[Starcluster] Custom Kernels in AMIs

[Justin Riley]

Hi Austin,

 > I have documented the process for converting an Ubuntu 10.04 AMI to
 > using the pv_grub kernel.

This looks really good, thanks for writing this up.

 > I think, once they update the tools again it will be
 > possible to mark the AMI as 'hvm' rather than 'paravirtual' or I have
 > overlooked that setting.

So for now it appears that Amazon detects whether you're using 
paravirtual AMIs or not simply by the AKI/ARI you use (ie pv_grub 
kernels). Whether or not they'll add a 'paravirtual'/'hvm' flag or not 
is a good question.

Given that the reference AMI that Amazon has released looks no different 
than any other EBS/AMI only with no AKI/ARI specified I would imagine 
there would be some sort of flag during image creation to mark an AMI as 
HVM. Amazon certainly hasn't exposed anything like that and only 
advertises extending their CentOS reference HVM/EBS AMI.

Have you heard of anyone that has actually used something other than 
Amazon's reference CentOS AMI with the new cluster instance type?

~Justin

On 07/19/2010 02:15 PM, Austin Godber wrote:
> Hello Guys,
>       I have documented the process for converting an Ubuntu 10.04 AMI to
> using the pv_grub kernel.  It is relatively painless, all you have to do
> is write the appropriate grub config file and then rebundle with the
> pv_grub kernel.  I think, once they update the tools again it will be
> possible to mark the AMI as 'hvm' rather than 'paravirtual' or I have
> overlooked that setting.  Regardless, I think that would just be a flag
> and the real indication as to whether or not you are running in hvm mode
> is whether it boots off of the pv_grub kernel.
>
> Here it is:
> http://blog.crunch.io/user-managed-kernel-amis-from-existing-ubuntu
>
> Austin Godber
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