XenServer Virtual Machine Installation 4.1.0

Installing Windows VMs

Warning

Be extremely careful with copying ISOs directly onto the control domain filesystem, as it has limited

space available. A network share is a much safer mechanism for storing large numbers of ISO

images. If the control domain does fill up, unpredictable behavior will result.

3.2. Windows paravirtualized drivers

The Citrix paravirtualizated network and SCSI drivers provide high performance I/O services without the

overhead of traditional device emulation found in first-generation virtualization products. During the instal-

lation of a Windows operating system, Xen will use traditional device emulation to present a standard IDE

controller and a standard network card to the Virtual Machine. This allows Windows to complete its instal-

lation using built-in drivers, but with reduced performance due to the overhead inherent in emulation of the

controller drivers.

After Windows is installed, you install the Citrix high-speed paravirtualized drivers. These are on an ISO

available to the virtual CD-ROM drive of the Virtual Machine. These drivers replace the emulated devices

and provide high-speed transport between Windows and the XenServer product family software.

Note

While a Windows VM will function without them, performance is significantly hampered unless these

drivers are installed. Running Windows VMs without these drivers is not supported. Some features,

such as live relocation across physical hosts, will only work with the paravirtual drivers installed

and active.

The Windows paravirtualized drivers ISO can be attached to the VM by using the Install Tools menu in

XenCenter, or by directly inserting the built-in xs-tools.iso ISO image to the VM using the CLI. Once the

ISO is attached, double-click on the xensetup.exe installer executable and follow the on-screen prompts.

Normally, the Windows paravirtualized drivers are installed by default in the directory C:\Program Files

\XenSource\Drivers on the VM.

3.3. Remote Desktop

The graphical console for Windows can be either a standard console via emulated graphics card, or an

RDP connection.

For Windows VMs, there is a Switch to Remote Desktop button on the Console tab. Clicking it disables the

standard graphical console, and switches to using Remote Desktop instead.

The button will be grayed out if you do not have Remote Desktop enabled in the VM, and the paravirtualized

drivers must be installed.

Procedure 3.2. To enable Remote Desktop on a Windows VM

1. From the Start menu, select Control Panel.

2. From the Control Panel window, select System.

3. In the System Properties dialog box, select the Remote tab.