xen-tools --------- The xen-tools package contains a collection of Perl scripts for working with Xen images under Debian GNU/Linux. It is aimed at users who wish to create virtual instances of Debian. You may easily manipulate instances of Debian Sarge, Etch, or Sid. The tools each work in a similar way and have the same assumptions. It is assumed that each virtual image will be comprised of two files upon the host system: 1. A disk image to be used by Xen as the primary drive. 2. A disk image to be used by Xen as the swap partition. Images are assumed to live beneath a single root directory, which is specified via the common '--dir=' command line argument to each of the scripts. (Alternatively you may include 'dir=/path' inside the global configuration file /etc/xen-tools/xen-tools.conf.) Beneath the root directory each virtual instance will have a subdirectory, named after the hostname of the image. A typical layout would look like this: /home/xen/domains/ |-- bar [Virtual machine named 'bar'] | |-- disk.img [Disk image] | `-- swap.img [Swap image] |-- etch [Virtual machine named 'etch'] | |-- disk.img [Disk image] | `-- swap.img [Swap image] |-- foo [Virtual machine named 'foo'] | |-- disk.img | `-- swap.img |-- progress [Virtual machine named 'progress'] | |-- disk.img | `-- swap.img |-- sarge [Virtual machine named 'sarge'] | |-- disk.img | `-- swap.img A description of the individual scripts now follows. For more details run the relevent script with the '--manual' argument to read the manual, with examples. xen-create-image ---------------- This script is designed to create new images which may be used with the Xen virtual machine. You may create images of Sarge, Etch, or Sid. The virtual images will have their networking settings created and, you may optionally cause the new instance to boot once it has been created. The image may be customised by either hook scripts or a single role script - see the manpage for more details. xen-clone-image --------------- This script allows a cloning operation to be conducted. An existing image will be copied to a new directory and the networking information will be updated. No other changes are applied. xen-delete-image ---------------- This script will delete an image by hostname. xen-list-images --------------- List all the created images beneath a given root directory along with their network addresses. (In the case of images using DHCP an IP address will not be listed.) xen-update-image ---------------- This script runs "apt-get update; apt-get upgrade" for a given Xen image. NOTE: The image should not be mounted/live/running or things will be corrupted. (Still if the image is "live" you may just use SSH, right?) Steve -- $Id: README,v 1.19 2006-01-07 21:54:44 steve Exp $