Resource Pool: Combining one or more xenservers as a single unit is resource pool
Resource pool member host types
master pool member
single control point for all XS in the pool maintains pool configuration data manages distributed locking for shared storage configures seconday xs in the pool Secondary pool member
controlled through the master maintains pool configuration backup can be promoted to pool master Citrix XenServer pools allow you to view multiple servers and their connected shared storage as a single unified resource, enabling flexible deployment of virtual machines based on their resource needs and business priorities.
A XenServer vApp is a logical group of one or more related virtual machines (VMs) which can be managed as a single entity. The VMs within a vApp do not have to reside on one host server and will be distributed within a pool using the normal rules.
When a vApp is started, the VMs contained within it will start in a user-defined order, allowing VMs which depend upon one another to be automatically sequenced.
This is a video from citrix which explains how to download, install and configure Citrix XenServer Web Self Service.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaeb1urCkjg
Now lets take a look at how to install and configure Citrix XenServer License Virtual Appliance. Thanks a lot for techglobeonline for creating this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EUH7-kkEN4
Here is a good pdf document from citrix which shows complete step by step explanation about how to install and configure XenServer License Virtual Appliance.
A collection of virtual hardware that creates a standard x86 or x64 enviornment that allows for the installation of a supported guest operating system.
A virtual machine is a software computer that, like a physical computer, runs an operating system and applications. The virtual machine is comprised of a set of specification and configuration files and is backed by the physical resources of a host. Every virtual machine has virtual devices that provide the same functionality as physical hardware and have additional benefits in terms of portability, manageability, and security.
A LAN is a local area network and is defined as all devices in the same broadcast domain. If you remember, routers stop broadcasts, switches just forward them.
What is a VLAN? vlan is a logical configuration of a network on switch port to segment IP traffic. Using vLans reduce h/w needs by allowing a switch to segment IP traffic into multiple IP subnets on a port by port configuration.
Are you a small business owner who wants to expand but dreads the costs of new hardware? Or do you work for a larger company, where the server room has become an expensive hot mess that everybody avoids like the plague? Server virtualization can help you. More and more companies, large and small, realize what significant benefits come from server virtualization. Why? Well simply put, server virtualization enables intelligent usage of IT resources.
Migrate Virtual Machines
Using Storage XenMotion, a running virtual machine can be moved from one server to another server in the same resource pool with virtually no service interruption. The choice of destination server depends on how the VM and the pool are configured: in a pool with Workload Balancing (WLB) enabled, for example, recommendations are provided to help select the best possible physical server for the VM’s workload. For more information, see Choosing an Optimal Server for VM Initial Placement, Migrate, and Resume.
When we are talking about setting up networks and configure them we need to understand how they are named. XenServer knows 3 types of objects, the physical network interface, the virtual one and the network itself.
PIF: This is the object name for a physical network interface. XenServer is based on linux. This means each physical network interface will get the normal linux name ethX. XenServer will create a PIF object and assigned to each ethX device.
XenServer Tools provides high performance Windows drivers and a management agent, enhancing disk and network performance for XenServer VMs. For more information, see XenServer PV drivers – XenServer Tools.
XenServer Tools must be installed for each virtual machine (Windows and Linux) in order to be able to use the xe CLI or XenCenter, and VM performance will be significantly lowered unless the tools are installed. Without the tools installed, you will not be able to do any the following:
General information which we should remember in xenserver are pointed here:
Xenserver is paravirtualized hypervisor. Hence, it needs Intel-VT or AMD-V to be enabled. MTU, Short for Maximum Transmission Unit, the largest physical packet size, measured in bytes, that a network can transmit. Any messages larger than the MTU are divided into smaller packets before being sent. Open vSwitch combined with Distributed vSwitch Controller gives you more features. We want to delete the snapshots of an existing VM, but not the original VM, we right click on the VM and choose Delete VM.
