[tlug] CentOS, Xen and VLANs

[Jared Ravetch <jravetch@example.com>]

Hey TLUG,

I ran into an issue when trying to create VMs in CentOS 5.5 with VLANs.  My setup is as follows:

-CentOS 5.5 x64 xen kernel

-LVM for storage

-Kickstart file hosted on apache in /var/www/html/

-VM start file in /etc/xen/

-VLAN100 interface with public IP, VLAN200 interface with private IP

My vm start file is as follows:

kernel = "/boot/vm-inst/vmlinuz"
ramdisk = "/boot/vm-inst/initrd.img"
name = "vm1-inst"
memory = 1000
disk = [ 'phy:/dev/VolGroup01/vm01,xvda,w', ]
vif = ['bridge=virbr0', ]
vcpus = 1
ip = '172.16.1.100'
netmask = '255.255.255.0'
gateway = '172.16.1.1'
extra = "text ks=http://172.16.1.155/vm-inst1-ks.cfg ip=172.16.1.100 netmask=255.255.255.0 gateway=172.16.1.1 dns=172.16.1.200"

To start the install I run:

xm create -c vm1-inst 

The CentOS installer finds the kernel and ramdisk files, configures the IP, then hangs for a while until it states it cannot find the kickstart file.  

I have to then have to exit the console and shutdown the vm

To remove any issues with the kickstart file, I tried just using vm-install --prompt to create the VM and pointing to a FTP site with the install files. The CentOS installer starts, I configure the IP using a static IP, but then the it complains it cannot find any files in the FTP site.  

Finally, I tried using the CentOS DVD ISO as the install media for the VM. The installer starts, but then complains it does not have the drivers to load the media. I googled and found this is a limitation of CentOS when creating VMs.

Has anyone had experience getting the installer over VLANs to work with a network install? Is there another way around this issue?

Thanks and Regards,

Jared