Hacker’s Diary

This solution assumes you have already installed Debian Linux with minimum base system.

This solution is made for amd64 system. But others should be the same, just find the correct package for you system.

Setup

First install SSH, so it will be a lot easier to copy/paste commands in console

apt-get install ssh

Remove packages we don’t need

apt-get remove exim4 exim4-base lpr nfs-common portmap pidentd pcmcia-cs pppoe pppoeconf ppp pppconfig

apt-get install screen debootstrap iproute python python-twisted-core python-twisted-conch bridge-utils

XEN related packages

apt-get install xen-linux-system-2.6.18-6-xen-amd64

apt-get install xen-tools

If you wish to use XFS file system, you also need to install xfsprogs

apt-get install xfsprogs

Creating Virtual Machines

The best way of creating up virtual machines is using hard drives LVM volume, thus way you can easly increase partition size of partition where VM is.

Creating virtual machine using LVM volume vs0, and ext3 filesystem. VM will be running minimum base install of Debian Linux

xen-create-image –hostname=vm1.hackersdiary.com –size=4Gb –swap=512Mb –ide \

–ip=10.0.0.119 –netmask=255.255.255.0 –gateway=10.0.0.1 –force \

–lvm=vs0 –memory=512Mb –arch=amd64 –fs=ext3 –kernel=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-6-xen-amd64 \

–debootstrap –dist=etch –mirror=http://ftp.ee.debian.org/debian/ –passwd \

–initrd=/boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-6-xen-amd64

This will create a 4Gb root partition, and 512Mb swap for VM. After the installation of base system, you will be required to input root password for your newly created VM.

To create XFS filesystem on VM, replace the –fs=ext3 with –fs=xfs
To use image files instead of LVM volumes replace –lvm=vs0 with –dir=/vm/images

Make VM to start automatically on boot

ln -s /etc/xen/vm1.hackersdiary.com.cfg /etc/xen/auto

Starting up VM manually

xm create -c /etc/xen/vm1.hackersdiary.com.cfg

To leave VM’s shell, type CTRL+] if you are at the console, or CTRL+5 if you’re connected to main debian using ssh

Shutting down VM

xm shutdown vm1.hackersdiary.com

Also awailable commands

xm reboot vm1.hackersdiary.com

xm list

How to increase VM’s partition size (Only if using LVM)

XFS Filesystem

lvextend -L+10G /dev/vs0/vm1.hackersdiary.com-disk

xm shutdown vm1.hackersdiary.com

mount /dev/vs0/vm1.hackersdiary.com-disk /vm/base

xfs_growfs /vm/base

umount /vm/base

xm create -c /etc/xen/vm1.hackersdiary.com.cfg

EXT3 Filesystem

lvextend -L+10G /dev/vs0/vm1.hackersdiary.com-disk

xm shutdown vm1.hackersdiary.com

resize2fs /dev/vs0/vm1.hackersdiary.com-disk

e2fsck -f /dev/vs0/vm1.hackersdiary.com-disk

xm create -c /etc/xen/vm1.hackersdiary.com.cfg

Comments? Problems? You’re welcome.