Installation guide

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Table of Contents
1. Introducing XenServer .................................................................................................. 1
1.1. About this document ......................................................................................... 1
1.2. How this Guide relates to other documentation ................................................... 1
1.3. What's new in XenServer 4.1.0 .......................................................................... 1
1.4. What is XenServer? .......................................................................................... 2
1.4.1. Xen: the engine that powers XenServer ................................................... 2
1.4.2. XenServer extends the power of Xen virtualization to server clusters .......... 3
1.4.3. Powerful VM storage management and clustering ..................................... 3
1.4.4. XenMotion™ delivers an agile virtual infrastructure ................................... 4
1.4.5. The XenServer product family ................................................................. 4
1.4.6. XenServer elements ............................................................................... 4
2. System Requirements .................................................................................................. 6
2.1. XenServer Host system requirements ................................................................. 6
2.2. XenCenter requirements .................................................................................... 7
2.3. VM support ....................................................................................................... 7
3. Installing XenServer ..................................................................................................... 8
3.1. Installing the XenServer Host ............................................................................. 8
3.2. Installing XenCenter ........................................................................................ 12
3.3. Installation and deployment scenarios .............................................................. 13
3.3.1. XenServer Hosts with local storage ....................................................... 13
3.3.2. XenServer Hosts with shared NFS storage ............................................. 13
3.3.3. XenServer Hosts with shared iSCSI storage ........................................... 15
A. Troubleshooting ......................................................................................................... 18
B. Maintenance Procedures ............................................................................................ 19
B.1. Preparing XenServer Hosts for maintenance operations .................................... 19
B.2. Applying updates ............................................................................................ 20
B.2.1. Applying updates using the CLI ............................................................. 20
B.3. Reinstalling the same version .......................................................................... 21
B.4. Rolling upgrade from version 4.0.1 to the current version ................................... 22
B.4.1. Backup ................................................................................................ 22
B.4.2. Performing a rolling pool upgrade .......................................................... 23
B.5. Upgrading from version 3.2 to 4.0.1 ................................................................. 23
B.6. Upgrading VHD files from version 4.0.1 ............................................................ 24
B.7. Backing up and restoring XenServer Hosts and VMs ......................................... 25
B.7.1. Backing up Virtual Machine metadata .................................................... 25
B.7.2. Backing up XenServer Hosts ................................................................ 26
B.7.3. Backing up VMs ................................................................................... 28
C. PXE installation of XenServer Host ............................................................................ 29
C.1. Setting up the PXE boot environment .............................................................. 29
C.2. Creating an answerfile for unattended PXE installation ...................................... 32
C.3. Installation media repository format .................................................................. 35
C.3.1. Presence of installation media repositories ............................................ 35
C.3.2. Installation media repository metadata ................................................... 36
C.3.3. Package metadata ............................................................................... 36
C.3.4. Example files ....................................................................................... 37
C.3.5. Notes on best practice ......................................................................... 37
D. Xen Memory Usage ................................................................................................... 38
D.1. Memory scaling algorithm ............................................................................... 38
D.1.1. Increasing the reserved memory size .................................................... 38