I am pleased that I got Xen Server (pron. “zen”) installed on this Phenom II computer. Xen Server is another competitor in the virtual machine market, which allows for more than one PC/server to be installed on a single box. Virtual machines are being touted as a “green” technology but virtualization has been around for years.
The reason why I like Xen Server is having a platform for doing test operating system installs will greatly increase my flexibility for experimenting with different technologies. I was dismayed to find out that VMware isn’t really cut out to run on this particular AMD cpu and finding their competitor Xen Server from Citrix was big boost.
The hardware in this Sonata III case is:
AMD Phenom II X3 cpu
ASUS M4A78T-E motherboard with onboard LAN, VGA and HDMI
4 Gb ram
2 x 500 Gb Western Digital SATA hard drives
DVD R+-W drive
D-Link 10/100 Ethernet card, wired
I ran into two roadblocks during the install: The LAN port on the motherboard wasn’t recognized by Xen Server installer (Debian base) so I tossed in the D-Link, and there were some interrupt issues causing the Xen installer to lose connection to the SATA hard drive.
When the install hung, the console gave Errno 2 No such file or directory /dev/hdc as the only error message. Using Alt+F2, Alt+F3, Alt+F1 after the install hung allowed some latitude in troubleshooting. Finding the install log file in /var/log/ revealed a lost interrupt to the hdc. [If you haven't learned the editor vi yet, it's very useful for working in *nix and is installed by default on most *nix installations including the Xen Server ramdisk. Pico is easy, sure, but learning even a little vi will help you function adequately on any Linux/Unix system.]
The cure probably was fully enabling ACPI options on the motherboard..but it may have been something else because I rushed and changed more than one thing. The Xen Server install pauses for 10+ minutes when looking for hardware. In these days of fast cpu’s and cheap memory, adding 10+ minutes seems like eternity when you’re troubleshooting.
The motherboard is back to more normal settings and for now I’m done messing around with the hardware on this box so it will move to a more convenient location and I’ll remote in from now on. Windows 7 install went without a hitch..but it seems a little slow.
Update: Windows 7 runs fine in it’s VM with NO keyboard or mouse attached to the Xen Server box. Sweet.
