Reference Information › CA AppLogic Support Knowledge Base › Overview of Support Knowledge Base › How To Create a Managed SUSE 11 Appliance

How To Create a Managed SUSE 11 Appliance

How To Create a Managed SUSE 11 Appliance

This article was originally written by Pavel Georgiev and posted on the AppLogic Forums.

These are the steps to create a managed SUSE 11 (which is not officially supported by hvm2pv) appliance. This process is meant to be run on an AppLogic 3.0 grid, if you want to execute it on an older version, you may have to manually install APK instead of using hvm2pv.

Note that the resulting appliance will not be dual boot, it will either boot in xen_pv mode or (xen_hvm,vmware). Converting between the two though is fairly easy and can be done at any time.

1. run iso2class

   util iso2class iso_volume1=SLES-11-DVD-i586-GM-DVD1.iso install_size=2G console_type=graphic app_name=pg-suse2 virt_mode=xen_hvm,vmware os=linux
   

2. Open the graphical console and complete the installation.

   Few important things:

   When prompted for choosing install scenario, select 'Physical server' (as opposed to 'Virtual Machine' or 'Xen Virtualization Host').

   When selecting software packages, enter expert mode and make sure the following packages are selected:

   kernel-xen (don't deselect the standard kernel package)

   dhcp-client

3. Once the installation is complete, go back to the iso2class console and proceed with the install

   When prompted, say you want to run hvm2pv now. When prompted if the OS is redhat or debian based, say it is redhat based.

4. While hvm2pv is running, it will prompt you with the following question:

   Do you want to set up a new root password for text console login?

   Before proceeding, login to the appliance that hvm2pv is running (it should be something like hvm2pv_pg-suse2-12_5133:main.LINUX64) and execute the following:

   rm -f /mnt/vol/*/etc/modprobe.d/xen_pvdrivers
   

5. Proceed with the hvm2pv install

   After it is done you should have a managed HVM appliance.

6. If you want to run the appliance in xen_pv mode...

   If you want to run the appliance in xen_pv mode (which you probably do if you are running on a xen grid), modify the boundary of the new class, to include only 'Xen Paravirtualization'. This also requires you to change the default grub configuration in /boot/grub/menu.lst within the appliance to boot the xen kernel (the option that has a kernel line like: kernel /boot/vmlinux-2.6.27.19-5-xen). If you want to switch back to HVM mode (xen_hvm,vmware), edit the class boundary to include 'Xen HVM' and/or 'VMware' and change the default grub configuration in /boot/grub/menu.lst within the appliance to boot the non-xen kernel.