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i'm trying to install xen via yum on RHEL 5.5.
When i browse the repo here:
http://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/enterprise/5Server/en/os/SRPMS/

I can see the package i want. specifically
xen-3.0.3-105.el5_5.5.src.rpm
direct link: http://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/enterprise/5Server/en/os/SRPMS/xen-3.0.3-105.el5_5.5.src.rpm

however when i do 

yum search xen

I get

hp-nx_nic-tools.x86_64 : HP NC-Series QLogic user components for Linux driver
kernel-xen.x86_64 : The Linux kernel compiled for Xen VM operations
kernel-xen-debuginfo.x86_64 : Debug information for package kernel-xen
kernel-xen-devel.x86_64 : Development package for building kernel modules to
                        : match the kernel.
kmod-be2iscsi-xen-rhel5u5.x86_64 : be2iscsi kernel module(s)
kmod-be2net-xen-rhel5u5.x86_64 : be2net kernel module(s)
kmod-igb-xen-rhel5u5.x86_64 : igb kernel module(s)
kmod-lpfc-xen-rhel5u4.x86_64 : lpfc kernel module(s)
kmod-lpfc-xen-rhel5u5.x86_64 : lpfc kernel module(s)
kmod-xenpv.x86_64 : xenpv kernel module(s)
xen-debuginfo.i386 : Debug information for package xen
xen-debuginfo.x86_64 : Debug information for package xen
xen-libs.i386 : Libraries for Xen tools
xen-libs.x86_64 : Libraries for Xen tools
xenpv-debuginfo.x86_64 : Debug information for package xenpv

none of which look like xen itself...
help please.
thanks in advance

w-01
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2 Answers2

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The default Red Hat Network subscription for a RHEL5 server doesn't include the Virtualization channel. You have to manually enable it for your subscription. See here. IIRC, there is no extra charge... but I have not messed with RHEL subscriptions for a few months.

I think this has changed for RHEL 6. And it's rather odd that the default repos include other virtualization packages but not Xen, I know.

ajdecon
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  • how do you know xen is part of the virtualization channel. If i don't have direct access to RHN, is it something that i can look up online? I'm currently looking for scsi-target-utils. apparently it should just come up in yum but when i search it's not showing up. i suspect it is a similar issue? – w-01 Apr 28 '11 at 19:26
  • I don't know of any good web interface to the RHN package lists without a login. FWIW, scsi-target-utils shows up on one of my servers with only the default RHEL subscription. – ajdecon Apr 29 '11 at 00:47
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xen-3.0.3-105.el5_5.5.src.rpm is a source RPM, so yum can't install it. Yum can only install binary RPMs, so that's why it doesn't show when you search.

If you actually want to build the source, download it either using wget or yumdownloader --source ... (from the yum-utils package) and use rpmbuild to build it.

Otherwise, find a non-source RPM and yum should get it for you. If it's not the most recent version, use the yum-allowdowngrade plugin (also part of yum-utils).

BigChief
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  • thanks. i guess my newb-ness is showing. With respect to rpmbuild, does it pretty much build automatically, or do i need more detailed knowledge of config for the build to succeed? – w-01 Apr 28 '11 at 16:40
  • @w-01: It's not very complicated at all to build a source RPM. [Here](http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/RebuildSRPM) are some directions for CentOS, which should work for RHEL. However, are you sure you need to build from source? If you are unaware of how to do it, you probably don't need to. Follow the instructions given by ajdecon for enabling the Virtualization channel and see if you can find a non-source Xen RPM instead. – BigChief Apr 28 '11 at 17:00
  • Thanks for that link. I decided to go with asking my unix admin to just add the channel in the rhn for that box. – w-01 Apr 28 '11 at 19:10
  • would give you a +1 but apparently not enough reputation yet =\ – w-01 Apr 28 '11 at 21:17