[CentOS-virt] Xen 4.4 + libvirt 1.2 rpms test report with xl/libxl on CentOS 6

[Pasi Kärkkäinen]

Hello,

As discussed on the last Virt SIG meeting I promised to do some libvirt + libxl testing using the latest Xen 4.4 rpms.

Versions used:

xen-libs-4.4.1-5.el6.x86_64
xen-licenses-4.4.1-5.el6.x86_64
xen-hypervisor-4.4.1-5.el6.x86_64
xen-4.4.1-5.el6.x86_64
xen-runtime-4.4.1-5.el6.x86_64

kernel-3.10.63-11.el6.centos.alt.x86_64

libvirt-daemon-driver-nwfilter-1.2.10-3.el6.x86_64
libvirt-daemon-driver-xen-1.2.10-3.el6.x86_64
libvirt-daemon-driver-lxc-1.2.10-3.el6.x86_64
libvirt-daemon-1.2.10-3.el6.x86_64
libvirt-daemon-config-nwfilter-1.2.10-3.el6.x86_64
libvirt-daemon-driver-libxl-1.2.10-3.el6.x86_64
libvirt-daemon-driver-secret-1.2.10-3.el6.x86_64
libvirt-python-1.2.10-2.el6.x86_64
libvirt-daemon-driver-network-1.2.10-3.el6.x86_64
libvirt-daemon-config-network-1.2.10-3.el6.x86_64
libvirt-1.2.10-3.el6.x86_64
libvirt-client-1.2.10-3.el6.x86_64
libvirt-daemon-driver-interface-1.2.10-3.el6.x86_64
libvirt-daemon-driver-nodedev-1.2.10-3.el6.x86_64
libvirt-daemon-driver-qemu-1.2.10-3.el6.x86_64
libvirt-daemon-driver-storage-1.2.10-3.el6.x86_64

python-virtinst-0.600.0-25.el6.centos.alt.noarch


First I verified the "baseline" setup using xm/xend and libvirt:

- Install new PV domUs using virt-install, using LVM volumes.
- Install new PV domUs using virt-install, using file images (tap2).
- Install new PV domUs using virt-manager, using LVM volumes.
- Install new PV domUs using virt-manager, using file images (tap2).

And all that worked OK with xend, as we already know. "tap2" backend was now automatically chosen for file images etc, all good.


Next I tried the same with xl/libxl. So I disabled xend with "chkconfig xend off",
rebooted the server, and after the reboot verified xend is not running anymore.

And then I did the same PV domU installation tests as above.. and to my surprise it all worked out-of-the-box ! 
libvirt 1.2.10 seems to be happy with libxl aswell! Both virt-install and virt-manager worked OK for me for installing new guests,
and also for the basic lifecycle operations.


One difference compared to our earlier libvirt 0.x rpms is this:

# virsh version
Compiled against library: libvirt 1.2.10
Using library: libvirt 1.2.10
Using API: Xen 1.2.10
Running hypervisor: Xen 4.4.0

Now I get the same output from "virsh version" for both xm/xend and xl/libxl..
Earlier it would say "Xen" or "xenlight" on the "Using API" line depending which backend it was using.
I guess that has changed upstream, and both backends seem to work now anyway :)


-- Pasi