      • chkconfig
      • libuser
      • passwd
      • python-libs
    2. Create the base image: xen-create-image --hostname=foo.example.com --ip=1.2.3.4 --gateway=1.2.3.1 --netmask=255.255.255.0 --install-method=rinse --dist=centos-5 --mirror=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5/os/x86_64/CentOS/ --arch=i386
      • The ---arch=i386 is required, x86_64 is a non-starter for some reason.
      • Passing --install-method=rinse is required.
      • I'm not sure that the --mirror flag is required.
    3. Create a temp dir to mount the image: mkdir -m 0700 /tmp/img_mnt
    4. Mount the image: mount -o loop /home/xen/images/domains/foo.example.com/disk.img /tmp/img_mnt
    5. chroot(1) to the new jail: chroot /tmp/img_mnt /bin/bash
    6. Enable/disable services:
      1. chkconfig iscsi off
      2. chkconfig iscsid off
      3. chkconfig rsyslogd on - Recommended for debugging
    7. Setup/convert to shadow passwords: pwconv
    8. Change the root password: passwd root
    9. Exit the chroot(1)`ed environment: exit
    10. unmount(1) the loopback image: umount /tmp/img_tmp
    11. Start the VM: xm create -c foo.example.com.cfg
    12. Login.
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