Fedora Linux

Installing Xen Virtual Machines

Xen is a technology that permits one physical computer to act as two or more virtual machines (or domains). Each domain is isolated from other domains, so administration privilege can be safely delegated; you can designate a system administrator for one domain and give him the root password for total control of that system, confident that he will not be able to touch the configuration of other domains.

Virtualization technology is also very helpful when testing multiple software versions or configurations, and since virtual machines can be migrated between physical systems, it provides a lot of flexibility for server deployment and management.

To use Xen, you must install a special kernel and utilities on your existing Fedora system, which then becomes your primary domain (Domain-0). You can then install Fedora on as many additional domains as you want.

How Do I Do That?

To set up for Xen, install the kernel-xen and xen packages using Pirut or this command:

# yum -y install kernel-xen xen

Reboot your system. When the GRUB boot screen appears, press the spacebar to display the boot menu. Select the new xen kernel using the cursor keys, and then press Enter to boot.

Tip

To make your system boot the Xen kernel by default, edit /boot/grub/grub.conf (see Lab 10.5, “Configuring the GRUB Bootloader”)

You can confirm that you are running the Xen kernel by using the uname command:

# uname -r
2.6.17-1.2564.fc6xen

The xend service should also be running, which ...