Amahi in Xenserver without Greyhole

Back to 'Amahi Virtualized'

This tutorial will not include a detailed description of installing XenServer. That can be found on XenServer.org.

Similar to other Virtualization tutorials, keep in mind that the install of XenServer will erase all data and drives connected to the local machine during the installation. The drives will become part of a LVM group that XenServer will use for the creation of VDI and guest VM containers. Later you can add drives and attempt more advance configurations, like greyhole for your Amahi VM. For now, this tutorial sets up a simple install of XenServer and one VM running Amahi 7.1

Download XenServer and the Management Console

Download the server and the console from: http://www.xenserver.org/open-source-virtualization-download.html

Download the installation ISO and burn to a CD. Make sure virtual extensions for the CPU are turned on in the BIOS. Boot the machine that will be the server with only one hard drive attached. Choose all the defaults and do not install any supplemental packs. Setup a root password and set an IP, Gateway, and DNS that would work when your HDA is off (since that will be your DHCP and DNS on your network once it is running).

Download the XenCenter Windows Management Console on a Microsoft Windows client computer and install. Connect it to the newly set up XenServer using the the IP you setup during the server install. You could also try using OpenXenManager which runs on Linux, but Citrix only supports XenCenter running on Windows.

Updates

Put the server into Maintenance Mode. Download the updates suggested from the XenCenter on a client machine. Use SCP to copy the downloaded update file to a location you can find on the XenCenter server or on Windows use an SCP program like Bitvise WinSSHD . Then SSH from a client computer into the XenServer. Run the following at the command prompt:

bash code
​xe patch-upload -s 192.168.1.10 -u root -pw password file-name=/root/XS62E001.xsupdate​

The IP here should be the one set for the XenServer and the filename should match the update that was just downloaded and unzipped. If uploaded properly you should get a UUID, example: dedcc0dd-d8f3-4f76-90ca-92697c7a44f0

Now apply the hotfix using the confirmation UUID:

bash code
​xe -s 192.168.1.10 -u root -pw password patch-pool-apply uuid=dedcc0dd-d8f3-4f76-90ca-92697c7a44f0​

Verify patch installation:

bash code
​xe patch-list -s 192.168.1.10 -u root -pw password name-label=XS62E001​

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

bash code
​xe-toolstack-restart​

Amahi (Linux) Setup

Create a New VM, then choose Other install Media Template. Name the machine without spaces, choose to install from DVD drive where you have the Amahi 7.1 express disk located. Place on your XenServer and choose CPU and RAM. A recommended minimum would be 1 CPU, 2048 MB RAM. Now add a virtual disk. For better performance you should have a separate drive or drive pool for each VM you create. To start, create a 500 GB or larger VDI and move on to the network setup. Again, for better performance, choose a dedicated NIC for each VM. For this tutorial, you can just choose the defaults which is a shared NIC on your XenServer.

Switch to console on the newly created VM and install Amahi 7.1 as you would like.

One suggested change to make is the boot partition ext3. While partitioning the hard drive, choose Ext3 rather than Ext4, because ’pygrub’, the XenServer bootloader for the PV mode, can’t read Ext4. If you wish to benefit from Ext4 advantages anyway, then you’ll have to create a /boot partition in Ext3 and the / partition in Ext4. Finish the Amahi install as per instructions.

At this point you will have a running Amahi 7.1 HDA on XenServer. For more options and better performance, you might consider adding the next part to your install.

Note: if you are having trouble reaching your apps from the dashboard, you may wish to run this command:

1. yum -y update openssl

Convert to PV or Paravitualize

Tips from: https://www.cetic.be/Paravirtualize-an-Ubuntu-VM-using You only need to do this for slightly better resource management, like attaching more than three VDI images. This is only possible if your boot partition is EXT3.

Copy defaults from grub2 on Amahi VM. Go to /boot/grub2 and read grub.cfg. Need:

linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.10.5-201.fc19.x86_64 root=UUID=42e4c7e4-f260-4462-ad9c-c3f375e3a967 ro rd.md=0 rd.lvm=0 rd.dm=0 vconsole.keymap=us rd.luks=0 vconsole.font=latarcyrheb-sun16 rhgb quiet

initrd /boot/initramfs-3.10.5-201.fc19.x86_64.img

Then ssh on the XenServer host and identify the name of the VM you wish to convert to PV mode.

xe vm-list

need the name of the VM (Amahi71, not uuid=c5ab2d09-9669-fcb5-f121-c979092dff91)

download the makepv.sh.

wget https://www.cetic.be/IMG/zip/makepv.sh.zip unzip makepv.sh.zip

It will: change the bootloader from HVM to PV mode prompt for kernel path (/boot/vmlinuz-3.10.5-201.fc19.x86_64), prompt for kernel parameters (root=UUID=42e4c7e4-f260-4462-ad9c-c3f375e3a967 ro rd.md=0 rd.lvm=0 rd.dm=0 vconsole.keymap=us rd.luks=0 vconsole.font=latarcyrheb-sun16 rhgb quiet) prompt for initrd path (/boot/initramfs-3.10.5-201.fc19.x86_64.img) convert VM hard drive

chmod +x makepv.sh ./makepv.sh <vm name>

Install XenServer Tools for linux First Use XenCenter to insert the xs-tools.iso in the DVD drive Then SSH into the Amahi VM (the console will not work until these tools are installed);

1. mkdir /mnt/xs-tools
2. mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/xs-tools

or mount /dev/disk/by-label/XenServer\\x20Tools /mnt/xs-tools/)

1. bash /mnt/xs-tools/Linux/install.sh
2. reboot