Xen, VT, and RAID

On Sat, 23 Dec 2006 12:46:23 +0100
Manuel Bouyer <bouyerantioche.eu.org> wrote:


> > > 
> > Now I'm very confused -- I thought that I had to
use an entire fdisk
> > partition -- i.e., more or less a part of a raw
disk -- for VT-type
> > Xen domUs.
> 
> No, you can use the same kind of storage as for non-VT
guests: a
> physical partition or a file
> 
> >  Or are you saying make that fdisk partition a
RAID1 on both
> > drives?
> 
> Yes, that's what I meant. But it's not the only choise.
> 
Hmm -- ok.  There's a fair chance I'm going to stick with
the fdisk
partition anyway, to let me boot FreeBSD in native mode, but
I'll see.
(FreeBSD has better IPMI support; if I need to get at it at
that level,
I'd need FreeBSD.  Hmm -- I wonder.  I can assign the PCI
ports to the
FreeBSD domU; maybe that would work.  Hmm...  (The right
solution is
for me to port the FreeBSD driver to NetBSD, but I'm not
sure I'll have
time to do that before putting the machine into
production.))


		--Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbi
a.edu/~smb

On Sat, Dec 23, 2006 at 10:12:19AM -0500, Steven M. Bellovin
wrote:
> Hmm -- ok.  There's a fair chance I'm going to stick
with the fdisk
> partition anyway, to let me boot FreeBSD in native
mode, but I'll see.
> (FreeBSD has better IPMI support; if I need to get at
it at that level,
> I'd need FreeBSD.  Hmm -- I wonder.  I can assign the
PCI ports to the
> FreeBSD domU; maybe that would work.  Hmm...  (The
right solution is for
> me to port the FreeBSD driver to NetBSD, but I'm not
sure I'll have time
> to do that before putting the machine into
production.))

FreeBSD's driver is like Linux's OpenIPMI, right? (i.e. you
can run "ipmitool
-I open" and talk IPMI with the device locally?)

OpenBSD has an IPMI driver as well, which supports only the
hardware sensors
though (readable via the hw.sensors sysctl subtree), not the
remote console
etc, but it may be an interesting starting point.

See http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=openbs
d-misc&m=112993650617151&w=2

Ola Eriksson was working on porting this to NetBSD, but I
don't know what
the status is.  http://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-i386/2006/02/19/000
0.html

	Geert

On Sat, Dec 23, 2006 at 10:12:19AM -0500, Steven M. Bellovin
wrote:
> Hmm -- ok.  There's a fair chance I'm going to stick
with the fdisk
> partition anyway, to let me boot FreeBSD in native
mode, but I'll see.
> (FreeBSD has better IPMI support; if I need to get at
it at that level,
> I'd need FreeBSD.  Hmm -- I wonder.  I can assign the
PCI ports to the
> FreeBSD domU; maybe that would work.  Hmm...  (The
right solution is for
> me to port the FreeBSD driver to NetBSD, but I'm not
sure I'll have time
> to do that before putting the machine into
production.))

FreeBSD's driver is like Linux's OpenIPMI, right? (i.e. you
can run "ipmitool
-I open" and talk IPMI with the device locally?)

OpenBSD has an IPMI driver as well, which supports only the
hardware sensors
though (readable via the hw.sensors sysctl subtree), not the
remote console
etc, but it may be an interesting starting point.

See http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=openbs
d-misc&m=112993650617151&w=2

Ola Eriksson was working on porting this to NetBSD, but I
don't know what
the status is.  http://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-i386/2006/02/19/000
0.html

	Geert

On Sat, Dec 23, 2006 at 04:40:20PM +0100, Geert Hendrickx
wrote:
> OpenBSD has an IPMI driver as well, which supports only
the hardware sensors
> though (readable via the hw.sensors sysctl subtree),
not the remote console
> etc, but it may be an interesting starting point.

Oh, it looks like Manuel imported this in October, and PR
#34932 has a
backport to netbsd-3.

	Geert

On Sat, Dec 23, 2006 at 04:40:20PM +0100, Geert Hendrickx
wrote:
> OpenBSD has an IPMI driver as well, which supports only
the hardware sensors
> though (readable via the hw.sensors sysctl subtree),
not the remote console
> etc, but it may be an interesting starting point.

Oh, it looks like Manuel imported this in October, and PR
#34932 has a
backport to netbsd-3.

	Geert

On Sat, 23 Dec 2006 16:40:20 +0100
Geert Hendrickx <ghenNetBSD.org> wrote:

> On Sat, Dec 23, 2006 at 10:12:19AM -0500, Steven M.
Bellovin wrote:
> > Hmm -- ok.  There's a fair chance I'm going to
stick with the fdisk
> > partition anyway, to let me boot FreeBSD in native
mode, but I'll
> > see. (FreeBSD has better IPMI support; if I need
to get at it at
> > that level, I'd need FreeBSD.  Hmm -- I wonder.  I
can assign the
> > PCI ports to the FreeBSD domU; maybe that would
work.  Hmm...  (The
> > right solution is for me to port the FreeBSD
driver to NetBSD, but
> > I'm not sure I'll have time to do that before
putting the machine
> > into production.))
> 
> FreeBSD's driver is like Linux's OpenIPMI, right? (i.e.
you can run
> "ipmitool -I open" and talk IPMI with the
device locally?)

That's right.  The man page describes it as
"compatible" but that "not
all features ... are supported".  I don't know what's
missing.
> 
> OpenBSD has an IPMI driver as well, which supports only
the hardware
> sensors though (readable via the hw.sensors sysctl
subtree), not the
> remote console etc, but it may be an interesting
starting point.
> 
> See http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=openbs
d-misc&m=112993650617151&w=2

There's NetBSD support of sensor reading (by Manuel), but I
haven't
played with it, either.



		--Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbi
a.edu/~smb

On Sat, 23 Dec 2006 16:40:20 +0100
Geert Hendrickx <ghenNetBSD.org> wrote:

> On Sat, Dec 23, 2006 at 10:12:19AM -0500, Steven M.
Bellovin wrote:
> > Hmm -- ok.  There's a fair chance I'm going to
stick with the fdisk
> > partition anyway, to let me boot FreeBSD in native
mode, but I'll
> > see. (FreeBSD has better IPMI support; if I need
to get at it at
> > that level, I'd need FreeBSD.  Hmm -- I wonder.  I
can assign the
> > PCI ports to the FreeBSD domU; maybe that would
work.  Hmm...  (The
> > right solution is for me to port the FreeBSD
driver to NetBSD, but
> > I'm not sure I'll have time to do that before
putting the machine
> > into production.))
> 
> FreeBSD's driver is like Linux's OpenIPMI, right? (i.e.
you can run
> "ipmitool -I open" and talk IPMI with the
device locally?)

That's right.  The man page describes it as
"compatible" but that "not
all features ... are supported".  I don't know what's
missing.
> 
> OpenBSD has an IPMI driver as well, which supports only
the hardware
> sensors though (readable via the hw.sensors sysctl
subtree), not the
> remote console etc, but it may be an interesting
starting point.
> 
> See http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=openbs
d-misc&m=112993650617151&w=2

There's NetBSD support of sensor reading (by Manuel), but I
haven't
played with it, either.



		--Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbi
a.edu/~smb

On Sat, Dec 23, 2006 at 10:12:19AM -0500, Steven M. Bellovin
wrote:
> Hmm -- ok.  There's a fair chance I'm going to stick
with the fdisk
> partition anyway, to let me boot FreeBSD in native
mode, but I'll see.
> (FreeBSD has better IPMI support; if I need to get at
it at that level,
> I'd need FreeBSD.  Hmm -- I wonder.  I can assign the
PCI ports to the
> FreeBSD domU; maybe that would work.  Hmm...  (The
right solution is

I don't think it will. ipmi is not a PCI device, it's ports
in the
I/O space and you have to parse the BIOS to find its
address. I don't think
this can be done from a domU.

-- 
Manuel Bouyer <bouyerantioche.eu.org>
     NetBSD: 26 ans d'experience feront toujours la
difference
--

On Sat, Dec 23, 2006 at 10:12:19AM -0500, Steven M. Bellovin
wrote:
> Hmm -- ok.  There's a fair chance I'm going to stick
with the fdisk
> partition anyway, to let me boot FreeBSD in native
mode, but I'll see.
> (FreeBSD has better IPMI support; if I need to get at
it at that level,
> I'd need FreeBSD.  Hmm -- I wonder.  I can assign the
PCI ports to the
> FreeBSD domU; maybe that would work.  Hmm...  (The
right solution is

I don't think it will. ipmi is not a PCI device, it's ports
in the
I/O space and you have to parse the BIOS to find its
address. I don't think
this can be done from a domU.

-- 
Manuel Bouyer <bouyerantioche.eu.org>
     NetBSD: 26 ans d'experience feront toujours la
difference
--