The libvirt libxl driver provides the ability to manage virtual machines on any Xen release from 4.4.0 onwards.
The libvirt libxl driver uses Xen's libxl API, also known as libxenlight, to implement libvirt's hypervisor driver functionality. libxl provides a consolidated interface for managing a Xen host and its virtual machines, unlike old versions of Xen where applications often had to communicate with xend, xenstored, and the hypervisor itself via hypercalls. With libxl the only pre-requisit is a properly installed Xen host with the libxl toolstack running in a service domain (often Domain-0).
The libvirt libxl driver is a single-instance privileged driver, with a driver name of 'xen'. Some example connection URIs for the libxl driver are:
xen:/// (local access, direct) xen+unix:/// (local access, via daemon) xen://example.com/ (remote access, TLS/x509) xen+tcp://example.com/ (remote access, SASl/Kerberos) xen+ssh://root@example.com/ (remote access, SSH tunnelled)
The libxl driver currently supports three native
config formats. The first, known as xen-xm
, is the
original Xen virtual machine config format used by the legacy
xm/xend toolstack. The second, known as xen-sxpr
,
is also one of the original formats that was used by xend's
legacy HTTP RPC service. For compatibility, import and export
of these legacy formats is supported by the libxl driver.
The third format is xen-xl
, which is the virtual
machine config format supported by modern Xen. The xen-xl
format is described in the xl.cfg(5) man page.
The virsh domxml-from-native
provides a way to convert an
existing set of xl, xm, or sxpr config files to libvirt Domain XML,
which can then be used by libvirt.
$ virsh -c xen:/// domxml-from-native xen-xm rhel5.cfg <domain type='xen'> <name>rhel5pv</name> <uuid>8f07fe28-753f-2729-d76d-bdbd892f949a</uuid> <memory>2560000</memory> <currentMemory>307200</currentMemory> <vcpu>4</vcpu> <bootloader>/usr/bin/pygrub</bootloader> <os> <type arch='x86_64' machine='xenpv'>linux</type> </os> <clock offset='utc'/> <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff> <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot> <on_crash>restart</on_crash> <devices> <disk type='file' device='disk'> <driver name='tap' type='aio'/> <source file='/var/lib/xen/images/rhel5pv.img'/> <target dev='xvda' bus='xen'/> </disk> <disk type='file' device='disk'> <driver name='tap' type='qcow'/> <source file='/root/qcow1-xen.img'/> <target dev='xvdd' bus='xen'/> </disk> <interface type='bridge'> <mac address='00:16:3e:60:36:ba'/> <source bridge='xenbr0'/> </interface> <console type='pty'> <target port='0'/> </console> <input type='mouse' bus='xen'/> <graphics type='vnc' port='-1' autoport='yes' listen='0.0.0.0'/> </devices> </domain>
The virsh domxml-to-native
provides a way to convert a
guest description using libvirt Domain XML into xl, xm, or sxpr config
format.
$ virsh -c xen:/// domxml-to-native xen-xm rhel5pv.xml name = "rhel5pv" uuid = "8f07fe28-753f-2729-d76d-bdbd892f949a" maxmem = 2500 memory = 300 vcpus = 4 bootloader = "/usr/bin/pygrub" kernel = "/var/lib/xen/boot_kernel.0YK-cS" ramdisk = "/var/lib/xen/boot_ramdisk.vWgrxK" extra = "ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet" on_poweroff = "destroy" on_reboot = "restart" on_crash = "restart" sdl = 0 vnc = 1 vncunused = 1 vnclisten = "0.0.0.0" disk = [ "tap:aio:/var/lib/xen/images/rhel5pv.img,xvda,w", "tap:qcow:/root/qcow1-xen.img,xvdd,w" ] vif = [ "mac=00:16:3e:60:36:ba,bridge=virbr0,script=vif-bridge,vifname=vif5.0" ]
Below are some example XML configurations for Xen guest domains. For full details of the available options, consult the domain XML format guide.
Using a bootloader allows a paravirtualized guest to be booted using a kernel stored inside its virtual disk image
<domain type='xen' > <name>fc8</name> <bootloader>/usr/bin/pygrub</bootloader> <os> <type>linux</type> </os> <memory>131072</memory> <vcpu>1</vcpu> <devices> <disk type='file'> <source file='/var/lib/xen/images/fc4.img'/> <target dev='sda1'/> </disk> <interface type='bridge'> <source bridge='xenbr0'/> <mac address='aa:00:00:00:00:11'/> <script path='/etc/xen/scripts/vif-bridge'/> </interface> <console tty='/dev/pts/5'/> </devices> </domain>
For installation of paravirtualized guests it is typical to boot the domain using a kernel and initrd stored in the host OS
<domain type='xen' > <name>fc8</name> <os> <type>linux</type> <kernel>/var/lib/xen/install/vmlinuz-fedora8-x86_64</kernel> <initrd>/var/lib/xen/install/initrd-vmlinuz-fedora8-x86_64</initrd> <cmdline> kickstart=http://example.com/myguest.ks </cmdline> </os> <memory>131072</memory> <vcpu>1</vcpu> <devices> <disk type='file'> <source file='/var/lib/xen/images/fc4.img'/> <target dev='sda1'/> </disk> <interface type='bridge'> <source bridge='xenbr0'/> <mac address='aa:00:00:00:00:11'/> <script path='/etc/xen/scripts/vif-bridge'/> </interface> <graphics type='vnc' port='-1'/> <console tty='/dev/pts/5'/> </devices> </domain>
Fullyvirtualized guests use the emulated BIOS to boot off the primary harddisk, CDROM or Network PXE ROM.
<domain type='xen' id='3'> <name>fv0</name> <uuid>4dea22b31d52d8f32516782e98ab3fa0</uuid> <os> <type>hvm</type> <loader>/usr/lib/xen/boot/hvmloader</loader> <boot dev='hd'/> </os> <memory>524288</memory> <vcpu>1</vcpu> <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff> <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot> <on_crash>restart</on_crash> <features> <pae/> <acpi/> <apic/> </features> <clock sync="localtime"/> <devices> <emulator>/usr/lib/xen/bin/qemu-dm</emulator> <interface type='bridge'> <source bridge='xenbr0'/> <mac address='00:16:3e:5d:c7:9e'/> <script path='vif-bridge'/> </interface> <disk type='file'> <source file='/var/lib/xen/images/fv0'/> <target dev='hda'/> </disk> <disk type='file' device='cdrom'> <source file='/var/lib/xen/images/fc5-x86_64-boot.iso'/> <target dev='hdc'/> <readonly/> </disk> <disk type='file' device='floppy'> <source file='/root/fd.img'/> <target dev='fda'/> </disk> <graphics type='vnc' port='5904'/> </devices> </domain>
With Xen 3.2.0 or later it is possible to bypass the BIOS and directly boot a Linux kernel and initrd as a fullyvirtualized domain. This allows for complete automation of OS installation, for example using the Anaconda kickstart support.
<domain type='xen' id='3'> <name>fv0</name> <uuid>4dea22b31d52d8f32516782e98ab3fa0</uuid> <os> <type>hvm</type> <loader>/usr/lib/xen/boot/hvmloader</loader> <kernel>/var/lib/xen/install/vmlinuz-fedora8-x86_64</kernel> <initrd>/var/lib/xen/install/initrd-vmlinuz-fedora8-x86_64</initrd> <cmdline> kickstart=http://example.com/myguest.ks </cmdline> </os> <memory>524288</memory> <vcpu>1</vcpu> <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff> <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot> <on_crash>restart</on_crash> <features> <pae/> <acpi/> <apic/> </features> <clock sync="localtime"/> <devices> <emulator>/usr/lib/xen/bin/qemu-dm</emulator> <interface type='bridge'> <source bridge='xenbr0'/> <mac address='00:16:3e:5d:c7:9e'/> <script path='vif-bridge'/> </interface> <disk type='file'> <source file='/var/lib/xen/images/fv0'/> <target dev='hda'/> </disk> <disk type='file' device='cdrom'> <source file='/var/lib/xen/images/fc5-x86_64-boot.iso'/> <target dev='hdc'/> <readonly/> </disk> <disk type='file' device='floppy'> <source file='/root/fd.img'/> <target dev='fda'/> </disk> <graphics type='vnc' port='5904'/> </devices> </domain>