How to install and configure Xen® Virtualization in Linux/Centos/Redhat – Graphical Mode Step by Step

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I think every body knows What is Xen®?. Now i am directly going to the topic of the installation and configuring the Xen Virtualization in Centos. CentOS is a free operating system based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). It exists to provide a free enterprise class computing platform and strives to maintain 100% binary compatibility with its upstream distribution.

 

 

 

So no worry about getting the CentOS for the installation.

Requirements:

  1.  Xen 3.0 rpm for Installation.
  2. Xen – Kernel for booting
  3. Virt-Manager for Managing the Xen Virtualization
  4. Virt-Viewer for getting the console of the Guest opertating system.

 

This guide only for the person that who didn’t installed the Xen and Xen – Kernel during installation of CentOS. If you have installed the CentOS with Xen already, you scan skip to Step 5.

PS: Here i am showing the fully virtualized platform. I used Win XP as Guest Operating System.

Step 1: First need to check, in which kernel you have logged or booted.

[root@node01 ~]# uname -r
2.6.18-238.el5

Step 2: From the above you can find that the system not booted with Xen kernel, check whether Xen and Xen –  kernel installed on the CentOS or not.

[root@node01 ~]# rpm -qa | grep kernel              ———-> For Checking Xen – Kernel Installed
kernel – 2.6.18-238.el5

[root@node01 ~]# rpm -qa | grep xen                          ———–> For Checking Xen installed

Step 3:  From the above, confirmed that the Xen and Xen – kernel haven’t installed on the machine, So you can install it using the following command, i used the YUM Repo for installing RPM’s. Include the Virt-Manager and Virt-Viewer also.

[root@node01 ~]# yum install xen virt-manager virt-viewer
centos                                                   | 1.3 kB     00:00     
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
–> Running transaction check
—> Package xen.x86_64 0:3.0.3-120.el5 set to be updated
–> Processing Dependency: xen-hypervisor-abi = 3.1 for package: xen
–> Processing Dependency: libxenstore.so.3.0()(64bit) for package: xen
–> Running transaction check
—> Package kernel-xen.x86_64 0:2.6.18-238.el5 set to be installed
—> Package python-virtinst.noarch 0:0.400.3-11.el5 set to be updated
–> Processing Dependency: libvirt-python >= 0.2.1 for package: python-virtinst
—> Package xen-libs.x86_64 0:3.0.3-120.el5 set to be updated
–> Running transaction check
—> Package libvirt-python.x86_64 0:0.8.2-15.el5 set to be updated
–> Processing Dependency: libvirt = 0.8.2-15.el5 for package: libvirt-python
–> Processing Dependency: libvirt.so.0(LIBVIRT_0.8.0)(64bit) for package: libvirt-python
–> Processing Dependency: libvirt.so.0()(64bit) for package: libvirt-python
–> Running transaction check
—> Package libvirt.x86_64 0:0.8.2-15.el5 set to be updated
—> Package virt-manager.x86_64 0:0.6.1-13.el5 set to be updated
—> Package virt-viewer.x86_64 0:0.0.2-3.el5 set to be updated
–> Finished Dependency ResolutionDependencies Resolved===============================================================
 Package                                               Arch           Version                        Repository     Size
===============================================================
Installing:
 xen                                                       x86_64        3.0.3-120.el5         centos        1.9 M
Installing for dependencies:
 kernel-xen                                        x86_64        2.6.18-238.el5        centos         20 M
 libvirt                                                 x86_64        0.8.2-15.el5             centos        3.2 M
 libvirt-python                                x86_64        0.8.2-15.el5              centos        235 k
 python-virtinst                              noarch        0.400.3-11.el5         centos        380 k
 xen-libs                                             x86_64        3.0.3-120.el5           centos        163 k
virt-manager                                   x86_64         0.6.1-13.el5              centos       1.6 M        
 virt-viewer                                      x86_64         0.0.2-3.el5                centos          25 k       
Transaction Summary
===============================================================
Install       6 Package(s)
Upgrade       0 Package(s)Total download size: 26 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/8): libvirt-python-0.8.2-15.el5.x86_64.rpm                | 235 kB     00:00     
(2/8): python-virtinst-0.400.3-11.el5.noarch.rpm         | 380 kB     00:00     
(3/8): xen-3.0.3-120.el5.x86_64.rpm                                   | 1.9 MB     00:00     
(4/8): kernel-xen-2.6.18-238.el5.x86_64.rpm                  |  20 MB     00:00     
(5/8): libvirt-0.8.2-15.el5.x86_64.rpm                                | 3.2 MB     00:00     
(6/8): xen-libs-3.0.3-120.el5.x86_64.rpm                         | 163 kB     00:00  
(7/8): virt-manager-0.6.1-13.el5.x86_64.rpm                 | 1.6 MB     00:00     
(8/8): virt-viewer-0.0.2-3.el5.x86_64.rpm                       |  25 kB     00:00     
——————————————————————————–
Total                                                                                 15 MB/s |  27.7 MB     00:01     
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
1/8    Installing     : xen-libs                                                    
2/8   Installing     : libvirt                                                      
3/8   Installing     : libvirt-python                                      
4/8   Installing     : python-virtinst                                   
5/8   Installing     : kernel-xen                                             
6/8   Installing     : xen                                                            
7/8  Installing     : virt-viewer                                               
8/8   Installing     : virt-manager                                           Installed:
  xen.x86_64 0:3.0.3-120.el5   virt-manager.x86_64 0:0.6.1-13.el5      virt-viewer.x86_64 0:0.0.2-3.el5                                                   Dependency Installed:
  kernel-xen.x86_64 0:2.6.18-238.el5    libvirt.x86_64 0:0.8.2-15.el5           
  libvirt-python.x86_64 0:0.8.2-15.el5  python-virtinst.noarch 0:0.400.3-11.el5
  xen-libs.x86_64 0:3.0.3-120.el5      Complete!

Step 4: Once the Xen and Xen – Kernel installed, Make the changes in the /etc/grub.conf to boot the Xen – Kernel by default. Other wise You have to select the Menu from Splash screen during booting. So edit /etc/grub.conf.

The following one is before editing the /etc/grub.conf. You can look at the default field = 1, it means by default it will boot from the second kernel ie Normal El5 Kernel. Numbers starts from 0,1 and so on.

[root@node01 ~]# vi /etc/grub.conf
#boot=/dev/sda
default=1
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title CentOS (2.6.18-238.el5xen)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /xen.gz-2.6.18-238.el5
        module /vmlinuz-2.6.18-238.el5xen ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
        module /initrd-2.6.18-238.el5xen.img
title CentOS (2.6.18-238.el5)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-238.el5 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
        initrd /initrd-2.6.18-238.el5.img

After edit the /etc/grub.conf, Default field changed to 0 for booting Xen – kernel by default.

[root@node01 ~]# vi /etc/grub.conf
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title CentOS (2.6.18-238.el5xen)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /xen.gz-2.6.18-238.el5
module /vmlinuz-2.6.18-238.el5xen ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
module /initrd-2.6.18-238.el5xen.img
title CentOS (2.6.18-238.el5)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-238.el5 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.18-238.el5.img

Step 5: Reboot the Server, As from the above the server should boot with Xen – Kernel. Check it using the following command.

[root@node01 ~]# uname -r
2.6.18-238.el5xen

Step 6: Now confirmed, you can start the Virt Manager for Managing the Xen Virtualization.

[root@node01 ~]# virt-manager


Step 7:  The above picture shows the Virtual Machine Manager of CentOS Host, both qemu and Xen are in disconnected state. Now Right click on the Xen and click Connect. After clicking connect you will get the following window stating Xen is Active and Domain-0 is running.

Now the CentOS host is ready for creating the full virtualization guest,click New on the Virtual Machine Manager to start creating guest os.

Step 8: Click Forward on the Virtual Machine Creation window.

Step 9: Type your Virtual Machine Name, then click forward.

Step 10:  As I already told, Select Fully Virtualized and click forward.

Step 11: Select the installation media like CD/DVD ROM ,ISO Image, NFS,HTTP,PXE, FTP extra…, also select the Virtual Machine OS type. I am using CD/DVD ROM for installation.

Step 12: Here i selected the CD/DVD ROM for installation.

Step 13: Configure the location of the Virtual HDD image of Virtual Machine, Specify the amount of storage that required for VM.

Step 14: Select the Virtual Network, then click Forward.

Step 15: Allocate the Memory & CPU as per your Requirement.

Step 16: Click Finish

Step 17: Once you click Finish it starts to creating the VM as per your specification.

Once the VM is created the Virtual Machine will start automatically and inside the VM setup of Windows XP will begin.

That’s All!. Now you can create the VM as much as you want, Depends of your Host Machine.

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