Install Xen Tools Centos
This blog post is for people discovering, and wonder about how to install tools (or xen tools) in their VMs. And also what are those tools.It's also a guide to install xentools for both Linux and Windows VMs.First, we'll see how to check if tools are installed, and then, install those if necessary, on both Linux and Windows.
Are tools installed?It's really easy to check this with: in the home view, a running VM without any operating system icon don't have tools:See the difference with a 'correct' VM (Debian logo):You can also display all running VMs without tools thanks to the following search: powerstate:running!xenTools:'Here, two running VMs are without toolsIn the VM view, you can also read 'No Xen tools detected.' :Install XenServer toolsNext step is to install those tools. Also I'll give you some tips.For any VM, go in the console view on your VM, and insert the appropriate ISO:. xs-tools.iso for XenServer 6 and older.
guest-tools.iso for XenServer 7 and highThen, each system is a bit different. For Linux VMs Debian, Ubuntu (deb based)For a Debian VM, it's pretty simple, as root:.
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt. bash /mnt/Linux/install.sh.
umount /dev/cdromIn a real example: root@myVM:# mount /dev/cdrom /mntmount: block device /dev/xvdd is write-protected, mounting read-onlyroot@myVM:# bash /mnt/Linux/install.shDetected `Debian GNU/Linux 7.9 (wheezy)' (debian version 7).The following changes will be made to this Virtual Machine:. update arpnotify sysctl. packages to be installed/upgraded:- xe-guest-utilities7.0.0-24all.debContinue? y/n Y(Reading database. 37679 files and directories currently installed.)Preparing to replace xe-guest-utilities 6.2.0-1133 (using./xe-guest-utilities7.0.0-24all.deb).Stopping xe daemon: OKUnpacking replacement xe-guest-utilities.Setting up xe-guest-utilities (7.0.0-24).Installing new version of config file /etc/init.d/xe-linux-distribution.$Detecting Linux distribution version: OK$Starting xe daemon: OKYou should now reboot this Virtual Machine.root@myVM:#That's all!
You can eject the ISO now.As soon the.deb is installed, tools will report their info: no need to reboot! CentOS, RHEL (rpm based)Same principle, almost same procedure than on a Deb based distro: # mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/mount: block device /dev/xvdd is write-protected, mounting read-onlyroot@localhost # bash /mnt/Linux/install.shDetected `CentOS release 6.6 (Final)' (centos version 6).The following changes will be made to this Virtual Machine:. update arpnotify sysctl. packages to be installed/upgraded:- xe-guest-utilities-7.0.0-24.x8664.rpm- xe-guest-utilities-xenstore-7.0.0-24.x8664.rpmContinue? y/n yPreparing. ########################################### 100%1:xe-guest-utilities-xens########################################### 50%2:xe-guest-utilities ########################################### 100%You should now reboot this Virtual Machine.root@localhost #Nope, rebooting is not mandatory.
Full Virtualization vs. Para-VirtualizationThere are two common approaches to virtualization - full virtualization and para-virtualization.
Full virtualization provides complete abstraction between the hardware and the guest operating system. In this scenario, the guest operating system is provided a complete virtual physical environment in which to run and, as such, is unaware that it is running inside a virtual machine. One advantage of full virtualization is that the operating system does not need to be modified in order to run in a virtualized environment. This means that proprietary operating systems such as Windows can be run on Linux systems.Disadvantages of full virtualization are that performance is slightly reduced as compared to para-virtualization, and some virtualization platforms, such as Xen and KVM, require CPUs with special virtualization support built in (such as Intel-VT and AMD-V).Para-virtualization requires that a guest operating system be modified to support virtualization. This typically means that guest operating systems are limited to open source systems such as Linux. It is also not possible to migrate a running guest OS from one server to another. The advantage to this approach, however, is that a para-virtualized guest system comes closer to native performance than a fully virtualized guest, and the latest virtualization CPU support is not needed.For a more detailed explanation of virtualization techniques read Virtuatopia.com’s An Overview of Virtualization Techniques.
Checking Xen Hardware CompatibilityBefore deploying Xen based virtualization, it is important to first ensure that your current hardware configuration is suitable to support Xen.Each guest operating system installed will reside on the existing file systems of the host CentOS system. It is important, therefore, that there is enough disk space available to install your choice of guest operating system. As a guideline, a command line version of Linux typically requires approximately 600Mb of disk space. Star sword 3 game 1. A full installation of a Linux distribution (including graphical desktop) requires around 4GB of disk space. Microsoft recommends at least 16GB of disk space for Windows 7 and 32GB for Windows Server 2008 R2.Of further concern is physical memory. Sufficient memory is required to run both the host operating system and the guest operating systems. If the guest Linux operating system is not using a desktop environment, then it is possible to allocate 256Mb of memory to the guest OS.
A full, graphical desktop Linux installation will require considerably more (a minimum of between 300Mb and 400Mb will provide reasonable, but not spectacular, performance). Windows 7 on the other hand requires at least 1GB of RAM to perform adequately.In order to support Xen virtualization, the CPU must, at a minimum, support the PAE extension. To verify that the CPU in your CentOS system supports, PAE run the following command from a Terminal window:grep pae /proc/cpuinfoIf no output is displayed, then your CPU is not able to support Xen virtualization. If, on the other hand, you see output similar to the following, then you can proceed with the Xen configuration (note that this line will be repeated for CPUs with multiple cores):flags: fpu tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr mca cmov pat pse36clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss nx constanttsc up pni dscplAs mentioned previously, in order to support full hardware virtualization, the CPU must include Intel-VT or AMD-V support.
This can be verified using the following commands:For Intel CPUs:grep vmx /proc/cpuinfoFor AMD CPUSs:grep svm /proc/cpuinfoIf your system does not include this support you can still use Xen in para-virtualization mode. You will not, however, be able to run Microsoft Windows as a guest operating system. Preparing CentOS for Xen VirtualizationXen requires a specially modified Linux kernel and a number of tools in order to operate. By default, CentOS does not install this Kernel or these tools unless you specifically selected the Virtualization group of packages during installation process. The next step, therefore, is to prepare the operating system for Xen. Begin by installing the virtualization tools and kernel as follows:su -yum groupinstall 'Virtualization'This command will install all the required packages (approximately 16 packages in total), and configure the boot loader to provide a Xen virtualization option when the system is next booted.Once the virtualization packages have been installed close down any running applications and reboot the system.
Install Xen Tools Centos Server
When the boot screen appears hit any key to enter to boot menu and select the CentOS Xen boot option. If a Xen boot option is not provided, boot using the standard Linux kernel and execute the following commands before rebooting once again:su -yum install xenWhen the boot has completed, log in as usual and open a Terminal window. In that window run the following command to verify that kernel with Xen support has loaded:uname -rYou should expect to see output similar to the following:2.6.18-194.3.1.el5xenYou can also check that Xen is running with the following command:su -/sbin/xm listThis command will list any currently running Xen machines:Name ID Mem(MiB) VCPUs State Time(s)Domain-0 0 2657 2 r- 46.2At this point the only domain that should be listed is domain-0 representing the host environment. When guest operating systems are running, these too will be listed.It is now time to build a Xen virtual machine to contain a guest operating system. Building a CentOS Xen Guest SystemGuest systems can easily be configured using either the virt-install command-line tool, or the virt-manager GUI tool. For the purposes of this chapter we will use the virt-manager tool.Begin by launching virt-manager either by selecting the Applications - System Tools - Virtual Machine Manager or from the command-line by running /usr/sbin/virt-manager. Once loaded, the virtual manager will display the following screen:To create a new guest system, select the top entry in the list (the host named centos5 in the above example) and click on the New button to display the first configuration screen.
Xenserver Guest Tools Download
Centos Install Xen Tools
Click the Forward button to proceed to the Naming screen and enter a name for the virtual machine. This can be any name you choose.On the next page, you can choose to configure a Full or Para-virtualized method. The Full virtualization option will only be selectable if your hardware supports it:Select Para-virtualized and press Forward (we will cover full virtualization in the next chapter entitled Using Xen Full Virtualization to Run Windows on CentOS). The next screen requires information about the location of the operating system installation files. Currently para-virtualized guest operating systems can only be installed over a network or the internet. The easiest way is to provide the http address of the operating system installation files.