Resources
- Chapter 1 – Xen: Background and Virtualization Basics
- Chapter 2 – A Quick Tour with the Xen LiveCD
- Chapter 3 – The Xen Hypervisor
- Chapter 4 – Hardware Requirements and Installation of Xen Dom0
- Chapter 5 – Using Prebuilt Guest Images
- Chapter 6 – Managing Unprivileged Domains
- Chapter 7 – Populating Guest Images
- Chapter 8 – Storing Guest Images
- Chapter 9 – Device Virtualization and Management
- Chapter 10 – Network Configuration
- Chapter 11 – Securing a Xen System
- Chapter 12 – Managing Guest Resources
- Chapter 13 – Guest Save, Restore, and Migration
- Chapter 14 – Xen in the Enterprise: A Brief Survey
- Appendix A – Resources
- Appendix B – The xm command
- Appendix C – Xend Configuration Parameters
- Appendix D – Guest Configuration Parameters
- Appendix E – Xen Performance Evaluation
We are tracking a number of interesting topics since publishing the first edition. Here our some of the best ones.
- Xen Windows GPL PV Drivers
- Xen Mainline Linux Kernel pv_ops domU support (lead by Red Hat/Fedora)
- Xen Mainline Linux Kernel pv_ops dom0 suport (lead by Red Hat/Fedora)
- VMKnoppix Xen LiveCD (other virtualization system support and lots of other neat features)
- Xen.org Blog
- The Xen API Project
- Xen Live Migration Support with DRDB
- Virtualization Repository on Bundlebits (guest images, HOWTOs, books, etc.)
- Xen Paravirt_ops (pv_ops) on Xen Wiki
- Xen dom0 git tree
- Xen Commnunity Projects
- Secure PCI Passthrough with Intel VT-d
- Physical to Virtual (P2V) Migration
- Open Virtual Machine Format – Virtual Appliance Managament
- Commercial TurboGate Tools – Paravirtual (PV) Windows Drivers – from Halsign, Inc.
- Commercial Paravirtual (PV) Windows Drivers for Red Hat Enterprise Linux
- Xen Networking Examples
- Linux XEN DomU on OpenSolaris Dom0
- Solaris and Xen
- Xen LiveCD
- Xen Hosting and Resources also a book The Book of Xen
- Xen Virtualization Essentials – online book from Virtuatopia
- Stacklet engine for creating bootable images
- Xen Virtualization community support and Howtos
- Mounting full disk images directly with mount
- Xen Hypervisor boot-time options
- Answers to some common problems and questions about Xen
- Configuring Xen to use and log to a serial console
- Xen Configuration File Options
- Best Practices for Xen
- Xen dom0 kernels
- VM Startup
Some of the many HOWTOs available for Xen
We included many HOWTOs in the book, but more are being written all the time. Here is a list of some of them.
- OpenSUSE 11 Xen HOWTO
- Various Other Xen HOWTOs, everything from Linux to OpenSolaris
- Xen Wiki HowTos
Chapter Descriptions
Chapter 1, “Xen-Background and Virtualization Basics” is a quick introduction to virtualization in general and to Xen in particular. Chapter 2, “A Quick Tour with the Xen LiveCD”, provides an overview of Xen’s functionalities by exploring the Xen LiveCD.
Chapter 3, “The Xen Hypervisor” focuses on the hypervisor that is the core of any Xen system and some other trusted components such as Domain0 and xend. We build on that common understanding of the Xen hypervisor by concretely showing you how to install and configure your own hard-disk-based Xen installation in Chapter 4, “Hardware Requirements and Installation of Xen Domain0″. After you have your own hypervisor installation up and running, this book eases you into using guest images by first showing you how download and use images available from the Internet in Chapter 5, “Using Prebuilt Guest Images”.
Chapter 6, “Managing Unprivileged Domains”, covers the basics of administering the running DomUs or unprivileged guest domains. You are then guided through the various methods of creating your own custom guest images, in Chapter 7 ” Populating Guest Images”. Now that you have all these guests, Chapter 8, ” Storing Guest Images”, covers a variety of choices for storing guest images for online use as well as backup and sharing.
The second half of this book delves into more advanced system management topics including device management (Chapter 9, “Device Virtualization and Management”), networking (Chapter 10, “Network Configuration”), security ( Chapter 11, “Securing a Xen System”), resource distribution (Chapter 12, “Managing Guest Resources”) and migration (Chapter 13, “Guest Save, Restore and Live Migration”). We conclude with a survey of some of the popular administrative tools available for your Xen systems in Chapter 14, “An Overview of Xen Enterprise Management Tools”.
Chapter 1
Resources and References within the Chapter
Xen Performance from the Original SOSP Xen Paper
VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace
References and Further Reading
x86 Virtualization. Wikipedia.
Comparison of Virtual Machines. Wikipedia.
Full Virtualization. Wikipedia.
Popek and Goldberg Virtualization Requirements. Wikipedia.
The Xen Virtual Machine Monitor. University of Cambridge.
Xen Project Status and Roadmap from Xen Summit – Barry Flanagan
Relationship between Xen Paravitualization and Microsoft Enligntenment
Chapter 2
Resources and References within the Chapter
Xen 3.0.3 LiveCD [cached copy]
References and Further Reading
Kumar, Ravi. Testing out the Xen LiveCD. LWN.net.
Xen 3.0.3 LiveCD [cached copy]
Chapter 3
Resources and References with the Text
References and Further Reading
Credit-Based CPU Scheduler. Xen Wiki Xen.org.
DriverDomains. Xen Wiki. Xen.org.
xend-config.sxp (5) – Linux Man page. die.net.
Xen Disk I/O Benchmarking: NetBSD Dom0 vs Linux Dom0.
XenStoreReference. Xen Wiki. Xen.org.
Xend/XML-RPC. Xen Wiki. Xen.org.
Chapter 4
Resources and References within the Text
Xen Hardware Compatibility List
Linux Server: SUSE Linux Enterprise Server by Novell
Repositories – Community Ubuntu Documentation
Citrix XenServer Express Edition
XenSource: Xen Distribution Mercurial (hg) Repositories Browser
References and Further Reading
Xen Hardware Compatibility List
Tools/Xen – Fedora Project Wiki
Installing Xen On CentOS 5.0 (i386) | HowtoForge – Linux Howtos and Tutorials
The Perfect Setup – Ubuntu 6.10 Server (Edgy Eft) – Page 3 | HowtoForge – Linux Howtos and Tutorials
Xen – Community Ubuntu Documentation
HOWTO Xen and Gentoo – Gentoo Linux Wiki
Study of Virtual Machine Performance over Network File Systems
VirtualPower: coordinated power management in virtualized enterprise systems
Chapter 5
Resources and References within the Text
Linux Partition HOWTO – The Linux Documentation Project
Bug #69389 in xen-source-2.6.17 (Ubuntu): Xen: tap:aio (for file-backed vbds) does not work
compFUSEd: transparent compression filesystem for Linux
JumpBox | Server Software Made Simple | JumpBox Inc.
pypxeboot: a PXE bootloader for Xen guests
rBuilder Online – Published Releases: Openfiler NAS/SAN Appliance
Debian 3.1 [Jailtime.org - Downloadable Images for Xen] [cached copy]
Openfiler NAS/SAN Appliance Compressed Tar File [cached copy]
References and Further Reading
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). Amazon Web Services.
Creating a sSwap sSpace. The Linux Documentation Project: Linux System Administrators Guide.
Jailtime.org – Downloadable Images for Xen. Jailtime.org.
Enterprise Virtual Appliances. Virtual Appliances Home.
Examples Using the VMware Virtual Disk Manager.
Formatting an ext2/3 Partition. The Linux Documentation Project: Linux Partition HOWTO.
GParted: Gnome Partition Editor.
HOWTO Xen and Gentoo. Gentoo Wiki.
Kernel Custom Build. Ubuntu Wiki.
Labels. The Linux Documentation Project: Linux Partition HOWTO.
Partitioning with fdisk. The Linux Documentation Project: Linux Partition HOWTO.
pypxeboot: A PXE bootloader for Xen guests.
VHD support in open source Xen (initial announcement)
Xen source browser: lomount. Xen.org.
Xen source browser: pygrub. Xen.org.
XenSource Downloads: Virtual Disk Migration Utility
Jailtime.org – Downloadable Images for Xen.
UPDATE, found a new link: VMfind – Virtual Appliance Search: Home
Chapter 6
Resources and References within the Text
References and Further Reading
X Forwarding over SSH Tutorial.
Xen 2.0 and 3.0 User’s Manual. University of Cambridge.
Chapter 7
Resources and References within the Text
SUSE Linux Enterprise Virtual Machine Driver Pack
[Xen-devel] First release of GPL PV drivers for Windows – Xen Source [UPDATE: Newer version available here]
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Documentation
Citrix XenServer Express Edition
References and Further Reading
Burdulis, Šarūnas. Xen 3.04 HVM and Debian Etch. Dartmouth College.
Citrix XenServer Express Edition Download. Citrix.
Configuring Gentoo with Xen. Gentoo Linux.
Creating and Installing a CentOS DomU Instanace. CentOS Wiki.
Fedora Xen Quickstart Guide.[UPDATE: Better Fedora Xen starting point here]
Gentoo Linux — Gentoo Documentation Resources
Gentoo Linux Documentation — Gentoo Handbook
HOWTO: Virtual Xen Servers and Gentoo. Gentoo Wiki.
HOWTO Xen and Gentoo. Gentoo Wiki.
Installing and Using a Fully-Virtualized Xen Guest. CentOS Wiki.
Installing Xen3 – openSUSE includes yast dirinstall
Installing Xen on Ubuntu Feisty Fawn – The Complete Newbies Guide. Redemption in a Blog.
Rosen, Rami. Virtualization in Xen 3.0. Linux Journal.
rpmstrap – Bootstrap a Basic RPM-Based System.
Timme, Falko. The Perfect Xen 3.1.0 Setup for Debian Etch (i386). HowtoForge.
Xen 3.1 Binary Installation CentOS 5.0 [with HVM support]. Oracle DBA Blog.
Xen Tools. Xen guest creation tools for Debian.
Chapter 8
Resources and References within the Text
Setup to Do Online Resize of VM Using LVM. XenSource Support Forums.
SourceForge.net: ATA over Ethernet Tools
Coraid :: The Linux Storage People
Linux Support for EtherDrive (R) Storage
Setting up an NFS Client
Gentoo Linux Documentation — Diskless Nodes with Gentoo
Booting Xen 3.0 guests using NFS
References and Further Reading
Accessing Data on a Guest Disk Image (lomount and kpartx). Fedora Wiki.
Booting Xen 3.0 Guests Using NFS. Debian Administration.
Converting a VMWare Image to Xen HVM. Ian Blenke Computer Engineer Blog.
Diskless Nodes with Gentoo. Gentoo Linux Documentation.
Extending Xen* with Intel[rm]w] Virtualization Technology. Intel Technology Journal.
Geambasu, Roxana and John P. John. Study of Virtual Machine Performance over Network File Systems.
Gnome Partition Editor. (GParted) Gnome Welcome.
iscsi-target. Virtual Appliance Marketplace.
Linux Partition HOWTO: Partitioning with fdisk. The Linux Documentation Project.
Logical Volume Management. Wikipedia.
Logical Volume Manager (Linux). Wikipedia.
LVM HOWTO. The Linux Documentation Project.
Open-iSCSI: RFC 3270 architecture and implementation. Open-iSCSI project.
A Simple Introduction to Working with LVM. Debian Administration.
Using LVM-Backed VBDs. Xen Manual.
Using the LVM utility system-config-lvm. Red Hat Documentation.
Setup to Do Online Resize of VM Using LVM. XenSource Support Forums.
Virtual Machine Deployment Specification. VMCasting.
VMDKImage: Migrate a VmWare Disk Image to XEN. Xen Wiki.
Xen 3.0.x Limitations. Ian Blenke Computer Engineer Blog.
Chapter 9
Reference and Further Reading
Virtual Frame Buffer for PV Xen. Markus Armruster, 2006 Red Hat GmbH
VMGL: VMM-Independent Graphics Acceleration. H. Andres Lagar-Cavilla, U of Toronto
Blink: Advanced Display Multiplexing for Virtualized Applications. Jacob Gorm Hansen
[Xen-devel] Virtual Framebuffer Screenshots – Xen Source
FibreChannel, VSANS: Virtual Storage Ports. James Smart. Emulux Corporation
Virtualizing InfiniBand in Xen. IBM Research
Xen scsifront/back drivers FUJITA Tomonori NTT Cyber Solutions Laboratories
Chapter 10
References and Further Reading
An Attempt to Explain Xen Networking. Xen Users Mailing List.
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. Wikipedia.
Network Address Translation. Wikipedia.
Network Configuration. Xen Users’ Manual Xen v3.0.
network-route and vif-route Setup Help. Xen Users Mailing List.
OSI and TCP/IP Layering Differences. TCP/IPISO mModel. Wikipedia.
RFC1918: Address Allocation for Private Internets.
Using Multitple Network Cards in XEN 3.0. Debian Administration.
Virtual Private Network. Wikipedia.
Chapter 11
Resources and References within the Text
netstat(8) – Linux man page
netfilter/iptables project homepage – the netfilter.org project
Snort – the de facto standard for intrusion detection/prevention
TCPDUMP/LIBPCAP public repository
References and Further Reading
iptables Project Home Page. Netfilter Web site.
Linux Firewalls Using iptables. Linux Home Networking.
Red Hat Virtualization. Red Hat Documentation.
Secure Hypervisor (sHype) Home Page.
Security Enhanced Linux. National Security Agency – Central Security Service Web site.
Deitel, Harvey M. [1982] (1984). An introduction to operating systems, revisited first edition, Addison-Wesley, 673. ISBN 0-201-14502-2.
Rash, Michael [2007]. “Linux Firewalls: Attack Detection and Response with iptables, psad, and fwsnort”, No Starch Press, ISBN: 978-1593271411
Chapter 12
Resources and References with the Text
IOMMU Architectural Specification. AMD
Extending Xen with Intel Virtualization Technology
References and Further Reading
Archived Xen Developer’s Mailing List. UPDATE: More recent Xen Developer’s xen-devel archives
Chisnall, David. The Definitive Guide to the Xen Hypervisor. Amazon.com.
Credit-Based CPU Scheduler. Xen Wiki.
Extending Xen with Intel Virtualization Technology. Intel Technology Journal.
Love, Robert. Kernel Korner – I/O Schedulers. Linux Journal.
Xen 2.0 and 3.0 User Manual. University of Cambridge.
Chapter 13
References and Further Reading
Clark, Christopher et al. Live Migration of Virtual Machines.
Virijevich, Paul. Live Migration of Xen Domains. Linux.com.
Chapter 14
Resources and References within the Text
libvirt: the virtualization API
Citrix XenServer Enterprise Edition
Citrix XenServer Standard Edition
Citrix XenServer Express Edition
IBM Director: Extensions: Virtualization Manager
Virtual Machine Manager: Screenshots
Virtual Machine Manager: Installation Wizard Sceenshots
XenMan – Open Source Virtualization Management
References and Further Reading
Citrix XenServer Enterprise Edition.
Citrix XenServer Express Edition.
Citrix XenServer Standard Edition.
Enomalism XEN Virtualized Server Management Console.
IBM Director Extensions: Virtualization Manager. IBM Web Site.
Virtual Machine Manager: Home.
Virtual Machine Manager: Installation Wizard Screenshots.
Virtual Machine Manager: Screenshots.
Welcome to ConVirt. Information about XenMan – Open Source Virtualization Management.
Xen API: The Xen API Project. Xen Wiki.
Appendix A
Resources and References with the Text
XenSource: Xen Distribution mercurial (hg) Repositories Browser
Mercurial(hg) Cheatsheet for Xen
Computer Laboratory – Xen virtual machine monitor
Xen packages and kernels for SUSE Linux
Xen – Community Ubuntu Documentation
HOWTO Xen and Gentoo – Gentoo Linux Wiki
OpenSolaris Xen xen-discuss Info Page
Appendix B
xm(1): Xen management user interface – Linux man page
Appendix C
xend-config.sxp(5): Xen daemon config file – Linux man page
Appendix D
xmdomain.cfg(5): xm domain config file format – Linux man page
Appendix E
Resources and References within the Text
