XenServer 5.5.0 to the rescue

plesir

I have upgrade to XenServer 5.5.0 rescently and it is working very well. I just used a really nice feature. I took a snapshot of the running firewall and converted it to a template. My firewall installation went corrupt this morning and I was able to recover in about 5 minutes since I now have a fully working snapshot of the firewall ;D

i think thats a really good feature of th product. Has any body else tried something like that.
RC

Hi,

I've tried to install pfsense under XenServer 5.5.0. First attempt, I use 'other install media'. Second, I use 'Windows Server 2003' template (I thought the problem was in virtualization type), but both of them results same problem :

I use physical DVD drive for installation media. My server is using Intel Xeon 5420.

My questions are :
1. What is wrong in my installation step? What kind of template I should use? From a source that I read, pfsense need HVM, in XenServer it can be done by using the windows template. Is it right?
Is there any particular way to build pfsense VM under XenServer?

2. (Sorry if it is not related directly with pfsense) Can I install VM from an ISO image? So I just download an ISO, put it in the XenServer, and point the installation media to it. From the ISO option in my XenCentral, there is only one option : xs-tools.iso. Can I change it?

Thanks a lot!

fastcon68

here you go:
step 1. create a cifs libary on a different machine.
step 2. create a iso of of all installation media
step 3. try installation again

installation from local dvd or cd-rom from my current experience has been a little odd. pfsense works greant with xensever.
rc

plesir

@fastcon68:

here you go:
step 1. create a cifs libary on a different machine.
step 2. create a iso of of all installation media
step 3. try installation again

installation from local dvd or cd-rom from my current experience has been a little odd. pfsense works greant with xensever.
rc

Thanks a lot, fastcon! :) I'm a newbie for XenServer, so I haven't noticed its feature to mount ISOs from remote NFS server at the first place.

Like you said, pfsense run flawlessly on XenServer 5.5 :D

fastcon68

Build up a good CIFS's libary. I have a 100 GB volume with all my images. This allows me to store all sorts of media for my installaions. It works out great.
RC

calvinz

do we have to install xenserver tools on the pfsense VM ? ??? can't seem to find a way to do it even if its needed

fastcon68

Currently I can tell the state of the XEN Tools. There currently is not a VM build for XEN. It is still pending completion. I hoping that they will get in completed soon. It will help performance and we will have a much better build when it ready. I part of the virtualization forum and it close to completed. It just a timing issue.

RC

calvinz

I'm looking forward to it :D cause currently my xenserver is hosting 2 other Windows Server 2008 clients on it as well.. when either one of the Windows machine did some file I/O it causes pfsense's cpu load to sky rocket ???

I'm running a Core 2 Duo 6700 with 8GB of ram… the only thing I could think of causing such a problem is the single hard disk installation of all the VMs.. but I've tried installing pfsense on a SAN, it didnt solve the problem either :'(

fastcon68

I don't have this problem. I have 3 sata II 320 and a 500 GB HD in my machine with 6 NIC's in it. My machines have a varity of VM disk's.

I have 2008, 2003, linux, and pfsense. no issues

ExodusEvil

@calvinz:

do we have to install xenserver tools on the pfsense VM ? ??? can't seem to find a way to do it even if its needed

I think this is impossible (in this moment), because FreeBSD isn't supported by Citrix in XenServer.
Citrix need work fast and support FreeBSD in XenServer, or all people that really need any FreeBSD flaivor will go to VMWare… ::)

Att.

Cristiano Santos
Brazil - São Paulo - SP

fastcon68

The latest I read is they are still working on getting the kernal to work.
RC