Thanks to everyone who took the time to answer in this thread. I'm just writing this message to give this thread some closure and am not expecting any answers >>>>> On Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:29:33 -0700 (PDT) >>>>> "IM" == Ian Murray <murrayie at yahoo.co.uk> wrote: >> > 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)? IM> Sorry for thread mucking. I did not receive this email, but IM> took it from a response. IM> The Xen wiki describes a paravirtual install. The config file IM> would have a line like builder="hvm" if it was fully IM> virtualised guest. AFAIK the graphical view is just a VNC IM> session, so I would be surprised if that managed to trash your IM> kernel. More likely it's something that the guest is doing IM> that is causing the issue. You could always prepare your IM> guests on a different machine and transfer them IM> later. Ofcourse, if you had a command of xm, that is. I tried removing both suspects by - following the Wiki-Howto to the letter (especially using the Xen-install-kernels) - instead of going over the network I worked directly at the machine (although I totally agree that a VNC-session shouldn't be ble to shoot the machine) but the problem is still there. When I start the configured machine that points to an install-kernel with xm create newGuest -c I see the kernel boot up until it comes to the message Write protecting the kernel read-only data where it hangs for some seconds, then the screen goes blank and the machine reboots. I'm starting to suspect that it is somehow hardware-related (it is a Fujitsu-Siemens Synergy server with a RAID-controller) and I will investigate in that direction IM> As I said before, I would recommend the xen list for this IM> specific issue. Will look there to, thanks IM> As for the Xen vs whatever issue, I was disappointed when it IM> became clear that Upstream was going to push another IM> technology, having spent last year or two trying to learn Xen IM> (and I am no expert, at all). Having said that, I've heard of IM> issues with speed with KVM and I haven't had any such issues IM> with Xen. My only issue with Xen is that the official releases IM> are based on quite an old kernel, which is fine for CentOS, bc IM> it is the same as the vanilla kernel. Anecdotally, a lot of IM> issues on the xen list IMHO seem to arise from ppl using later IM> patched kernels, which perhaps isn't the best route for IM> stability. As I'm using the latest kernel that comes with the 5.3-updates and the machine has nothing but the standard-5.3 stuff on it, I don't think this is the case Bernhard -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 188 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/attachments/20090820/bb707361/attachment-0004.sig>