Amahi in Xenserver without Greyhole
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:
- xe patch-upload -s 192.168.1.10 -u root -pw password file-name=/root/XS62E001.xsupdate
The IP is the one set for the XenServer and the filename is the one that matches 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:
# xe -s 192.168.1.10 -u root -pw password patch-pool-apply uuid=dedcc0dd-d8f3-4f76-90ca-92697c7a44f0
Verify patch installation:
- 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:
- xe-toolstack-restart
Windows Setup
installed with 1 CPU 2048 MB RAM and 320 GB HD. Installed from Windows 7 x64 DVD in the drive. Then installed XenServer Tools by choosing the xs-tools.iso from the DVD Drive 1 menu. Done!
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. I recommend a minimum of 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. I just created a new VDI on a disk I use for a variety of VMs and 750 GB. Again, for better performance, choose a dedicated NIC for each VM. I just chose the defaults which is a shared NIC on my 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 needs to be 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.
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After reboot. SSH in and execute this command;
- 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);
- mkdir /mnt/xs-tools
- mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/xs-tools
or mount /dev/disk/by-label/XenServer\\x20Tools /mnt/xs-tools/)
- bash /mnt/xs-tools/Linux/install.sh
- reboot
