Kexec (and kdump) are valuable multi-purpose mechanisms in Linux which are currently unavailable to Xen guests. What makes Xen guests so special, how is it different from other hypervisors? Can we solve these issues in a foreseeable future? This presentation will give an overview of several different approaches to making kexec possible for PVHVM Linux guests and describe difficulties we face while trying to implement these approaches. I will show which changes should be made to the hypervisor, toolstack, and Linux kernel in order to make things work. While the talk mainly focuses on PVHVM x86 guests I will also try to mention PVH and ARM implications.
