Paravirtualise Ubuntu in XenServer

Here below some notes to help users setup an Ubuntu Server installation paravirtualised mode:

• Install XenServer
• Create a VM with "Other install media"
• Install with ext3 (instead of ext4)
• Put the swap partition first and the "/" partition second (both primary) which will allow you to resize the disk later on

After this, boot the system up, login as root and execute the following commands:

apt-get remove --purge grub2\*
rm -rf /boot/grub/*
apt-get install grub
grub-install /dev/sda
update-grub

#remove quiet splash from /boot/grub/menu.lst, run update-grub again
reboot with grub1

sudo cp /etc/init/tty1.conf /etc/init/hvc0.conf
vim /etc/init/hvc0.conf #change tty1 -> hvc0

Now shut the system down and go to the console of the hardware node:

xe vm-list

uuid=xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xe vm-param-set uuid=$uuid HVM-boot-policy=
xe vm-param-set uuid=$uuid PV-bootloader=pygrub
xe vm-param-set uuid=$uuid PV-args="console=tty0 xencons=tty"

xe vm-disk-list uuid=$uuid

uuiddisk=xxxxxxxxxxxxx
xe vbd-param-set uuid=$uuiddisk bootable=true

After this, start the VM and check if it's running in PV mode:

ps axfwwwww|grep xen

Now, connect the XenTools.iso to the VM and mount it and install the xentools

mount /dev/xvdd /mnt
dpkg -i /mnt/Linux/xe-guest-utilities_5.6.0-578_amd64.deb

That's it!

Enjoy!