Hello everyone! So I got a very nice and useful response about getting
GuixSD working on Rackspace Cloud. I've gotten permission to post the
conversation verbatim, so I've done so below. But here's the tl;dr:
- In order for our image to work, we need to get XenServer and
nova-agent working and running on it. DHCP isn't used.
- Apparently the right format is "VHD in an OVF container"
but is hard to get right. I'm assuming we probably won't get
it right by guessing based on that description.
- So we probably should use this tool to do our first attempt
(then figure out from there how to generate such an image
ourselves without help):
http://rackerlabs.github.io/boot.rackspace.com/
- In order to use that, we'll need to supply a .iso, so I guess
in order to move forward with the Rackspace route, we'll need
to finish figuring out how to generate a .iso here too!
Thanks again to AlexOughton for the useful feedback.
> [Fri Dec 2 2016]
> <AlexOughton> hi, i just saw your question about GuixSD on #rackspace. you'll
> need to get both the XenServer tools and the nova-agent working,
> as Rackspace Cloud doesn't use DHCP [14:52]
> <paroneayea> hi! Ah I see :)
> <paroneayea> I've been documenting my attempt at getting GuixSD on Rackspace
> here:
> http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-guix/2016-11/msg00073.html
> http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-guix/2016-11/msg00074.html
> [14:54]
> <paroneayea> mind if I paste your reply here into the #guix irc channel and/or
> to the mailing list?
> <AlexOughton> sure. i don [14:55]
> <AlexOughton> sure. i don't know how far you're going to get with image import
> methods (as this can be flaky, and also requires VERY specific
> format). you might get better luck bootstrapping your own custom
> image this way: http://rackerlabs.github.io/boot.rackspace.com/
> [14:56]
> <AlexOughton> that only provides a few distros, but there are ways of pointing
> iPXE to your own ISO file to then boot that and perform an
> installation [14:57]
> <paroneayea> ok, thanks. Yeah I was having trouble finding any information
> about what the expected format is [15:00]
> <paroneayea> and there doesn't seem to be much info
> <AlexOughton> i believe it's VHD in an OVF container. [15:02]
> <AlexOughton> i think your success or failure is going to be down to whether
> or not the OS works on XenServer (which is what our hypervisors
> are), and whether or not the XenServer tools work. what kernel
> does guixsd use?
> <paroneayea> linux-libre 4.8.10 is latest I think [15:03]
> <paroneayea> you can install other kernels
> <paroneayea> but that's the default
> <AlexOughton> ok, well since it's a Linux my guess would be that it's possible
> to get XenServer tools working. and then the nova-agent is just
> python, so hopefully that's possible too [15:04]
> <paroneayea> cool, ok. I guess we need both nova-agent and XenServer then :)
> <AlexOughton> right. the boot.rackspace link i gave you above has
> documentation for getting both of those working as well
> <paroneayea> cool... well, I was just looking into making a .iso of the boot
> install media yesterday (currently we mostly use a USB install
> stick) so I guess there's extra motivation to do that now :)
> [15:05]
> <paroneayea> thanks for your help, this was a very useful conversation. Okay
> for me to just paste this conversation verbatim to the mailing
> list? [15:06]
> <AlexOughton> yep, no problem. as long as it's understood that i'm just
> answering as an individual, and that this isn't any kind of
> official rackspace support answer. because it's definitely not
> something which rackspace would be able to support for you
> [15:07]
> <paroneayea> understood :)
> <paroneayea> thank you!
> <AlexOughton> you're welcome
> <paroneayea> I really appreciate it :)
