Xen Dom0 Installation on Fedora: Common Issues and Solutions Xen remains relevant in production environments (AWS EC2, Citrix Hypervisor), though KVM has become the default for most Linux distributions. This guide covers frequent installation and configuration issues specific to Fedora Dom0 setups, with many tips applicable to other Linux platforms. BIOS Configuration If Xen fails…
Xen Virtualization on Linux: Dom0 and DomU Setup Xen remains a critical hypervisor in production environments—AWS EC2, Citrix Hypervisor, and other cloud platforms rely on it—but most Linux distributions now default to KVM for general-purpose virtualization. If you’re working with Xen specifically, this guide covers Dom0 and DomU setup on modern distributions. When to Use…
Xen DomU on Modern Linux Systems Xen remains production-grade virtualization for specific use cases (AWS EC2, Citrix Hypervisor), but most Linux distributions default to KVM. This guide covers Xen DomU setup using modern tools and practices. For new deployments, evaluate KVM/libvirt or container solutions like Podman/Kubernetes first. Storage Setup Create a file-backed virtual block device…
Setting Up Xen Dom0 on Fedora Xen remains a production hypervisor for enterprise deployments (AWS EC2, Citrix Hypervisor), though KVM has become the default for most Linux distributions. If you’re deploying Xen in 2026, you’ll likely be working with recent stable releases rather than the legacy versions covered in older guides. This guide covers building…
Querying Files from Installed Packages The rpm and dnf commands let you inspect exactly which files a package installed and find the package that owns a specific file. These queries work on both the host system and inside containers like Toolbox or Distrobox. List Files from an Installed Package rpm -ql package-name This recursively lists…
Firefox Configuration for Linux Firefox performance on Linux can be significantly improved through configuration tuning. Most of these settings apply across platforms, though this guide focuses on Linux-specific considerations. Network Pipelining HTTP pipelining allows Firefox to send multiple requests on a single connection before waiting for responses. Modern HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 handle multiplexing more efficiently,…
Installing akmod NVIDIA Driver on Fedora Installing the NVIDIA driver on Fedora via akmod (automatic kernel module) is the cleanest approach when using RPM Fusion. The driver rebuilds automatically whenever the kernel updates, saving you manual reinstalls. Prerequisites First, verify your GPU is supported. Check the NVIDIA driver support matrix for your hardware. Most consumer…
Unified Xen DomU Configuration File Xen remains in production use across several platforms (AWS EC2, Citrix Hypervisor), though KVM has become the default hypervisor for most Linux distributions. This approach is most relevant if you’re managing legacy Xen infrastructure or working with providers that standardize on it. When managing multiple Xen DomU virtual machines with…
Context This post analyzes I/O performance between loopback and blktap backends for Xen file-backed virtual block devices (VBDs), based on testing from 2013. While Xen remains in production use (AWS EC2, Citrix Hypervisor), most Linux deployments now default to KVM. For modern virtualization needs, consider KVM/libvirt or container solutions like Docker and Kubernetes. This post…
Duplicating Xen DomU Virtual Machines Xen remains in active production use—particularly in cloud infrastructure like AWS EC2 and Citrix Hypervisor—though KVM has become the standard hypervisor for most Linux distributions. If you’re managing legacy Xen deployments, this guide covers the essential steps for cloning VBD-based DomU instances. Prerequisites Before starting, ensure: The source VM is…
CPU and Memory Performance Test of Xen Dom0 and DomU This article documents performance benchmarks for Xen virtualization, comparing CPU and memory performance between Dom0 (privileged domain), DomU (unprivileged guest), and bare metal. While Xen remains in production use (AWS EC2, Citrix Hypervisor, Oracle Cloud), most Linux distributions default to KVM for new deployments. For…
Increasing Loop Devices in Linux The default number of loop devices on most Linux systems is 8, which is often insufficient for scenarios like running multiple virtual machines with loop device-backed storage, containerized environments, or disk image management. If you need more than the default allocation, you’ll need to increase max_loop. First, check your current…
Create and Manage Virtual Machines on Xen Xen remains a robust hypervisor for production environments—AWS EC2, Citrix Hypervisor, and many hosting providers still rely on it. However, KVM has become the default for most Linux distributions due to simpler management and better integration with standard tooling. For new deployments on standard Linux, evaluate KVM with…
Storage Architecture and Challenges in Google’s Infrastructure Andrew Fikes, Principal Engineer at Google, presented on storage architecture and the fundamental challenges that emerge when operating at scale. The presentation from the 2010 Faculty Summit remains relevant for understanding how distributed storage systems must be designed and the trade-offs inherent in large-scale deployments. Core Storage Challenges…
Large-Scale Data Storage and Processing Systems in Datacenters Modern datacenters rely on distributed storage and processing systems designed to handle massive datasets across clusters of commodity hardware. Understanding these systems is essential for anyone working with infrastructure at scale. Here’s an overview of the major architectures and implementations you’ll encounter. Storage Systems Google File System…
Foundation Papers Understanding distributed systems and cloud computing starts with the literature. These papers form the foundation for anyone working in the space — they’re not just historical artifacts, they’re still actively referenced and their design principles remain relevant. Internet-Scale Systems and Datacenters The Google cluster architecture paper remains essential reading. It laid out the…