[CentOS] virt-manager crashes Host during installation of guest

Ross Walker rswwalker at gmail.com
Wed Aug 19 14:08:49 UTC 2009


On Aug 19, 2009, at 7:52 AM, Bernhard Gschaider <bgschaid_lists at ice-sf.at 
 > wrote:

>
> Thanks for the replies so far.
>
>>>>>> On Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:06:08 +0100
>>>>>> "MMG" == Marcelo M Garcia <marcelo.maia.garcia at googlemail.com>  
>>>>>> wrote:
>
>    MMG> Bernhard Gschaider wrote:
>>> Hi!
>>>
>>> I have the following problem: I have a server (CentOS 5.3
>>> x86_64) on which I want to install a virtual Xen-machine
>>> (CentOS 5.3 x86_64), I ssh from my workstation (Centos 5.3
>>> x86_64 .... do you see the pattern ;) ) to that server and
>>> start the virt-manager. I create a new Guest (Paravirtualiuzed)
>>> and point it to the server with the installation files (CentOS
>>> 5.3, but I already said that). The manager creates the disk
>>> image an then opens the Graphical console for
>>> installation. Sometime around the point where the installation
>>> program wants me to select the keyboard the graphical console
>>> it freezes. The server is completely dead (no console, no disk
>>> activity, no ping, only a reset will "repair" it)
>>>
>>> My question: am I doing something stupid? But I figured
>>> "They're all the same system, this must work"
>>>
>>> I don't want to play around with it too much as the server is
>>> also our file-server and people start complaining.
>>>
>>> So any hint will be greatly appreciated (otherwise I'll have to
>>> setup another machine for the guests)
>>>
>
>    MMG> I use the virt-manager, but I always use a kickstart to do
>    MMG> the installation and I never had problems.
>
> This (and other replies) lead me to two possible culprits:
> - either the graphical console over X11 is not a good idea (but I
>   can't imagine that, it shouldn't shoot the kernel)
> - I always installed as a paravirtualized machine, Could it be that
>   the install-kernel on the 5.3-media is not aware of this and somehow
>   manages to shot the host (because I noticed that most recipies on  
> the
>   net, including http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Xen/ 
> InstallingCentOSDomU
>   never talk about paravirtualized (so I assume they use a fully
>   virtualized guest)
>
> I will try these later today (when people left the office and no one
> will complain about server downtimes)
>
> Bernhard
>
> BTW: Just one fundamental question: as the upstream OS vendor is
> switching his virtualization to KVM anyway, is it a good idea to
> forget Xen and use KVM (in other words: is it stable enough for
> production)?

Xen still has it's place as it's fully paravirtualized domains are  
still way faster then any fully virtualized setups.

Plus it's the only hypervisor I know of that let's you pass-through  
just about any PCI device to a domU.

Once VMware gets their pass-through generalized and Intel gets their  
next generation hardware virtualization technology mainstreamed, Xen  
won't have such an edge in those areas.

I still have yet to see a VMware/KVM framework for cloud computing  
where VMs can be seemlessly transferred between hosts or even to an  
off-site virtualization provider.

-Ross




More information about the CentOS mailing list