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Re: [Xen-users] Solaris/ZFS Dom0

To: John Levon <levon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Xen-users] Solaris/ZFS Dom0
From: Kent Watsen <kent@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2007 00:37:06 -0800
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John Levon wrote:
On Sat, Jan 27, 2007 at 05:02:22PM -0800, Kent Watsen wrote:

  
I just realized that solaris/zfs is a much better dom0 than linux/lvm 
for my server project, assuming zfs's virtual partitions can be used by 
domu's...can they?
    

In our current development bits you can create a zvol on dom0 then use
that for the UFS boot filesystem. Since you can't boot directly off a
ZFS filesystem from domU's point of view yet (just like Nevada), you
need UFS to boot.
  
Just to confirm, can any domU's partition be mapped from a ZFS volume?   Following is how I map partitions using LVM on a linux=based dom0 - can you post the equivalent line for a solaris-based dom0 using ZFS?

    disk = [ 'phy:xen-vg/centos-root,hdb1,w', 'phy:xen-vg/centos-swap,hdb2,w' ]

Also, is it correct that all of your references to UFS only pertain to solaris-based domUs? - that is, Solaris, in general, can not boot off ZFS?  If so, then it is fine for me as my primary interest in ZFS is to enable the dom0 flexibility in allocating arbitrary amounts of logical space to domUs...  My plan is the run a domU instance for every OS I can - as part of a cross-platform build/test machine


Also, I've read all the blogs on xen and solaris, but its never stated 
as to which version of xen is shipping with nevada or the current sxcr 
build (55).  In case the xen version is not current, will it be possible 
for me to replace it with my own xen-build or would I have to wait for 
the next sun-built update?
    

Xen isn't yet integrated into Nevada and is still under heavy
development. For dom0 you'll need to use our bits still since a number
of Xen bits won't even compile on Solaris. We're gradually trying to
merge as much as we can with upstream.
  
Fair enough, but this now makes me wonder how the upgrade goes.  Currently, I have my linux-based dom0 on a physically different disk (actually two drives in a raid-1) and all my domUs on a large LVM backed by a raid-5 array.  I only have one machine (its my home server), so I can't do a live-migration, so instead I prepare a new dom0 disk on another box, shutdown the primary machine, swap in the new dom0, and boot - the new dom0's LVM finds the old logical volumes and all is good...  Can I do something like this with ZFS?  Or, more directly, what would you do if you only had one machine?


Any further questions are probably best directed to
xen-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx where more relevant people are listening.
  
Thanks for the pointer!   I've cross-posted this message there - if anybody on xen-users wants to follow this thread, here is the web archive:

    http://www.opensolaris.org/jive/forum.jspa?forumID=53



Kent

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