Xenpvnetboot

A network bootloader for Xen PV guests.

xenpvnetboot supports getting boot images from the following locations:

    - http://host/path
    - https://host/path
    - ftp://host/path
    - file:///path
    - tftp://host/path
    - nfs:host:/path
    - /path
    - /path/file.iso
    - /path/filesystem.img
    - /dev/sda1
    - nfs+iso:host:/path/file.iso
    - nfs+iso:host:/path/filesystem.img

To use it, set xenpvnetboot as bootloader in the VM config file:

    bootloader = 'xenpvnetboot'

To get boot images from various locations, set the right bootloader arguments:

    bootloarder_args = ['--location=http://192.168.0.1/fedora/x86_64']
    bootloarder_args = ['--location=ftp://192.168.0.1/fedora/x86_64']
    bootloarder_args = ['--location=file:///fedora/x86_64']
    bootloarder_args = ['--location=tftp://192.168.0.1/fedora/x86_64']
    bootloarder_args = ['--location=/fedora/x86_64']
    bootloarder_args = ['--location=/fedora/Fedora-16-x86_64-DVD.iso']
    bootloarder_args = ['--location=nfs:192.168.0.1:/fedora/x86_64']
    bootloarder_args = ['--location=nfs+iso:192.168.0.1:/fedora/Fedora-16-x86_64-DVD.iso']

You can use kernel and ramdisk in the VM config file to specify the relative path of the boot kernel and ramdisk: xenpvnetboot will join them with --location to find them:

    kernel = 'images/pxeboot/vmlinuz'
    ramdisk = 'images/pxeboot/initrd.img'
    bootloarder_args = ['--location=http://192.168.0.1/fedora/x86_64']

    kernel = 'fedora/x86_64/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz'
    ramdisk = 'fedora/x86_64/images/pxeboot/initrd.img'
    bootloarder_args = ['--location=http://192.168.0.1/']

You can also omit the --location option and specify the full URL for kernel and ramdisk directly:

    kernel = 'http://192.168.0.1/fedora/x86_64/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz'
    ramdisk = 'http://192.168.0.1/fedora/x86_64/images/pxeboot/initrd.img'

These 4 ways are equivalent:

   bootloader_args = ['--location', 'http://192.168.0.1/']
   kernel = 'OL6/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz'
   ramdisk = 'OL6/images/pxeboot/initrd.img'
  
   ----
  
   bootloader_args = ['--location', 'http://192.168.0.1/OL6']
   kernel = 'images/pxeboot/vmlinuz'
   ramdisk = 'images/pxeboot/initrd.img'
  
   ----
  
   kernel = 'http://192.168.0.1/OL6/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz'
   ramdisk = 'http://192.168.0.1/OL6/images/pxeboot/initrd.img'
  
   ----
  
   bootloader_args = ['--location', 'http://192.168.0.1/OL6',
                      '--kernel', 'images/pxeboot/vmlinuz',
                      '--ramdisk', 'images/pxeboot/initrd.img']

If only --location is specified and kernel and ramdisk are not specified, xenpvnetboot will search the following default paths under location for boot images:

    ('images/xen/vmlinuz', 'images/xen/initrd.img'), # Fedora <= 10 and OL = 5
    ('boot/i386/vmlinuz-xen', 'boot/i386/initrd-xen'), # openSUSE >= 10.2 and SLES >= 10
    ('boot/x86_64/vmlinuz-xen', 'boot/x86_64/initrd-xen'), # openSUSE >= 10.2 and SLES >= 10
    ('current/images/netboot/xen/vmlinuz', 'current/images/netboot/xen/initrd.gz'), # Debian
    ('images/pxeboot/vmlinuz', 'images/pxeboot/initrd.img'), # Fedora >=10 and OL >= 6
    ('isolinux/vmlinuz', 'isolinux/initrd.img'), # Fedora >= 10 and OL >= 6

xenpvnetboot requires python module urlgrabber.