Re: Upgrading in the XEN world

[Manuel Bouyer <bouyer%antioche.eu.org@localhost>]

On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 05:39:34PM +0100, Hauke Fath wrote:
> All,
> 
> this may be an FAQ - still...
> 
> I have this opteron machine here that runs netbsd-4 dom0 and domu, mainly
> for one-task servers like running the network's dhcpd, named slave, cups.
> It "just works", so I haven't looked at its setup thoroughly for quite a
> while. Now, the end of the year is a time just right for an upgrade, but -
> how, with minimal downtime and breakage?
> 
> What about, and what are the implications of
> 
> o upgrading dom0 to netbsd-5 while keeping the netbsd-4 domus for now?

this should work fine, as long as you stay to xen 3.1.4  not PAE

> o upgrading dom0 to netbsd-5 amd64, keeping the domus?

I assume your domUs are PV guests (not HVM). This won't work because you
would then need PAE kernels for the domUs, and this is not available in
netbsd-4

> o upgrading dom0 to amd64, and the domus to i386?

This should be OK.

> o running upgraded domus on the netbsd-4 dom0?

this should be OK as well.

my recommended upgrade path would be:
- upgrade the domUs to netbsd-5, keeping i386 (not PAE) kernels.
- upgrade dom0 to amd64 or i386PAE, at the same time switch the domU
  kernels to i386PAE. This should have almost no impact on the
  domUs, only the kernel changes.

-- 
Manuel Bouyer <bouyer%antioche.eu.org@localhost>
     NetBSD: 26 ans d'experience feront toujours la difference
--