Help to build QEMU (upstream version) with Xen

Get the source

• Get Xen source (version 4.2 aka xen-unstable development version)
• Get QEMU upstream source from:
  • Recommended: xen-stable-0.15 qemu branch

Hvmloader

In the HVM case the "PV kernel" is actually hvmloader and isn't PV at all, the job of hvmloader is to load all the necessary information that qemu will use to build the necessary environment that will "fool" an unmodified guest that he is in fact on a physical machine. In summary hvmloader pretty much just fills data-structures as follows:

What is STUBDOM ?

Stubdoms are lightweight 'service' or 'driver' domains. The initial purpose was to offload qemu (for hvm guests) out of dom0. So with stubdoms you can run hvm guest qemu in a separate stubdom, which boosts performance and makes it more secure. stubdoms can also run for example pv-grub for pv guests, making it more secure compared to pygrub, which always runs in dom0.

Install XEN Dom0 on CentOS 6 from source

This article assumes you have a clean install of CentOS and have root level access to the server. Note this was performed on a minimal install with no desktop.

Prereqs

To be able to perform a successful kernel build, you will need to install the following packages:

yum groupinstall “Development tools” “Compatibility libraries”