In the Dell PowerEdge SC1435 servers delivered July 2008, there are several BIOS settings that need to be frobbed on setup. in the setup screen at F2: - CPU -> Virtualization Technology: on - Boot Sequence: disable NIC - Integrated Devices -> Embedded Gb NIC: turn off PXE - Serial Communication: - Serial Communication: On with Console Redirection via COM2 - External Serial Connector: COM1 - Failsafe Baud Rate: 57600 - Remote Terminal Type: VT100/VT220 - Redirection After Boot: Disabled New Supermicros: - Advanced -> "Wait for 'F1' If Error" -> Disabled - Advanced -> Power Button Function -> 4 Seconds Override - Advanced -> PCIe/PnP -> Load Onboard LAN N Option Rom -> Disabled - Advanced -> Serial Port -> SOL -> Redirection After BIOS Post -> BootLoader - Advanced -> Serial Port -> COM -> Console Redirection -> Enabled - Advanced -> Serial Port -> COM -> Redirection After BIOS Post -> BootLoader - Advanced -> PCIe -> Disable all OPROMS - IPMI -> BMC Network Configuration - Boot order: USB Hard Disk, Removable, Hard Disk, UEFI Shell New debian installer: - 1000M for /boot in raid1 of sda1, sdb1 - rest for LVM in raid1 of sda2, sdb2 - 100G / - 64G swap - install a vanilla kernel, not xen; will install xen hypervisor from backports in our later custom install in the setup screen for remote management, at Ctrl-E: - Turn on IPMI over LAN - IP is (main IP) =~ s/18.181.0/10.5.128/ e.g. 10.5.128.221 for citadel-station == 18.181.0.221 - netmask is 255.255.0.0 - Set the password to the XVM root All of these settings are reflected on all 8 servers in the production cluster. In the debian installer: - 500M for /boot in raid1 of sda1, sdb1 - rest for LVM in raid1 of sda2, sdb2 - 50G / - 25G swap - install a vanilla kernel, not xen; will install xen hypervisor from backports in our later custom install. Currently allocated backend IPs: 10.5.128.16 c-s 10.5.128.17 a-s 10.5.128.18 s-m 10.5.128.19 a-m 10.5.128.20 d-o 10.5.128.21 g-d 10.5.128.22 b-f 10.5.128.23 m-a (not installed) 10.5.128.128 RAID group portal 10.5.128.129 RAID device/management 10.5.128.221 c-s IPMI 10.5.128.222 a-s IPMI 10.5.128.223 s-m IPMI 10.5.128.224 a-m IPMI 10.5.128.225 d-o IPMI 10.5.128.226 g-d IPMI (currently unplugged) 10.5.128.227 b-f IPMI 10.5.128.228 m-a IPMI (not configured) 18.4.58.231 new c-s IPMI 18.4.58.232 new a-s IPMI 18.4.58.233 new s-m IPMI 18.4.58.234 new a-m IPMI 10.6.128.16 c-s 10.6.128.17 a-s 10.6.128.18 s-m 10.6.128.19 a-m 10.6.128.20 d-o 10.6.128.21 g-d 10.6.128.22 b-f 10.6.128.23 m-a (not installed) 10.6.128.129 RAID device/management 10.6.128.229 g-d IPMI (temporary hardware) Precise hosts: Copy /etc/invirt/conf.d/iscsi from another prod host before trying to start iscsi (possibly before installing xvm-host) After installing xen: /etc/default/grub (note the commenting out!): GRUB_DEFAULT=2 #GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0 #GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true GRUB_TIMEOUT=10 GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian` GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="console=hvc0 earlyprintk=xen nosplash" GRUB_CMDLINE_XEN="loglvl=all guest_loglvl=all com2=115200,8n1 console=com2,vga" GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER="true" update-grub ln -s /usr/share/qemu-linaro /usr/share/qemu Change /etc/hostname to the host's FQDN /etc/sysctl.conf (yes, you need all three): net.ipv4.conf.eth0.rp_filter = 0 net.ipv4.conf.eth1.rp_filter = 0 net.ipv4.conf.all.rp_filter = 0 On boot, you'll need to run /usr/lib/xvm-iscsi-connect to bring up iscsi. Multipath will come up automatically along with that. Make sure corosync is running before starting clvmd (I know, obvious, but still)