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What I need:

1. Zimbra server running under Xen
2. Prefer Ubuntu 8.0x LTS as Dom0

The problems seen doing this so far are:

1. Prefer an Ubuntu-based DomU – <— couldn’t get the zimbra supported version to load
2. file: needs to be replace by aio:tap: for some reason in the cfg file
3. Tried CentOS-5 via bootstrap – didn’t work
4. Tried CentOS-5 via rinse – didn’t work – stuck at maintenance boot but didn’t know the root password
5. Replaced the CentOS image file with another … and got further after switching from hda2 into sda1 in the cfg file based on error. But the start up had many, many issues – missing modules – i.e. FATAL problems
6. Along the way, there have been numerous other issues to be solved (NIC drivers, vbd device limits, etc)

There needs to be an easier way and one that actually works with the scripts would be really nice too.

BTW, getting a xen hardy DomU installed is trivial. It will be nice when Zimbra supports the current 8.04.x LTS, which they have committed to do … someday.

Ok, someday seems to be TODAY! YIPPY! 8.04 supported!

10/18/2008 Update

It has been a few months since we started using Xen for our infrastructure. The jury is still out on whether it is a success or not. Two days ago, I would have said it was a complete success … until more of the MAJOR network issues happened yesterday – a Friday.

Some of the DomUs became really slow to access over both the network and by the console. The Dom0 became nearly impossible to access. Ping had 88% packet loss both from other machines and between DomU and Dom0 attempts (once I finally got a connection). Not good. Long periods of un-responsiveness to/from both Dom0 and DomU from other non-virtual machines got really, really bad. It is terrible this morning as I write this.
Last night, I implemented these changes:

1. to the /etc/network/interface file
   • DomUs: post-up /usr/sbin/ethtool -K eth0 tx off
   • Dom0: post-up /usr/sbin/ethtool -K eth0 tx on
2. to the /etc/rc.local
   • mv /lib/tls /lib/tls.disabled

So every reboot will reset tls to the desired value – gone. That last command is part of the server setup. It came back, probably due to an apt-get upgrade.

Neither of these changes appear to matter this morning.

How to install Zimbra on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS