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UNIX V CASE STUDIES

5.1 The Linux System

An operating system is a program that acts as an interface between the user and the computer
hardware and controls the execution of all kinds of programs. The Linux open source operating system,
or Linux OS, is a freely distributable, cross-platform operating system based on UNIX.
The Linux consist of a kernel and some system programs. There are also some application programs for
doing work. The kernel is the heart of the operating system which provides a set of tools that are used
by system calls.
The defining component of Linux is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on 5
October 1991 by Linus Torvalds.

A Linux-based system is a modular Unix-like operating system. It derives much of its basic design from
principles established in UNIX. Such a system uses a monolithic kernel which handles process control,
networking, and peripheral and file system access.

5.2 Important features of Linux Operating System

Portable - Portability means software can work on different types of hardware in same way. Linux
kernel and application programs supports their installation on any kind of hardware platform.
Open Source - Linux source code is freely available and it is community based development project.
Multi-User & Multiprogramming - Linux is a multiuser system where multiple users can access system
resources like memory/ ram/ application programs at same time. Linux is a multiprogramming system
means multiple applications can run at same time.
Hierarchical File System - Linux provides a standard file structure in which system files/ user files are
arranged.
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Shell - Linux provides a special interpreter program which can be used to execute commands of the
operating system.
Security - Linux provides user security using authentication features like password protection/
controlled access to specific files/ encryption of data.

5.3 Components of Linux System

Linux Operating System has primarily three components
Kernel - Kernel is the core part of Linux. It is responsible for all major activities of this operating system.
It is consists of various modules and it interacts directly with the underlying hardware. Kernel provides
the required abstraction to hide low level hardware details to system or application programs.
System Library - System libraries are special functions or programs using which application programs
or system utilities accesses Kernel's features. These libraries implements most of the functionalities of
the operating system and do not requires kernel module's code access rights.
System Utility - System Utility programs are responsible to do specialized, individual level tasks

Installed components of a Linux system include the following:

A bootloader is a program that loads the Linux kernel into the computer's main memory, by being
executed by the computer when it is turned on and after the firmware initialization is performed.
An init program is the first process launched by the Linux kernel, and is at the root of the process tree.
Software libraries, which contain code that can be used by running processes. The most commonly
used software library on Linux systems, the GNU C Library (glibc), C standard library and Widget toolkits.
User interface programs such as command shells or windowing environments. The user interface, also
known as the shell, is either a command-line interface (CLI), a graphical user interface (GUI), or through
controls attached to the associated hardware.
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5.4 Architecture

Linux System Architecture is consists of following layers

1. Hardware layer - Hardware consists of all peripheral devices (RAM/ HDD/ CPU etc).
2. Kernel - Core component of Operating System, interacts directly with hardware, provides low level

services to upper layer components.

3. Shell - An interface to kernel, hiding complexity of kernel's functions from users. Takes commands

from user and executes kernel's functions.

4. Utilities - Utility programs giving user most of the functionalities of an operating systems.

5.5 Modes of operation

Kernel Mode:
Kernel component code executes in a special privileged mode called kernel mode with full
access to all resources of the computer.
This code represents a single process, executes in single address space and do not require any
context switch and hence is very efficient and fast.
Kernel runs each processes and provides system services to processes, provides protected
access to hardware to processes.
User Mode:
The system programs use the tools provided by the kernel to implement the various services
required from an operating system. System programs, and all other programs, run `on top of
the kernel', in what is called the user mode.
Support code which is not required to run in kernel mode is in System Library.

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User programs and other system programs work in User Mode which has no access to system
hardware and kernel code.
User programs/ utilities use System libraries to access Kernel functions to get system's low level
tasks.

5.6 Major Services provided by LINUX System

1. Initialization (init)
The single most important service in a LINUX system is provided by init program. The
init is started as the first process of every LINUX system, as the last thing the kernel does when
it boots. When init starts, it continues the boot process by doing various startup chores
(checking and mounting file systems, starting daemons, etc).
2. Logins from terminals (getty)
Logins from terminals (via serial lines) and the console are provided by the getty
program. init starts a separate instance of getty for each terminal upon which logins are to be
allowed. Getty reads the username and runs the login program, which reads the password. If
the username and password are correct, login runs the shell.
3. Logging and Auditing (syslog)
The kernel and many system programs produce error, warning, and other messages. It
is often important that these messages can be viewed later, so they should be written to a file.
The program doing this logging operation is known as syslog.
4. Periodic command execution (cron & at)
Both users and system administrators often need to run commands periodically. For
example, the system administrator might want to run a command to clean the directories with
temporary files from old files, to keep the disks from filling up, since not all programs clean up
after themselves correctly.
o The cron service is set up to do this. Each user can have a crontab file, where the lists
the commands wish to execute and the times they should be executed.
o The at service is similar to cron, but it is once only: the command is executed at the
given time, but it is not repeated.

5. Graphical user interface

o UNIX and Linux don't incorporate the user interface into the kernel; instead, they let it
be implemented by user level programs. This applies for both text mode and graphical
environments. This arrangement makes the system more flexible.

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o The graphical environment primarily used with Linux is called the X Window System (X
for short) that provides tools with which a GUI can be implemented. Some popular
window managers are blackbox and windowmaker. There are also two popular desktop
managers, KDE and Gnome.
6. Network logins (telnet, rlogin & ssh)
Network logins work a little differently than normal logins. For each person logging in via the
network there is a separate virtual network connection. It is therefore not possible to run a separate
getty for each virtual connection. There are several different ways to log in via a network, telnet and
ssh being the major ones in TCP/IP networks.
Most of Linux system administrators consider telnet and rlogin to be insecure and prefer ssh,
the ``secure shell'', which encrypts traffic going over the network, thereby making it far less likely that
the malicious can ``sniff'' the connection and gain sensitive data like usernames and passwords.
7. Network File System (NFS & CIFS)
One of the more useful things that can be done with networking services is sharing files via a
network file system. Depending on your network this could be done over the Network File System (NFS),
or over the Common Internet File System (CIFS).
NFS is typically a 'UNIX' based service. In Linux, NFS is supported by the kernel. CIFS however is
not. In Linux, CIFS is supported by Samba. With a network file system any file operations done by a
program on one machine are sent over the network to another computer.

UNIX Timeline - Simplified history of Unix-like operating systems

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5.7 SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR

A system administrator is a person who is responsible for the configuration and reliable
operation of computer systems, especially multi-user computers, such as servers.
The system administrator seeks to ensure that the uptime, performance, resources, and
security of the computers without exceeding the budget.
To meet these needs, a system administrator may acquire, install, or upgrade computer
components and software, provide routine automation, maintain security policies AND
troubleshoot.
5.7.1 Responsibilities of a System Administrator
A system administrator's responsibilities might include:
Installing and configuring new hardware and software.
Applying operating system updates, patches, and configuration changes.
Analyzing system logs and identifying potential issues with computer systems.
Introducing and integrating new technologies into existing data center environments and
configuring, adding, and deleting file systems.
Performing routine audit of systems and software.
Adding, removing, or updating user account information, resetting passwords, etc.
Responsibility for security and documenting the configuration of the system.
Troubleshooting any reported problems.
System performance tuning.

5.7.2 Various System Administrator Roles

In a larger company, these may all be separate positions within a computer support or Information
Services (IS) department. In a smaller group they may be shared by a few sysadmins, or even a single
person.
A database administrator (DBA) maintains a database system, and is responsible for the
integrity of the data and the efficiency and performance of the system.
A network administrator maintains network infrastructure such as switches and routers, and
diagnoses problems with these or with the behaviour of network-attached computers.
A security administrator is a specialist in computer and network security, including the
administration of security devices such as firewalls, as well as consulting on general security
measures.

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A web administrator maintains web server services (such as Apache or IIS) that allow for
internal or external access to web sites. Tasks include managing multiple sites, administering
security, and configuring necessary components and software.
A computer operator performs routine maintenance and upkeep, such as changing backup
tapes or replacing failed drives in a redundant array of independent disks (RAID).
A postmaster administers a mail server.
A Storage Administrator (SAN) can create, provision, add or remove Storage to/from
Computer systems. Storage can be attached locally to the system or from a storage area
network (SAN) or network-attached storage (NAS).

5.7.3 Requirements for LINUX system administrator

1. While specific knowledge is a boon, system administrator should possess basic knowledge about all
aspects of Linux. For example, a little knowledge about Solaris, BSD, nginx or various flavors of
Linux.
2. Knowledge in at least one of the upper tier scripting language such as Python, Perl, Ruby or more.
3. To be a system administrator, he/she at least needs to have some hands-on experience of system
management, system setup and managing Linux or Solaris based servers as well as configuring
them.
4. Knowledge in shell programming such as Buorne or Korn and architecture.
5. Knowledge about storage technologies like FC, NFS or iSCSI is great, while knowledge regarding
backup technologies is a must for a system administrator.
6. Knowledge in testing methodologies like Subversion or Git is great, while knowledge of version
control is also an advantage.
7. Knowledge about basics of configuration management tools like Puppet and Chef.
8. Skills with system and application monitoring tools like SNMP or Nagios are also important, as they
show your ability as an administrator in a team setting.
9. Knowledge about how to operate virtualized VMWare or Xen Server, Multifunction Server and
Samba
10. An ITIL Foundation certification for Linux system administrator.

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5.8 SETTING UP A LINUX MULTIFUNCTION SERVER

A Linux machine can be configured as a server either by compiling several well-defined scripts

and off-line downloaded packages or through on-line installation method. Setting up a

multifunction server, the system administrator should have knowledge about a series of shell

commands. A Linux machine can be configured as any of following application servers such as,

• A Web Server (Apache 2.0.x)

• A Mail Server (Postfix)

• A DNS Server (BIND 9)

• An FTP Server (ProFTPD)

• Mail Delivery Agents (POP3/POP3s/IMAP/IMAPs)

• Webalizer for web site statistics

Files and directories shared by Linux system, as viewed from a Windows PC

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5.8.1 Server Requirements

To set up a Linux Internet server, we will need a connection to the Internet and a static IP
address. The system can also be setup with the address leased by ISP and configure it statically.
Computer with at least a Pentium III CPU, a minimum of 256 MB of RAM, and a 10 GB hard
drive is preferred. Obviously, a newer CPU and additional memory will provide better performance.
This chapter is based on Debian’s stable version. We strongly suggest using a CD with the Netinstall
kernel. The Debian web site provides downloadable CD images.

5.8.2 Installing & Configuring Network Services

Administrator should log into the server from a remote console on desktop. It is recommended
to do further administration from another system (even a laptop), because a secure server normally
runs in what is called headless mode—that is, it has no monitor or keyboard.
Get used to administering the server like this. A SSH client on the remote machine is needed
which virtually all Linux distributions have and which can be downloaded for other operating
systems as well.
Configuring the Network
If DHCP is used during the Debian installation, Server with a static IP address should be
configured as follows,
1. To change the settings to use a static IP address, you’ll need to become root and
edit the file /etc/network/interfaces to suit your needs. As an example, we’ll use
the IP address 70.153.258.42.
2. To add the IP address 70.153.258.42 to the interface eth0, we must change the file
to look like this (you’ll have to obtain some of the information from your ISP):
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 70.153.258.42
netmask 255.255.255.248
network 70.153.258.0
broadcast 70.153.258.47
gateway 70.153.258.46
3. After editing the /etc/network/interfaces file, restart the network by entering:
# /etc/init.d/networking restart
4. To edit /etc/resolv.conf and add nameservers to resolve Internet hostnames to
their corresponding IP addresses. At this point, we will simply set up a minimal DNS
server. Our resolv.conf looks as follows:
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search server
nameserver 70.153.258.42
nameserver 70.253.158.45
nameserver 151.164.1.8
5. Now edit /etc/hosts and add your IP addresses:
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost server1
70.153.258.42 server1.centralsoft.org server1
6. Now, to set the hostname, enter these commands:
# echo server1.centralsoft.org > /etc/hostname
# /bin/hostname -F /etc/hostname
7. verify that you configured your hostname correctly by running the hostname
command:
~$ hostname -f
server1.centralsoft.org
5.9 Providing Domain Name Services (BIND - the ubiquitous DNS server)
Debian provides a stable version of BIND in its repositories. BIND can be installed, setup
and secure it in a chroot environment, meaning it won’t be able to see or access files
outside its own directory tree. This is an important security technique.
The term chroot refers to the trick of changing the root filesystem (the /directory) that a
process sees, so that most of the system is effectively inaccessible to it.
The BIND server also can be configured to run as a non-root user. That way, if someone
gains access to BIND, he/she won’t gain root privileges or be able to control other
processes.
1. To install BIND on your Debian server, run this command:
# apt-get install bind9
Debian downloads and configures the file as an Internet service and the status can be
seen on the console:
Setting up bind9 (9.2.4-1)
Adding group `bind' (104) - Done.
Adding system user `bind'
Adding new user `bind' (104) with group `bind'.
Not creating home directory.
Starting domain name service: named.
2. To put BIND in a secured environment, create a directory where the service can run
unexposed to other processes. First stop the service by running the following command:

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# /etc/init.d/bind9 stop
3. Edit the file /etc/default/bind9 so that the daemon will run as the unprivileged user bind,
chrooted to /var/lib/named. Change the line:
OPTS="-u bind"
So that it reads:
OPTIONS="-u bind -t /var/lib/named"
4. To provide a complete environment for running BIND, create the necessary directories
under /var/lib:
# mkdir -p /var/lib/named/etc
# mkdir /var/lib/named/dev
# mkdir -p /var/lib/named/var/cache/bind
# mkdir -p /var/lib/named/var/run/bind/run
Then move the config directory from /etc to /var/lib/named/etc:
# mv /etc/bind /var/lib/named/etc
Next, create a symbolic link to the new config directory from the old location, to avoid
problems when BIND is upgraded in the future:
# ln -s /var/lib/named/etc/bind /etc/bind
Make null and random devices for use by BIND, and fix the permissions of the directories:
# mknod /var/lib/named/dev/null c 1 3
# mknod /var/lib/named/dev/random c 1 8
Then change permissions and ownership on the files:
# chmod 666 /var/lib/named/dev/null
/var/lib/named/dev/random
# chown -R bind:bind /var/lib/named/var/*
# chown -R bind:bind /var/lib/named/etc/bind
5. Finally, start BIND:
# /etc/init.d/bind9 start
6. To check whether named is functioning without any trouble.
Execute this command:
server1:/home/admin# rndc status
number of zones: 6
debug level: 0
xfers running: 0
xfers deferred: 0
soa queries in progress: 0
query logging is OFF
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server is up and running

server1:/home/admin#

Setting up Ubuntu shares in a Windows environment

Ubuntu’s setup screen for file-sharing services

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5.10 Virtualization
Virtualization refers to the act of creating a virtual (rather than actual) version of
something, including a virtual computer hardware platform, operating system (OS),
storage device, or computer network resources.

Traditional Architecture vs. Virtual Architecture

Virtual Machine Server – A Layered Approach

Hardware virtualization or platform virtualization refers to the creation of a virtual

machine that acts like a real computer with an operating system. Software executed on
these virtual machines is separated from the underlying hardware resources.
Hardware virtualization hides the physical characteristics of a computing platform from
users, instead showing another abstract computing platform.
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For example, a computer that is running Microsoft Windows may host a virtual machine
that looks like a computer with the Ubuntu Linux operating system; Ubuntu-based
software can be run on the virtual machine.

Hardware Virtualization
Benefits of Virtualization
1. Instead of deploying several physical servers for each service, only one server can
be used. Virtualization let multiple OSs and applications to run on a server at a time.
Consolidate hardware to get vastly higher productivity from fewer servers.
2. If the preferred operating system is deployed as an image, so we needed to go
through the installation process only once for the entire infrastructure.
3. Improve business continuity: Virtual operating system images allow us for instant
recovery in case of a system failure. The crashed system can be restored back by
coping the virtual image.
4. Increased uptime: Most server virtualization platforms offer a number of advanced
features that just aren't found on physical servers which increases servers’ uptime.
Some of features are live migration, storage migration, fault tolerance, high
availability, and distributed resource scheduling.
5. Reduce capital and operating costs: Server consolidation can be done by running
multiple virtual machines (VM) on a single physical server. Fewer servers means
lower capital and operating costs.

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Architecture - Virtualization
The heart of virtualization is the “virtual machine” (VM), a tightly isolated software
container with an operating system and application inside. Because each virtual machine is
completely separate and independent, many of them can run simultaneously on a single
computer. A thin layer of software called a hypervisor decouples the virtual machines from the
host and dynamically allocates computing resources to each virtual machine as needed.
This architecture redefines your computing equation and delivers:
Many applications on each server: As each virtual machine encapsulates an entire
machine, many applications and operating systems can run on a single host at the same
time.
Maximum server utilization, minimum server count: Every physical machine is used to
its full capacity, allowing you to significantly reduce costs by deploying fewer servers
overall.
Faster, easier application and resource provisioning: As self-contained software files,
virtual machines can be manipulated with copy-and-paste ease. Virtual machines can
even be transferred from one physical server to another while running, via a process
known as live migration.

5.10.1 Setting up a VMware Workstation

VMware Workstation
VMware Workstation is developed and sold by VMware, Inc., a division of EMC
Corporation. VMware Workstation is a hypervisor that runs on x86 or x86-64 computers; it
enables users to set up one or more virtual machines (VMs) on a single physical machine, and
use them simultaneously along with the actual machine.
Each virtual machine can execute its own operating system, including versions of
Microsoft Windows, Linux, BSD, and MS-DOS. VMware Workstation supports bridging existing
host network adapters and share physical disk drives and USB devices with a virtual machine.
In addition, it can simulate disk drives. It can mount an existing ISO image file into a virtual
optical disc drive so that the virtual machine sees it as a real one. Likewise, virtual hard disk
drives are made via .vmdk files.
VMware Workstation can save the state of a virtual machine (a "snapshot") at any
instant. These snapshots can later be restored, effectively returning the virtual machine to the
saved state.

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VMware Workstation
VMware Workstation includes the ability to designate multiple virtual machines as a
team which can then be powered on, powered off, suspended or resumed as a single object,
making it particularly useful for testing client-server environments.

VMWare Player
The VMware Player, a virtualization package of basically similar, but reduced,
functionality, is also available, and is free of charge for non-commercial use, or for distribution
or other use by written agreement.
VMware Player is a virtualization software package supplied free of charge by VMware,
Inc. VMware Player can run existing virtual appliances and create its own virtual machines. It
uses the same virtualization core as VMware Workstation, a similar program with more
features, but not free of charge. VMware Player is available for personal non-commercial use,
or for distribution or other use by written agreement.
VMware claims the Player offers better graphics, faster performance, and tighter
integration for running Windows XP under Windows Vista or Windows 7 than Microsoft's
Windows XP Mode running on Windows Virtual PC, which is free of charge for all purposes.

VMware Tools
VMware Tools is a package with drivers and other software that can be installed in guest
operating systems to increase their performance. It has several components, including the
following drivers for the emulated hardware:
VESA-compliant graphics for the guest machine to access high screen resolutions

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Mouse integration, Drag-and-drop file support

Clipboard sharing between host and guest
Time synchronization capabilities (guest syncs with host machine's clock)
Support for Unity, a feature that allows seamless integration of applications with the
host desktop

Installing and Configuring VMWare

1. Download VMware Server 2. VMware management console on a remote Ubuntu
desktop behind a firewall at a remote location. Run the following command:
$gksu vmware-server-console
2. Install the VMware Server 2.0.2 rpm as shown below.
# rpm -ivh VMware-server-2.0.2-203138.i386.rpm
Preparing...
1:VMware-server
########################################### [100%]
The installation of VMware Server 2.0.2 for Linux completed successfully.
You can decide to remove this software from your system at any time by invoking the
following command:
rpm -e VMware-server
Before running VMware Server for the first time, you need to configure it for your
running kernel by invoking the following command:
/usr/bin/vmware-config.pl
3. Configure VMware Server 2 using vmware-config.pl. Execute the vmware-config.pl as
shown below. Accept default values for everything. Partial output of the vmware-
config.pl is shown below.
# /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl
4. Go to VMware Infrastructure Webaccess. Go to https://{host-os-ip}:8333/ui to access
the VMware Infrastructure web access console.

VMware Web Access Login

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Installing a VMware Guest OS

1. Start VMware Workstation
Windows host: Double-click the VMware Workstation icon on your desktop or use the
Start menu (Start > Programs > VMware > VMware Workstation).
Linux host: In a terminal window, enter the command
vmware &
2. Start the New Virtual Machine Wizard
When you start VMware Workstation, you can open an existing virtual machine or
create a new one. Choose File > New > Virtual Machine to begin creating your virtual
machine.
3. Select the method you want to use for configuring your virtual machine.

If you select Typical, the wizard prompts you to specify or accept defaults for the
following choices:
The guest operating system
The virtual machine name and the location of the virtual machine's files
The network connection type
Whether to allocate all the space for a virtual disk at the time you create it
Whether to split a virtual disk into 2GB files

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If you select Custom, the wizard prompts you to specify or accept defaults for the
following choices:
Make a legacy virtual machine that is compatible with Workstation 4.x, GSX
Server 3.x, ESX Server 2.x and VMware ACE 1.x.
Use an IDE virtual disk for a guest operating system that would otherwise have
a SCSI virtual disk created by default
Use a physical disk rather than a virtual disk and Set memory options that are
different from the defaults
4. Select a guest operating system and type a name and folder for the virtual machine.
Linux hosts: The default location for this Windows XP Professional virtual machine is
<homedir>/vmware/winXPPro, where <homedir> is the home directory of the user who is

currently logged on.

5. Specify the number of processors for the virtual machine. The setting Two is supported
only for host machines with at least two logical processors.

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If you selected Custom as your configuration path, you may adjust the memory settings
or accept the defaults, then click Next to continue.
6. Configure the networking capabilities of the virtual machine.
If you selected Typical as your configuration path, click Finish and the wizard
sets up the files needed for your virtual machine.
If you selected Custom as your configuration path, continue with the steps
below to configure a disk for your virtual machine.
7. Select whether to create an IDE or SCSI disk and specify the capacity of the virtual disk.

8. Click Finish. The wizard sets up the files needed for your virtual machine.

5.10.2 Setting up a XEN Workstation

XEN Workstation
Xen is a hypervisor using a microkernel design, providing services that allow multiple
computer operating systems to execute on the same computer hardware concurrently.
The University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory developed the first versions of Xen.
The Xen community develops and maintains Xen as free and open-source software, subject to
the requirements of the GNU General Public License (GPL), version 2. Xen is currently available
for the IA-32, x86-64 and ARM instruction sets.
XenServer runs directly on server hardware without requiring an underlying operating
system, which results in an efficient and scalable system. XenServer works by abstracting
elements from the physical machine (such as hard drives, resources and ports) and allocating
them to the virtual machines running on it.

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XEN Environment
Responsibilities of the hypervisor include memory management and CPU scheduling of
all virtual machines, and for launching the most privileged domain - the only virtual machine
which by default has direct access to hardware. From the dom0 the hypervisor can be managed
and unprivileged domains can be launched.

Benefits of Using XenServer

1. Using XenServer reduces costs by:
• Consolidating multiple VMs onto physical servers
• Reducing the number of separate disk images that need to be managed
• Allowing for easy integration with existing networking and storage infrastructures
2. Using XenServer increases flexibility by:
• Allowing you to schedule zero downtime maintenance by using XenMotion to live
migrate VMs between XenServer hosts
• Increasing availability of VMs by using High Availability to configure policies that
restart VMs on another XenServer host if one fails
• Increasing portability of VM images, as one VM image will work on a range of
deployment infrastructures

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Administering XenServer
There are two methods by which to administer XenServer: XenCenter and the XenServer
Command-Line Interface (CLI).
XenCenter is a graphical, Windows-based user interface. XenCenter allows you to manage
XenServer hosts, pools and shared storage, and to deploy, manage and monitor VMs from
your Windows desktop machine.
The XenCenter on-line Help is a useful resource for getting started with XenCenter and for
context-sensitive assistance.

Installing and Configuring XenServer

1. Type the following command to get information about xen server package
# yum info xen
2. Run the system-config-securitylevel program or edit /etc/selinux/config to looks as follows:
SELINUX=Disabled
SELINUXTYPE=targeted
If you changed the SELINUX value from enforcing, you’ll need to reboot Fedora before proceeding.
3. This command will install the Xen hypervisor, a Xen-modified Fedora kernel called domain 0, and
various utilities:
# yum install kernel-xen0
4. To make the Xen kernel the default, change this line:
default=1
to
default=0
5. Now you can reboot. Xen should start automatically, but let’s check:
# /usr/sbin/xm list
Name ID Mem(MiB) VCPUs State Time(s)
Domain-0 0 880 1 r----- 20.5

The output should show that Domain-0 is running. Domain 0 controls

all the guest operating systems that run on the processor,
similarly to how the kernel controls processes in an operating
system.

Installing a Xen Guest OS from the Command-line

1. Preparing the System for virt-install
Fedora Linux does not install VNC by default. To verify whether VNC is installed, run the
following command from a Terminal Window:
rpm -q vnc
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If rpm reports that VNC is not installed, it may be installed from root as follows:
yum install vnc
2. Running virt-install to Build the Xen Guest System
virt-install must be run as root and, once invoked, will ask a number of questions before
creating the guest system. The question are as follows:
i. What is the name of your virtual machine and install location?
ii. How much RAM should be allocated (in megabytes)?
iii. What would you like to use as the disk (path)?
iv. Would you like to enable graphics support? (yes or no)
The following transcript shows a typical virt-install session:
# virt-install
3. Once the guest system has been created, the vncviewer screen will appear containing the operating
system installer:

Installing a Xen Guest OS (Fedora Core 5)

1. Fedora Core 5 has a Xen guest installation script that simplifies the process, although it
installs only FC5 guests. The script expects to access the FC5 install tree via FTP, the Web,
or NFS; for some reason, you can’t specify a directory or file.
# mkdir /var/www/html/dvd
# mount -t iso9660 /dev/dvd /var/www/html/dvd
# apachectl start
Now we’ll run the installation script and answer its questions:
# xenguest-install.py
2. Xen does not start the guest operating system automatically. You need to type this command on
the host:
# xm create guest1
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3. To prove that both servers are running, try these commands:

# xm list
# xentop
4. To start Xen domains automatically, use these commands:
# /sbin/chkconfig --level 345 xendomains on
# /sbin/service xendomains start
5. To Edit A Xen Guest Configuration File, Which Is A Text File (Actually, A Python Script) In The
/Etc/Xen Directory.
# man xmdomain.cfg
And edit as follows,
# Automatically generated Xen config file
name = "guest1"
memory = "256"
disk = [ 'file:/xenguest,xvda,w' ]
vif = [ 'mac=00:16:3e:63:c7:76' ]
uuid = "bc2c1684-c057-99ea-962b-de44a038bbda"
bootloader="/usr/bin/pygrub"
on_reboot = 'restart'
on_crash = 'restart'
6. Once you have a guest configuration file, create the Xen guest with
this command:
# xm create -c guest_name
where
guest_name can be a full pathname or a relative filename (in which case Xen places
it in /etc/xen/guest_name).
Xen will create the guest domain and try to boot it from the given file or device.
The -c option attaches a console to the domain when it starts, so you can answer the
installation questions that appear.

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