More and more I am using XEN at work, and here is a small how to of some very common operations.

Citrix® XenServer® is a complete, managed server virtualization platform built on the powerful Xen® hypervisor. Xen technology is widely acknowledged as the fastest and most secure virtualization software in the industry. XenServer is designed for efficient management of Windows® and #Linux® virtual servers and delivers cost-effective server consolidation and business continuity.

By the way if you succeed installing XEN server on a Strato.com dedicated #Linux server with a minimal downtime, contact me I am interested!

Basic operations

Determine the XEN guest uuid

This uuid is required to identify XEN guest.

# xe vm-list
uuid ( RO)           : 99bb0e42-0616-6f02-ed41-be48bb338280 
     name-label ( RW): server01
    power-state ( RO): running

Determine the XEN sr-uuid of a disk storage

A sr-uuid identify a storage resources attached to a XEN server, this unique id is required for some operations as it allow you for eample to import XEN guest into it.

Run as root, in the XEN server console

# xe sr-list
uuid ( RO)                : 99f191c4-4563-8672-7d8e-4602850fbeb0
        name-label ( RW): Local storage
        name-description ( RW): 
        host ( RO): xen01
        type ( RO): lvm
        content-type ( RO): user

Identify the locale storage by looking at the name-label and copy the uuid

Export XEN Guest

1. You need to stop the XEN guest prior to any operations
2. You need to determine the XEN guest uuid (see basic operations)
3. Mount a NFS / CIFS / Samba share if you want to move from one XEN server to another as the filename can be located anywhere.

Run as root, in the XEN server console

# xe vm-export vm=99bb0e42-0616-6f02-ed41-be48bb338280  filename=server01.xva

Import XEN Guest

1. You need to determine the XEN guest sr-uuid (see basic operations) : the storage unique id
2. Mount a NFS / CIFS / Samba share if you want to move from one XEN server to another as the filename can be located anywhere.

Run as root, in the XEN server console

# xe vm-import filename=server01.xva  sr-uuid=99bb0e42-0616-6f02-ed41-be48bb338280 

Export a XEN template to disk

1. Log to the XEN server where this template is located, and list all templates
2. Mount a NFS / CIFS / Samba share if you want to move from one XEN server to another as the filename can be located anywhere.

# xe template-list

If there is too much templates, you can filter with grep or by using name-label

# xe template-list  name-label=”myTemplate label”
uuid ( RO) : c4962b6b-5678-a72b-85cd-e33f01b1320a
name-label ( RW): mytemplate label
name-description ( RW):

To export, run

# xe template-export uuid=c4962b6b-5678-a72b-85cd-e33f01b1320a filename=myTemplate.xva

You can see the export progression in tab “logs“ of that template in XEN-Center

Import a XEN template to a new XEN Server

1. Log to the XEN server where you want to import the new template
2. You need to determine the XEN guest sr-uuid (see basic operations) : the storage unique id

To import, run

# xe vm-import filename=myTemplate.xva  sr-uuid=99bb0e42-0616-6f02-ed41-be48bb338280 

TO be continued…