OpenISR FAQ

  1. OpenISR FAQ
    1. General
    2. Building
    3. Client
    4. Server
    5. KVM
    6. VirtualBox

General

Can I run OpenISR on Windows/Mac OS?

The OpenISR software presently only runs on Linux. The client includes a kernel module which is responsible for the VM's virtual disk, and so is not straightforward to port to to other operating systems.

Does it work with Xen?

OpenISR does not currently support Xen.

Building

autogen.sh failed because I didn't have libtool installed, but when I installed libtool and reran autogen.sh it complained about missing files.

You can correct this by passing the --force option to autogen.sh.

configure complains that it can't find asn1Parser.

asn1Parser is part of libtasn1, but many Linux distributions package it separately. On Debian and Ubuntu, you need to install the libtasn1-3-bin package. On Fedora, you need to install libtasn1-tools.

Client

How do I suspend my parcel?

It depends on your VMM:

  • VirtualBox: Press RightCtrl-Q, select "Save the machine state", and then click OK.
  • VMware: Click the close box in the drop-down toolbar (if in full-screen mode) or close the window (otherwise).
  • KVM on OpenISR <= 0.9.6: If in full-screen mode, press Ctrl-Alt-F to switch to windowed mode. Then, press Ctrl-C in the terminal window that you used to resume the parcel.
  • KVM on OpenISR >= 0.9.7: Press RightCtrl-Q.

How do I resume my parcel while disconnected from the network?

While still connected to the network, run "isr checkout -d <parcel>". This will fetch all of the data needed to run the parcel disconnected. Then, to resume while disconnected from the network, run "isr resume -d <parcel>".

Can I hibernate my client while a parcel is running?

No; this will most likely crash the host. Make sure to suspend your parcels before suspending your host.

When I suspend, ISR says "Unable to shutdown Parcelkeeper".

This usually occurs because the VMM has not, in fact, shut down properly. Parcelkeeper will refuse to exit while any process has the OpenISR virtual disk device open. Check for errant VMM processes. Once the VMM exits, Parcelkeeper will shut down automatically.

How do I access the virtual disk of a parcel without using a VMM?

Pass "-m shell" to the "isr resume" command. Instead of launching a VMM, ISR will bind the virtual disk and then launch a shell. When you exit the shell, ISR will suspend the parcel.

Server

How do I change the memory image size of an existing parcel?

Shut down and check in your parcel, then edit ~/.isr/<parcelname>/parcel.cfg on the server and change the MEM line to the desired memory image size in megabytes.

How do I change the disk image size of an existing parcel?

Starting with OpenISR 0.9.7, you can use "isr_admin copyparcel" with the -s flag to resize a parcel. Note that this will create a new parcel with a resized disk. Before performing the resize, you should shut down the parcel and check it in. The first client to resume the resized parcel must be version 0.9.7 or higher; subsequent clients can be any version. After resizing, you will need to update the partition table and resize filesystems within the guest operating system, just as you would if replacing a disk in a physical machine.

Can I run the server on the same machine as the client?

We do not support this configuration, though it may work. You will probably need to run the ISR client from a different user account than the one containing the ISR parcel data.

When I check out a parcel, I get a message about the server/userid/name not matching the parcel.cfg.

The server hostname specified to the client must match the server's own idea of its hostname. The server tries to figure out its hostname, but if it guesses incorrectly, you will need to override its guess by placing a line in /etc/openisr/locksrv.conf:

hostname = server.hostname.example.com

Note that this hostname setting is processed at the point that a parcel is created. If you change the server's hostname after creating parcels, you will need to update the metadata for each parcel on the server by updating the SERVER, RPATH, and WPATH keys in /home/<userid>/.isr/<parcel>/parcel.cfg.

When I run "isr auth", it says "Unable to run ssh-add on the server".

ISR accounts on the server must be created with "isr_admin adduser", not with your operating system's user management tools.

When I run "isr_admin makeparcel", it says "Couldn't parse SQL statement: no such table: main.keys".

This is a bug introduced in OpenISR 0.9.6, and is fixed in version 0.9.7.

KVM

How do I change the command-line parameters passed to KVM?

Check out the parcel, then edit ~/.isr/<uuid>/cfg/kvm.cfg. You must have resumed the parcel at least once for this file to exist. To get the UUID of the parcel, run "isr uuid <parcel>".

How do I attach a CD-ROM image to my parcel?

Unlike VirtualBox and VMware, KVM does not provide a GUI for attaching a CD-ROM (ISO) image to a virtual machine. To automatically connect a KVM parcel to the host CD-ROM drive if one is available, edit the parcel's kvm.cfg (see above) and ensure that the "-cdrom" line exists and reads "-cdrom auto". (This is the default for KVM parcels created with OpenISR 0.9.5 or above.) To connect the parcel to a CD-ROM image file, edit the line as follows:

-cdrom /path/to/image.iso

If the "-cdrom" line points to an image file which does not exist, the parcel will fail to resume.

VirtualBox

How do I change the VirtualBox settings for my virtual machine?

If you want to attach a CD-ROM disc or USB device, configure shared folders, etc., you can do that from the Devices menu while the parcel is running. If you want to change the memory allocation, see here. If you want to change the disk size, see here. To modify other settings, you will need to modify the virtual machine's XML configuration file directly. It can be found at ~/.isr/<uuid>/cfg/virtualbox.xml, assuming the parcel is checked out and has been resumed at least once. To get the UUID of the parcel, run "isr uuid <parcel>".

VirtualBox claims that my parcel's saved state is damaged or from an older version of VirtualBox, and says something about VERR_SSM_LOAD_CPUID_MISMATCH.

VirtualBox will not allow resumption of a virtual machine that was suspended on a CPU with a different set of feature flags. If you want to suspend a VirtualBox parcel on a client with one model of CPU and resume it on a client with a different model, you will need to shut down the parcel before checking it in.

When I try to resume a newly-created VirtualBox parcel, it fails with a message about TSBool.

This problem occurs with OpenISR 0.9.6 on VirtualBox 3.0.2 or higher, and is fixed in OpenISR 0.9.7. Note that it only occurs with parcels which have never been successfully resumed with VirtualBox, such as those created with isr_admin makeparcel. Once a parcel has been successfully resumed with VirtualBox, you can use it with OpenISR 0.9.6 and any release of VirtualBox 3.0.x.