Netware Xen DomU reports disk not found when attempting to boot

  • 3953488
  • 14-Mar-2008
  • 27-Apr-2012

Environment

Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 1
Novell Open Enterprise Server 2 (Linux based)
Novell NetWare 6.5 Support Pack 7, virtualized in Xen

Situation

After installing a Netware Xen DomU under OES 2 Linux, the Netware DomU will not load.

Resolution

This problem is has been seen when "virt-manager" or the YaST Virtualization manager is closed before the installation is completed. In order to avoid this problem, do NOT close the GUI until after the first reboot of the server. If the GUI is closed, then both the database for Xen and the configuration file are not updated to reflect the change.

There are three methods that can be employed to address this problem. However, for the sake of simplicity only one method will be addressed in this TID. Please contact Novell Technical Service for the more advanced methods.

repair method

For this TID, NWSERVER is the name of the Xen DomU. Replace NWSERVER with the name of your DomU.

  1. Go to /etc/xen/vm and locate the plain-text configuration file, create a backup copy.
  2. Open the file for editing.
  3. Look for a line reading"bootargs" If it not there, then this TID matches. If there is a"bootargs" line, then check it against the next step
  4. If this issue is a match, then the line is either missing or blank.
    bootargs=
  5. Change or add a correct boot loader line.
    bootloader="/usr/lib/xen/boot/domUloader.py"
  6. In your configuration file there should be a disk definition. Under a default Xen DomU, xvda is the first disk. The disk directive will identify the name of the first disk, it is after the first ",". For example, disk=['file:/var/lib/xen/images/bh5-nw/disk0,xvda,w', ]identifies the first disk as "xvda" anddisk=['file:/var/lib/xen/images/bh5-nw/disk0,sda,w', ]identifies the first disk as "sda". Replace xvda1 with the appropriate disk name and partition. The example below will instruct the boot loader to use the first disk with the first drive.
    bootargs="--entry=xvda1:/nwserver/xnloader.sys"
    The following example will use the third partition
    bootargs="--entry=xvda3:/nwserver/xnloader.sys"
  7. Save the file and close it
  8. Test to see if the configuration works. The following command will give you a console.
    xm create -c NWSERVER
  9. If the previous step fails, revisit step 6. If the previous step succeeds and the server boots, shutdown the Netware Server and continue
  10. Import the new file into the management database
    xm new -f NWSERVER
  11. Start the DomU normally

caveats

  • This is a trial and error process. Because the configuration files were not made correctly, some errors may be seen. Review the configuration file and repeat steps 4-8 as needed. The most common item that will need review is the location of the disk and the partition. In this example we used the first virtual disk (xvda) on the first partition (xvda1)
  • If after typing " xm start...", the command hangs, pass it "control-C". Restart Xend (" rcxend restart"). Note that restarting Xend will not affect running Xen guests.
  • If the Xen guest is in any sort of clustering or if the physical host is in a cluster, shutdown the cluster or turn off clustering for the node at hand. If not, strange things can happen with clustering as a result.
common errors
  • ERROR: " Error: Boot loader didn't return any data!": This means that the bootloader was pointing at the wrong virtual disk and/or partition. Change the xvda1 to xvda2, etc, or to the virtual device the MS-DOS partition was installed. " xvda" refers to the first disk, either physical or file that is presented to the guest as the first disk.
  • ERROR: " Error: Kernel image does not exist....": Step 6 was done incorrectly. Review and test.