Running SLES11sp3: only instructions I can find related to this all apply to SLES10 which is different in many ways and involves editing all kinds of files.
A coworker claimed he knows how to get an established VM to reboot from an ISO (of course he’s out this week), but the only likely thing I see in Virt-Manager under Boot Options is the “Direct boot to kernel” section.
Would I mount the iso file to a location on the host and use these fields to point to the relevant subdirectories? If I cleared these fields and rebooted would it reboot normally again? There is so little information but it seems to be for install only. I’m not going to attempt this without knowing.
Hi
In the VM tools/GUI you can mount the iso image as a cd/dvd. Set this to boot, then in the grub menu presented there is an option to boot from the hard drive, so select that one.
[QUOTE=malcolmlewis;31037]Hi
In the VM tools/GUI you can mount the iso image as a cd/dvd. Set this to boot, then in the grub menu presented there is an option to boot from the hard drive, so select that one.[/QUOTE]
I had already added the ISO as a DVD, but I see no such option in Virt-manager to set this to boot.
The only options under Xen CDROM2 are:
Readonly (checked)
Shareable
Under Advanced:
Serial number
Storage format
Performance Options:
Cache Mode
IO mode
That’s all there is. 
Hi
You should be able to set the boot order, if so set the iso image to be first rather than the vm disk.
[QUOTE=malcolmlewis;31039]Hi
You should be able to set the boot order, if so set the iso image to be first rather than the vm disk.[/QUOTE]
In SLES11sp3? What VM tools are you referring to? I think I failed to mention that this is Xen, not VMWare or KVM.
Hi
Ahh, OK. You should be able to set a boot order/option in the config?
http://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Setting_boot_order_for_domUs
[QUOTE=malcolmlewis;31117]Hi
Ahh, OK. You should be able to set a boot order/option in the config?
http://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Setting_boot_order_for_domUs[/QUOTE]
In the virt-manager boot options or the hosts’s boot files?
I wondered about this (see attachment), which seems similar. From what I’ve googled though, it seems to be for install only.
I did find if exported the config (xm list --long “domU” > “domU.conf” and looked under devices, there is a Boot option: currently, the disk file itself is set to “1”, the CDROMs are set to “0”, wondering if I make CDROM2 (which is the install iso) “1” and made the disk “0” if that would do it. I’d have to undo that though before the restart.
Hi
Sounds like worth a try, but the install iso also has a rescue boot option as well as booting from the hard drive.