Hi guys,

I am trying RHEL5 virt-manager (xen) to install virtual os but I am having problem accessing the cdrom drive when its time to change disk during installation.

I am testing with RHEL4.

When I need to insert the 2nd disc, I had to:
Then after changing disc, I had to:
Note that when starting with 1st disc during installation, it is recognise as hdc. But it won't work if I use back hdc.

Then when the 3rd disc came, I had to point it to hdc.

But when it comes to the 4th disc, no matter what I switch to it won't work. Bummer.

Am I doing it right in the first place? I realise I had to 'force' it to detach each time... stuck.

I took reference from here, though it is SuSE
http://en.opensuse.org/Installing_a_...achine_from_CD

Thanks!

anyone experienced with it?

Nope, I have no idea and wondered about how to do this myself. Haven't tried it. I gave up with Xen and went with VMware Server instead. VMware Server is a lot easier to use.

oh man that sucks big time... hahaha

Are you saying that VMware Server sucks, or that your situation of not being able to "hot swap" virtual CD's in Xen sucks? Did you get this resolved?

i never install from cd, just copy the content of all cd's into a ftp (better if anonymous). The ftp or http option is also in the virt-install

ah don't get me wrong, i am sure vmware is a solid product

just a figure of speech. .sucks.. as in.. yah.. i can't solve my problem.
still trying to figure out the part where I need to manually assign the cdrom to different guest domain

i don't have a spare machine for ftp installation, hence that option is out for now.
alot of it is being done in the lab.. for us to get a hands on and better feel so as to prep the knowledge base for upcoming projects

hmm so for those who use Xen, you guys just go with ftp/http/dvd installation?

Yes, when I was using Xen, I just used a DVD ISO to install my OS's and created my own ISO files on another virtual cd-rom drive. For example, I was trying to get Windows Vista to work, but I needed the virtual DVD ISO to be attached, but I also needed a network card driver, so I just told Xen I had 2 cd-rom drives and converted the network card driver into an ISO.

Can you change the path of the source of the CD's? Maybe you can create like 10 cd-rom's in Xen and mount an iso to each cd-rom?

isn't dom0 a machine?

hah! silly me... i totally didn't think of that *slap in the face*

hmm so it seems like many of you using xen either use ftp/network install or dvd.. no one use cdrom huh

I think the age of swapping CD's is slowly dying off. I remember they used to have 7-cd changers for the PC! DVD drives are about $20-$40 so they are pretty affordable to upgrade.

hi,

just revisiting the issue... am wondering if anyone does virtualization setup using CDs?

I am just thinking.. Xen should be implemented with that possible considerations?

My new servers are all having DVD drives now after this incident, but the previous servers are all still on CD drives, so am wondering about that...

thanks!