So after all the grief with Xen and Suse, I started again. Trashed the server, installed firmware, hardware RAID etc and then a fresh install of SLES12 sp3, all standard settings except I did a custom disk setup as follows: vfat boot and swap of 2.gb then the balance 2.7 tb to / … all kool! Installation goes perfect and reboot. Server comes up and can ping the universe, see the disks, etc etc. Install Xen Virtulization Tools, again the defaults. Changed the BootLoader to “SLES12sp3 with Xen” and shutdown. Power up and the server gets to the BootLoader screen and the “Sles with Xen” option starts, the screen clears and the server does nothing further. mmmh, power off and then on. The server gets to the BootLoader screen and I select the “Sles” option the server boots and all is good.
I have looked in the logs but have found nothing that refers to the Booting of the hypervisor …
As usual: suggestions, comments, tips, cash or laughter will be appreciated
The server is an Lenovo x3630 M4 (IBM) and Hyperthreading is enabled.
John[/color]
Hi John,
Jen wanted you to check the virtualization settings. Hyperthreading has
nothing to do with whether or not virtualization is enabled.
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Kevin Boyle - Knowledge Partner
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The only setting in the BIOS is “Intel Virtualization - Vanderpool Technology” either Enabled or Disabled makes no difference to the boot process of the Xen Hypervisor …
If they are enabled, can you disable the kernel options splash=silent and quiet to see what is logged on the screen until the booting stops? Maybe that helps diagnosing. Also which kernel version are you running?
This shouldn’t prevent the OS boot, I think.
I’m not sure how reliable such a statement can be, but I saw this in a virtual machine, too. Booting into xen hypervisor simply gets stuck at some point, and after reboot into default there’s no trace in the logs of the previous attempt to boot into xen. Again, I’m not sure if and how there’s a correlation between a virtual machine and a hardware hypervisor, but your description was pretty close to what I saw. Maybe someone else has more experience with SLES12SP3 and Xen and can shed some light on this.
Don’t you just love I.T. … so, trashed the server again. Turned off “Intel Virtualization Technology - Vanderpool” in BIOS and installed SLES12, then enabled Hypervisor and all is good but can only install paravirtualized servers. Shutdown the server and enable the “Intel Virtualization Technology” and rebooted into XEN mode. Kool, I can create/delete VM’s for Windoze and SuSE.
Next, shutdown VM’s and reboot server with SLES12sp3 CD and do an upgrade and reboot into SLES12sp3. All goes well, check the Virtualization is implemented and configure the “BootLoader” and reboot. The server restarts and then boots into the XEN hypervisor. The “logging” screen appears and all is green and shows that the server is starting the XEN component and then the screen goes blank and does nothing further …
As before, and suggestions, tips, cash, tears or laughter will be appreciated…
John
As before, and suggestions, tips, cash, tears or laughter will be
appreciated…[/color]
Hi John,
Have you checked to make sure your server has the latest BIOS and
firmware? That may be worth trying!
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Kevin Boyle - Knowledge Partner
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Boot server into SLES11sp3 (standard)
Download half the IBM site for anything SLES12 related
Install each .rpm file.
Reboot to confirm SLES 12sp working but still no Hypervisor booting.
Reboot server with SLES12sp4
Select “Upgrade” and then register server with SuSE.
Upgrade server and I guess some extra updates got installed.
Reboot and XEN is now working.
Loading existing Windoze and SLES servers
Now able to create new servers …
mutter, mutter, mutter, getting too old for this !*#$% … All done!
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Kevin Boyle - Knowledge Partner
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