XEN using RHEL 5.2

[Adrian Gehrig]

We are having problems with XEN on RedHat Enterprise Linux.

We installed XEN on a ProLiant DL360 G5 which was working after one week - since we didn't know about the RedHat Network registration for virtualization...

Our goal is to have 2 Linux guests and 1 Windows 2003 Server Guest on that XEN host. Hate to say it, but the Windows guest is running without any problems... Our problem with the RedHat guests is, that we can't update or yum packages. As described in the RedHat knowledge base we first did a rhn_check and rhn-profile-sync on the XEN host. Within the RH guest we tried to do a rhn_register which didn't work.

Anyone having experience with XEN on RHEL 5? Because so far the RH Support was not a big help.

At the end - We set up a test system before with Fedora which was running without those problems...

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

What error is being put up when you attempt to yum the Linux guests.

You may wish to register the systems with your web browser and then try a yum update.

SEP

[hamidr]

You must have an Installation Number for the redhat network to work properly. I mean you must purchase the redhat enterprie linux.
Do you have it?

[Adrian Gehrig]

RedHat sales told me that one installation number lasts for four xen guests... So we bought one subscription for the xen host and tried to set up the xen guests with RedHat too.

[hamidr]

It's probably a network problem. Check the iptables and network connectivity inside your guest os.

[Petrus van Bork · Accepted solution]

Dear Adrian:

Same issue - despite multiple subscription installs and much agonizing at RedHat's end (...they admitted it is a fault in their registration system...) they were not able to fix the issue. Finally, they issued us a temporary 30 day subscription for our DomU's (our Dom0) subscription works fine. Currently, they are stating that if they can't fix the subscription they will establish a wholly new one in their system for us. Our 30 days is up by Hallowe'en and we shall see what eventuates. They allege that they have never seen quite our problem before but yours is identical - and, yes, we sent them logs etc., etc. blah, blah, blah...

[kelvinlnx]

Not sure if this will help. Anyway...

yum uses the rpm database which is located in the /var/lib/rpm. There are times when the RH's in DomU don't have their date/time updated. You'll notice that the time has stopped in DomU. When this happens, any rpm commands will "hang" as it utilizes the DomU's time to update the database.

[Petrus van Bork]

Dear Kelvin:

The time in the DomU? Hmmm...interesting suggestion and your observation sounds very useful. However, in this circumstance it does not seem to 'ring the bell' alas. Our DomU's have the correct time/date and,also, without any modification to the DomU when Redhat got us a new temporary subscription it ran, immediately without a problem on the same DomU (not rebootted) that was giving trouble with the regular subscription.

[kelvinlnx]

Dear Petrus:

Yes I was refering to DomU. Anyway, glad that your problem was somewhat solved by RH. Odd that the regular one couldn't work. Any possiblilty that the key that you had was already used?