[Pkg-xen-devel] Bug#695645: Bug#695645: xen-utils-common: xm block-attach does not create /dev/xvd* devices on dom0

[Ian Campbell]

On Tue, 2012-12-11 at 15:05 +1100, James Robertson wrote:
> Package: xen-utils-common
> Version: 4.1.3-6
> Severity: minor
> 
> Dear Maintainer,
> 
> I am trying to run the following command on a dom0 Debian server in
> order to mount a vmware vmdk.  I don't want to use kpartx or losetup
> as they have poor write performance and I'm hoping blktap will provide
> better performance.
> 
> xm block-attach 0
> tap:vmdk:/mnt/backup/3MSYDDP01/3MSYDDP01_2-flat.vmdk /dev/xvda1 w 0
> 
> However /dev/xvda1 is not created.

There is no blktap driver in the main line kernels. You could try the
blktap dkms package which is in Wheezy.

Since that it blktap2 you probably want to setup the tap device using
tap-ctl directly rather than creating an xvd device in dom0, doing it
via xm likely won't work anyway.

I don't know the specifics of how to do this though -- perhaps google or
the upstream xen-users@ list can help.

There are also various offline conversion tools which you could
consider.

Ian.
-- 
Ian Campbell
Current Noise: Suffocation - Entrails Of You

A classic is something that everyone wants to have read
and nobody wants to read.
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