Home

Citrix Systems Server 6.1.0 User's Manual

1. 12 4 2 PoolsofXenServerHostswithSharedsStorage 13 4 2 1 XenServerHostswithSharedNFSStorage 13 4 2 2 XenServerHostswithSharediSCSiStorage 14 5 XenServerandintelliClache eee 17 5 1 IntelliCacheDeployment en 17 5 1 1 EnablingonHostinstallation 17 5 1 2 Converting an ExistingHosttoUselThinProvisioning 18 CITRIX 5 1 3 VM Boot Behavior seprei a iki yaaa alak sie 19 5 1 3 1 VM Caching Behavior Settings 19 5 1 3 1 1 Shared Desktop Mode sss Sarisin Dama dana sn Baas inen tae 19 5 1 3 1 2 Private Desktop MOO is suis eml a toy 19 5 1 4 Implementation DetailsandTroubleshooting 19 6 Using SCVMM and SCOM withXenServer 21 6 1 How to install the Integration SuiteSupplementalPack 21 6 1 1 Installing the Integration Suite onto a RunningXenServerSystem 21 6 2 IntegrationReguirementsforSCVMM 21 6 3 IntegrationReguirementsforSCOM 22 7 Upgrading XenS
2. To configure your TFTP server 1 2 Inthe tftpboot directory create a new directory called xenserver Copy the mboot c32 and pxelinux 0 files from the usr lib syslinux directory to the tftboot directory Note Citrix strongly recommends using mboot c32 and pxelinux 0 files from the same source for example from the same XenServer ISO From the XenServer installation media copy the files install img from the root directory vmlinuz and xen gz from the boot directory to the new tftpboot xenserver directory on the TFTP server In the t ftboot directory create a new directory called pxelinux cfg In the pxelinux cfg directory create your new configuration file called default The content of this file depends on how you want to configure your PXE boot environment Two sample configurations are listed below The first example configuration starts an installation on any machine that boots from the TFTP server and leaves you to manually respond to the installation prompts The second performs an unattended installation Note The following examples show how to configure the installer to run on the physical console tty0 To use a different default ensure that the console you want to use is the rightmost 41 CITRIX default xenserver label xenserver kernel mboot c32 append tftpboot xenserver xen gz dom0_max_vcpus 1 2 dom0_mem 752M max 752M coml 115200 8n1 console coml vga tftpboot xenserver vmlinuz
3. storage solution so it is best to see your vendor documentation for details To create an SR on the NFS share at the pool level in XenCenter 1 On the Resources pane select the pool On the toolbar click the New Storage button The New Storage Repository wizard opens 13 CITRIX Under Virtual disk storage choose NFS VHD as the storage type Choose Next to continue Enter a name for the new SR and the name of the share where it is located Click Scan to have the wizard scan for existing NFS SRs in the specified location Note The NFS server must be configured to export the specified path to all XenServer hosts in the pool Click Finish The new SR appears in the Resources pane at the pool level Creating an SR on the NFS share at the pool level using the xe CLI Open a console on any XenServer host in the pool Create the storage repository on server path by entering the following xe sr create content type user type nfs name label lt sr_name gt shared true device config server lt server gt device config serverpath lt path gt The device config server argument refers to the name of the NFS server and the device config serverpathargument refers to the path on the server Since sharedis 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 UUID of the created storage repository is printed to t
4. 9 1 Activating a Free XenServer Product en 35 9 2 Licensing XenServer Editions nan 36 9 3 Additional Licensing Information 37 CITRIX A Troubleshooting mami re mele ibi neki 39 B BootFromSANEnvironmenis 40 C PXE Boot Installations semi dini ikisi abinin esli 41 C 1 Configuring your PXE EnvironmentforXenServerinstallation 41 C 2 Creating an answer file for unattended PXE installation 42 CITRIX Chapter 1 Welcome 1 1 About This Document This document is an installation guide for Citrix XenServer the complete server virtualization platform from Citrix It 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 points you to additional resources This document is primarily aimed at system administrators who wish to set up XenServer hosts on physical servers 1 2 Introducing XenServer Citrix XenServer is the complete server virtualization platform from Citrix The XenServer package contains all you need to create and manage a deployment of virtual x86 computers running on Xen the open source paravirtualizing hypervisor with near
5. CITRIX 4 2 Pools of XenServer Hosts with Shared Storage A pool is comprised of multiple XenServer host installations bound together as a single managed entity When combined with shared storage a pool enables VMs to be started on any XenServer host in the pool that has sufficient memory and then dynamically moved between hosts while running XenMotion and with minimal downtime If an individual XenServer host suffers a hardware failure you can restart the failed VM s on another host in the same pool If the High Availability HA feature only available to XenServer Advanced Edition or higher is enabled protected VMs are automatically moved in the event of a host failure To set up shared storage between hosts in a pool you need to create a storage repository A XenServer storage repository SR is a storage container in which virtual disks are stored SRs like virtual disks are persistent on disk objects that exist independently of XenServer SRs can exist on different types of physical storage devices both internal and external including local disk devices and shared network storage A number of different types of storage are available when you create a new SR including e NFS VHD storage e Software iSCSI storage e Hardware HBA storage This following sections step through setting up two common shared storage solutions NFS and iSCSI for a pool of XenServer hosts Before you create a new SR you need to configure your
6. EXT type local SR and is created during host installation The second option uses the SR that is specified on the command line Warning These steps are only necessary for users who have configured more than one local SR Q When is the local cache deleted A A VDI cache file is only deleted when the VDI itself is deleted The cache is reset when a VDI is attached to a VM for example on VM start If the host is offline when the VDI is deleted the SR synchronisation that runs on startup will garbage collect the cache file Note The cache file is not deleted from the host when a VM is migrated to a different host or shut down 20 CITRIX Chapter 6 Using SCVMM and SCOM with XenServer XenServer s Integration Suite Supplemental Pack allows inter operation with Microsoft s System Center Virtual Machine Manager SCVMM 2012 and Systems Center Operations Manager SCOM 2007 R2 SVCMM allows you to centrally create and manage VMs across the entire datacenter It enables full lifecycle management of both Microsoft HyperV hosts and XenServer pools through one centralized interface SCOM enables monitoring of host performance when installed on a XenServer host Both of these tools can be integrated with your XenServer pool by installing the Integration Suite Supplemental Pack on each of your XenServer hosts 6 1 How to install the Integration Suite Supplemental Pack The XenServer Integration Suite Supplemental Pack is available for d
7. NFS or iSCSI storage Setup differs depending on the type of storage solution that you use so it is best to refer to your vendor documentation for details In all cases to be part of a pool the servers providing shared storage must have static IP addresses or be DNS addressable For further information on setting up shared storage see the XenServer Administrator s Guide It is recommended that you create a pool before you add shared storage For pool requirements and setup procedures see the XenCenter Help or the XenServer Administrator s Guide 4 2 1 XenServer Hosts with Shared NFS Storage Basic hardware requirements e Two or more 64 bit x86 servers with local storage e One or more Windows workstation s on the same network as the XenServer hosts e A server exporting a shared directory over NFS High level procedure Install the XenServer host software on the servers Install XenCenter on the workstation s Connect XenCenter to the XenServer hosts Create your pool of XenServer hosts Configure the NFS server au Pp WN bP Create an SR on the NFS share at the pool level Configuring you NFS storage Before you create an SR you need to configure the NFS storage To be part of a pool the NFS share must have a static IP address or be DNS addressable You must also configure the NFS server to have one or more target s that can be mounted by NFS clients for example XenServer hosts in a pool Setup differs depending on your
8. Once your host restarts normal service is restored after a few minutes 5 Restart any shutdown VMs and or resume any suspended VMs 28 CITRIX 7 3 Upgrading XenServer to Version 5 6 or Earlier Using XenCenter If you are upgrading XenServer hosts to version 5 6 or earlier then you must do so manually The Rolling Pool Upgrade wizard is not available in XenServer versions 5 6 and earlier Important Performing a rolling pool upgrade manually requires extremely careful planning Before you begin be sure to read Section 7 1 2 1 Planning an Upgrade Path and then to plan your upgrade path accordingly To manually upgrade a pool of XenServer hosts using XenCenter 1 Start with the pool master Ensure that no VMs are running on the master Shut down suspend or migrate VMs to other hosts in the pool 2 Shut down the pool master Important XenCenter will be unable to contact the pool master until the upgrade of the master is complete 3 Boot the pool master using the XenServer installation media and method of your choice such as installation CD or network Follow the XenServer installation procedure see Chapter 3 Installing XenServer and XenCenter until the installer offers you the option to upgrade Choose to upgrade Warning Be absolutely sure to select the upgrade option so as to avoid losing any existing data Warning If anything interrupts the upgrade of the pool master or if the upgrade fails for any reas
9. VMs Please refer to the XenCenter Help or the XenServer Virtual Machine User s Guide for details Note Running older versions of the XenServer Tools on newer XenServer installations is not supported except during the upgrade process To manually upgrade an individual XenServer host using XenCenter 1 Shut down or suspend any VMs running on the host that you wish to upgrade Note It is important to empty the CD DVD drives of any VMs that you plan to suspend If you do not empty the CD DVD drives the suspended VMs may not be resumeable after upgrade To do so on the Resources pane select the VM and then click the Console tab Click the Eject button to empty the DVD drive 2 Shut down the host 3 Follow the XenServer installation procedure see Chapter 3 Installing XenServer and XenCenter until the installer offers you the option to upgrade Choose to upgrade Warning Be absolutely sure to select the upgrade option so as to avoid losing any existing data You will not be required to re enter any settings during the setup procedure The upgrade process follows the first time installation process but several setup steps are bypassed and the existing settings for networking configuration system time and so on are retained 4 Once the upgrade is complete restart any shutdown VMs and or resume any suspended VMs 7 4 Upgrading LVM Storage from XenServer 5 0 or Earlier The LVM LVM on HBA LVMoHBA and LVM on iSCSI LVM
10. about a specific disk can be viewed by pressing F5 If you want to use Thin Provisioning to optimize the utilization of available storage select Enable thin provisioning XenDesktop users are strongly recommended to select this option in order for local caching to work properly For details see Chapter 5 XenServer and IntelliCache Choose Ok 8 Select your installation media source If installing from a CD choose Local media If installing using PXE select HTTP or FTP or NFS as appropriate Choose Ok to proceed CITRIX 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 If you select Local media the next screen asks if you want to install any supplemental packs from a CD If you plan to install any supplemental packs provided by your hardware supplier choose Yes If you select HTTP or FTP or NFS a Set up networking so that the installer can connect to the XenServer installation media files If the computer has multiple NICs select one of them to be used to access the XenServer installation media files and then choose Ok to proceed b Choose Automatic configuration DHCP to configure the NIC using DHCP or Static configuration to configure the NIC manually If you choose Static configuration enter details as appropriate c Ifyou choose HTTP or FTP you are then prompted to provide the URL for your HTTP or FTP repository and a username and password if appropriate If you choose NFS you are prompted to provide the serve
11. attempted Though VMs continue to function as normal VM actions other than migrate may not be available for example shut down copy and export In particular it is not safe to perform storage related operations such as adding removing or resizing virtual disks 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 Citrix strongly recommends that you take a backup of the state of your existing pool using the pool dump database xe CLI command see the XenServer Administrator s Guide This allows you to revert a partially complete rolling upgrade back to its original state without losing any VM data 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 Before you begin your rolling pool upgrade If you are using XenCenter upgrade XenCenter to the latest version The newer version of XenCenter will correctly control older versions of XenServer hosts Empty the CD DVD drives of the VMs in the pool For details and instructions see Section 7 2 1 Before You Upgrade a Single XenServer Host Disable HA Disable WLB 7 1 2 2 Performing Rolling Pool Upgrades Using the xe CLI To upgrade a pool of XenServer hosts using the xe CLI 1 S
12. download are published alongside It is best to check the Knowledge Center for new updates and hotfixes You may also receive an e mail or an alert in XenCenter when a particularly important hotfix or update is released for the version of XenServer that you are running XenCenter also provides you an option to check for available updates manually at any time by choosing the Tools gt Check for Updates option from the XenCenter menu Hotfixes and updates can often be applied with minimal service interruption If you are updating a pool of XenServer hosts you can avoid downtime of VMs by updating one host at a time migrating VMs away from each host as the hotfix or update is applied XenCenter can take care of this update sequence automatically If you are using the xe CLI you will have to do this manually 8 1 Before You Apply an Update or Hotfix Important It is important to follow the Readme that comes with each update file Each update file has unique instructions for installation particularly with regard to preparatory and post update operations The following sections offer general guidance and instructions for applying hotfixes and updates to your XenServer deployment Before you update XenServer hosts it is important to be aware of the following e Itis best to update all hosts in a pool within a short period as running a mixed mode pool a pool that includes updated and non updated hosts for general operation is not supported e Ci
13. features to provide fault tolerance and load balancing of network traffic Source Load Balancing SLB improvements allows up to 4 NICs to be used in an active active bond This improves total network throughput and increases fault tolerance in the event of hardware failures The SLB rebalancing algorithm has been optimized to reduce load on switches in large deployments Multi Tenancy improvements allows XenServer administrators to restrict a VM to sending and receiving traffic on a specific MAC address and a number of IPv4 or IPv6 addresses without relying on VLANs and switch CITRIX management software When these extensions are deployed VMs cannot impersonate any other VM or intercept traffic intended for any other VM increasing security in environments where VMs cannot be fully trusted For a White Paper discussion refer to CTX134787 VLAN Scalability improvements removes a previous limitation which caused VM deployment delays when large numbers of VLANs were in use This improvement enables administrators using XenServer 6 1 0 to deploy hundreds of VLANs in a XenServer pool quickly Emergency Network Reset provides a simple mechanism to recover and reset a host s networking allowing system administrators to revert XenServer hosts to a known good networking state Refer to CTX131972 for detailed information IPv6 Guest Support enables the use of IPv6 addresses within guests allowing network administrators to plan for network growt
14. is used the script is invoked just before root file system is unmounted for example after installation upgrade initrds already built etc The script will receive an argument that is the mount point of the root file system When installation complete is used the script will be run once the installer has finished all operations and hence the root file system will be unmounted The script will receive an argument that will have a value of zero if the installation completed successfully and will be non zero if the installation failed for any reason type url nfs or local If url or nfs put the URL or NFS path in the PCDATA if local leave the PCDATA empty For example lt script stage filesystem populated type url gt http prehost example com post install script S ser iie gt lt script stage installation start type local gt tiles sezipizs cu Sila S ser afore gt lt script stage installation complete type nfs gt server scripts installation pass fail script L SCTE Note that if a local file is used ensure that the path is absolute This will generally mean that the file prefix will be followed by a further forward slash and the complete path to the script 45 CITRIX Element Description Required lt admin interface gt The single network interface to be used as the host N administration interface Attributes proto dhcp or static name eth0 for example Childr
15. iscsi shared sr uuid gt As shared storage has been set as the pool wide default all future VMs will have their disks created on this SR 16 CITRIX Chapter 5 XenServer and IntelliCache Note This feature is only supported when using XenServer with XenDesktop Using XenServer with ntelliCache makes hosted Virtual Desktop Infrastructure deployments more cost effective by enabling you to use a combination of shared storage and local storage It is of particular benefit when many Virtual Machines VMs all share a common OS image The load on the storage array is reduced and performance is enhanced In addition network traffic to and from shared storage is reduced as the local storage caches the master image from shared storage IntelliCache works by caching data from a VMs parent VDI in local storage on the VM host This local cache is then populated as data is read from the parent VDI When many VMs share a common parent VDI for example by all being based on a particular master image the data pulled into the cache by a read from one VM can be used by another VM This means that further access to the master image on shared storage is not required A thin provisioned local SR is an IntelliCache prerequisite Thin Provisioning is a way of optimizing the utilization of available storage This approach allows you to make more use of local storage instead of shared storage It relies on on demand allocation of blocks of data instead of the
16. lt keymap gt us lt keymap gt The default value us will be considered if you do not specify a value for this attribute 43 CITRIX Element Description Required lt root password gt The desired root password for the XenServer host If a N password is not provided a prompt will be displayed when the host is first booted Attributes You can also specify a type attribute for this element For example lt root password type hash gt hashedpassword lt root password gt lt source gt Where the packages should be installed from Y Attributes type url nfs or local If local leave the element empty For example lt source type url gt http server packages lt source gt lt source type local gt lt source type nfs gt server packages lt source gt lt driver source gt Where the Supplemental Packs containing device drivers N should be installed from Optional Element may occur multiple times Attributes type url nfs or local If local leave the element empty For example lt driver source type url gt http server drivers lt driver source gt lt driver source type local gt lt driver source type nfs gt server drivers lt driver source gt 44 CITRIX Element Description Required lt script gt Where the post install script is N Attributes stage filesystem populated installation start or installation complete When filesystem populated
17. must have a valid and unique iSCSI Qualified Name IQN For configuration details it is best to see your vendor documentation Configuring an iSCSI ION for each XenServer host Upon installation XenServer automatically attributes a unique IQN to each host If you need to adhere to a local administrative naming policy you can change the IQN by entering the following on the host console xe set iscsi igqn lt iscsi ign gt Or you can use the xe CLI by entering the following xe host param set uuid lt host uuid gt other config iscsi ign lt iscsi ign gt To create an SR on the iSCSI share at the pool level using XenCenter Warning When using XenCenter to create SRs for iSCSI and NetApp storage any existing contents of the volume are destroyed 1 On the Resources pane select the pool On the toolbar click the New Storage button The New Storage Repository wizard opens 2 Under Virtual disk storage choose Software iSCSI as the storage type Choose Next to continue 3 Enter a name for the new SR and then the IP address or DNS name of the iSCSI target Note The iSCSI storage target must be configured to enable every XenServer host in the pool to have access to one or more LUN s 4 Ifyou have configured the iSCSI target to use CHAP authentication enter the User and Password 5 Click the Discover IQNs button and then choose the iSCSI target ION from the Target ION list Warning The iSCSI target and all servers in t
18. on multipath availability for your SAN environment consult your storage vendor or administrator If you have multiple paths available then you can enable multipathing in your XenServer deployment upon installation Warning Boot from SAN settings are not inherited during the upgrade process When upgrading using the ISO or PXE process customers should follow the same instructions as used in the installation process below to ensure that multipath is correctly configured To install XenServer to a remote disk on a SAN with multipathing enabled 1 On the Welcome to XenServer screen press F2 2 Atthe boot prompt enter multipath XenServer boots to a remote disk on a SAN with multipathing enabled To enable filesystem multipathing using PXE installation customers should add device_mapper_multipath yes to the PXE Linux configuration file An example configuration is as follows default xenserver label xenserver kernel mboot c32 append tftpboot xenserver xen gz dom0 mem 752M com1 115200 8n1 console coml vga tftpboot xenserver vmlinuz xencons hvc console hvc0 console tty0 device_mapper_multipath yes tftpboot xenserver install img For additional information on storage multipathing in your XenServer environment please see the XenServer Administrator s Guide 40 CITRIX Appendix C PXE Boot Installations This appendix describes how to configure your PXE environment for XenServer installation It
19. that serial console access is configured For hosts that do not have physical serial port such as a Blade server or where suitable physical infrastructure is not available customers should investigate if an embedded management device such as Dell DRAC or HP iLO can be configured For more information on setting up serial console access see CTX121442 How to Set Up a Serial Cable for Troubleshooting on XenServer 2 1 2 XenCenter System Requirements The system requirements for XenCenter are Operating System NET Framework CPU Speed RAM Disk Space Network Screen Resolution Windows 7 Windows XP Windows Vista Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2008 R2 all editions and versions Version 3 5 750 MHz minimum 1 GHz or faster recommended 1 GB minimum 2 GB or more recommended 100 MB minimum 100Mb or faster NIC 1024x768 pixels minimum 2 1 3 Supported Guest Operating Systems For a list of supported VM operating systems see the XenServer Virtual Machine User s Guide CITRIX Chapter 3 Installing XenServer and XenCenter This chapter steps through installing the XenServer host software on physical servers installing XenCenter on Windows workstations and connecting them to form the infrastructure for creating and running virtual machines VMs After guiding you through installation this chapter describes a selection of common installation and deployment scenarios 3 1 Install
20. xencons hvc console hvc0 console tty0 tftpboot xenserver install img A sample configuration that performs an unattended installation using the answer file at the URL specified Note To specify which network adapter should be used for retrieving the answer file include the answerfile device ethX or answerfile device MAC parameter and specify either the ethernet device number or the MAC address of the device default xenserver auto label xenserver auto kernel mboot c32 append tftpboot xenserver xen gz dom0 max vcpus 1 2 dom0 mem 752M max 752M coml 115200 8n console coml vga tftpboot xenserver vmlinuz xencons hvc console hvc0 console ttyO0 answerfile http pxehost example com answerfile install tftpboot xenserver install img For more information on PXE configuration 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 the XenServer installation media on a HTTP FTP or NFS server 1 Onthe server create a new directory from which the XenServer installation media can be exported via HTTP FTP or NFS 2 Copy the entire contents of the XenServer installation media to the newly created directory on the HTTP FTP or NFS server This is your installation repository Note To make Supplemental Packs a
21. 0 proto dhep gt lt timezone gt Europe London lt timezone gt lt installation gt All nodes should be within a root node named installation Note If you wish to enable Thin Provisioning you can specify an srt ype attribute as ext If this attribute is not specified the default local storage type is LVM Thin Provisioning sets the local storage type to EXT3 and enables local caching for XenDesktop to work properly For details see Chapter 5 XenServer and IntelliCache The following is a summary of the elements All values should be text in the nodes unless otherwise stated Required elements are indicated Element Description Required lt primary disk gt The name of the storage device where the control domain Y should be installed equivalent to the choice made on the Select Primary Disk step of the interactive installation process Attributes You can specify a guest storage attribute with possible values yes and no For example lt primary disk guest storage no gt sda lt primary disk gt If this attribute is not specified the default is yes If you specify no it is possible to automate an installation scenario where no storage repository is created if in addition no guest disk keys are specified lt guest disk gt The name of a storage device to be used for storing guests N You should use one of these elements for each extra disk lt keymap gt The name of the keymap to use during installation Y
22. CITRIX Citrix XenServer 6 1 0 Installation Guide Published Friday 06 September 2013 1 0 Edition o CITRIX Citrix XenServer 6 1 0 Installation Guide Copyright 2012 Citrix Systems Inc All Rights Reserved Version 6 1 0 Citrix Inc 851 West Cypress Creek Road Fort Lauderdale FL 33309 United States of America Disclaimers This document is furnished AS IS Citrix Inc disclaims all warranties regarding the contents of this document including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for any particular purpose This document may contain technical or other inaccuracies or typographical errors Citrix Inc reserves the right to revise the information in this document at any time without notice This document and the software described in this document constitute confidential information of Citrix Inc and its licensors and are furnished under a license from Citrix Inc Citrix Systems Inc the Citrix logo Citrix XenServer and Citrix XenCenter are trademarks of Citrix Systems Inc and or one or more of its subsidiaries and may be registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners Trademarks Citrix XenServer XenCenter CITRIX Contents TL NVI CONE an an ama elisa ala ilm malul amana dl 1 1 1 About This DOCUMENT k s seansa as l imi inle aya mans aa
23. IntelliCache during host installation on the Virtual Machine Storage screen select Enable thin provisioning Optimized storage for XenDesktop This selects the host s local SR to be the one to be used for the local caching of VM VDIs 17 CITRIX 5 1 2 Converting an Existing Host to Use Thin Provisioning To destroy an existing LVM based local SR and replace it with a thin provisioned EXT3 based SR enter the following commands Warning These commands will destroy your existing local SR and VMs on the SR will be permanently deleted localsr xe sr list type lvm host lt hostname gt params uuid minimal echo localsr localsr pbd xe pbd list sr uuid localsr params uuid minimal echo pbd pbd xe pbd unplug uuid Spbd xe pbd destroy uuid pbd xe sr forget uuid Slocalsr sed i s lvm ext etc firstboot d data default storage conf rm f etc firstboot d state 10 prepare storage rm f etc firstboot d state 15 set default storage service firstboot start xe sr list type ext To enable local caching enter the following commands xe host disable host lt hostname gt localsr xe sr list type ext host lt hostname gt params uuid minimal xe host enable local storage caching host lt hostname gt sr uuid S localsr xe host enable host lt hostname gt 18 e CITRIX 5 1 3 VM Boot Behavior There are two options for the behavior of a VM VDI when the VM is booted 1 Shared Desktop Mode On VM boo
24. a amam 1 1 2 Introducing XenServeri sss saa Kya a saim aksa am Yasaya sueeseeeecadians Ha 1 1 2 1 Benelits ot Using XenServer 2assnsnuses atra Sela Sal elime Baldan and 1 1 2 2 Administering XEnServer samsara arad a saa 1 1 2 3 XenServer Editions sismik esad a sai Dolusu yalayan Gran 2 1 3 New Features in XenServer 6 1 0 1 ea 2 1 4 XenServer Documentation 100 0 0 aaa ca asan 3 2 System Requirements rarennnrnnnnrnnnnvnnnnvnnnnenensnnnnnevsnsnnnnnnsennnnnnnnenennsnnnnenensnnnnnen 5 ZA System Requirements Las n de Sanser ane eee cevedacwweed 5 2 1 1 XenServer Host SystemReguiremenis 5 2 1 2 XenCenter SystemReguiremenits 6 2 1 3 Supported GuestOperatingSystems 6 3 InstalliingXenServerandXenCenter 7 3 1 Installation MediaandMethod MMMMAMMA Ae m e e e z gt Z e 7 32 InstallingtheXenServerHost elan 8 3 2 1 Host Partition Format sa asr aa ila easy banaa ml AE Sana anaya dang n 10 33 InstallingXenCenter een 10 3 4 ConnectingXenCentertotheXenServerHost 11 4 InstallattonandDeploymentScenarios 12 4 1 XenServerHostswithlocalStorage
25. any post update actions that may be required such as rebooting the host If you choose manual you will need to perform the actions manually The post update actions required are listed in the text box below If you wish to save the listed actions to a text file for your reference click Save to File Select Install update to proceed with the installation The Install Update wizard shows the progress of the update printing the major operations that XenCenter performs while updating each host 9 Once the update is finished select Finish to close the Install Update wizard 10 If you chose to manually perform post update actions do so now To update individual hosts using the xe CLI 1 Download the update file xsupdate file extension to a known location on the computer running the xe CLI Note the path to the file 2 Shut down or suspend any VMs on the host s that you wish to update by using the vm shutdown or vm suspend commands 3 Upload the update file to the host you wish to update by running the following x s lt server gt u lt username gt pw lt password gt patch upload file name lt filename gt 32 CITRIX 7 Here s refers to the hostname XenServer assigns the update file a UUID which this command prints Note the UUID Tip Once an update file has been uploaded to a XenServer host you can use the patch list and patch param list commands to view information about the update file If XenServer d
26. ation Media and Methods The XenServer host consists of a Xen enabled Linux operating system a management agent VM templates anda local storage repository reserved for VMs The XenServer host must be installed on a dedicated 64 bit x86 server Note Do not install any other operating system in a dual boot configuration with the XenServer host this is an unsupported configuration Installation Media Installers for both the XenServer host and XenCenter are located on the installation media The installation media also includes the Readme First which provides descriptions of and links to helpful resources including product documentation for XenServer and XenServer components Installation Methods There are three methods by which to install the XenServer host e Froma CD You can download the installer ISO file format and burn it to a CD To download the installer visit www citrix com xenserver The main XenServer installation file contains the basic packages required to set up XenServer on your host and install XenCenter on your Windows computer in conjunction with the desired Windows installation media e Set up a network accessible TFTP server to boot using PXE For details about setting up an TFTP server for PXE booting the installer see Appendix C PXE Boot Installations e Install XenServer to a remote disk on a SAN to enable boot from SAN For details see Appendix B Boot From SAN Environments Supplemental Packs Yo
27. 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 CPU s 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 CPU s is required RAM 2 GB minimum 4 GB or more recommended CITRIX Disk Space Network Locally attached storage PATA SATA SCSI with 16 GB of disk space minimum 60 GB of disk space recommended or SAN via HBA not via software if installing with multipath boot from SAN see http hcl vmd citrix com for a detailed list of compatible storage solutions Product installation creates two 4 GB partitions for the XenServer host control domain 100 Mbit s or faster NIC One or more gigabit NIC s is recommended for faster P2V and export import data transfers and VM live migration For redundancy multiple NICs are recommended The configuration of NICs will differ depending on the storage type See vendor documentation for details Note In some support cases serial console access is required for debug purposes Therefore when setting up a XenServer configuration it is recommended
28. e pool While the pool master is being updated XenCenter will usually lose contact with the pool temporarily Once the update is finished select Finish to close the Install Update wizard If you chose to manually perform post update actions do so now To update a pool of XenServer hosts using the xe CLI 1 Download the update file xsupdate file extension to a known location on the computer running the xe CLI Note the path to the file Upload the update file to the pool you wish to update by running the following x s lt server gt u lt username gt pw lt password gt patch upload file name lt filename gt Here s refers to the name of the pool master XenServer assigns the update file a UUID which this command prints Note the UUID Tip Once an update file has been uploaded to a XenServer host you can use the patch list and patch param list commands to view information about the file If XenServer detects any errors or preparatory steps that have not been taken for example VMs are running in the pool it alerts you Be sure to follow any guidance before continuing with the update If necessary you can shut down or suspend any VMs on the host s that you wish to update by using the vm shutdown or vm suspend commands To migrate specified VMs to specified hosts use the vm migrate command By using the vm migrate command you will have full control over the distribution of migrated VMs to other hosts in the poo
29. en e lt ipaddr gt The IP address if proto static e lt subnet gt The subnet mask if proto static e lt gateway gt The gateway if proto static All three child elements are required if proto static lt timezone gt In the format used by the TZ variable for example Europe Y London or America Los Angeles lt name server gt The IP address of a nameserver You should use one of these N elements for each nameserver you want to use lt hostname gt Specify if you want to manually set a hostname N lt ntp server gt Specify one or more NTP servers N You can also perform automated upgrades by changing the answer file appropriately Set the mode attribute of the installation element to upgrade specify the disk on which the existing installation lives with the existing installation element and leave the primary disk and guest disk elements unspecified For example lt xml version 1 0 gt lt installation mode upgrade gt lt existing installation gt sda lt existing installation gt lt source type url gt http pxehost example com XenServer_ lt source gt lt post install script type url gt http pxehost example com myscripts post install script lt post install script gt lt installation gt 46
30. epeat for each pack to be installed 19 From the Installation Complete screen eject the installation CD if installing from CD and select Ok to reboot the server After the server reboots XenServer displays xsconsole a system configuration console To access a local shell from xsconsole press Alt F3 to return to xsconsole press Alt F1 Note Make note of the IP address displayed You will use this when you connect XenCenter to the XenServer host 3 2 1 Host Partition Format Previous versions of XenServer used DOS partition tables to separate the root filesystem and backups from the local storage This limited the local storage to use only the first 2TB of disk space New installations of XenServer 6 1 0 instead use GUID partition tables to separate root filesystem backup and local storage This increases the limit and enables local storage to use the entire disk Updates of XenServer 5 6 Feature Pack 1 will continue to use the existing DOS partitioning so as not to destroy existing local storage Additionally new XenServer 6 1 0 installations to machines which have a mandatory initial partition that must be preserved such as the Dell Utility Partition will continue to use the DOS partitioning scheme The GUID partition table can be used with the gdisk utility in Domo 3 3 Installing XenCenter XenCenter must be installed on a remote Windows machine that can connect to the XenServer host through your network The NET framewor
31. erver sssiscsadecnceavedasseiniaweshetstsiansdsenictacswateageseadaannedenisziebontenionedes 23 7 1 Rolling Pool Uperades 4014 1411 allam es ll ol la dap EE E AKES 23 7 1 1 Upgrading XenServer Hosts Using the XenCenter Rolling Pool Upgrade Wizard EEE akel elime suas aleni ndan elele shaun yel ii E ege Sea Bane 24 7 1 2 UpgradingXenServerHostsU singthexecli 26 7 1 2 1 Planning an Upgrade Path sesin salmaya saylan aslinin 26 7 1 2 2 Performing Rolling PoolUpgradesUsingthexecli 26 7 2 UpgradingaSingleXenServerHostUsingthexecli 27 7 2 1 BeforeYouUpgradeaSingleXenServerHost 27 7 2 2 UpgradingasSingleXenServerHostU singthexecli 28 7 3 Upgrading XenServer to Version 5 6GortEarlierUsingXenCenter 29 7 4 Upgrading LVM Storage from XenServer 5 0ortEarlier 30 8 Applying UpdatesandHotfixestoXenServer 31 8 1 BeforeYouApplyanUpdateorHotfik 31 8 2 UpdatingindividualXenServerHosts 32 8 3 UpdatingaPoolofXenServerHosts 33 9 Licensing XenServer Sansar denmeli mn easy hi n sula es lenimekin aldik 35
32. etects any errors or preparatory steps that have not been taken for example VMs are running on the host it alerts you Be sure to follow any guidance before continuing with the update Update the host specifying the UUIDs of the host and the update file by running the following xe patch apply host uuid lt UUID of host gt uuid lt UUID of file gt Verify that the update has been successfully applied by using the patch list command If the update has been successful the hosts field contains the host UUID Perform any post update operations as necessary such as rebooting the host 8 3 Updating a Pool of XenServer Hosts When updating a pool of XenServer hosts in XenCenter the Install Update wizard takes care of the update path and VM migration automatically If you need to control the update path and VM migration manually you can update each host individually To do so follow the general procedures in Section 8 2 Updating Individual XenServer Hosts Be sure to start by updating the pool master first To update a pool of hosts using XenCenter 1 Download the update file to a known location xsupdate file extension on the computer running XenCenter Note To download the update file e From the XenCenter menu select Tools and then Check for Updates This displays the Check for Updates window which provides a list of the available updates e Select the required update from the list and click the Web Page link T
33. f 319 016d 0e5f d8db 3a6565256c71 vm name label RO VMOl DemoLinux vdi uuid RO a14p0345 b20a 4027 a233 7cbdle005ed empty RO false device RO xvdd Note the uuid which is the first item in the list 2 To empty the CD DVD drives of the VMs listed enter the following xe vbd eject uuid lt uuid gt 7 2 2 Upgrading a Single XenServer Host Using the xe CLI To upgrade a single XenServer host using the xe CLI 1 Disable the XenServer host that you wish to upgrade by entering the following xe host disable lt host selector gt lt host selector value gt When a XenServer host is disabled VMs can neither be created nor started on that host VMs also cannot be migrated to a disabled host 2 Shut down or suspend any VMs running on the host that you wish to upgrade by using the xe vm shutdown or xe vm suspend commands 3 Shut down the host by using the xe host shutdown command 4 Follow the XenServer installation procedure see Chapter 3 nstalling XenServer and XenCenter until the installer offers you the option to upgrade Choose to upgrade Warning Be absolutely sure to select the upgrade option so as to avoid losing any existing data You will not be required to re enter any settings during the setup procedure The upgrade process follows the first time installation process but several setup steps are bypassed and the existing settings for networking configuration system time and so on are retained
34. h Guest Enhancements Citrix XenServer Conversion Manager enables batch import of VMs created with VMware products into a XenServer pool to reduce costs of converting to a XenServer environment Refer to the XenServer Conversion Manager Guide New Installation Mechanism for XenServer Tools XenServer Tools are now delivered as industry standard Windows Installer MSI files This enables the use of third party tools to deliver and manage the installation and upgrade of the XenServer device drivers For more information on MSI files refer to http technet microsoft com en us library bb742606 aspx Enhanced Guest OS Support Newly Supported Guests Ubuntu 12 04 CentOS 5 7 6 0 6 1 6 2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 7 6 1 6 2 Oracle Enterprise Linux 5 7 6 1 6 2 Ongoing Improvements XenCenter performance graphs simplified layout changes are now more intuitive for IP address configuration filters are enabled for System Alerts XenServer Tools guests running Windows operating systems can now make use of either Microsoft NET 3 5 or NET 4 0 when installing XenServer Tools Simplified mechanism to adjust Control Domain dom0 vCPUs Refer to CTX134738 for details Updated Open vSwitch v1 4 2 provides stability and performance improvements For more information refer to http openvswitch org Integrated StorageLink iSL support for EMC VNX series arrays SMI S GPU Pass Through support for up to 4 GPUs per host I
35. he console Find the UUID of the pool by using the pool list command Set the new SR as the pool wide default by entering the following xe pool param set uuid lt pool_uuid gt default SR lt storage repository uuid gt As shared storage has been set as the pool wide default all future VMs will have their disks created on this SR 4 2 2 XenServer Hosts with Shared iSCSI Storage Basic hardware requirements e Two or more 64 bit x86 servers with local storage e One or more Windows workstation s on the same network as the XenServer hosts e A server providing a shared directory over iSCSI High level procedure on OW PF ENR Install the XenServer host software on the servers Install XenCenter on the workstation s Connect XenCenter to the XenServer hosts Create your pool of XenServer hosts Configure the iSCSI storage If necessary enable multiple initiators on your iSCSI device If necessary configure the iSCSI ION for each XenServer host Create an SR on the iSCSI share at the pool level Configuring your iSCSI storage 14 CITRIX Before you create an SR you need to configure the iSCSI storage To be part of a pool the iSCSI storage must have a static IP address or be DNS addressable You will also need to provide an iSCSI target LUN on the SAN for the VM storage and then configure XenServer hosts to be able to see and access it Both the iSCSI target and each iSCSI initiator on each XenServer host
36. he pool must have unique IQNs 6 Click the Discover LUNs button and then choose the LUN on which to create the SR from the Target LUN list Warning Each individual iSCSI storage repository must be contained entirely on a single LUN and may not span more than one LUN Any data present on the chosen LUN will be destroyed 7 Click Finish The new SR appears in the Resources pane at the pool level To create an SR on the iSCSI share at the pool level using the xe CLI 1 Onthe console of any server in the pool run the command xe sr create name label lt name for sr gt content type user device config target lt iscsi server ip address gt N device config targetIQN lt iscsi target ign gt device config localIQN lt iscsi local ign gt N type lvmoiscsi shared true device config LUNid lt lun id gt The device config target argument refers to the name or IP address of the iSCSI server The device config LUNid argument can be a list of LUN IDs separated by commas Since the shared 15 CITRIX argument is set to t rue 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 pool list command 3 Set the new SR as the pool wide default by entering the following xe pool param set uuid lt pool_uuid gt default SR lt
37. his opens the update page in your browser e Click Download to save the file to a preferred location If there are any VMs in the pool that you wish to shut down or suspend rather than allow XenCenter to automatically migrate do so now On the Tools menu select Install Update The Install Update wizard opens Read the Before you start information and then click Next to proceed Select Add and then browse to and select the update file that you have downloaded Click Open Once the update file has been added click Next to continue Select the pool that you wish to update Select Next Follow the recommendations to resolve any update prechecks that have failed If you would like XenCenter to automatically resolve all failed prechecks click Resolve All Once all prechecks have been resolved select Next to continue Choose between automatic or manual update mode If you choose automatic XenCenter will perform any post update actions that may be required such as rebooting hosts If you choose manual you will need to perform the actions manually The post update 33 CITRIX 9 10 actions required are listed in the text box below If you wish to save the listed actions to a text file for your reference click Save to File Select Install update to proceed with the installation The Install Update wizard shows the progress of the update printing the major operations that XenCenter performs while updating each host in th
38. icenses a joining host must have an Advanced license e In XenCenter if you add a free XenServer to a pool whose master is licensed with Advanced Enterprise or Platinum you are prompted to upgrade the license of the joining host to match that of the pool master You have to do this to add the host to the pool otherwise you cannot add the host to the pool 38 CITRIX Appendix A Troubleshooting Citrix provides two forms of support free self help support on the Citrix Support website and paid for Support Services which you can purchase from the Support site With Citrix Technical Support you can open a Support Case online or contact the support center by phone if you experience technical difficulties during installation The Citrix Knowledge Center hosts a number of resources that may be helpful to you if you experience odd behavior crashes or other problems during installation Resources include Support Forums Knowledge Base articles and product documentation In most cases if you experience an unknown error during installation Citrix Technical Support will request that you capture the log file from your host and then send it along for the Support team to inspect If requested follow the procedure below Using a keyboard connected directly to the host machine not connected over a serial port you can access three virtual terminals during installation e Press Alt F1 to access the main XenServer Installer e Press Alt F2
39. ing Be absolutely sure to select the upgrade option so as to avoid losing any existing data Warning If anything interrupts the upgrade of the pool master or if the upgrade fails for any reason do not attempt to proceed with the upgrade Reboot the pool master and restore to a working version of the master For details on restoring a XenServer host see the XenServer Administrator s Guide Once your pool master restarts the other hosts in the pool will leave emergency mode and normal service is restored after a few minutes On the pool master start or resume any shut down or suspended VMs Migrate any VMs that you wish back to the pool master Select the next XenServer host in your upgrade path Disable the host Ensure that no VMs are running on the host Shut down suspend or migrate VMs to other hosts in the pool Shut down the host Follow the upgrade procedure for the host as described for the master in Step 4 Note If the upgrade of a host that is not the master fails or is interrupted you do not need to revert Use the host forget command to forget the host Re install XenServer on the host and then join it as a new host to the pool using the pool join command On the host start or resume any shutdown or suspended VMs Migrate any VMs that you wish back to the host Repeat Steps 6 10 for the rest of the hosts in the pool Once each host in the pool has been upgraded it is important to upgrade the XenServer Tools
40. ing boot from SAN environments see Appendix B Boot From SAN Environments Note The Rolling Pool Upgrade wizard is included in the latest version of XenCenter and intended for those upgrading from XenServer version 5 6 or later to the current version of XenServer XenServer hosts running versions older than 5 6 need to be manually upgraded via XenCenter or the xe CLI through each intermediate release until they are at version 5 6 Warning If you are upgrading pools from version 5 6 or later to the current version of XenServer that contain Citrix StorageLink Gateway SRs note that only the following adapters are supported NetApp and Dell EqualLogic If the pool contains VMs running on any other types of Citrix StorageLink Gateway SRs do not upgrade the pool Before you upgrade you need to first detach any supported Citrix StorageLink Gateway SRs and then once you have upgraded re attach them and re enter your credentials Warning If the default SR in the pool you wish to upgrade is a supported StorageLink Gateway SR you must set the default to an SR of a different type non StorageLink Gateway Any VMs suspended on a StorageLink Gateway SR by the Rolling Pool Upgrade wizard will not be resumable after the upgrade 7 1 1 Upgrading XenServer Hosts Using the XenCenter Rolling Pool Upgrade Wizard You can use the Rolling Pool Upgrade wizard to upgrade XenServer hosts hosts in a pool or standalone from version 5 6 or late
41. ing portability of VM images as one VM image will work on a range of deployment infrastructures 1 2 2 Administering XenServer There are two methods by which to administer XenServer XenCenter and the XenServer Command Line Interface CLI XenCenter is a graphical Windows based user interface XenCenter allows you to manage XenServer hosts pools and shared storage and to deploy manage and monitor VMs from your Windows desktop machine The XenCenter Help is a great resource for getting started with XenCenter The XenServer Command line Interface CLI allows you to administer XenServer using the Linux based xe commands CITRIX For a comprehensive list of xe commands and descriptions see the XenServer Administrator s Guide 1 2 3 XenServer Editions The features available in XenServer depend on the edition The four editions of XenServer are Citrix XenServer Free Proven virtualization platform that delivers uncompromised performance scale and flexibility at no cost Citrix XenServer Advanced Edition Key high availability and advanced management tools that take virtual infrastructure to the next level Citrix XenServer Enterprise Edition Essential integration and optimization capabilities for production deployments of virtual machines Citrix XenServer Platinum Edition Advanced automation and cloud computing features for enterprise wide virtual environments For more information about how the XenServer edition affect
42. ion 5 6 Feature Pack 1 or 5 6 Service Pack 2 to version 6 1 0 and so on If you are upgrading to a feature pack or service pack XenServer permits a direct upgrade from the preceding release For example you can upgrade directly from version 5 5 to version 5 6 Feature Pack 1 or from version 5 5 to version 5 6 Service Pack 2 The following table lists the upgrade path from previous versions of XenServer Version Direct upgrade to XenServer 6 1 0 XenServer 6 0 2 Yes XenServer 6 0 Yes XenServer 5 6 5 6 Feature Pack 1 Yes 5 6 Service Pack 2 XenServer 5 5 No You must first upgrade to XenServer version 5 6 or to version 5 6 Feature Pack 1 or 5 6 Service Pack 2 and then to 6 1 0 XenServer 5 0 0 No You must first upgrade to XenServer version 5 5 then to 5 6 or to version 5 6 Feature Pack 1 or 5 6 Service Pack 2 and finally to 6 1 0 Note System administrators may prefer to perform a clean installation of the most recent version of XenServer rather than performing one or more upgrades VMs can be exported from all versions of XenServer from 4 0 and directly imported into 6 1 0 For more information please refer to in the XS Guest Important Upgrading a XenServer host and particularly a pool of XenServer hosts requires extremely careful planning and attention Be sure to map your upgrade path carefully or to use the XenCenter Rolling Pool Upgrade wizard and to be absolutely sure that you choose the option
43. ith IntelliCache when virtual desktops are in Private mode that is when on boot persist Warning A VM cannot be migrated if any of its VDIs have caching behavior flags set to on boot reset and allow caching true Migration attempts for VMs with these properties will fail Q Where does the local cache live on the local disk A The cache lives in a Storage Repository SR Each host has a configuration parameter called local cache sr indicating which local SR is to be used for the cache files Typically this will be a EXT type SR When you run VMs with IntelliCache you will see files inside the SR with names lt uuid gt vhdcache This is the cache file for the VDI with the given UUID These files are not displayed in XenCenter the only way of seeing them is by logging into dom0 and listing the contents of var run sr mount lt sr uuid gt 19 CITRIX O How do I specify a particular SR for use as the cache A The host object field local cache sr refers to a local SR You can view its value by running the following command xe sr list params local cache sr uuid name label This field is set either e after host installation if the Enable thin provisioning option was selected in the host installer e byexecutingxe host enable local storage caching host lt host gt sr uuid lt sr gt This command requires the specified host to be disabled VMs must be shut down if this command is used The first option uses the
44. itrix XenServer 6 1 0 Download page To use an existing Citrix License Server Virtual Appliance installation of the XenServer 6 1 0 license is required For information on downloading and installing the Citrix License Server Virtual Appliance see the Knowledge Base article Citrix License Server Virtual Appliance for XenServer After you install a XenServer host it runs as XenServer Free for 30 days After this period you cannot start any new suspended or powered off VMs until you activate it to continue using the free XenServer product or configure Citrix Licensing for it to use XenServer Advanced editions and higher For information on the features included in each XenServer edition visit www citrix com xenserver 9 1 Activating a Free XenServer Product 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 it and then on an annual basis to register your intent to use it with Citrix Activation only takes a few minutes To activate a free XenServer product 1 Request an activation key from Citrix using XenCenter a b d On the Tools menu select License Manager Select one or more host s that you wish to activate Click Activate Free XenServer and then select Request Activation Key XenCenter opens a web browser and takes you to the Citrix XenServer Activation page Note If XenCenter is unable to c
45. ix 4 Specify product edition and License Server license server name on each XenServer host 00d sounosey J N SU X XenCenter Citrix administrative client License Server 36 e CITRIX To configure licensing for XenServer hosts using XenCenter 1 On the Tools menu select License Manager 2 Select one or more host s that you wish to assign a license Click Assign License The Apply License dialog box opens 3 In the Apply License dialog box choose the XenServer license edition and then enter the Citrix Licensing Server details Note 27000 is the port that the licensing server uses by default for communication with Citrix products If you changed the default port on the licensing server enter the new number in the Port number box For more information about changing port numbers due to conflicts see the Licensing Your Product topic on Citrix eDocs Select OK to proceed XenCenter contacts the specified license server and checks out a license for the specified host s The information shown in the XenCenter License Manager will be updated To release a license to set a licensed host to the free XenServer edition from the License Manager select a host and then click Release License To configure licensing for XenServer hosts using the xe CLI e Run the host apply edition command For example enter the following xe host apply edition edition advanced enterprise platinum enterprise xd license se
46. k version 3 5 must also be installed on this workstation The XenCenter installation media is bundled with the XenServer installation media You can also download the latest version of XenCenter from www citrix com xenserver To install XenCenter 1 Before installing XenCenter be sure to uninstall any previous version 2 Launch the installer If installing from a XenServer installation CD a Insert the CD into the DVD drive of the computer which you want to run XenCenter b Open the client install folder on the CD Double click XenCenter msi to begin the installation 10 CITRIX 3 Follow the Setup wizard which allows you to modify the default destination folder and then to install XenCenter 3 4 Connecting XenCenter to the XenServer Host To connect XenCenter to the XenServer host 1 Launch XenCenter The program opens to the Home tab 2 Click the Add New Server icon 3 Enter the IP address of the XenServer host in the Server field Type the root username and password that you set during XenServer installation Click Add 4 The first time you add a new host the Save and Restore Connection State dialog box appears This enables you to set your preferences for storing your host connection information and automatically restoring host connections If you later need to change your preferences you can do so using XenCenter or the Windows Registry Editor To do so in XenCenter from the main menu select Tools a
47. l To automatically live migrate all VMs to other hosts in the pool use the host evacuate command By using the host evacuate command you leave the distribution of migrated VMs to XenServer Update the pool specifying the UUID of the update file by running the following xe patch pool apply uuid lt UUID_of_file gt This applies the update or hotfix to all hosts in the pool Alternatively if you need to update and restart hosts in a rolling manner you can apply the update file to an individual host by running the following xe patch apply host uuid lt UUID of host gt uuid lt UUID of file gt Verify that the update was applied by using the patch list command If the update has been successful the hosts field contains the host UUID Perform any post update operations as necessary such as rebooting the hosts Note If you need to reclaim space on the pool master large update files can be deleted from the disk by using the patch clean command The update information stored in the database of the master is always retained If required these files can be uploaded again using the patch upload command 34 CITRIX Chapter 9 Licensing XenServer Important Utilizing the XenServer 6 1 0 advanced features requires a Citrix License Server Virtual Appliance 11 6 1 or higher and a XenServer 6 1 0 license A Citrix License Server Virtual Appliance with a pre installed XenServer 6 1 0 license is available for download from the C
48. native performance XenServer is optimized for both Windows and Linux virtual servers XenServer runs directly on server hardware without requiring an underlying operating system which results in an efficient and scalable system XenServer works by abstracting elements from the physical machine such as hard drives resources and ports and allocating them to the virtual machines running on it A virtual machine VM is a computer composed entirely of software that can run its own operating system and applications as if it were a physical computer A VM behaves exactly like a physical computer and contains its own virtual software based CPU RAM hard disk and network interface card NIC XenServer lets you create VMs take VM disk snapshots and manage VM workloads For a comprehensive list of major XenServer features and editions visit www citrix com xenserver 1 2 1 Benefits of Using XenServer Using XenServer reduces costs by e Consolidating multiple VMs onto physical servers e Reducing the number of separate disk images that need to be managed e Allowing for easy integration with existing networking and storage infrastructures Using XenServer increases flexibility by e Allowing you to schedule zero downtime maintenance by using XenMotion to live migrate VMs between XenServer hosts e Increasing availability of VMs by using High Availability to configure policies that restart VMs on another XenServer host if one fails e Increas
49. nd then Options The Options dialog box opens Select the Save and Restore tab and set your preferences Click OK to save your changes To do so using the Windows Registry Editor navigate to the key HKEY LOCAL MACHINENSOftware Citrix XenCenter if you installed XenServer for use by all users and add a key named AllowCredentialSave with the string value t rue or false 11 CITRIX Chapter 4 Installation and Deployment Scenarios This chapter steps through the following common installation and deployment scenarios e One or more XenServer host s with local storage e Pools of XenServer hosts with shared storage e Multiple XenServer hosts with shared NFS storage e Multiple XenServer hosts with shared iSCSI storage 4 1 XenServer Hosts with Local Storage The simplest deployment of XenServer is to run VMs on one or more XenServer host s with local storage Note Without shared storage XenMotion live migration of VMs between XenServer hosts is not available Basic hardware requirements One or more 64 bit x86 server s with local storage e One or more Windows workstation s on the same network as the XenServer host s High level procedure 1 Install the XenServer host software on the server s 2 Install XenCenter on the workstation s 3 Connect XenCenter to the XenServer host s Once you have connected XenCenter to a XenServer host storage is automatically configured on the local disk of the host 12
50. nteroperability extensions for Third Party Tools additional Asynchronous XenAPI C language bindings Workload Balancing WLB extensions and general improvements Automated Server Hardware Test Kit reduces the time spent running certification tests refer to the Verification Test Kits amp Forms for Citrix XenServer for more information Support for hypervisor monitoring vhostmd allows SAP software to run inside a XenServer VM refer to CTX134790 for configuration details 1 4 XenServer Documentation XenServer documentation shipped with this release includes Release Notes cover known issues that affect this release CITRIX e XenServer Quick Start Guide provides an introduction for new users to the XenServer environment and components This guide steps through the installation and configuration essentials to get XenServer and the XenCenter management console up and running quickly After installation it demonstrates how to create a Windows VM VM template and pool of XenServer hosts It introduces basic administrative tasks and advanced features such as shared storage VM snapshots and XenMotion live migration e XenServer Installation Guide steps through the installation configuration and initial operation of XenServer and the XenCenter management console e XenServer Virtual Machine User s Guide describes how to install Windows and Linux VMs within a XenServer environment This guide explains how to create new VMs from installa
51. oISCSI storage types have new functionality in XenServer 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 is done using the xe CLI Warning This upgrade is a one way operation and upgraded storage cannot be used with older versions of XenServer Upgrading LVM based SRs using the xe CLI 1 Check that your storage repository is attached correctly on all hosts before starting the upgrade procedure To do so use the pbd list command and check that all PBDs have current ly attached set to true 2 Log into the control domain and then call the opt xensource bin xe lvm upgrade tool to upgrade your SRs by passing in the SR UUID of the SR you would like to upgrade opt xensource bin xe lvm upgrade lt SR UUID gt This tool will indicate when your SRs have been successfully upgraded 30 CITRIX Chapter 8 Applying Updates and Hotfixes to XenServer Between releases of XenServer Citrix occasionally releases updates and hotfixes Hotfixes fix one or more specific issues updates contain accumulated bug fixes and occasionally small feature improvements This chapter describes the general procedures for applying updates and hotfixes to your XenServer deployment through XenCenter and the xe CLI Public hotfixes and updates are made available for download from the Citrix Knowledge Center Specific information and instructions regarding each
52. on do not attempt to proceed with the upgrade Reboot the pool master and restore to a working version of the master For details on restoring a XenServer host see the XenServer Administrator s Guide You will not be required to re enter any settings during the setup procedure The upgrade process follows the first time installation process but several setup steps are bypassed and the existing settings for networking configuration system time and so on are retained Once your pool master restarts normal service is restored after a few minutes XenCenter is then able to contact the pool master 4 Onthe pool master start or resume any shut down or suspended VMs Migrate any VMs that you wish back to the pool master 5 Select the next XenServer host in your upgrade path Ensure that no VMs are running on the host Shut down suspend or migrate VMs to other hosts in the pool as planned 6 Shut down the host 7 Follow the upgrade procedure for the host as described for the master in Step 3 Note If the upgrade of a host that is not the master fails or is interrupted you do not need to revert Reboot the host and restart the upgrade 8 Onthe host start or resume any shutdown or suspended VMs Migrate any VMs that you wish back to the host 9 Repeat Steps 5 8 for the rest of the hosts in the pool 29 CITRIX a 10 Once each host in the pool has been upgraded it is important to upgrade the XenServer Tools on all
53. on all VMs Please refer to the XenServer Virtual Machine User s Guide for details Note Running older versions of the XenServer Tools on newer XenServer installations is not supported except during the upgrade process 7 2 Upgrading a Single XenServer Host Using the xe CLI 7 2 1 Before You Upgrade a Single XenServer Host Before upgrading a standalone XenServer host you will be required to either shut down or suspend any VMs running on that host It is important to eject and empty CD DVD drives of any VMs that you plan to suspend If you do not empty the CD DVD drives the suspended VMs may not be resumeable after upgrade 27 CITRIX a An empty VM CD DVD drive means that the VM is attached to neither an ISO image nor a physical CD DVD mounted via the XenServer host Further it requires that the VM not be attached to any physical CD DVD drive on the XenServer host at all To empty the CD DVD drive of a VM using the xe CLI 1 Identify which VMs do not have empty CD DVD drives by entering the following xe vbd list type CD empty fals This returns a list of all the VM CD DVD drives that are not empty for example uuid RO abae3997 39af 2764 04a1 ffc501d132d9 vm uuid RO 340a8b49 866e b27c 99d1 fb41457344d9 vm name label RO VMO2 DemoLinux vdi uuid RO a14p0345 b20a 4027 a233 7cbdle005ed empty RO false device RO xvdd uuid RO ecl74a21 452f 7fd8 c02b 86370fa0f654 vm uuid RO db80
54. on the Tools menu select Rolling Pool Upgrade Read the Before You Start information and then click Next to continue Select the pool s and or individual hosts that you wish to upgrade and then click Next Choose Automatic Mode or Manual Mode depending on whether you are planning an automated upgrade from network installation files located on an HTTP NFS or FTP server or a manual upgrade from either a CD DVD or via PXE boot using already existing infrastructure Note If you choose Manual Mode you must run the XenServer installer on each XenServer host in turn and follow the on screen instructions on the serial console of the host Once the upgrade begins XenCenter prompts you to insert the XenServer installation media or specify a PXE boot server for each host that you upgrade Once you have selected your Upgrade Mode click Run Prechecks Follow the recommendations to resolve any upgrade prechecks that have failed If you would like XenCenter to automatically resolve all failed prechecks click Resolve All Once all prechecks have been resolved click Next to continue Prepare the XenServer installation media If you chose Automatic Mode enter the installation media details Choose HTTP NFS or FTP and then specify the path username and password as appropriate Note Enter the username and password associated with your HTTP NFS or FTP server if you have configured security credentials Do not enter the username and pa
55. onnect to the activation page because the internet connection is down for example then XenCenter gives you the option to save a t xt file locally with the activation request information You can then upload this t xt file to https activate vmd citrix com at a later date Enter your details in the activation form and then click Submit An e mail with the activation key xslic file extension will be sent to you shortly Generally activation keys are generated and e mailed within 10 minutes However it may take up to 30 minutes in some cases Save the attached activation key to a known location on the computer running XenCenter or the xe CLI 2 Apply the activation key to your XenServer host using XenCenter or the xe CLI To apply an activation key using XenCenter a On the Tools menu select License Manager You can also launch the XenCenter License Manager by double clicking the activation key file in Windows Explorer Select the host you wish activate you can only activate one host at a time Click Activate Free XenServer and then select Apply Activation Key 35 e CITRIX c Browse to and select the activation key file and select Open To install an activation key using the xe CLI open a console on the host or connect to the host via SSH and run the following command xe host license add license file lt lt path license_filename gt gt 9 2 Licensing XenServer Editions XenServer Advanced Enterp
56. ownload from the XenServer area of My Citrix Customers will require a My Citrix account to access this page If you do not have an account you can register on the My Citrix home page Warning The Integration Suite Supplemental Pack must only be installed onto a running system 6 1 1 Installing the Integration Suite onto a Running XenServer System 1 Download the Supplemental Pack directly to the XenServer host to be updated Citrix recommends storing it in the tmp directory or first download the file to an Internet connected computer and burn the ISO image to a CD 2 Use XenCenter to access the XenServer host s console or use secure shell ssh to login directly 3 Mount the Supplemental Pack image Depending on whether the driver disk is still in ISO form or has been burnt to CD the directory to be mounted will vary For a CD ROM use mkdir p mnt tmp mount dev lt path to cd rom gt mnt tmp cd mnt tmp install sh cd umount mnt tmp To install from an ISO use the following method mkdir p mnt tmp mount dev lt path to iso gt mnt tmp cd mnt tmp install sh cd umount mnt tmp 6 2 Integration Requirements for SCVMM To enable integration with SCVMM following configuration is required e A host running SCVMM 2012 e A XenServer host with storage and networking pre configured using XenCenter 21 CITRIX e The Integration Suite Supplemental Pack must be installed on each XenServe
57. pgrade in this manner then you must unpack the XenServer installation media onto your HTTP NFS or FTP server before starting the upgrade 24 CITRIX Before You Upgrade Before you begin your upgrade be sure to make the following preparations Download the latest version of XenCenter Earlier versions of XenCenter do not include the wizard Citrix strongly recommends that you take a backup of the state of your existing pool using the pool dump database xe CLI command see the XenServer Administrator s Guide Taking a backup state ensures that you can revert a partially complete rolling upgrade to its original state without losing VM data Ensure that your hosts are not over provisioned check that hosts have sufficient memory to carry out the upgrade As a general guideline if N equals the total number of hosts in a pool then there needs to be sufficient memory across N 1 hosts to run all of the live VMs in the pool as the Rolling Pool Upgrade wizard migrates VMs from and shuts down one host in a pool at a time It is best to suspend any non critical VMs during the upgrade process While the Rolling Pool Upgrade wizard checks that the following actions have been taken you may choose to perform them before you begin e Empty the CD DVD drives of the VMs in the pool s e Disable HA e Disable WLB To upgrade XenServer hosts using the XenCenter Rolling Pool Upgrade wizard 1 2 3 4 Open the Rolling Pool Upgrade wizard
58. r and path of your NFS share Select Ok to proceed Indicate 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 Verification may take some time Make your selection and choose Ok to proceed Set and confirm a root password which XenCenter will use to connect to the XenServer host You will also use this password with username root to log into xsconsole the system configuration console Set up the primary management interface that will be used to connect to XenCenter If your computer has multiple NICs select the NIC which you wish to use for management Choose Ok to proceed Configure the Management NIC IP address by choosing Automatic configuration DHCP to configure the NIC using DHCP or Static configuration to manually configure the NIC Note To be part of a pool XenServer hosts must have static IP addresses or be DNS addressable When using DHCP ensure that a static DHCP reservation policy is in place Specify the hostname and the DNS configuration manually or automatically via DHCP In the Hostname Configuration section select Automatically set via DHCP to have the DHCP server provide the hostname along with the IP address If you select Manually specify enter the desired hostname for the server in the field provided Note If manually specifying the hostname enter a short hos
59. r host that you want to manage with SCVMM either at installation or post installation e Use SCVMM to connect to and manage your XenServer hosts 6 3 Integration Requirements for SCOM To enable integration with SCOM the following configuration is required e A host running SCOM 2007 R2 e A XenServer host with storage and networking pre configured using XenCenter e The Integration Suite Supplemental Pack must be installed on each XenServer host that you want to monitor with SCOM either at installation or post installation e On each XenServer that you want to monitor with SCOM on a web browser go to http lt host ip address gt scom Where lt host ip address gt is the IP address or host name of the XenServer host Follow the on screen step by step instructions to install the SCOM Management Pack and to add a XenServer to SCOM 22 CITRIX Chapter 7 Upgrading XenServer This chapter documents how to upgrade your XenServer deployment using XenCenter and the xe CLI It guides you through upgrading your XenServer hosts both pooled and standalone automatically using the XenCenter Rolling Pool Upgrade wizard and manually XenServer hosts must be running at least version 5 6 in order to upgrade directly to version 6 1 0 For example to upgrade from version 5 5 to version 6 1 0 you must first upgrade version 5 5 to version 5 6 or to version 5 6 Feature Pack 1 or 5 6 Service Pack 2 and then upgrade version 5 6 or vers
60. r to the current version of XenServer For details on planning a manual rolling pool upgrade for earlier versions of XenServer see Section 7 3 Upgrading XenServer to Version 5 6 or Earlier Using XenCenter The wizard guides you through the upgrade procedure and organizes the upgrade path automatically For pools each of the hosts in the pool is upgraded in turn starting with the pool master Before starting an upgrade the wizard conducts a series of prechecks to ensure that certain pool wide features such as HA and WLB are temporarily disabled and that each host in the pool is prepared for upgrade for example that the CD DVD drive of each host is empty Only one host is offline at a time and any running VMs are automatically migrated off each host before the upgrade is installed on that host The wizard can operate in Manual or Automatic mode e In Manual Mode you must manually run the XenServer installer on each XenServer host in turn and follow the on screen instructions on the serial console of the host Once the upgrade begins XenCenter prompts you to insert the XenCenter installation media or specify a PXE boot server for each host that you upgrade e In Automatic Mode the wizard uses network installation files located on an HTTP NFS or FTP server to upgrade each host in turn without requiring you to insert installation media manually reboot or step through the installer on each host If you choose to perform a rolling pool u
61. re virtualization assist support is available on your system check the support site of your hardware manufacturer for BIOS upgrades 3 The Welcome to XenServer Setup screen is displayed XenServer ships with a broad driver set that supports most modern server hardware configurations However if you have been provided with any supplemental packs containing additional essential drivers press F9 The installer will then step you through installing the necessary drivers Once you have installed all of the required drivers select Ok to proceed 4 The XenServer End User License Agreement EULA is displayed Use the Page Up and Page Down keys to scroll through and read the agreement Choose Accept EULA to proceed 5 Select an installation action as appropriate You may see any of the following options Perform clean installation e Upgrade if the installer detects a previously installed version of XenServer it offers the option to upgrade For details on upgrading your XenServer host see Chapter 7 Upgrading XenServer e Restore if the installer detects a previously created backup installation it offers the option to restore XenServer from the backup For details see the XenServer Administrator s Guide Make your selection and choose Ok to proceed 6 Ifyou have multiple local hard disks choose a Primary Disk for the installation Select Ok 7 Choose which disk s you would like to use for virtual machine storage Information
62. rise and Platinum editions use the same licensing model as other Citrix products XenServer Advanced editions and higher require a license for each XenServer host you use From this XenServer release forward licenses will no longer be stored on the host server Instead all XenServer editions licenses must be added to and administered from a Citrix Licensing Server and maintained and controlled using the Citrix License Management Console You can share the license server across all Citrix products Each XenServer host requires a license but this does not limit the number of users that may connect to VMs on that host While licensing must be configured for each XenServer host the XenCenter License Manager allows you to apply the same settings to multiple hosts at once To license XenServer Advanced editions and higher 1 Install the Citrix License Server and console For installation procedures see the Licensing Your Product topic on Citrix eDocs This XenServer release requires Citrix Licensing 11 6 1 or higher 2 Obtain your XenServer license files and load them on the Citrix License Server For these procedures see the Licensing Your Product topic on Citrix eDocs 3 Configure licensing for each XenServer host using XenCenter or the xe CLI 2 Download license file CiTRIX Username Password See Licensing documentation on Forgot Your Password Citrix eDocs New Users More Options 3 Add license file to Citr
63. rver address lt license server address gt host uuid lt uuid_of_host gt license server port lt license server port gt You only need to supply the license server IP address and port number parameters the first time you assign a license The values are stored and used automatically if you do not specify the license server parameters in the future If no host UUID is specified the license will be applied to the host that you are running the command on 9 3 Additional Licensing Information This section discusses miscellaneous licensing information such as license expiration and grace periods Upgrading After upgrading a XenServer host paid for edition the host enters a 30 day grace period during which it is licensed as an Enterprise edition product As soon as you assign the host a new license or you activate the free XenServer product the grace period ends and XenServer will run with the features associated with the edition you have specified Expiration If the license for a XenServer host expires you cannot start any new suspended or powered off VMs on that host until you re assign it a valid license If you are running the free XenServer product you need to re activate it on an annual basis If it expires you cannot start any new suspended or powered off VMs on that host until you re activate it 37 o CITRIX Grace Period After a license is checked out by a XenServer host the host and the license se
64. rver exchange heartbeat messages every five minutes to indicate to each other that they are still up and running If XenServer and the license server fail to send or receive heartbeats for example due to problems with the license server hardware or software or network failures XenServer lapses into the licensing grace period of 30 days and licenses itself through cached information If the grace period expires the VMs running on that host do not stop However you cannot start new VMs on that host until you restore its connection with the license server Mixed Pools Citrix strongly discourages running mixed pools pools with members that have different licenses for any longer than necessary Temporarily running a mixed pool for transitional purposes for example while upgrading your licenses is supported but functionality may be limited It is important to keep the following in mind e While you can change the license of any host in a pool the host with the lowest license determines the features available to all members in the pool For example a pool with a mixture of Advanced and Platinum Edition hosts only has Advanced features enabled Therefore if you change a host to use a lower level of license you can effectively disable features in the pool e Any host joining a pool must have the same license as the host with the lowest edition license in the pool For example in a pool that contains hosts with Advanced and Platinum l
65. s the features available visit www citrix com xenserver 1 3 New Features in XenServer 6 1 0 XenServer 6 1 0 includes a number of new features and ongoing improvements including Storage XenMotion Storage XenMotion allows VMs to be moved from one host to another where the VMs are not located on storage shared between the two hosts This enables system administrators to Rebalance or move VMs between XenServer pools for example promoting a VM from a development environment to a production environment Perform software maintenance for example upgrading or updating standalone XenServer hosts without VM downtime Perform hardware maintenance for example upgrading standalone XenServer host hardware without VM downtime Reduce deployment costs by using local storage For more information refer to the XenServer 6 1 0 Virtual Machine User s Guide and the XenCenter online help Live VDI Migration Live VDI Migration allows the system administrator to relocate the VM s Virtual Disk Image VDI without shutting down the VM This enables system administrators to Move a VM from cheap local storage to fast resilient array backed storage Move a VM from a development to a production environment Move between tiers of storage when a VM is limited by storage capacity Perform storage array upgrades Networking Enhancements Link Aggregation Control Protocol LACP support enables the use of industry standard network bonding
66. ssword associated with your XenServer pool If you chose Manual Mode note the upgrade plan and instructions Click Start Upgrade 25 CITRIX 7 Once the upgrade begins the Rolling Pool Upgrade wizard guides you through any actions you need to take to upgrade each host Follow the instructions until you have upgraded all hosts in the pool s Once the upgrade completes the wizard prints a summary Click Finish to close the wizard 7 1 2 Upgrading XenServer Hosts Using the xe CLI Important Performing a rolling pool upgrade using the xe CLI requires extremely careful planning Be sure to read the following section with care before you begin 7 1 2 1 Planning an Upgrade Path As you plan your upgrade it is very important to be aware of the following You can only migrate VMs from a XenServer host running an older version of XenServer to one running the same version or higher for example from version 5 6 to version 5 6 or from version 5 6 to version 6 1 0 You cannot migrate VMs from an upgraded host to one running an older version of XenServer for example from version 6 1 0 to version 5 6 Be sure to allow for space on your XenServer hosts accordingly Citrix strongly advises against running a mixed mode pool one with multiple versions of XenServer co existing for longer than necessary as the pool operates in a degraded state during upgrade Key control operations are not available during upgrade and should not be
67. steps through setting up your TFTP and NFS FTP or HTTP servers to enable PXE booting of XenServer host installations It then describes how to create an XML answer file which allows you to perform unattended installations C 1 Configuring your PXE Environment for XenServer Installation Before you set up the XenServer installation media you need to configure your TFTP and DHCP servers For general setup procedures see the Citrix Knowledge Base article PXE Boot Environment Generic TFTP and DHCP Configuration Note XenServer 6 0 moved from MBR disk partitioning to GUID Partition Table GPT Some third party PXE deployment systems may attempt to read the partition table on a machine s hard disk before deploying the image to the host If the deployment system has not been updated to be compatible with GPT partitioning scheme and the hard disk has previously been used for a version of XenServer or any other Operating System that uses GPT the PXE deployment system may fail If this happens a workaround is to delete the partition table on the disk In addition to the TFTP and DHCP servers you need an NFS FTP or HTTP server to house the XenServer installation files These servers can co exist on one or be distributed across different servers on the network Additionally each XenServer host that you want to PXE boot needs a PXE boot enabled Ethernet card The following steps assume that the Linux server you are using has RPM support
68. t the VDI is reverted to the state it was in at the previous boot All changes while the VM is running will be lost when the VM is next booted Select this option if you plan to deliver standardized desktops to which users cannot make permanent changes 2 Private Desktop Mode On VM boot the VDI is in the state it was left in at the last shutdown Select this option if you plan to allow users to make permanent changes to their desktops 5 1 3 1 VM Caching Behavior Settings The VDI flag allow caching dictates the caching behavior 5 1 3 1 1 Shared Desktop Mode For shared desktops the on boot option is set to reset and the allow caching flag is set to t rue new VM data is written only to local storage there will be no writes to shared storage This means that the load on shared storage is significantly reduced However the VM cannot be migrated between hosts 5 1 3 1 2 Private Desktop Mode For private desktops the on boot option is set to persist and the allow caching flag is set to t rue new VM data is written to both local and shared storage Reads of cached data do not require I O traffic to shared storage so the load on shared storage is somewhat reduced VM Migration to another host is permitted and the local cache on the new host is populated as data is read 5 1 4 Implementation Details and Troubleshooting Q Is IntelliCache compatible with XenMotion and High Availability A You can use XenMotion and High Availability w
69. tart with the pool master Disable the master by using the host disable command This prevents any new VMs from starting on the specified host Ensure that no VMs are running on the master Shut down suspend or migrate VMs to other hosts in the pool To migrate specified VMs to specified hosts use the vm migrate command By using the vm migrate command you will have full control over the distribution of migrated VMs to other hosts in the pool To live migrate all VMs to other hosts in the pool use the host evacuate command By using the host evacuate command you leave the distribution of migrated VMs to XenServer Shut down the pool master 26 CITRIX 4 oon oo 10 11 12 Important You will be unable to contact the pool master until the upgrade of the master is complete Shutting down the pool master causes the other hosts in the pool to enter emergency mode In general a XenServer host enters emergency mode when it is a member of a pool whose master has disappeared from the network and cannot be contacted after a number of attempts VMs continue to run on hosts in emergency mode but control operations are not available Boot the pool master using the XenServer installation media and method of your choice such as installation CD or network Follow the XenServer installation procedure see Chapter 3 Installing XenServer and XenCenter until the installer offers you the option to upgrade Choose to upgrade Warn
70. ted entirely to the task of running XenServer hosting VMs and is not used for other applications Warning The installation of any third party software directly on the XenServer host i e into the dom0O control domain is not supported except where it is supplied as a supplemental pack and is explicitly endorsed by Citrix The computer that runs XenCenter can be any general purpose Windows computer that satisfies the hardware requirements and can be used to run other applications 2 1 1 XenServer Host System Requirements While XenServer will generally be deployed on server class hardware XenServer is also compatible with many models of workstations and laptops For a comprehensive XenServer hardware compatibility list see http www citrix com xenserver hcl The following describes the recommended XenServer hardware specifications The XenServer host should be a 64 bit x86 server class machine devoted to hosting VMs This machine should run an optimized and hardened Linux partition 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 e upto 1 TB of RAM e up to 16 NICs e up to 160 logical processors per host Note The maximum number of logical processors supported differs by CPU Consult the XenServer Hardware Compatibility List HCL for more details The system requirements for the XenServer host are CPUs One or more 64
71. tion media from VM templates included in the XenServer package and from existing physical machines P2V It explains how to import disk images and how to import and export appliances e XenServer Administrator s Guide gives an in depth description of the tasks involved in configuring a XenServer deployment including setting up storage networking and pools It describes how to administer XenServer using the xe Command Line Interface e vSwitch Controller User s Guide is a comprehensive user guide to the vSwitch Controller for XenServer e Supplemental Packs and the DDK introduces the XenServer Driver Development Kit which can be used to modify and extend the functionality of XenServer e XenServer Software Development Kit Guide presents an overview of the XenServer SDK It includes code samples that demonstrate how to write applications that interface with XenServer hosts e XenAPI Specification is a reference guide for programmers to the XenServer API For additional resources visit the Citrix Knowledge Center References XS Guest Citrix XenServer 6 1 0 Virtual Machine User s Guide XS Admin Citrix XenServer 6 1 0 Administrator s Guide OSG Citrix XenServer 6 1 0 Quick Start Guide CITRIX Chapter 2 System Requirements 2 1 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 computer is dedica
72. tname and not the fully qualified domain name FQDN Entering an FQDN may cause external authentication to fail In the DNS Configuration section choose Automatically set via DHCP to get name service configuration using DHCP If you select Manually specify enter the IP address es of your primary required secondary optional and tertiary optional DNS servers in the fields provided Select Ok to proceed Select your time zone the geographical area and then city You can type the first letter of the desired locale to jump to the first entry that begins with this letter Choose Ok to proceed Specify how you would like the server to determine local time using NTP or manual time entry Make your selection and choose Ok to proceed If using NTP either select NTP is configured by my DHCP server to have DHCP set the time server or enter at least one NTP server name or IP address in the fields below Choose Ok CITRIX Note XenServer assumes that the time setting in the BIOS of the server is the current time in UTC 17 Select Install XenServer If you elected to set the date and time manually you will be prompted to do so during the installation Once set choose Ok to proceed 18 If you are installing from a CD and elected to include supplemental packs you will be prompted to insert them Eject the XenServer installation CD and insert the supplemental pack CD Choose Ok Select Use media to proceed with the installation R
73. to access a local shell e Press Alt F3 to access the event log To capture and save the log file 1 Press Alt F2 to access the local shell 2 Enter the following opt xensource installer report py 3 You are prompted to choose where you would like to save the log file NFS FTP or Local media Select NFS or FTP to copy the log file to another machine on your network To do so networking must be working properly and you must have write access to a remote machine Select Local media to save the file to a removable storage device such as a USB flash drive on the local machine Once you have made your selections the program writes the log file to your chosen location The filename is support tar bz2 39 CITRIX Appendix B Boot From SAN Environments Boot from SAN environments offer a number of advantages including high performance redundancy and space consolidation In these environments the boot disk resides on a remote SAN and not on the local host The diskless host communicates with the SAN through a host bus adapter HBA and the BIOS of the HBA contains the instructions that enable the host to find the boot disk Boot from SAN depends on SAN based disk arrays with either hardware Fibre Channel or HBA iSCSI adapter support on the host For a fully redundant boot from SAN environment you need to configure multiple paths for I O access To do so the root device should have multipath support enabled For information
74. to upgrade when you are stepping through the installer so as to avoid losing any existing data Important Boot from SAN settings are not inherited during the upgrade process When upgrading using the ISO or PXE process customers should follow the same instructions as used in the installation process below to ensure that multipath is correctly configured For more information see Appendix B Boot From SAN Environments 7 1 Rolling Pool Upgrades With XenServer you can perform rolling pool upgrades A rolling upgrade allows you to upgrade all of the hosts in a pool in such a way that services and resources offered by the pool are available throughout the upgrade 23 CITRIX process This upgrade method keeps critical VMs running by enabling you to live migrate them to other hosts in the pool and then to upgrade one host at a time This process takes only one XenServer host offline at a time You can perform a rolling pool upgrade using XenCenter or the xe CLI If you are using XenCenter Citrix recommends using the Rolling Pool Upgrade wizard This wizard organizes the upgrade path automatically and guides you through the upgrade procedure If you are using the xe CLI you need to perform the rolling upgrade manually by first planning your upgrade path and then live migrating running VMs between XenServer hosts accordingly Important Rolling Pool Upgrade should not be used with Boot from SAN environments For more information on upgrad
75. traditional method of pre allocating all of the blocks Important Thin Provisioning changes the default local storage type of the host from LVM to EXT3 Thin Provisioning must be enabled in order for XenDesktop local caching to work properly Thin Provisioning allows the administrator to present more storage space to the VMs connecting to the Storage Repository SR than is actually available on the SR There are no space guarantees and allocation of a LUN does not claim any data blocks until the VM writes data Warning Thin provisioned SRs may run out of physical space as the VMs within can grow to consume disk capacity on demand IntelliCache VMs handle this condition by automatically falling back to shared storage if the local SR cache is full It is not recommended to mix traditional virtual machines and IntelliCache VMs on the same SR as intellicache VMs may grow quickly in size 5 1 IntelliCache Deployment IntelliCache must be enabled either during host installation or be enabled manually on a running host using the CLI Citrix recommends that you use a high performance local storage device to ensure the fastest possible data transfer such as a Solid State Disk or a high performance RAID array Both data throughput and storage capacity should be considered when sizing local disks The shared storage type used to host the source Virtual Disk Image VDI must be NFS or EXT based 5 1 1 Enabling on Host Installation To enable
76. trix recommends that you reboot any hosts that you plan to update to ensure that the hosts are healthy and configurations correct for example to ensure that VMs start and that storage is accessible Rebooting is particularly important if you have made any critical low level changes and have not restarted your XenServer host s for some time If there are any pre existing configuration issues the update will fail Note XenCenter will reboot each host automatically as part of the Install Update wizard before applying the update file If you are using the xe CLI you will have to reboot hosts manually e Citrix also strongly recommends that you take a backup of the state of the pool or individual hosts that you wish to update just as you would with any other maintenance operations For backup procedures see the XenServer Administrator s Guide Before you begin updating e Log into a user account with full access permissions for example as a Pool Administrator or using a local root account e Empty the CD DVD drives of any VMs you plan to suspend For details and instructions see Section 7 2 1 Before You Upgrade a Single XenServer Host e Disable HA if applicable If you are applying an update or hotfix using XenCenter XenCenter runs a series of prechecks to ensure that the selected hosts are prepared to be updated and compatible with the required update file These prechecks 31 CITRIX are run as part of the proced
77. u can install any required supplemental pack after installing XenServer To do so mount the appropriate installation media on the XenServer host and then run the script install sh located in the root directory of the CD Upgrades The installer presents the option to upgrade if it detects a previously installed version of XenServer The upgrade process follows the first time installation process but several setup steps are bypassed The existing settings are retained including networking configuration system time and so on Important CITRIX Upgrading requires careful planning and attention For detailed information about upgrading individual XenServer hosts and pools see Chapter 7 Upgrading XenServer 3 2 Installing the XenServer Host Warning Installing XenServer will overwrite data on any hard drives that you select to use for the installation Back up data that you wish to preserve before proceeding To install or upgrade the XenServer host 1 Boot the computer from the installation CD or PXE boot from your TFTP server if applicable 2 Following the initial boot messages and the Welcome to XenServer screen select your keyboard layout for the installation Tip Throughout the installation quickly advance to the next screen by pressing F12 Use Tab to move between elements and Space or Enter to select For general help press F1 Note If a System Hardware warning screen is displayed and you suspect that hardwa
78. ure that the Install Update wizard guides you through Prechecks alert you if any preparatory o have been missed 8 2 Updating Individual XenServer Hosts To update individual hosts using XenCenter 1 Download the update file xsupdate file extension to a known location on the computer running XenCenter Note To download the update file e From the XenCenter menu select Tools and then Check for Updates This displays the Check for Updates window which provides a list of the available updates e Select the required update from the list and click the Web Page link This opens the update page in your browser e Click Download to save the file to a preferred location Shut down or suspend any VMs on the host s that you wish to update On the Tools menu select Install Update The Install Update wizard opens Read the Before you start information and then click Next to proceed yu PF SN Select Add and then browse to and select the update file that you have downloaded Click Open Once the update file has been added click Next to continue Select one or more host s to update and click Next 7 Follow the recommendations to resolve any update prechecks that have failed If you would like XenCenter to automatically resolve all failed prechecks click Resolve All Once all prechecks have been resolved click Next to continue 8 Choose between automatic or manual update mode If you choose automatic XenCenter will perform
79. vailable during installation copy the contents of each Supplemental Pack ISO into a separate directory within the main installation repository Customers must edit XS REPOSITORY LIST to include the directory name in which the Supplemental Pack resides on a new line Otherwise the Supplemental Pack will not be installed Refer to XenServer 6 1 0 Supplemental Pack amp DDK Guide for more details Preparing the destination system 1 Start the system and enter the Boot Menu F12 in most BIOS programs and select to boot from your Ethernet card 2 The system should then PXE boot from the installation source you set up and the installation script will commence If you have set up an answer file the installation can proceed unattended C 2 Creating an answer file for unattended PXE installation To perform installations in an unattended fashion you need to create an XML answer file Here is an example answer file 42 CITRIX lt xml version 1 0 gt lt installation srtype ext gt lt primary disk gt sda lt primary disk gt lt guest disk gt sdb lt guest disk gt lt guest disk gt sdc lt guest disk gt lt keymap gt us lt keymap gt lt root password gt mypassword lt root password gt lt source type url gt http pxehost example com XenServer_ lt source gt lt post install script type url gt http pxehost example com myscripts post install script lt post install script gt lt admin interface name eth

Citrix Systems Server 6.1.0 User's Manual

Contents

Download Pdf Manuals

Related Search

Related Contents