Sangoma Xen Configuration

Owned by Nathaniel Halbrooks
Last updated: Mar 26, 2024 by Kelli Higdon
5 min read

Unsupported Configuration 

This documents provide a step by step guide for running Sangoma Hardware on a paravirtualized guest OS under the Xen hypervisor.  Since Debian provides Xen 4.0 in package management, Debian Lenny has been used as GNU/Linux distribution for the Host operating System.  

If you have any problems please contact http://support.sangoma.com

Tutorial Created By:

Bruno Salzano (bruno@brunosalzano.com)

We sincerely appreciate Bruno Salzano assistance in this project.

 

1. Install Xen 4.0 on Debian Lenny


At the moment we wrote this tutorial, Xen 4.0 is only availabe in Sid (unstable repository). So, it's necessary to enable Sid repositories to install Xen 4.0.

Another choice is to build Xen4 from sources following the instructions from Xen wiki, but this goes outside of the goals of this tutorial. We'll show how to install using Sid repositories.

Add “deb Index of /debian/ unstable main contrib non-free”  in /etc/apt/sources.list

Sample: /etc/apt/sources.list
------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 5.0.6 _Lenny_ - Official i386 NETINST Binary-1 20100905-11:24]/ lenny main

#deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 5.0.6 _Lenny_ - Official i386 NETINST Binary-1 20100905-11:24]/ lenny main

deb http://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian/ lenny main
deb-src http://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian/ lenny main

deb Debian -- Security Information lenny/updates main
deb-src Debian -- Security Information lenny/updates main

deb http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile lenny/volatile main
deb-src http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile lenny/volatile main

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Run following command to sync repository.
root@lenny# apt-get update

Note: if you get an error like "E: Wow, you exceeded the number of descriptions this APT is capable of." from apt-get update command, you may want to give a look at this link. Anyway, try to run "export LANG=C" and run apt-get update again.

 

Install Xen 4.0 and Xen-tools running the following command:

root@lenny# apt-get install xen-hypervisor-4.0-amd64 linux-image-2.6.32-5-xen-amd64 xen-tools xen-linux-system-2.6.32-5-xen-amd64

Note: For 32 bit OS use "non -amd64" packages (ex. linux-image-2.6.32-5-xen-amd64 2.6.32-15 and xen-hypervisor-4.0-amd64 4.0.0-2  instead of  linux-image-2.6.32-5-xen-686 and xen-linux-system-2.6.32-5-xen-686)

Once Xen 4.0 is installed, disable sid repositories by adding a pound sign (#) in front of the line "deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free" in /etc/apt/sources.list. You may want to use it again, but it's safe to leave it disabled.

To apply changes run following command:
root@lenny# apt-get update

Now reboot the system.
root@lenny# reboot

2. Create domU image using xen-create-image

 

Before all, we have to enable network bridge for xend. This will require to un-comment the line “(network-script network-bridge)” in  /etc/xen/xend-config.sxp by removing “#” from front of the line.

Restart xend by running following command:
root@lenny# xend restart

Now, you should be able to see a bridge:

root@lenny# brctl show

bridge name bridge id STP enabled interfaces

eth0  8000.0022195825c8  no  peth0

Create local directory for VM image.
root@lenny# mkdir /home/xen

For a test system VM is created with following specifications:
boot partition space = 4GB
swap pace = 512MB
hostname = sangomatest
distro type = lenny

4GB of boot partition  space, 512 MB swap space and 512M of RAM using host name “sangomatest” and mirror "http://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian/". If You prefer, a mirror nearest your location can be used. For production systems You may increase ram, swap and disk space as You prefer.

root@lenny# xen-create-image --dhcp --mirror=http://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian/ --passwd --hostname=sangomatest --dist=lenny --size=4G --swap=512M --dir=/home/xen/ --memory=256M --role=udev

(Be patient this might take some time)

This will create configuration file sangomatest.cfg in /etc/xen directory

Start VM in console mode by running command:
root@lenny# xm create sangomatest.cfg -c

You should see you domU booting. At the prompt, after login, run following commands to have your domU Lenny updated:
root@sangomatest# apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

To switch back to your Dom0 Xen OS, use key combination:  Ctrl +  ]

To get back to guest OS sangomatest console run command  “xm console sangomatest”.

Tip: If you've correctly setup networking and sshd daemon is running on DomU you can connect to your DomU through network and ssh client.


3. Find Sangoma Hardware and Make it available for PV Guest DomU VM
 

Since version 3.0, on Xen You can use PCI passthru to assign a PCI device to a virtual machine guest, giving it full and direct access to the PCI device. For more informations you can read this link.

On Dom0 find out Sangoma’s hardware PCI ID. Run following command.

root@lenny# lspci | grep -i sangoma
or
root@lenny# lspci -n | grep 1923

For example:
---------------------------------------------
root@lenny# lspci | grep -i sangoma
06:04.0 Network controller: Sangoma Technologies Corp. A200/Remora FXO/FXS Analog AFT card
---------------------------------------------

In above example PCI ID of Sangoma hardware is 06:04.0. PCI ID can be different on your machine. 

Now edit /boot/grub/menu.lst configuration file and add "irqpoll xen-pciback.hide=(06:04:0)" in the end of  “module/boot...” line of Xen 4.0 section.

For example:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

title           Xen 4.0-amd64 / Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.32-5-xen-amd64
root            (hd0,0)
kernel          /boot/xen-4.0-amd64.gz 
module          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-xen-amd64 root=UUID=41b96025-ba58-4938-b118-a492542ac786 ro console=tty0 irqpoll xen-pciback.permissive xen-pciback.hide=(0000:06:04.0) pci=resource_alignment=0000:06:04.0

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tip: for verbose logging of the xen kernel, you may add "loglvl=all guest_loglvl=all" on kernel line of the above configuration. Once booted, from Dom0 you may read xen boot messages invoking the "xm dmesg" command.

 

Add Sangoma Hardware PCI ID to VM by adding “pci=['06,04,0']” and “extra = 'swiotlb=force iommu=soft'” in /etc/xen/sangomatest.cfg

 

Example:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# Configuration file for the Xen instance sangomatest, created
# by xen-tools 4.2rc1 on Mon Sep 13 13:13:06 2010.
#

#
#  Kernel + memory size
#
kernel      = '/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-xen-amd64'
ramdisk     = '/boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-5-xen-amd64'

vcpus       = '1'
memory      = '512'

#
#  Disk device(s).
#
root        = '/dev/xvda2 ro'
disk        = [
                 'file:/home/xen//domains/sangomatest/disk.img,xvda2,w',
                 'file:/home/xen//domains/sangomatest/swap.img,xvda1,w',
             ]

 

pci=['06,04,0']

#
#  Hostname
#
name        = 'sangomatest'

#
#  Networking
#
dhcp        = 'dhcp'
vif         = [ 'mac=00:16:3E:C3:C3:95' ]

#
#  Behaviour
#
on_poweroff = 'destroy'
on_reboot   = 'restart'
on_crash    = 'restart'

extra = 'swiotlb=force iommu=soft'
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shutdown domU (guest OS) and reboot dom0 (host machine).
root@lenny# xm destroy sangomatest
root@lenny# reboot

Once Xen system is restarted run the command “xm pci-list sangomatest” to check PCI passthrough for VM.

For example:
root@lenny# xm pci-list sangomatest
domain bus  slot func
0x0000 0x06 0x04 0x0

Note: Please stop here if you cannot see pci back device.  Please check “xm demsg” or /var/log/xen/xend.log .


4. Install development tools and kernel-headers on PV Guest DomU VM

 

Start the DomU (PV Guest OS) with hostname sangomatest

root@lenny# xm create sangomatest.cfg

Install PCI utils package to see pci devices.

root@sangomatest# apt-get install pciutils

Run “lspci” to confim that VM can see the Sangoma Hardware.
For example:
--------------------------------------------------------
# lspci
00:00.0 Network controller: Sangoma Technologies Corp. A200/Remora FXO/FXS Analog AFT card
-------------------------------------------------------

Update /etc/apt/sources.list file on VM to install linux-header files for the installed xen kernel. Header files are required to compile wanpipe drivers and dahdi-linux.

So, add “deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free”  in /etc/apt/sources.list as you've already done when installing xen4 on dom0.
Save your sources.list file and run “apt-get update” to sync with Sid repository .
root@sangomatest# apt-get update

Install linux-headers files by running following command.
root@sangomatest# apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Once kernel-headers are installed disable sid repositories by adding a pound sign (#) in front of the line "deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free" in /etc/apt/sources.list. You may want to use it again, but it's safe to leave it disabled.

To apply changes run following command:
root@sangomatest# apt-get update

 
Install required packages to install wanpipe drivers, dahdi-linux and asterisk:
root@sangomatest# apt-get install build-essential automake autoconf bison flex libtool libncurses5-dev libssl-dev subversion svn-buildpackage sox curl libsox-fmt-all libxml2-dev doxygen

5.Install Sangoma drivers and applications

 

Sangoma added Xen support in Wanpipe TDM driver from version 3.5.16 and above. Please make sure to use latest version of the driver.

 

For Asterisk follow wiki instructions at Telephony Cards for Asterisk

For FreeSWITCH follow wiki instructions at Telephony Cards for FreeSWITCH

 

Return to Documentation Home I Return to Sangoma Support