Xenserver Installation Guide: 5.5.0 Update 2

XenServer Installation Guide
5.5.0 Update 2
Published January 2010
1.0 Edition
XenServer Installation Guide: Release 5.5.0 Update 2
Published January 2010
Copyright © 2009 Citrix Systems, Inc.
Xen®, Citrix®, XenServer™, XenCenter™ and logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. in the
United States and/or other countries. Other company or product names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks
of their respective owners.
This product contains an embodiment of the following patent pending intellectual property of Citrix Systems, Inc.:
1. United States Non-Provisional Utility Patent Application Serial Number 11/487,945, filed on July 17, 2006, and entitled “Using
Writeable Page Tables for Memory Address Translation in a Hypervisor Environment”.
2. United States Non-Provisional Utility Patent Application Serial Number 11/879,338, filed on July 17, 2007, and entitled “Tracking
Current Time on Multiprocessor Hosts and Virtual Machines”.
1. Introducing XenServer .................................................................................................. 1
About this document ................................................................................................ 1
How this Guide relates to other documentation .......................................................... 1
New features in XenServer 5.5.0 .............................................................................. 1
2. System Requirements .................................................................................................. 3
XenServer host system requirements ........................................................................ 3
XenCenter requirements .......................................................................................... 4
VM support .............................................................................................................. 4
3. Installing XenServer ..................................................................................................... 5
Installing the XenServer host .................................................................................... 5
Installing XenCenter ................................................................................................. 9
Installation and deployment scenarios ..................................................................... 11
XenServer hosts with local storage ................................................................. 11
XenServer hosts with shared NFS storage ...................................................... 12
XenServer hosts with shared iSCSI storage .................................................... 13
4. Updating and upgrading XenServer ............................................................................ 16
Rolling pool upgrade between major versions .......................................................... 16
Backup .......................................................................................................... 16
Performing a rolling pool upgrade ................................................................... 17
Upgrading a single server ...................................................................................... 18
Upgrading LVM storage from XenServer 5.0 or earlier .............................................. 18
Reinstalling the same version ................................................................................. 18
Preparing XenServer hosts for maintenance ............................................................ 19
Applying updates ................................................................................................... 20
Applying updates using the CLI ...................................................................... 21
Backing up and restoring XenServer hosts and VMs ................................................ 22
Backing up Virtual Machine metadata ............................................................. 22
Backing up XenServer hosts .......................................................................... 23
Backing up VMs ............................................................................................ 24
5. XenServer Licensing .................................................................................................. 25
A. Troubleshooting ......................................................................................................... 28
B. PXE installation of XenServer host ............................................................................. 29
Setting up the PXE boot environment ..................................................................... 29
Creating an answerfile for unattended PXE installation ............................................. 32
C. Xen Memory Usage ................................................................................................... 36
Setting Control Domain Memory ............................................................................. 36
Index ............................................................................................................................. 38
Chapter 1. Introducing XenServer
Thank you for choosing XenServer™ from Citrix Systems, Inc.
About this document

This document is an installation guide for XenServer™, the platform virtualization solution from Citrix®. The
XenServer package contains all you need for creating a network of virtual x86 computers running on Xen®,
the open-source paravirtualizing hypervisor with near-native performance.
This document contains procedures to guide you through the installation, configuration, and initial operation
of XenServer. This document also contains information about troubleshooting problems that might occur
during installation, and where to get further information.
How this Guide relates to other documentation

This document is primarily aimed at system administrators who need to set up XenServer hosts on physical
servers. Other documentation shipped with this release includes:
• XenServer Virtual Machine Installation Guide describes how to install Linux and Windows VMs on top of
a XenServer deployment. As well as installing new VMs from install media (or using the VM templates
provided with the XenServer release), this guide also explains how to create VMs from existing physical
machines, using a process called P2V.
• XenServer Administrator's Guide describes the tasks involved in configuring a XenServer deployment --
how to set up storage, networking and resource pools, and how to administer XenServer hosts using the
xe command line interface (CLI).
• XenServer Software Development Kit Guide presents an overview of the XenServer SDK -- a selection
of code samples that demonstrate how to write applications that interface with XenServer hosts.
• XenAPI Specification provides a programmer's reference guide to the XenServer API.
• Release notes provide a list of known issues that affect this release.
New features in XenServer 5.5.0

XenServer 5.5.0 includes a number of new features and ongoing improvements, the most important of which
are identified below:
• Improved backup and snapshot support allows you to perform live snapshot and clone operations on all
storage types. This enables better support for backup utilities and practises, and helps to reduce disk
space requirements for storing clones of virtual disks. You can now take snapshots from XenCenter as
well as through the xe CLI. For more information on this feature, please refer to the Storage chapter and
the VM Snapshots section of the Backup and recovery chapter in the XenServer Administrator's Guide.
• Active Directory integration to allow credentials to be verified against an AD server. This allows granting
and revocation of access to XenServer pools easily and securely using existing IT infrastructure. For
more information on this feature, please refer to the XenServer hosts and resource pools chapter in the
XenServer Administrator's Guide.
• Workload Balancing to optimize VM placement and assist with balancing of workloads within a pool. This
is done using the Workload Balancing server, available as a download with XenServer. For customers
interested in creating custom queries on Workload Balancing data, Citrix provides customer accessible
SQL views. For more information, see CTX121348. For more information on this feature, please refer to
the Workload Balancing chapter in the XenServer Administrator's Guide.
XenServer Installation Guide Introducing XenServer 2
• Integration with StorageLink services via the xe CLI enabling advanced storage management capabilities
via the Citrix StorageLink service, available as a download with XenServer. For more information on this
feature, please refer to the Citrix StorageLink Gateway (CSLG) SRs section of the Storage chapter in the
XenServer Administrator's Guide.
• Improved operating system support including new support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3, Novell SLES
11, and Debian Lenny.
• XenCenter improvements including Folder View, allowing you to view your resources as a simple list or
organize them into folders, and improved search capabilities. Quick text queries provide a simple way to
find resources, while the improved Search tab can be used to create more advanced queries as well as
grouping and filtering the results. For more information, please refer to XenCenter help.
Chapter 2. System Requirements
XenServer requires at least two separate physical x86 computers: one to be the XenServer host, and the
other to run the XenCenter application. The XenServer host machine is dedicated entirely to the task of
hosting VMs and is not used for other applications. The computer that runs XenCenter can be any gen-
eral-purpose Windows computer that satisfies the hardware requirements, and can be used to run other
applications simultaneously.
XenServer host system requirements

The XenServer host is a 64-bit x86 server-class machine devoted to hosting multiple VMs. This machine runs
a stripped-down Linux operating system with a Xen-enabled kernel which controls the interaction between
the virtualized devices seen by VMs and the physical hardware.
XenServer can make use of:
• up to 128 GB of RAM
• up to 6 NICs
• up to 32 CPU cores
The following are the system requirements for the XenServer host:
CPUs One or more 64-bit x86 CPU(s), 1.5 GHz minimum, 2 GHz or faster multicore CPU
recommended
To support VMs running Windows, an Intel VT or AMD-V 64-bit x86-based system

with one or more CPUs is required.
Note
To run Windows VMs, hardware support for virtualization must be enabled on the
XenServer host. This is an option in the BIOS. It is possible your BIOS might have
virtualization support disabled. Consult your BIOS documentation for more details.
To support VMs running supported paravirtualized Linux, a standard 64-bit x86-based

system with one or more CPUs is required.
RAM 1 GB minimum, 2 GB or more recommended
Disk space Locally attached storage (PATA, SATA, SCSI) with 16 GB of disk space minimum, 60
GB of disk space recommended
General disk space requirements for VMs:

XenServer Installation Guide System Requirements 4
• Product installation creates two 4GB partitions for the XenServer host control do-
main; remaining space is available for VMs
• VMs based on the Debian templates are allocated a 4GB root device, and a 512MB
swap device
• Linux VMs are allocated a root device of 8 GB
• Windows Vista and Server 2008 VMs are allocated a root device of 24 GB; other
Windows VMs default to 8 GB.
Network 100 Mbit/s or faster network interface card (NIC). A gigabit NIC is recommended for
faster P2V and export/import data transfers and for live relocation of VMs.
XenCenter requirements
The remote XenCenter application for managing the XenServer host can be installed and run on any Win-
dows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows XP or Windows Vista machine.
The system requirements for XenCenter are:
Operating sys- Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, or Windows Vista SP1
tem and SP2
.NET frame- version 2.0 or above

work
CPU Speed 750 MHz minimum, 1 GHz or faster recommended
RAM 1 GB minimum, 2 GB or more recommended
Disk space 100 MB minimum
Network inter- 100Mb or faster NIC

face card
VM support
Windows VMs can be created only on XenServer hosts equipped with Intel VT-enabled or AMD-V CPUs.
All Windows VMs are created by installing the operating system from either the Microsoft installation media
in the XenServer host physical CD/DVD-ROM drive or a network-accessible ISO image of the appropriate
template.
Linux VMs do not require XenServer hosts that are equipped with Intel VT-enabled or AMD-V CPUs.
For a list of supported Windows and Linux distributions, see the XenServer Virtual Machine Installation
Guide.
Chapter 3. Installing XenServer
This chapter describes how to install XenServer host software on physical servers, install XenCenter on
Windows workstations, and connect them to form the infrastructure for a network of Virtual Machines.
The first sections describe the installation of a XenServer host and XenCenter, which are common to all
deployments. The following sections describe several common installation and deployment scenarios and
provide information that is specific to each scenario.
Installers for both the XenServer host and XenCenter are located on the installation media. The installation
media also includes:
• a set of XenServer product documents in Adobe Acrobat PDF format

• a P2V tool for creating VM templates from an existing instances of supported Linux distributions running
on physical servers. See the XenServer Virtual Machine Installation Guide for details.
• a tool for restoring a backed-up XenServer host control domain filesystem. See the section called “Backing
up XenServer hosts” for details.
Installing the XenServer host

The XenServer host consists of a Xen-enabled Linux operating system, a management agent, VM tem-
plates, and a local storage repository reserved for VMs. The XenServer host must be installed on a dedi-
cated 64-bit x86 server.
You can install the XenServer host from the installation CDs or set up a network-accessible TFTP server to
boot using PXE. For details about setting up a TFTP server for PXE-booting the installer, see Appendix B,
PXE installation of XenServer host.
Note
Do not install any other operating system in a dual-boot configuration with the XenServer host; this is an
unsupported configuration.
The main installation CD contains the basic packages needed to set up the XenServer host on a physical
host, and to create Windows VMs using the Windows installation CDs. The XenServer package also con-
tains a separate CD containing support for creating Linux VMs and six CDs containing source code for the
included open-source software.
The installer presents an upgrade choice if it is run on a server that already has a previous version of
XenServer on it. The upgrade process follows the first-time installation process but several setup steps are
bypassed, and the existing settings for networking configuration, system time setting and so on are retained.
If you only want to create Windows VMs, you can install XenServer using just the first CD. If you want to
install Linux VMs, be sure to
1. Download the Linux Pack ISO

2. Burn it to a physical CD if installing from a DVD/CD drive, or set it up for PXE installation as described
in Appendix B, PXE installation of XenServer host
XenServer Installation Guide Installing XenServer 6
Note
If, after installing XenServer without Linux support, you decide later to add it, mount the Linux Pack
installation CD or ISO image on the XenServer host and run the script install.sh, located in the root
directory of the CD.
To install or upgrade the XenServer host
Warning
If you are performing an upgrade, please ensure you do not have any suspended virtual machines as
these may not be resumable after the upgrade. Please ensure that all CD drives of virtual machines have
been ejected and are empty, and that HA is disabled before proceeding with an upgrade.
1. Boot the computer from the main installation CD, or PXE-boot from your TFTP server if applicable. See
Appendix B, PXE installation of XenServer host for details on how to set up the XenServer media for
PXE installation.
2. After the initial boot messages, the installer does some hardware detection and initialization, then
presents a screen asking you to select which keyboard keymap you want to use for the installation.
In this and the screens that follow, use Tab or Alt+Tab to move between elements, Space to select,
and F12 to move to the next screen.
Select the desired keymap and choose OK to proceed.

3. Next, the Welcome to XenServer screen is displayed. If you have been provided with any driver disks,
select Driver Disks. You will then be lead through the process of installing the necessary drivers.
Once you have installed all necessary drivers, select Install or upgrade XenServer host and choose
OK to proceed.
4. The next screen displays a message telling you that the setup program will install XenServer on the
computer, and warns that it will overwrite data on any hard drives that you select to use for the instal-
lation. Choose OK to proceed.
5. The XenServer End User License Agreement (EULA) is displayed. Use the up and down arrow keys
to scroll through and read the agreement. Choose Accept EULA to proceed.
6. At this point, if the computer on which you are installing the XenServer host does not have a CPU which
supports hardware virtualization, or if the support is disabled in the BIOS, a message appears to warn
you that you will not be able to run Windows VMs. Choose OK to proceed.
Warning
Some systems have bugs in their BIOS software which can result in the setting being incorrect. If you get a
spurious warning about a lack of hardware virtualization (or do not see a warning when you expected one),
hard reboot the host and restart the installation. You should also check the support site of the hardware
manufacturer for BIOS upgrades.
7. If the installer detects a previously-installed version of XenServer host, you are offered the choice to
perform a clean installation, or to upgrade the existing version, which preserves any of the VMs present.
Select an installation type as appropriate and choose OK to proceed.
If you select to upgrade an existing version, you will get a message that the installer is going to create
a backup of the existing installation. Choose Continue to proceed.
8. If you have multiple local hard disks, you are asked to choose the Primary Disk for the installation. Select
the desired disk and choose OK to proceed. After selecting the primary one, you are also prompted to
choose if you want any of the other drives to be formatted for use by XenServer for VM storage. Format
all required drives and choose OK to proceed.
If the computer has a single hard disk, these two screens do not appear.
9. The next screen asks you to specify the source of the installation packages. If you are installing off the
CD, you will most likely want to select Local media. If you are installing via PXE you will most likely
want to select HTTP or FTP or NFS, as appropriate.
If you select HTTP or FTP or NFS, you are next prompted to set up Networking so that the installation
script can connect to the product repository.
If the computer has multiple network interfaces, you are prompted to select one of them to be used to
access the XenServer product repository. Select one and choose OK to proceed.
If the computer has a single network interface, that interface is used to access the XenServer product
repository and no prompt is displayed.
You can select Automatic configuration (DHCP) to configure the NIC using DHCP, or Static config-
uration, which prompts you to configure the properties of the NIC manually. Following that, you are
prompted to provide the URL or NFS server and path to where the installation media are, as appropriate.
Note
XenServer hosts must have static IP addresses to be part of a resource pool.
If you selected Local media, this networking setup appears later in the installation process.
If you selected Local media, the next screen asks if you want to install the Linux Pack from a second
CD. If you are planning to install VMs that run Linux operating systems, choose Yes. If you are planning
to install only Windows VMs, you can choose No.
Important
In a pooled setup, the Linux Pack must be installed either on all of the pool XenServer hosts, or on none
of them, so that they are homogeneous.
10. The next screen asks if you want to verify the integrity of the installation media. If you select Verify
installation source, the MD5 checksum of the packages is calculated and checked against the known
value. This may take some time. If you select Skip verification, this check is bypassed. Make your
selection and choose OK to proceed.
11. You are next prompted to set a root password. (This will be the password that the XenCenter application
will use to connect to the XenServer host.) Enter the desired password and enter it again to verify it.
12. If you elected to perform a clean installation, you are next prompted to set up Networking for the man-
agement NIC, which is the interface that will be used to connect to the XenCenter.
If you selected to upgrade an existing installation, the existing management NIC configuration is used
and these screens are bypassed.
If the computer has multiple network interfaces, you are prompted to select one of them to be used as
the management NIC for the XenServer host software. Select one and choose OK to proceed.
If the computer has a single network interface, that interface is used as the management NIC and no
prompt is displayed.
Next you can select Automatic configuration (DHCP) to configure the NIC using DHCP, or Static
configuration, which prompts you to configure the NIC's properties manually.
Note
XenServer hosts need to have static IP addresses to be part of a resource pool.
13. If you elected to perform a clean installation, you are next prompted to specify the hostname and the
configuration for the name service.
If you elected to upgrade an existing installation, the existing hostname and name service configuration
is used and these screens are bypassed.
In the Hostname Configuration section, if you select Automatically set via DHCP, the DHCP server
will provide the hostname along with the IP address. If you select Manually specify, enter the desired
hostname for the server in the field provided.
In the DNS Configuration section, if you select Manually specify, enter the IP addresses of your
primary (required), secondary (optional), and tertiary (optional) nameservers in the fields provided.
Otherwise, choose Automatically set up via DHCP to get name service configuration via DHCP.
Select OK to proceed.
14. If you elected to perform a clean installation, you are prompted to select the general geographical area
for the time zone. Choose from the displayed list of geographical areas, then choose OK to proceed.
You are then prompted to select the specific locale for the time zone. You can type the first letter of
the desired locale to jump to the first entry that begins with this letter. Choose from the displayed list
of locales, then choose OK to proceed.
If you elected to upgrade an existing installation, the existing time zone and locale is used and these
screens are bypassed.
15. If you elected to perform a clean installation, you are prompted to choose a method of setting the system
time. You can select Using NTP or Manual time entry. Make your selection and choose OK to proceed.
If you selected to upgrade an existing installation, the existing method of setting system time is used
and this screen is not displayed.
16. If you selected Using NTP in the preceding step, you are prompted to identify the time server or servers
you want to use. You can check NTP is configured by my DHCP server and the time server will be
set by DHCP. Otherwise, enter at least one NTP server name or IP address in the fields below. Choose
OK to proceed.
Otherwise, the installation script moves to the next step; you are prompted for the manually-entered
time later, near the end of the installation.
Warning
XenServer assumes that the time setting in the BIOS of the server is the current time in UTC, and that
the time for the VMs reflects the local time based on the specified time zone offset.
17. A message is displayed that the installation is ready to proceed and that this will format the primary disk
and any other disks selected for VM storage, destroying any data that is currently on them. Choose
Install XenServer to proceed.
A progress bar is displayed as the installation commences. If you chose to set the system date and
time manually, a dialog box appears when the progress bar has reached about 90%. Enter the correct
numbers in the fields and choose OK to proceed.
18. If you are installing from CD and elected to include support for Linux VMs, you will be prompted to
put in the Linux Pack disk. Eject the main disk, and insert the Linux Pack disk. Choose OK. A screen
appears, identifying that this disk contains the Linux Pack. Select Use media to proceed with installing
it. Another progress bar is displayed, and when it reaches 100%, a completion message is displayed.
If you selected not to install support for Linux VMs, a completion message is displayed.
Note
If you decide later to add Linux support, mount the Linux Pack installation CD or ISO image on the
XenServer host and run the script install.sh, located in the root of the CD.
19. From the Installation Complete screen, eject the installation CD from the drive and select OK to reboot
the server.
After the server boots, XenServer displays a splash screen, followed by xsconsole, a system config-
uration console.
• To manage the server with XenCenter, or to connect with an SSH terminal client, use the IP address
displayed in the list of management network parameters. See the section called “Installing XenCen-
ter” for instructions on installing XenCenter.
• To access a local shell from xsconsole, press Alt+F3.
• To return to xsconsole, press Alt+F1.
Installing XenCenter
XenCenter is a Windows client application. XenCenter must be installed on a remote machine that can
connect to the XenServer host through the network. The .NET framework version 2.0 or above must also
be installed.
Note
The XenCenter installation wizard can be used to install previous versions of XenCenter, which can be
used to manage previous versions of XenServer. Running multiple versions of XenCenter on a single
machine is supported.
To install XenCenter
1. Before installing XenCenter, be sure to uninstall any previous version.

2. Put the Base Pack CD in the drive or browse to the location you downloaded the installation file
XenCenter.msi to.
3. If installing from CD:
• If Auto-play is enabled for the CD drive, the application installer launches automatically after a few
moments.
• If Auto-play is not enabled for the CD drive, browse to the /client_install directory on the CD
and find the file named XenCenter.msi. Then double-click on the file to launch the application
installer.
If installing from the installation file XenCenter.msi, double-click on the file to launch the application
installer.
4. Click run to start the installation wizard. Click Next on the first page of the setup wizard. On the Custom
Setup page, XenCenter 4.1.0 is shown as a subfeature of XenCenter 5.5.0. If you have any XenServer
4.0.1 hosts that you want to manage, select it by clicking and choosing Will be installed on local hard
drive or Entire feature will be installed on local hard drive. In this case, a separate XenCenter 4.1.0
will also be installed on your computer.
If you do not have any XenServer 4.0.1 hosts that you want to manage, leave this subfeature unse-
lected.
Click Next to proceed.

5. The next page allows you to modify the default destination folder (C:\Program Files\Citrix\Xen-
Center). Click Browse to change the default installation location, if desired. You can also select
whether XenCenter is installed so that every user of the computer can access it, or only the user logged
into the current profile. Click Next to proceed.
6. On the next page, click Install to proceed.
Note
The installer creates a single desktop icon, for XenCenter 5.5.0. XenCenter 4.1.0 appears in the All
Programs list on the Start menu.
7. When the installation process is complete, click Finish to close the Setup wizard. There will be a
XenCenter icon on the desktop and a XenCenter item on the All Programs list.
Note
By default, XenCenter allows saving of usernames and passwords. To disable this, use the Registry Edi-
tor, navigate to the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Citrix\XenCenter and add a key named
AllowCredentialSave with the string value false. This causes XenCenter to no longer save user-
names or passwords, and disables the Save and Restore Connection State dialog box in XenCenter
(Tools > Save and Restore).
To uninstall XenCenter
Note
If you installed XenCenter 4.1.0 along with XenCenter 5.5.0, the uninstallation process will remove both
versions.
1. Select Control Panel from the Start menu.

2. In Windows XP or 2003, select Add or Remove Programs. In Windows Vista, select Programs, then
select Programs and Features.
3. A list of programs installed on the computer is displayed. Scroll down if necessary and select XenCen-
ter.
4. In Windows XP or 2003, click the Remove button. In Windows Vista, select Uninstall from the toolbar
above the list of programs.
This will remove the Citrix application. At the end, a dialog box is displayed. Click OK to close the
message box.
Installation and deployment scenarios

This section describes several common installation and deployment scenarios:
• one or more XenServer hosts with local storage

• two or more XenServer hosts with shared NFS storage
• two or more XenServer hosts with shared iSCSI storage
and details the steps that differ between scenarios.
XenServer hosts with local storage

The simplest use of XenServer is to set up a simple network of VMs running on one or more XenServer
hosts without shared storage. This means that live relocation of VMs from one XenServer host to another
is not possible, as this requires shared storage.
Requirements
• one or more 64-bit x86 servers with local storage

• one or more Windows workstations, on the same network as the XenServer hosts
Basic procedure
1. Install XenServer host software on the server(s)

2. Install XenCenter on the workstation(s)
3. Run XenCenter and connect to XenServer hosts
XenServer hosts with shared NFS storage

Adding shared storage to the XenServer network enables grouping of XenServer hosts into resource pools,
enabling live relocation of VMs and sharing of server resources.
Requirements
• two or more 64-bit x86 servers with local storage

• a server exporting a shared directory via NFS
Note
To be part of a resource pool, the XenServer hosts and the server or servers providing the shared NFS
storage must have static IP addresses.
Basic procedure

3. Set up the NFS server
4. StartXenCenter and connect to XenServer hosts
5. Create an SR on the NFS share at the pool level
6. Choose one XenServer host as a pool master and join other XenServer hosts to the pool.
For this procedure, the NFS server is assumed to be running a typical Linux distribution. Consult your Linux
distribution documentation for further information.
Setting up an NFS share on an NFS server
1. Check to see if the portmap daemon is installed and running:
# chkconfig --list portmap

portmap 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
In the preceding example, runlevels 3, 4, and 5 are set to on. That means that at boot, for runlevels
3, 4 and 5, the portmap daemon is started automatically. If either 3, 4 or 5 are set to off, set them to
on by running the following command:
chkconfig portmap on
2. Check to see if the NFS daemon is installed and running:

# chkconfig --list nfs

nfs 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
If either 3, 4 or 5 are set to off, set them to on by running the following command:
chkconfig nfs on
3. Create a directory for the shared storage:
mkdir /<vm_share_dir>
4. Edit the /etc/exports file to add the line
/<vm_share_dir> *(rw,no_root_squash,sync)
Save and close the file.

5. Restart the portmap and nfs daemons as follows:
service portmap restart

service nfs restart
The <vm_share_dir> should now be exported on the network and you should be able to use XenCen-
ter to point to it using the New Storage Repository wizard. See the XenCenter online help for details.
Creating an SR on the NFS share at the pool level
1. Open a console on any XenServer host in the pool.

2. Create the storage repository on server:/path:
xe sr-create content-type=user type=nfs name-label=<sr_name=> \

shared=true device-config:server=<server> \
device-config:serverpath=<path>
The device-config-server refers to the hostname of the NFS server and device-con-
fig-serverpath refers to the path on the server. Since shared is set to true, the shared storage
is automatically connected to every host in the pool and any hosts that subsequently join are also con-
nected to the storage. The UUID of the created storage repository is printed to the console.
3. Find the UUID of the pool
xe pool-list
4. Set the shared storage as the pool-wide default
xe pool-param-set uuid=<pool_uuid> \
default-SR=<storage_repository_uuid>
Since the shared storage has been set as the pool-wide default, all future VMs will have their disks
created on this shared storage by default.
XenServer hosts with shared iSCSI storage

Adding shared storage to the XenServer network enables grouping of XenServer hosts into resource pools,
enabling live relocation of VMs and sharing of server resources.
Requirements
• two or more 64-bit x86 servers with local storage

• a server providing a shared directory over iSCSI
Note
To be part of a resource pool, the XenServer hosts and the server or servers providing the shared iSCSI
storage must have static IP addresses.
Basic procedure

3. Prepare the iSCSI storage
4. If necessary, enable multiple initiators on your iSCSI device
5. Run XenCenter and connect to XenServer hosts
6. Choose one XenServer host as a pool master and join other XenServer hosts to the pool
7. Configure the iSCSI IQN for each XenServer host
8. Create an SR on the iSCSI share at the pool level
The details of how to set up iSCSI storage differ between the various iSCSI solutions on the market. In
general, though, you need to provide an iSCSI target on the SAN for the VM storage, and then configure
XenServer hosts to be able to see and connect to it. This is done by providing a valid iSCSI Qualified Name
(IQN) to the iSCSI target and to the iSCSCI initiator on each XenServer host.
Prepare the iSCSI storage
1. Assign a virtual storage volume on the iSCSI device for VM storage

2. Create IQNs on the SAN for each XenServer host that will use the storage
You can use either XenCenter or the CLI to configure the IQN for each XenServer host and to create the
SR. The following describes using the CLI; see the XenServer Help for details on using XenCenter.
Warning
When using the XenCenter to create SRs for iSCSI and NetApp storage, any existing contents of the
volume are destroyed.
To configure the iSCSI IQN for each XenServer host via the CLI
1. On the host console, run the command:
xe-set-iscsi-iqn <iscsi_iqn>
Alternatively, used the CLI directly:
xe host-param-set uuid=<host_uuid> other-config-iscsi_iqn=<iscsi_iqn>
2. Repeat for each XenServer host in the pool.
To create an SR on the iSCSI share at the pool level using the CLI
1. On the console of any server in the pool, run the command:
xe sr-create name-label=<name_for_sr>
content-type=user device-config-target=<iscsi_server_ip_address>
device-config-targetIQN=<iscsi_target_iqn>
device-config-localIQN=<iscsi_local_iqn>
type=lvmoiscsi shared=true device-config-LUNid=<lun_id>
The device-config-target argument refers to the hostname or IP address of the iSCSI server.
The device-config-LUNid argument can be a comma-separated list of LUN IDs. Since the shared
argument is set to true, the shared storage is automatically connected to every host in the pool and
any hosts that subsequently join are also connected to the storage.
The command returns the UUID of the created storage repository.

2. Find the UUID of the pool by running the command:
xe pool-list
3. Set the shared storage as the pool-wide default as follows:
xe pool-param-set uuid=<pool_uuid> default-SR=<iscsi_shared_sr_uuid>
Now that the shared storage has been set as the pool-wide default, all future VMs will have their disks
created on shared storage by default.
Chapter 4. Updating and upgrading
XenServer
This chapter documents how to update (apply minor update patches) or upgrade from an earlier version.
Rolling pool upgrade between major versions

XenServer allows you to upgrade a pool of XenServer hosts to the next major version, while keeping VMs
on that pool running and thus avoids service downtime. This is achieved by upgrading on a host-by-host
basis, with only one XenServer host offline at a time.
Note
This means that to upgrade from version 4.0.1 to version 5.5.0, you first upgrade version 4.0.1 to version
4.1.0, and then upgrade to version 5.5.0, and so on.
You can use XenCenter or the command line interface to migrate VMs running on a XenServer host running
an older version of the product to one running either the same version or higher. It is not possible to migrate
VMs located on a XenServer host with a newer XenServer version to one running an older version.
You should plan your upgrade path carefully. Citrix strongly advise against running a mixed-mode pool (one
with multiple versions of XenServer co-existing) for longer than necessary. This is because the pool will be
operating in a degraded state during the upgrade: all VMs will continue to function as normal, but control
operations other than migration might not be available. Operations such as vm-copy, vm-start, and vm-
export are not available. In particular, it is not safe to perform storage-related operations such as adding,
removing or resizing virtual disks in this mode.
Backup
Citrix strongly recommends that you take a backup of the state of your existing pool using the pool-dump-
database CLI command (see the XenServer Administrator's Guide). This allows you revert a partially com-
plete rolling upgrade back to its original state without losing any VM data.
XenServer Installation Guide Updating and upgrading XenServer 17
Note
Because it is not possible to migrate a VM from an upgraded XenServer host to a XenServer host running
an older version of XenServer, it may be necessary to shut down VMs if you need to revert the rolling
upgrade for any reason.
Warning
Always upgrade the master host first. Do not place the host into maintenance mode using XenCenter
before performing the upgrade as this will cause a new master to be designated.
Performing a rolling pool upgrade
Warning
Disable HA functionality before performing a rolling upgrade.
The correct sequence for upgrading a pool of XenServer installations to a newer version is as follows:
1. Eject any CDs from your Virtual Machines before starting the rolling upgrade. Having CDs inserted
during rolling upgrade can prevent migrations from working correctly, and due to the mode of operation
of the pool while the rolling upgrade is taking place, it is required that this be done before the rolling
upgrade is started.
2. Upgrade your XenCenter to the latest version. The newer version will continue to operate fine on older
versions of XenServer hosts.
3. Verify that there are no VMs in the Suspended state. This is indicated in XenCenter by a blue paused
icon. Any suspended VM with a CD drive attached (with the Tools ISO or a physical CD in the local
physical drive, for example) cannot be resumed after performing an upgrade. To get a suspended VM
back into a usable state, you have to perform a Force Shutdown on it and then restart it.
4. Migrate all VMs running on the pool master to other XenServer hosts using XenMotion. The pool master
is identified in XenCenter as being the topmost server in the pool, and shows Server type: Master in
the General tab when selected.
5. Shut down the pool master using XenCenter or the CLI. This will cause your pool to enter emergency
mode. VMs will continue to run, but you will be unable to perform control operations. This is expected
behavior.
6. Boot the pool master using your XenServer installation media or network and follow the instructions for
doing an upgrade (see Chapter 3, Installing XenServer).
7. On restarting your pool master, after a few minutes your pool will leave emergency mode and normal
service will be restored.
8. You are now ready to upgrade a second XenServer host. You should select a XenServer host still
running an old version of XenServer and migrate the VMs running on this XenServer host to the one
you have just upgraded. Do not attempt to migrate a VM from an upgraded XenServer host to one that
has not yet been upgraded. You will see an error message if you attempt to do this, and your VM will
continue running without being migrated.
9. Upgrade the member XenServer host you have just freed up following a similar procedure as for the
master; shut down the host using XenCenter or the CLI (your pool will not enter emergency mode this
time), then upgrade the server software using your product media or remote installation repository.
10. Repeat the previous two steps for each member XenServer host in the pool.
11. Now that you have upgraded the XenServer host software on your pool, it is important to upgrade the
Citrix Tools for Virtual Machines on each VM. This will enable new functionality and ensure the stability
of your VMs. Running old versions of Citrix Tools for Virtual Machines on newer XenServer installations
is not a supported configuration except during the upgrade process. Please refer to the XenCenter
Help, or the XenServer Virtual Machine Installation Guide for details on how to perform the upgrade of
Citrix Tools for Virtual Machines for Windows and Linux VMs.
Note
In the unlikely event that a host fails (hardware failure, for example) during the rolling upgrade process, it is
necessary to use the xe host-forget command to forget the host. Failure to do so will result in XenServer
remaining stuck in rolling upgrade mode indefinitely.
Upgrading a single server

Upgrading a single server is a simple process. Simply shut down any running VMs, shut down the server,
and follow the normal installation procedures. The installer will offer an option to upgrade your existing
installation – be sure to select this option otherwise you will lose any existing data. Check that the final
confirmation screen displays has 'upgrade' mentioned. You will not be required to re-enter any settings
during the setup procedure.
Upgrading LVM storage from XenServer 5.0 or earlier

The LVM, LVM on HBA (LVMoHBA), and LVM on iSCSI (LVMoISCSI) storage types have new functionality
in XenServer 5.5.0 including fast clone and snapshot support. You will need to upgrade your storage to
the new format to take advantage of these new features – this can be done using XenCenter and the xe
CLI. This upgrade is a one-way operation and upgraded storage cannot be used with older versions of the
XenServer software.. Upgrading storage to the format is an off-line operation.
Upgrading LVM-based SRs using the xe CLI
1. Check that your storage repository is attached correctly on all hosts before starting the upgrade proce-
dure. If using XenCenter a warning icon will be displayed if the SR not is correctly attached. You can
also verify this using the xe CLI using the pbd-list command and checking all PBDs have current-
ly-attached set to true.
2. Call the /opt/xensource/bin/xe-lvm-upgrade tool to upgrade your SRs passing in the SR UUID of the
SR you would like to upgrade – you will need to log into the control domain to run this using either the
host console in XenCenter or a tool such as PuTTY:
/opt/xensource/bin/xe-lvm-upgrade <SR UUID>
This tool will indicate successful upgrade of your SRs.
Reinstalling the same version

The following procedure describes how to "freshen," or reinstall the current version of the XenServer host
over an existing installation of XenServer host 5.5.0, and preserve settings on VMs.
Warning
When reinstalling your host, be aware that
• any custom RPMs which you might have installed on the XenServer host control domain will not be
preserved
• if you have installed any XenServer hotfixes on the server, do not reinstall the original version; this is
not supported
Reinstalling XenServer host from version 5.5.0

1. Perform an orderly shutdown on the VMs hosted on the XenServer host. If any of your VMs are in the
suspended state, resume them first, and then perform an orderly shutdown on them too.
To shut down all the VMs automatically, you can also run the service xapi-domains stop command
on the control domain terminal.
2. Reboot the XenServer host, and boot from the Installation CD.
3. The installation script identifies the version and prompts you whether you want to reinstall over the
existing installation and preserve VMs. Select OK to proceed with the installation.
4. Follow the rest of the installation procedure as described in the section called “Installing the XenServer
host”.
5. Run XenCenter and connect to the upgraded XenServer host.
Preparing XenServer hosts for maintenance

Before performing maintenance operations on a XenServer host that is part of a resource pool, you should
disable it (which prevents any VMs from being started on it), then migrate its VMs to another XenServer
host in the pool. This can most readily be accomplished by placing the XenServer host into Maintenance
mode using XenCenter. See the XenCenter Help for details.
Warning
Citrix highly recommends rebooting all XenServers prior to installing an update and then verifying their
configuration. This is because some configuration changes only take effect when a XenServer is rebooted,
so the reboot may uncover configuration problems that would cause the update to fail.
To prepare a XenServer host in a pool for maintenance operations using the CLI
1. Run the command
xe host-disable uuid=<xenserver_host_uuid>
xe host-evacuate uuid=<xenserver_host_uuid>
This will disable the XenServer host and then migrate any running VMs to other XenServer hosts in
the pool.
2. Perform the desired maintenance operation.
3. Once the maintenance operation is completed, enable the XenServer host:
xe host-enable
Restart any halted VMs and/or resume any suspended VMs.
Before performing maintenance operations on a XenServer host that is not part of a resource pool, you
should disable it (which prevents any VMs from being started on it), and then either shutdown or suspend
its VMs.
Warning
Any suspended VM with a CD drive attached (with the Tools ISO or a physical CD in the local physical
drive, for example) cannot be resumed after performing an upgrade. To get a suspended VM back into a
usable state, perform a Force Shutdown on it and then restart it.
To prepare an unpooled XenServer host for upgrade using the CLI
1. Disable the XenServer host:
xe host-disable
2. Shut down or suspend any running VMs using the xe vm-shutdown or xe vm-suspend commands.
If you choose to suspend any VMs, check that no CDs are attached to them.
3. Perform the desired maintenance operation.
4. Once the maintenance operation is completed, enable the XenServer host:
xe host-enable
Restart any halted VMs and/or resume any suspended VMs.
Applying updates
Between releases of XenServer software, Citrix occasionally releases updates to the software. These up-
dates typically contain accumulated bug fixes and feature improvements. When an update is released, it is
made accessible on the internet and an email announcement is sent to all XenServer customers.
Once downloaded apply the updates using XenCenter, or the CLI. Updates are applied through the Updates
Manager dialog box, on the Tools menu. See the XenCenter Help for details.
Updates sometimes have special steps that have to be performed after the update is applied, such as
requiring that the control domain is restarted. Whenever possible, updates will be such that they can be
applied without interruption, but in some cases they might require XenServer host or VM restarts to be
performed. In cases where a XenServer host restart is required, you can avoid downtime of virtual machines
in a pooled environment by applying the update to each server in turn, migrating VMs away from each server
in turn as the update is applied. XenCenter can take care of this update sequence automatically on your
behalf using the Manage Updates feature. If you are using the CLI, you will have to do this manually using
the host-evacuate command.
If you are using the CLI to perform the update, XenServer hosts to be updated should be prepared for this
operation by performing the procedures in the section called “Preparing XenServer hosts for maintenance”.
If using XenCenter, this is taken care of automatically where required.
Applying updates using the CLI

First, the update must be uploaded to the pool or server to which it will be applied. This will cause a UUID
(identifier) to be assigned to the update, and information about which servers it has been applied to will be
tracked. Once an update has been uploaded to a pool or server, you can use the patch-list and patch-
param-list commands to view information about the update. The second stage is to apply the update. Citrix
recommends that the patch-pool-apply command is used to do this; this will result in the update being
applied on all servers in the pool. Alternatively, the patch-apply command may be used to apply the update
to one server in a pool - this may be useful when applying the update and then restarting individual servers
in the pool. Pools should not be left in an inconsistent update state (one where updates have been installed
on some servers and not others).
Discussion of procedures using the CLI below assume a basic knowledge of the usage of the xe tool. For
information about this, please see the XenServer Administrator's Guide.
The update procedure is basically the same for both a single server and pool scenario, except that in a
pooled scenario you must ensure that the update is applied to all servers in the pool. This will be achieved
either by using the patch-pool-apply command, or by executing the patch-apply once for each host. These
methods are described below.
Applying an update to a single XenServer host or a pool using the CLI:
1. Download the update to a local directory. Note the path to the update file you have downloaded. (It
is also possible to download the update directly to an appropriate location on the server, e.g. /root,
using standard Linux commands, but it is usually best to download it to a remote client first.)
2. Upload the update to your server or pool:
xe -s <my_server> -u <user_name> -pw <password> patch-upload \

file-name=<update_file>
Here, the -s -u, and -pw options refer to the server, the username (which would usually be root), and
the password, as usual - these would be omitted if running the command directly from a command shell
on the XenServer host local console.
Once you have executed the above command, you will be given the UUID of the uploaded update. This
UUID will be used to specify the update that is to be applied.
3. Be sure to follow any guidance regarding the update before continuing, in particular any information
provided about whether VMs should be moved away from the server or that the server should be
restarted after applying the update. As always, we recommend taking appropriate backup measures
before making modifications to system software. To automatically move VMs to other servers, you can
use the host-evacuate CLI command.
4. Apply the update to the pool. A command like the following may be used to do this:
xe patch-pool-apply uuid=<b89249c7-feba-41c5-8838-911ded969add>
This applies the update to all servers in the pool. Alternatively, if you need to restart servers and perform
the update in a rolling manner, you can apply the update to an individual server by running a command
like the following:
xe patch-apply host-uuid=<ebf17583-d8c5-4835-999a-e0a29716207d> \
uuid=<b89249c7-feba-41c5-8838-911ded969add>
5. Verify that the update was applied by using the patch-list command again. Now the hosts field should
contain the host UUID.
After an update is applied to a XenServer host, a small file containing the same information stored on the
master from the xe patch-upload command is written to a subdirectory of the machine's patch directory.
This enables XenServer hosts later ejected from the pool to repopulate their databases with information
about updates already applied.
To reclaim space on the master, large updates can be deleted from disk using the xe patch-clean command.
(The update information stored in the database of the master, though, is always retained.) These updates
can be uploaded again using xe patch-upload if required.
Backing up and restoring XenServer hosts and VMs

Citrix recommends that, whenever possible, you leave the installed state of XenServer hosts unaltered.
That is, do not install any additional packages or start additional services on XenServer hosts, and treat
them as if they are appliances. The best way to restore, then, is to re-install XenServer host software from
the installation media. If you have multiple XenServer hosts, the best approach is to configure a PXE boot
server and appropriate answerfiles for this purpose (see Appendix B, PXE installation of XenServer host).
For VMs, the best approach is to install backup agents on them, just as if they were standard physical
servers. For Windows VMs, as of this release we have tested CA BrightStor ARCserve Backup, and Syman-
tec NetBackup and Backup Exec.
For more information about backup tools tested, best practices, and backups in general, see the Citrix
Knowledge Base.
Backing up Virtual Machine metadata

XenServer hosts use a database on each host to store metadata about VMs and associated resources such
as storage and networking. When combined with storage repositories, this database forms the complete
view of all VMs available across the pool. Therefore it is important to understand how to backup this database
in order to recover from physical hardware failure and other disaster scenarios.
This section first describes how to backup metadata for single-host installations, and then for more complex
pool setups.
Backing up single host installations

Use the CLI to backup the pool database. To obtain a consistent pool metadata backup file, run pool-
dump-database on the XenServer host and archive the resulting file. The backup file will contain sensitive
authentication information about the pool, so ensure it is securely stored.
To restore the pool database, use the xe pool-restore-database command from a previous dump file. If
your XenServer host has died completely, then you must first do a fresh install, and then run the pool-
restore-database command against the freshly installed XenServer host.
After a restoration of the pool database, some VMs may still be registered as being Suspended, but if
the storage repository with their suspended memory state (defined in the suspend-VDI-uuid field) was
a local SR, it will no longer be available since the host has been reinstalled. To reset these VMs back to
the Halted state so that they can be started up again, use the xe vm-shutdown vm=vm_name -force
command, or use the xe vm-reset-powerstate vm=<vm_name> -force command.
Warning
XenServer hosts restored using this method will have their UUIDs preserved. If you restore to a different
physical machine while the original XenServer host is still running, there will be duplicate UUIDs. The
main observable effect of this will be that XenCenter will refuse to connect to the second XenServer host.
Pool database backup is not the recommended mechanism for cloning physical hosts; use the automated
installation support for that (see Appendix B, PXE installation of XenServer host).
Backing up pooled installations

In a pool scenario, the master host provides an authoritative database that is synchronously mirrored to all
the member hosts in the pool. This provides a degree of built-in redundancy to a pool; the master can be
replaced by any member since each of them have an accurate version of the pool database. Please refer
to the XenServer Administrator's Guide for more information on how to transition a member into becoming
a master host.
This level of protection may not be sufficient; for example, if your shared storage containing the VM data
is backed up in multiple sites, but your local server storage (containing the pool metadata) is not. To fully
recreate a pool given just a set of shared storage, you must first backup the pool-dump-database file on
the master host, and archive this file.
Subsequently restoring this backup on a brand new set of hosts
1. Install a fresh set of XenServer hosts from the installation media, or via PXE.
2. Use the xe pool-restore-database on the host designated to be the new master.
3. Run the xe host-forget command on the new master to remove the old member machines.
4. Use the xe pool-join command on the member hosts to connect them to the new pool.
See the section called “Coping with machine failures” in XenServer Administrator's Guide for specific
restoration scenarios.
Backing up XenServer hosts

This section describes the XenServer host control domain backup and restore procedures. These proce-
dures do not back up the storage repositories that house the VMs, but only the privileged control domain
that runs Xen and the XenServer agent.
Note
Because the privileged control domain is best left as installed, without customizing it with other packages,
Citrix recommends that you set up a PXE boot environment to cleanly perform a fresh installation from the
XenServer media as a recovery strategy. In many cases you will not need to backup the control domain
at all, but just save the pool metadata (see the section called “Backing up Virtual Machine metadata”).
This backup method should always be considered complementary to backing up the pool metadata.
Another approach is to run the XenServer installation twice, selecting to back up the existing installation
when prompted. This will create a pristine copy of the freshly-installed control domain that can later be
restored if necessary by using the installation CD and choosing the Restore option.
Using the xe commands host-backup and host-restore is another approach that you can take. The xe
host-backup command archives the active partition to a file you specify, and the xe host-restore command
extracts an archive created by xe host-backup over the currently inactive disk partition of the host. This
partition can then be made active by booting off the installation CD and choosing the Restore option.
After completing the above steps and rebooting the host, you must ensure that the VM meta-data is restored
to a consistent state. This can be achieved by running xe pool-restore-database on /var/backup/pool-
database-${DATE}. This file is created by xe host-backup using xe pool-dump-database command
before archiving the running filesystem, to snapshot a consistent state of the VM metadata.
To back up a XenServer host

• On a remote host with enough disk space, run the command:
xe host-backup file-name=<filename> -h <hostname> -u root -pw <password>
This creates a compressed image of the control domain file system in the location specified by the
file-name argument.
To restore a running XenServer host

1. If you want to restore a XenServer host from a specific backup, run the following command while the
XenServer host is up and reachable:
xe host-restore file-name=<filename> -h <hostname> -u root -pw <password>;
This command restores the compressed image back to the hard disk of the XenServer host on which
the command is run (not the host on which filename resides). In this context “restore” is something
of a misnomer, as the word usually suggests that the backed-up state has been put fully in place. The
restore command here only unpacks the compressed backup file and restores it to its normal form, but it
is written to another partition (/dev/sda2) and does not overwrite the current version of the filesystem.
2. To use the restored version of the root filesystem, reboot the XenServer host using the XenServer
installation CD and select the Restore from backup option.
After the restore from backup is completed, reboot the XenServer host and it will start up from the
restored image.
Finally, restore the VM meta-data using
xe pool-database-restore file-name=/var/backup/pool-database-*
Note
Restoring from a backup as described here does not destroy the backup partition.
Restarting a crashed XenServer host

1. If your XenServer host has crashed and is not reachable anymore, you need to use the XenServer
installation CD to do an upgrade install. When that is completed, reboot the machine and make sure
your host is reachable with XenCenter or remote CLI.
2. Then proceed with the section called “Backing up XenServer hosts” above.
Backing up VMs
VMs are best backed up using standard backup tools running on them individually. For Windows VMs, we
have tested CA BrightStor ARCserve Backup.
Chapter 5. XenServer Licensing
XenServer license keys are provided in the form of license files with the .xslic extension. A unique license
file is issued to your organization by Citrix and can be installed on a XenServer host system in a number
of different ways including:
• Applying the license file to a server from within XenCenter

• Using the xe command line interface (CLI) xe host-license-add command
Citrix XenServer is available for free production use with no restrictions or time limits. All you need to do
is activate the product within 30 days of first installing XenServer to register your intent to use it with Citrix.
Activation is a simple process that takes only a few minutes. It is required within 30 days of first installing
XenServer and then again on an annual basis. When you are ready to add more advanced virtualization
management features, you can upgrade to Citrix XenServer via a license key, with no additional software
installation or downtime.
Citrix Essentials for XenServer builds on, and extends, the capabilities of the free XenServer virtualization
platform, and includes High Availability, Dynamic Provisioning from single images, advanced performance
reporting and alerting capabilities, advanced StorageLink™ technology, and automated Lab Management.
Note
To learn more about Citrix Essentials for XenServer and to find out how you can upgrade to it from Citrix
XenServer, click here.
To activate a Citrix XenServer system
Once you have downloaded and installed Citrix XenServer, activating or reactivating it is quick and easy
using XenCenter. The License Manager in XenCenter lists all installed XenServer systems and shows the
amount of time remaining before each product license expires or needs to be activated.
1. Open the License Manager: on XenCenter's Tools menu, click License Manager. Select the check
box for each XenServer product you need to activate, and then click Activate.
2. A web browser will open and you will be taken to the Citrix XenServer activation web page where you
can fill in your contact information and email address.
If XenCenter is unable to connect to the Citrix XenServer activation server, you will be asked if you
want to save the activation details of the selected host servers to a file. You will then be able to import
this file to the Citrix XenServer activation server later, once your internet connection is restored.
3. When you have completed the activation form, a licence file for each of the XenServer products you
selected will be emailed to you.
4. Finally, you need to apply the appropriate license key to each XenServer host.
To install a license file using XenCenter:
1. Select the server in the Resources pane.

2. On the Server menu, click Install License Key.
3. Locate the license file and click Open. By default, only license files with the .xslic extension will be
displayed.
XenServer Installation Guide XenServer Licensing 26
Alternatively, you can simply double-click a license file in Windows Explorer, then select the server to which
you want to apply the XenServer license from the list and click OK.
To install a license file using the xe CLI
1. Open a console on the server in one of the following ways:
• use XenCenter with the server selected and click on the Console tab
• use the local console and select Local Command Shell, or press ALT+F3
• use an SSH-capable telnet client
2. Enter the command
xe host-license-add license-file=<path/license_filename>
Important
Each host system in a resource pool must be individually licensed. For example, if you are supporting four
XenServer hosts in a resource pool, you must install a license file on each of the four host systems. Note
that while it is possible to mix free Citrix XenServer and Citrix Essentials for XenServer hosts in the same
pool, the advanced virtualization management features available with Citrix Essentials for XenServer,
such as HA and email alerting, will only be available if all the hosts in the pool have a Citrix Essentials
for XenServer license.
Q: The XenServer license has expired. What is going to happen?

A: If the license on a XenServer host expires or goes beyond its activation date while the system is still
running, all active virtual machines continue to run as long as the host system is not disrupted. How-
ever, new VMs cannot be launched. If the host system is then disrupted (through a power failure, sys-
tem restart, and so on), a Citrix Essentials for XenServer system will reverts to Citrix XenServer-level
functionality when its host is restarted.
Note
Citrix strongly encourages customers who opt for the Citrix Essentials for XenServer annual license to
renew their new annual license before the expiration date to ensure the greatest degree of continuity.
XenCenter and e-mail alerts (when configured) are generated daily from 30 days before the license is
due to expire, to give you enough notice to upgrade.
Q: The license file from a previous version of XenServer does not work with XenServer 5.5.0
A: All license files from XenServer 3.x are incompatible with XenServer 5.5.0. XenServer 3.x customers
under valid software maintenance or Subscription Advantage agreements will receive a valid XenServ-
er 4.x license file from Citrix and these newly issued license files should be used in conjunction with
XenServer 5.5.0.
XenServer 4.0.1 and 4.1.0 license files are forward-compatible with XenServer 5.5.0.
Q: This XenServer 4.0.1 license file has a .txt extension, but the product licensing instructions refer-
ence a license file with the .xslic extension. Does this mean that the XenServer 4.0.1 license is
incompatible?
XenServer Installation Guide XenServer Licensing 27
A: No. In general, XenServer 4.0.1 license files are forward-compatible with XenServer 5.5.0 and as a
result XenCenter can import valid XenServer 4.x license files of any extension. For some administra-
tors, it may be easier to rename an older XenServer 4.0.1 license key with a .txt extension to a file
with the .xslic extension prior to applying the license file in XenCenter.
Q: Is there a way to manually install a XenServer license file without using XenCenter?
A: Yes. First, license files may be manually installed using the xe CLI or the menu-driven local console.
The host-license-add command allows a local license file to be installed on a particular XenServer
host. For more information about using xe, refer to the XenServer Administrator's Guide. Additionally,
you can use Secure Copy (scp) to upload a license file from a system where the license file resides
to a XenServer host. The target path on the XenServer host system must be /etc/xensource/li-
cense. Citrix strongly recommends using scp to apply a license file only as a last resort, for example,
when XenCenter or a local command shell are unavailable.
Appendix A. Troubleshooting
If you experience odd behavior, crashes, or have other issues during installation, this chapter
is meant to help you solve the problem if possible and, failing that, describes where logs are
located and other information that can help your Citrix Solution Provider and Citrix track and
resolve the issue.
Note
Citrix recommends that you follow the troubleshooting information in this chapter solely under the guid-
ance of your Citrix Solution Provider or Citrix Support.
Citrix provides two forms of support: you can receive free self-help support via the Support site, or
you can purchase our Support Services and directly submit requests by filing an online Support
Case. The Citrix web-based resources include product documentation, a Knowledge Base, and
discussion forums.
The XenServer host installation CD runs Linux, so most standard Linux commands can be used
to diagnose installation problems. There are three virtual terminals available during installation,
which display the installation menu, an interactive console and an event log, respectively. Use
the ALT + F1-F3 keys to toggle between the virtual terminals.
You can check some basic things in the interactive terminal:
• fdisk lists all disks that can be seen as a result of the loaded storage device drivers. If a
particular device driver did not load, for example, the driver for a RAID card, then the disks
attached to that card will not appear in the output from the fdisk command.
• ifconfig shows the network configuration of physical NICs, including their IP addresses, net-
masks, and gateway.
• ping can be used to verify network connectivity from the XenServer host to a remote IP address
and vice-versa.
You should use the two additional virtual terminals solely under the guidance of your Citrix So-
lution Provider.
Installation logs are written to /install/tmp/

Appendix B. PXE installation of
XenServer host
This appendix describes how to set up a TFTP server to enable PXE booting of XenServer host
installations. It also describes how to create an XML answerfile, which allows you to perform
unattended installations.
Setting up the PXE boot environment

To create a PXE environment, you need:
• a TFTP server to enable PXE booting

• a DHCP server to provide IP addresses to the systems that are going to PXE-boot
• an NFS, FTP, or HTTP server to house the installation files
These can all co-exist on the same server, or be distributed on different servers on the network.
Additionally, each system that you want to PXE boot and install the XenServer on needs a PXE
boot-enabled Ethernet card.
The following steps assume that the Linux server or servers you will use have RPM support.
To set up a TFTP server for PXE booting
1. TFTP requires SYSLINUX 3.11 or above. SYSLINUX is a collection of boot loaders for the
Linux operating system which operates on Linux EXT2/EXT3 file systems, MS-DOS FAT
file systems, network servers using PXE firmware, and CD-ROMs. Make sure you have
SYSLINUX version 3.11 or above installed on your system by running the command
#rpm -q syslinux
If you have an earlier version, you can download an appropriate later version from ftp://
ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/RPMS/i386/, then install it
by running the command
rpm -Uvh syslinux.-.rpm
2. Check if the tftp server package is installed:
rpm -q tftp-server
If not, use system-config-packages and install.

3. Edit the file /etc/xinetd.d/tftp to change the line
disable = yes
to
disable = no
XenServer Installation Guide PXE installation of XenServer host 30
4. Restart the xinetd service, which manages tftp:
service xinetd restart
5. Make a directory inside /tftpboot called xenserver.

6. Copy the files mboot.c32 and pxelinux.0 files from /usr/lib/syslinux to the /tft-
boot directory.
7. Copy the files install.img, vmlinuz, and xen.gz from the Base Pack CD (found in the
root of the Base Pack CD, and in its /boot directory respectively), and place them in the
/tftpboot/xenserver directory.
8. Create a directory called pxelinux.cfg inside /tftboot and create a file named de-
fault. The file contents depend on how you want to configure your PXE boot environment.
For example, you might have a configuration file like the following:
Note
The backslashes at the ends of lines in the example PXE configuration files shown below denote contin-
uation of lines; do not actually include them in your PXE configuration file.
Also note that the three hyphens in the examples are necessary parts of the mboot.c32 loader syntax,
and not including them will cause PXE boot attempts to fail.
default xenserver
label xenserver
kernel mboot.c32
append /tftpboot/xenserver/xen.gz dom0_mem=752M com1=115200,8n1i \
console=com1,tty --- /tftpboot/xenserver/vmlinuz \
console=ttyS0,115200n8 console=tty0 \
--- /tftpboot/xenserver/install.img
This will start an installation on any machine that boots from this server. Someone would
then need to manually respond to the prompts to complete the installation. Alternatively, you
might have a configuration file like the following:
default xenserver-auto
label xenserver-auto
kernel mboot.c32
append /tftpboot/xenserver/xen.gz dom0_mem=752M com1=115200,8n1 \
console=com1,tty --- /tftpboot/xenserver/vmlinuz \
console=ttyS0,115200n8 console=tty0 \
answerfile=http://pxehost.example.com/5.0.0-answerfile \
install --- /tftpboot/xenserver/install.img
This will perform an unattended installation using the answerfile at the URL specified.
Note
The above examples show how to configure the installer to run on the physical console, tty0. Citrix
recommends that you place the console= entry of the console you wish to use for the installation as the
last entry on the line, so if you wanted to install over serial then, in the examples above, the two entries
would be reversed, as console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200n8
For details on creating an answerfile for unattended installation, see the section called “Cre-
ating an answerfile for unattended PXE installation”. For more information on PXE configu-
ration file syntax, see the SYSLINUX website.
Please refer to your server operating system manual for details for your specific operating system.
The information here is a guide that can be used for Red Hat, Fedora, and some other RPM-
based distributions.
To set up a DHCP server

1. On the server that you will be using for DHCP, check if you have DHCP installed by running
the command:
rpm -qa dhcp
If not, install it using system-config-packages.

2. Configure the DHCP server. Refer to document 1673 in the Red Hat Knowledge base for
details.
3. Add these lines to the end of the existing dhcpd.conf file:
allow booting;
allow bootp;
class "pxeclients" {
match if substring(option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 9) = "PXEClient";
next-server ;
filename "pxelinux.0";
}
4. Restart the dhcpd service:
service dhcpd restart
Setting up the installation media host

1. On the server where you are going to house the installation files, copy the contents of the
packages directories from the base pack CD to a location where they are exported by HTTP,
FTP, or NFS. For example, you might make a directory in the document root of a webserver
named XenServer_5.5.0 and then copy the directory packages.main from the Base
Pack disk to XenServer_5.5.0/packages.main.
2. If Linux support is also desired, copy packages.linux from the Linux pack disk to
XenServer_5.5.0/packages.linux. This structure allows you to install either both
packages by having the source element of the answerfile contain the enclosing directory
XenServer_5.5.0, or you can install the base pack only (no support for Linux VMs) by
putting in the path to XenServer_5.5.0/packages.main.
For example, to install both packages from the webserver http://pxehost.example.com

where the packages are in the directories mentioned above relative to the server's document
root, the answerfile would contain this source element:
<source type="url">http://pxehost.example.com/XenServer_5.0.0</source>
or, to install just the base pack:
<source type="url">
http://pxehost.example.com/XenServer_&PRODUCT_VERSION;/packages.main
</source>
In either case you can specify a username and password if required, for example:
<source type="url">
http://<username>:<password>@pxehost.example.com/XenServer_5.5.0/packages.main
<source>
Preparing the destination system

1. Start the system and enter the Boot Menu (F12 in most BIOSes) and select to boot from
your Ethernet card.
2. The system should then PXE boot from the installation source you set up, and the instal-
lation script will commence. If you have set up an answerfile, the installation can proceed
unattended.
Creating an answerfile for unattended PXE installation

To perform installations in an unattended fashion, you need to create an XML answerfile. Here
is an example answerfile:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<installation>
<primary-disk>sda</primary-disk>
<guest-disk>sdb</guest-disk>
<guest-disk>sdc</guest-disk>
<keymap>us</keymap>
<root-password>mypassword</root-password>
<source type="url">http://pxehost.example.com</source>
<post-install-script type="url">
http://pxehost.example.com/myscripts/post-install-script
</post-install-script>
<admin-interface name="eth0" proto="dhcp" />
<timezone>Europe/London</timezone>
</installation>
All nodes should be within a root node named installation.
The following is a summary of the elements. All values should be text in the nodes, unless oth-
erwise stated. Required elements are indicated.
Element Description Required?
<primary-disk> The name of the storage device where the control Y

domain should be installed, equivalent to the choice
made on the Select Primary Disk step of the inter-
active installation process.
Attributes:
You can specify a gueststorage attribute with possi-

ble values yes and no. For example:
<primary-disk gueststorage="no">sda</prima-
ry-disk>
If this attribute is not specified, the default is yes. If

you specify no, it is possible to automate an instal-
lation scenario where no storage repository is creat-
ed, if, in addition, no guest-disk keys are specified.
<guest-disk> The name of a storage device to be used for storing N

guests. You should use one of these elements for
each extra disk.
<keymap> The name of the keymap to use during installation. Y
<keymap>us</keymap>
<root-password> The desired root password for the XenServer host. Y
<source> Where the packages should be installed from. Y
Attributes:
type: url, nfs, or local
If local, leave the element empty. For example,
<source type="url">
http://server/packages
</source>
<source type="local" />
<source type="nfs">
server:packages
</source>
<driver-source> Where the device driver packages should be in- N

stalled from. Optional. Element may occur multiple
times.
Attributes:
If local, leave the element empty. For example,
<driver-source type="url">
http://server/drivers
</driver-source>
<driver-source type="local" />
<driver-source type="nfs">
server:drivers
</driver-source>
<post-install-script> Where the post-install-script is. Y

Attributes:
If url or nfs, put the url or NFS path in the PCDATA;

if local, leave the PCDATA empty. For example,
<source type="url">
http://server/scripts
</source>
<source type="local" />
<source type="nfs">
server:scripts
</source>
<admin-interface> The single network interface to be used as the host N

administration interface.
Attributes:
proto: dhcp or static
name: eth0 for example.
Children:
• <ip>: The IP address, if proto="static"

• <subnet-mask>: The subnet mask, if
proto="static"
• <gateway>: The gateway, if proto="static"
All three child elements are required if

proto="static"
<timezone> In the format used by the TZ variable, e.g. Eu- Y

rope/London, or America/Los_Angeles.
<nameserver> The IP address of a nameserver. You should use N

one of these elements for each nameserver you
want to use.
<hostname> Specify if you want to manually set a hostname. N
<bootloader> Specify which bootloader to install for startup time. N

Only change this if you have problems booting.
Currently either extlinux (the default) or grub.
You can also perform automated upgrades by changing the answerfile appropriately. Set the
mode attribute of the installation element to reinstall, specify the disk on which the existing in-
stallation lives with the existing-installation element, and leave the primary-disk and guest-disk
elements unspecified. For example:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<installation mode="reinstall">
<existing-installation>sda</existing-installation>
<keymap>us</keymap>
<root-password>mypassword</root-password>
<source type="url">http://pxehost.example.com</source>
<post-install-script type="url">
http://pxehost.example.com/myscripts/post-install-script
</post-install-script>
<admin-interface name="eth0" proto="dhcp" />
<timezone>Europe/London</timezone>
</installation>
Appendix C. Xen Memory Usage
When calculating the memory footprint of a Xen host there are two components that must be
taken into consideration. First there is the memory consumed by the Xen hypervisor itself; then
there is the memory consumed by the host's control domain. The control domain is a privileged
VM that provides low-level services to other VMs, such as providing access to physical devices.
It also runs the management tool stack.
Setting Control Domain Memory

If your control domain requires more allocated memory, this can be set using the Xen CLI.
Use the xe vm-memory-target-set command to set the amount of memory available to the
control domain.
The xe vm-memory-target-wait command can be used to check if the control domain has man-
aged to attain the requested memory target specified at the last use of the xe vm-memory-tar-
get-set command. xe vm-memory-target-wait will not return until the memory target has been
reached, or will time out if the target cannot be reached, for example when the target is lower
than the actual memory requirements of the VM.
The following fields on a VM define how much memory will be allocated. The default values
shown are indicative of a machine with 8 GiB of RAM:
name default description
memory-actual 411041792 The actual amount of mem-

ory current available for use
by the VM
memory-target 411041792 The target amount of mem-

ory as set by using xe vm-
memory-target-set
memory-static-max 790102016 The maximum possible

physical memory
memory-dynamic-max 790102016 The desired maximum mem-

ory to be made available
memory-dynamic-min 306184192 The desired minimum mem-

ory to be made available
memory-static-min 306184192 The minimum possible physi-

cal memory
Dynamic memory values must be within the boundaries set by the static memory values. Addi-
tionally the memory target must fall in the range between the dynamic memory values.
Note
The amount of memory reported in XenCenter on the General tab in the Xen field may exceed the values
set using this mechanism. This is because the amount reported includes the memory used by the control
XenServer Installation Guide Xen Memory Usage 37
domain, the hypervisor itself, and the crash kernel. The amount of memory used by the hypervisor will
be larger for hosts with more memory.
To find out how much host memory is actually available to be assigned to VMs, get the value of the
memory-free field of the host, and then use the vm-compute-maximum-memory command
to get the actual amount of free memory that can be allocated to the VM:
xe host-list uuid=<host_uuid> params=memory-free

xe vm-compute-maximum-memory vm=<vm_name> total=<host_memory_free_value>
Updating, 20
Index Upgrading
rolling upgrade between major versions, 16
A
AMD-V (AMD hardware virtualization), 3, 4
W
Windows
Installing XenCenter, 10
B
Backup/restore
pooled installations, 23 X
VMs, 24 Xen
XenServer host control domain, 5 memory usage, 36
XenServer host metadata, 22, 22 XenCenter
BIOS, enabling VT support in, 3 installation, 10
system requirements, 4
I uninstallation, 11
XenServer host
Installation and deployment scenarios
End User License Agreement (EULA), 6
two or more XenServer hosts with shared iSCSI
installation, 5
storage, 13
Management NIC, 8
two or more XenServer hosts with shared NFS
requirements, for Windows VMs, 3
storage, 11, 12
system requirements, 3
Installation media contents,
Installing XenCenter, 10
M
Maintenance procedures
Applying updates, 20
Backing up a XenServer host, 24
Backing up and restoring XenServer host control
domain, 23
Reinstalling on top of the same version, 18
Restart a crashed XenServer host, 24
Restore a running XenServer host, 24
P
P2V (physical to virtual conversion), 5
PXE installation
answerfile, for unattended installation,
installation media repository, 31
R
Rolling upgrade between major versions, 16
S
Setting up a DHCP server, 31
Setting up a TFTP installation server, 29
Setting up installation media host for PXE, 31
T
Troubleshooting, 28
U
Uninstalling XenCenter, 11

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XenServer Installation Guide

About this document

How this Guide relates to other documentation

New features in XenServer 5.5.0

XenServer host system requirements

XenServer can make use of:

To support VMs running Windows, an Intel VT or AMD-V 64-bit x86-based system

To support VMs running supported paravirtualized Linux, a standard 64-bit x86-based

RAM 1 GB minimum, 2 GB or more recommended

General disk space requirements for VMs:

The system requirements for XenCenter are:

.NET frame- version 2.0 or above

CPU Speed 750 MHz minimum, 1 GHz or faster recommended

RAM 1 GB minimum, 2 GB or more recommended

Disk space 100 MB minimum

Network inter- 100Mb or faster NIC

• a set of XenServer product documents in Adobe Acrobat PDF format

Installing the XenServer host

1. Download the Linux Pack ISO

To install or upgrade the XenServer host

Select the desired keymap and choose OK to proceed.

XenServer hosts must have static IP addresses to be part of a resource pool.

XenServer hosts need to have static IP addresses to be part of a resource pool.

1. Before installing XenCenter, be sure to uninstall any previous version.

Click Next to proceed.

1. Select Control Panel from the Start menu.

Installation and deployment scenarios

• one or more XenServer hosts with local storage

and details the steps that differ between scenarios.

XenServer hosts with local storage

• one or more 64-bit x86 servers with local storage

1. Install XenServer host software on the server(s)

XenServer hosts with shared NFS storage

• two or more 64-bit x86 servers with local storage

1. Install XenServer host software on the server(s)

Setting up an NFS share on an NFS server

1. Check to see if the portmap daemon is installed and running:

# chkconfig --list portmap

2. Check to see if the NFS daemon is installed and running:

# chkconfig --list nfs

3. Create a directory for the shared storage:

4. Edit the /etc/exports file to add the line

Save and close the file.

service portmap restart

Creating an SR on the NFS share at the pool level

1. Open a console on any XenServer host in the pool.

xe sr-create content-type=user type=nfs name-label=<sr_name=> \

4. Set the shared storage as the pool-wide default

XenServer hosts with shared iSCSI storage

• two or more 64-bit x86 servers with local storage

1. Install XenServer host software on the server(s)

Prepare the iSCSI storage

1. Assign a virtual storage volume on the iSCSI device for VM storage

1. On the host console, run the command:

Alternatively, used the CLI directly:

xe host-param-set uuid=<host_uuid> other-config-iscsi_iqn=<iscsi_iqn>

2. Repeat for each XenServer host in the pool.

1. On the console of any server in the pool, run the command:

The command returns the UUID of the created storage repository.