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Cannot install Windows 2003 as paravirtualized VM

user8585227Nov 15 2010 — edited Nov 18 2010
Hello,

I'm trying to install Windows 2003 as a paravirtualized VM but I get:

Starting install...
ERROR: Invalid NFS location given: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/var/lib/xen/xennfs.0J0NeF/images/xen/vmlinuz'

Before doing this I installed a CentOS paravirtualized VM without problems. I'm doing the same but changing the CentOS ISO for the Windows ISO. I've read some threads about this and the answer was that Windows cannot be installed as a paravirtualized VM. But these threads were old (1 o 2 years) and I think that now it's possible to install Windows as a PVM.

Please, can anybody help me??

Thanks.
This post has been answered by Avi Miller-Oracle on Nov 18 2010
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Comments

814120
Windows it is installed only in hvm a mode. After install windows it is possible to install pvm drivers.
1 person found this helpful
user8585227
Thank you karakuts. I installed Windows in a hvm mode and then installed pvm drivers. When I tried to boot this VM into a PV domain I got this:

Error: HVM guest support is unavailable: is VT/AMD-V supported by your CPU and enabled in your BIOS?

Then I changed the line in vm.cfg "builder = 'hvm'" to "builder = 'pvm'" and now I get:

Error: Acquire running lock failed: 256

What I'm doing wrong?

Thanks again.
814120
Windows doesn't work in a mode pvm, but works in pv as drivers. It is not necessary to change anything after setting of drivers.
1 person found this helpful
Avi Miller-Oracle
user8585227 wrote:
Error: HVM guest support is unavailable: is VT/AMD-V supported by your CPU and enabled in your BIOS?
As mentioned, Windows is not supported in PV mode and your hardware either doesn't support HVM or it has not been enabled. You need to check the BIOS on your server to ensure that Processor Virtualization is enabled. You can check the Console screen of Oracle VM to see if it detects HVM support as well.

If there is no VT/AMD-V support on your server, you will not be able to run Windows as a guest.
1 person found this helpful
user8585227
Let me explain...

There are two Pools: One ( A ) that can execute guests in HVM and the other ( B ) that only can execute guests in PVM. I have moved some Linux VM from A to B without problems (well, I had some problems but I solved it easily). But by now is imposible to do the same with Windows VM.

I created the Windows VM in the A pool as HVM and installed the PV drivers. Atfer doing it the VM config file content is:

acpi = 1
apic = 1
bootloader = '/usr/bin/pygrub'
builder = 'hvm'
device_model = '/usr/lib/xen/bin/qemu-dm'
disk = ['file:/var/ovs/mount/501740958A2C4EFC9482E5F3A1E6F282/running_pool/Chronos2/System.img,hda,w',
+',hdc:cdrom,r',+
+]+
kernel = '/usr/lib/xen/boot/hvmloader'
keymap = 'es'
memory = '2048'
name = 'Chronos2'
on_crash = 'restart'
on_reboot = 'restart'
pae = 1
serial = 'pty'
timer_mode = '0'
usbdevice = 'tablet'
uuid = '20bb90fb-a8e1-4dfb-a1d1-450e669dd9eb'
vcpus = 2
vif = ['bridge=xenbr0,mac=00:16:3E:**:**:**,type=netfront']
vif_other_config = []
vnc = 1
vncconsole = 1
vnclisten = '0.0.0.0'
vncpasswd = '******'
vncunused = 1

If I try to run it in A the VM runs as HVM. If I change builder = 'hvm' to builder = 'pvm' and try to run in A I get:

Error: Boot loader didn't return any data!

If I try to run it in B (moving the VM previously and changing the disk location in the config file) I get :

Error: HVM guest support is unavailable: is VT/AMD-V supported by your CPU and enabled in your BIOS?

And if I try to run it in B changing builder = 'hvm' to builder = 'pvm' then I get:

Error: Acquire running lock failed: 256

Well, and now I don't know what else can I do.

Have anybody installed a Windows VM as PV (using PV drivers) in Oracle VM successfully?

Thank you.
Avi Miller-Oracle
Answer
user8585227 wrote:
There are two Pools: One ( A ) that can execute guests in HVM and the other ( B ) that only can execute guests in PVM. I have moved some Linux VM from A to B without problems (well, I had some problems but I solved it easily). But by now is imposible to do the same with Windows VM.
Correct. You cannot run Windows without HVM support. It is impossible. Even installing the PV drivers for Windows doesn't solve this issue: it merely replaces the emulated disk controller and network interface with the paravirtualized versions (blockfront and netfront). The operating system itself still runs in HVM mode, though. Thus, you will not be able to run any Windows guests in Pool B.

Pure paravirtualization (PV) mode is only available for Linux guests as it requires a modified paravirtualization-aware (i.e. the xenU) kernel. This is not available for Windows. What is available for Windows are PV drivers that improve the performance of network and disk I/O operations.
Marked as Answer by user8585227 · Sep 27 2020
814120
Also full pvm suport netbsd & freebsd8.x
1 person found this helpful
user8585227
Ahhhhhhhhhh!!! Ok, now I understand. I thought that PV drivers were created to run Windows VM as PVM.

Thank you again. :)
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Locked on Dec 16 2010
Added on Nov 15 2010
#oracle, #oracle-virtualization, #oracle-vm-server-for-x86, #windows
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