Citrix XenServer 6.2 is now Open Source. So it is free to setup and use. If you want Maintenance and Support you get it for a price from Citrix.

 

Installation and setup of XenServer 6.2

Download XenServer iso and XenCenter msi file from http://www.xenserver.org/open-source-virtualization-download.html

Burn ISO to cd and start installation.

Went with default installation, used all of the hard drive.

 

XenCenter

On a Windows workstation or Windows Server install XenCenter.

In XenCenter click on Add New Server, Server: enter hostname or IP address, Username: root and Password: password (what ever you enter for Password when installing XenServer.

You may have to have to setup your Local Storage or remote storage.

You can even manage other Xen servers. Example: I could manage a XCP 1.6 (Xen Cloud Platform) server.

 

Updates

In XenCenter you can check and download the software updates. Since it is the unlicensed version you will have to manually do the updates. So download the update and unzip the two files and upload to the XenServer, say /root/ directory. Now you can install the update.

Download hotfixes from http://support.citrix.com/product/xens/v6.2.0/

Put Server into Maintenance Mode from within XenCenter. In XenCenter right click on host Server you want to put into Enter Maintenance Mode... This will migrate or suspend all VMs running on this server.

Applied Hotfix XS62E001 - For XenServer 6.2.0

At the XenServer console

# xe patch-upload -s 192.168.1.10 -u root -pw password file-name=/root/XS62E001.xsupdate hit enter.

If uploaded properly you should get a UUID, example: dedcc0dd-d8f3-4f76-90ca-92697c7a44f0

Apply hotfix,

# xe -s 192.168.1.10 -u root -pw password patch-pool-apply uuid=dedcc0dd-d8f3-4f76-90ca-92697c7a44f0 hit enter.

Verfiy patch installation:

# xe patch-list -s 192.168.1.10 -u root -pw password name-label=XS62E001 hit enter.

If everything looks good then run this command to restart server.

# xe-toolstack-restart and hit enter.

Now if you check in XenServer you will see there isn't any updates. Of course you will need to apply all the updates first. UPDATE, when checking for updates nothing seems to happen. Only by checking the website above did I know there was updates.

You can also checked to see if what updates you have applied, by going to XenCenter, click on the XenServer you want to check, General Tab, expand Updates. You should see the updates you have applied.

Once one of your servers has the patches applied you can use it to update the other servers in your environment.

 

Clean up Patches

After a while you will have to clean up patches that have been installed. I started to receive emails that the root partiton was getting full. Look in /var/patch directory. This the files that will be cleaned up.

# vi PatchCleanUp

PATCHLIST=`xe patch-list | grep "uuid ( RO) " | awk '{print $5}'`
for UUID in $PATCHLIST
do
echo "Cleaning up patch $UUID"
xe patch-clean uuid=$UUID
done

 

# chmod +x PatchCleanUp

 

# ./PatchCleanUp  (You should see Cleaning up patch $UUID multiple times)

 

Updating more than one server

If your first server was ip address of 192.168.1.10 and the next is 192.168.1.11, then from the first server run the commands below.

# xe patch-upload -s 192.168.1.11 -u root -pw password file-name=/root/XS62E001.xsupdate hit enter.

If uploaded properly you should get a UUID, example: dedcc0dd-d8f3-4f76-90ca-92697c7a44f0

Apply hotfix,

# xe -s 192.168.1.11 -u root -pw password patch-pool-apply uuid=dedcc0dd-d8f3-4f76-90ca-92697c7a44f0 hit enter.

 

# xe-toolstack-restart

Now your second server has been updated.

 

First Centos 6 Virtual server

In XenCenter click on New VM, choose CentOS 6 (64-bit),

Click Next, give your server a Name: Fileserver, 

Click Next, click on Install from URL: http://mirror.see-below/centos/6/os/x86_64/, Advanced  OS boot add vnc,

Click Next, where to place VM, I went with the default location,

Click Next, number of vCPUs and Memory, went have defaults,

Click Next, Use these virtual disks, again used default,

Click Next,  virtual network, went with default again,

Click Next, click on Create Now.

You will have to wait a few minutes for the virtual to be created.

Go here to find CentOS mirror to your area. http://www.centos.org/modules/tinycontent/index.php?id=30 

In XenCenter go to new server, click on Console, in the Console, Choose a Language. tab to OK and hit enter, Now you will use a NC viewer to do the graphical installation.

On a Windows workstation run TightVNC Viewer, connect to 192.168.1.233:0 or whatever ip it tells you to connect to.

Connect and start your graphical installation, setup your server and restart.

I like to make sure that I install all updates.

# yum update, do all updates and restart.

 

Installation of Xen Tools

In XenCenter on the General page of your new server, click on Install Tools, then ssh to your new server and run commands below.

1. # mkdir /mnt/xs-tools

2. # mount /dev/xvdd /mnt/xs-tools

3. # bash /mnt/xs-tools/Linux/install.sh

4. # reboot

 

So here you go, you have the basic setup of a XenServer, XenCenter and one Virtual CentOS 6 server setup. There is more work to do of course but this is a start.

 

References:

Main Xenserver.org website: http://www.xenserver.org

Citrix documentation on guests: http://support.citrix.com/servlet/KbServlet/download/34971-102-704221/guest.pdf 

Setting up Xen tools on CentOS 6: http://sysadmin.circularvale.com/server-config/installing-centos-6-2-on-xenserver-6-0/