FAQ:Build a Xen DomU

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Build a Xen DomU Appliance

Appliance developers can build appliances to be deployed as Xen DomUs (Xen virtual machines). There are two steps in the appliance development process to create Xen DomU appliances:

1. Building the appliance group with rMake using the xen and domU flavor specifications
2. Generating images with rBuilder that are ready to be launched as Xen DomUs

Alternately, those using Group Builder in rBuilder Online (rather than rMake) can use a checkbox to make it a Xen DomU.

Build with Xen Flavor Specifications in rMake

As part of appliance development with rMake, use the xen and domU flavor specifications as described in the Use Flavors Specifications when Building sections of Conary:Flavors. The following command creates a single build of group-example as a Xen DomU:

$> rmake build group-example[xen,domU]

The following command creates four builds, building group-example as an installable ISO and as a Xen DomU, and for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures:

$> rmake build 'group-example[is: x86]' 'group-example[is: x86_64]' 'group-example[xen,domU is: x86]' 'group-example[xen,domU is: x86_64]'

Note that a comma is not necessary between the other flavor specifications and the "is:", and note that because of the spaces in "is: x86" and "is: x86_64" each argument is placed in quotes.

Generate Xen DomU Images

After committing the rMake builds of the appliance group to the rBuilder project, appliance developers can generate images using the rBuilder interface as described in rBuilder:Create a Build (which refers to "image builds"). When selecting the build with the xen and domU flavor specifications, rBuilder automatically restricts the choices available as build types. Select from one of the following as appropriate for the appliance deployment:

• Raw Filesystem Image
• Raw Hard Disk Image
• Compressed Tar File
• Amazon Machine Image

Deploy a Xen DomU Appliance

See the Xen DomU Guide for information about how to deploy a Xen DomU appliance, including helpful references for specific deployment needs.