Install-multiple-versions
Purpose of this page
Sometimes, you may want to install two versions of Xen (e.g., Xen-4.6.0 and Xen-4.7.0) on the same host. In order to do that, you need two install two versions of the xen kernel and the xen-tools.
This wiki will describe how to use two different versions of Xen on the same host.
Notations and Assumptions
This wiki assumes Ubuntu 12.04 as dom0.
We use SRC46 to represent the path to the source code of Xen 4.6.0, for example, /home/username/xen-4.6.0;
We use SRC47 to represent the path to the source code of Xen 4.7.0, for example, /home/username/xen-4.7.0;
We use INSTALL46 to represent the path to the installation path for Xen 4.6.0, for example, /home/username/install/xen460;
We use INSTALL47 to represent the path to the installation path for Xen 4.7.0, for example, /home/username/install/xen470;
How to install two versions of Xen on the same host
Step 1: Install two versions of the Xen kernel under /boot; You just need to install the two xen kernels into /boot on the host;
The commands to install one version of Xen kernel are as follows:
cd ${SRC46} configure --prefix=${INSTALL46} --sysconfdir=${INSTALL46}/etc --enable-rpath make sudo make install-xen
cd ${SRC47} configure --prefix=${INSTALL47} --sysconfdir=${INSTALL47}/etc --enable-rpath make sudo make install-xen
Step 2: Configure the grub entry for each version of Xen.
Step 3: Install Xen toolstack into the installation folder for each version: cd ${SRC46} make install-tools
cd ${SRC47} make install-tools
Now you have install two versions of Xen kernels and Xen toolstacks into your host.
You can reboot your system and select one version, say, Xen 4.6.0.
The version of Xen toolstack has to match with the version of Xen kernel you are using.
So you need to go to the installation folder for the specific version of xen toolstack and run the xen-related commands, such as xl. Since you boot into Xen 4.6.0, you can run the following commands to list the domain informations.
cd ${INSTALL46}
./sbin/xl list
NB: If you find the domain 0's name is (null), you need to run the xen-init-dom0 to initialize the domain 0 in xenstore. In the above example, you need to run the following commands:
cd ${INSTALL46}
./lib/xen/bin/xen-init-dom0
Reference
[1] Question about the best practice to install two versions of Xen toolstack on the same machine. http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/xen/devel/432095
