Xen VMs will start from CLI, but not Cloudmin

Submitted by someguy on Wed, 06/30/2010 - 12:09

I receive the following error when trying to start a Xen VM from Cloudmin, but when I start the domain manually with xm create /xen/test.cfg it starts with no hiccups. This was intermittant, but now occurs every single time I try to start a Xen VM from Cloudmin. I can still create new VMs from Cloudmin, but they won't start without manual intervention.

Starting up test.example.com ..
.. failed :
PTY PID: 20882
Error: Unable to open config file: /xen/test.cfg
Usage: xm create <ConfigFile> [options] [vars]

Create a domain based on <ConfigFile>.

Options:

-h, --help           Print this help.
--help_config        Print the available configuration variables (vars)
                     for the configuration script.
-q, --quiet          Quiet.
--path=PATH          Search path for configuration scripts. The value of
                     PATH is a colon-separated directory list.
-f=FILE, --defconfig=FILE
                     Use the given Python configuration script.The
                     configuration script is loaded after arguments have
                     been processed. Each command-line option sets a
                     configuration variable named after its long option
                     name, and these variables are placed in the
                     environment of the script before it is loaded.
                     Variables for options that may be repeated have list
                     values. Other variables can be set using VAR=VAL on
                     the command line. After the script is loaded, option
                     values that were not set on the command line are
                     replaced by the values set in the script.
-F=FILE, --config=FILE
                     Domain configuration to use (SXP).
                     SXP is the underlying configuration format used by
                     Xen.
                     SXP configurations can be hand-written or generated
                     from Python configuration scripts, using the -n
                     (dryrun) option to print the configuration.
-n, --dryrun         Dry run - prints the resulting configuration in SXP
                     but does not create the domain.
-p, --paused         Leave the domain paused after it is created.
-c, --console_autoconnect
                     Connect to the console after the domain is created.
Status: 
Closed (fixed)

Comments

Submitted by JamieCameron on Wed, 06/30/2010 - 16:13

Someone else reported a problem like this once before, and I think the cause was SElinux on the Xen host preventing access to the .cfg files by the xm command.

Do you have SElinux enabled? You can tell be looking at /etc/sysconfig/selinux , and turn it off by changing the SELINUX line to SELINUX=disabled , then rebooting.

Submitted by someguy on Tue, 07/20/2010 - 12:14

Sorry for the delayed response. Disabling SELinux appears to have fixed the problem.

What I don't get is why it worked just fine with SELinux enabled for months, then just became an intermittent problem, and ended up becoming a problem at every attempt. SELinux has been enabled since the host server was deployed. Strange...

Submitted by JamieCameron on Tue, 07/20/2010 - 22:20

Yeah, SElinux can have odd effects depending on exactly how commands are run. I find it best to disable it pretty much all the time .. especially since it doesn't help much for VM hosting.

Submitted by Issues on Wed, 08/04/2010 - 04:20

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.