Citrix Systems Server 6 User Manual

Citrix XenServer ® 6.0 Administrator's Guide

Published Friday, 02 March 2012

1.1 Edition

Citrix XenServer ® 6.0 Administrator's Guide

Citrix, Inc. 851 West Cypress Creek Road Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309 United States of America

Disclaimers

This document is furnished "AS IS." Citrix, Inc. disclaims all warranties regarding the contents of this document, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for any particular purpose. This document may contain technical or other inaccuracies or typographical errors. Citrix, Inc. reserves the right to revise the information in this document at any time without notice. This document and the software described in this document constitute confidential information of Citrix, Inc. and its licensors, and are furnished under a license from Citrix, Inc.

Citrix Systems, Inc., the Citrix logo, Citrix XenServer and Citrix XenCenter, are trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. and/or one or more of its subsidiaries, and may be registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Trademarks

Citrix® XenServer ® XenCenter ®

Document Overview .......................................................................................... 1

Introducing XenServer ........................................................................................................ 1

Benefits of Using XenServer ........................................................................................ 1

Administering XenServer ............................................................................................. 2

XenServer Editions ...................................................................................................... 2

New Features in XenServer 6.0 ........................................................................................... 2

XenServer Documentation .................................................................................................. 4

Managing Users ................................................................................................. 5

Authenticating Users With Active Directory (AD) .................................................................. 5

Configuring Active Directory Authentication ................................................................. 6

User Authentication .................................................................................................... 8

Removing Access for a User ........................................................................................ 9

Leaving an AD Domain .............................................................................................. 10

Role Based Access Control ................................................................................................ 10

Roles ........................................................................................................................ 11

Definitions of RBAC Roles and Permissions ................................................................. 12

Using RBAC with the CLI ........................................................................................... 17

To List All the Available Defined Roles in XenServer ............................................ 17

To Display a List of Current Subjects: ................................................................. 18

To Add a Subject to RBAC ................................................................................. 19

To Assign an RBAC Role to a Created subject ...................................................... 19

To Change a Subject's RBAC Role: ...................................................................... 19

Auditing ................................................................................................................... 20

Audit Log xe CLI Commands .............................................................................. 20

To Obtain All Audit Records From the Pool ......................................................... 20

To Obtain Audit Records of the Pool Since a Precise Millisecond Timestamp .......... 20

To Obtain Audit Records of the Pool Since a Precise Minute Timestamp ................ 20

How Does XenServer Compute the Roles for the Session? ........................................... 20

XenServer Hosts and Resource Pools .............................................................. 22

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Hosts and Resource Pools Overview .................................................................................. 22

Requirements for Creating Resource Pools ......................................................................... 22

Creating a Resource Pool .................................................................................................. 23

Creating Heterogeneous Resource Pools ............................................................................ 23

Adding Shared Storage ...................................................................................................... 24

Removing a XenServer Host from a Resource Pool .............................................................. 25

Preparing a Pool of XenServer Hosts for Maintenance ........................................................ 25

High Availability ................................................................................................................ 26

HA Overview ............................................................................................................ 26

Overcommitting ................................................................................................ 26

Overcommitment Warning ................................................................................ 27

Host Fencing .................................................................................................... 27

Configuration Requirements ...................................................................................... 27

Restart Priorities ....................................................................................................... 28

Enabling HA on a XenServer Pool ...................................................................................... 29

Enabling HA Using the CLI ......................................................................................... 29

Removing HA Protection from a VM using the CLI ...................................................... 29

Recovering an Unreachable Host ............................................................................... 30

Shutting Down a host When HA is Enabled ................................................................ 30

Shutting Down a VM When it is Protected by HA ....................................................... 30

Host Power On ................................................................................................................. 30

Powering on Hosts Remotely ..................................................................................... 30

Using the CLI to Manage Host Power On ................................................................... 31

To Enable Host Power On Using the CLI ............................................................. 31

To Turn on Hosts Remotely Using the CLI ........................................................... 31

Configuring a Custom Script for XenServer's Host Power On Feature ............................ 31

Key/Value Pairs ................................................................................................. 32

host.power_on_mode ............................................................................... 32

host.power_on_config .............................................................................. 32

Sample Script ................................................................................................... 32

Storage ............................................................................................................. 34

Storage Overview ............................................................................................................. 34

Storage Repositories (SRs) ......................................................................................... 34

Virtual Disk Images (VDIs) ......................................................................................... 34

Physical Block Devices (PBDs) .................................................................................... 34

Virtual Block Devices (VBDs) ..................................................................................... 35

Summary of Storage objects ..................................................................................... 35

Virtual Disk Data Formats ......................................................................................... 35

VHD-based VDIs ............................................................................................... 35

VHD Chain Coalescing ............................................................................... 36

Space Utilization ....................................................................................... 36

LUN-based VDIs ................................................................................................ 36

Storage Repository Types .................................................................................................. 37

Local LVM ................................................................................................................. 37

Creating a Local LVM SR (lvm) ........................................................................... 38

Local EXT3 VHD ........................................................................................................ 38

Creating a Local EXT3 SR (ext) ........................................................................... 38

udev ........................................................................................................................ 38

ISO ........................................................................................................................... 38

Software iSCSI Support ............................................................................................. 39

XenServer Host iSCSI configuration .................................................................... 39

Citrix StorageLink SRs ................................................................................................ 39

Upgrading XenServer with StorageLink SRs ......................................................... 40

Creating a Shared StorageLink SR ...................................................................... 40

Managing Hardware Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) .......................................................... 44

Sample QLogic iSCSI HBA setup ......................................................................... 44

Removing HBA-based SAS, FC or iSCSI Device Entries .......................................... 45

LVM over iSCSI ......................................................................................................... 45

Creating a Shared LVM Over iSCSI SR Using the Software iSCSI Initiator

(lvmoiscsi) ........................................................................................................ 45

Creating a Shared LVM over Fibre Channel / iSCSI HBA or SAS SR (lvmohba) .......... 46

NFS VHD .................................................................................................................. 48

Creating a Shared NFS SR (NFS) ......................................................................... 49

LVM over Hardware HBA ........................................................................................... 49

Storage Configuration ....................................................................................................... 49

Creating Storage Repositories .................................................................................... 49

Upgrading LVM Storage from XenServer 5.0 or Earlier ................................................. 50

LVM Performance Considerations .............................................................................. 50

VDI Types ......................................................................................................... 50

Creating a Raw Virtual Disk Using the xe CLI ...................................................... 51

Converting Between VDI Formats .............................................................................. 51

Probing an SR ........................................................................................................... 51

Storage Multipathing ................................................................................................ 54

MPP RDAC Driver Support for LSI Arrays. ................................................................... 55

Managing Storage Repositories ......................................................................................... 55

Destroying or Forgetting a SR .................................................................................... 55

Introducing an SR ..................................................................................................... 55

Resizing an SR .......................................................................................................... 56

Converting Local Fibre Channel SRs to Shared SRs ...................................................... 56

Moving Virtual Disk Images (VDIs) Between SRs ......................................................... 57

Copying All of a VMs VDIs to a Different SR ....................................................... 57

Copying Individual VDIs to a Different SR ........................................................... 57

Adjusting the Disk IO Scheduler ................................................................................ 57

Automatically Reclaiming Space When Deleting Snapshots .......................................... 58

Reclaiming Space Using the Off Line Coalesce Tool ............................................. 58

Virtual Disk QoS Settings ................................................................................................... 59

Configuring VM Memory ................................................................................. 61

What is Dynamic Memory Control (DMC)? ......................................................................... 61

The Concept of Dynamic Range ................................................................................. 61

The Concept of Static Range ..................................................................................... 62

DMC Behaviour ........................................................................................................ 62

How Does DMC Work? ............................................................................................. 62

Memory Constraints ................................................................................................. 63

Supported Operating Systems ................................................................................... 63

xe CLI Commands ............................................................................................................. 64

Display the Static Memory Properties of a VM ........................................................... 64

Display the Dynamic Memory Properties of a VM ....................................................... 65

Updating Memory Properties .................................................................................... 65

Update Individual Memory Properties ....................................................................... 66

Upgrade Issues ................................................................................................................. 66

Workload Balancing Interaction ......................................................................................... 66

Xen Memory Usage ......................................................................................... 67

Setting Control Domain Memory ....................................................................................... 67

Networking ...................................................................................................... 69

Networking Support .......................................................................................................... 69

vSwitch Networks ............................................................................................................. 69

XenServer Networking Overview ....................................................................................... 70

Network Objects ....................................................................................................... 70

Networks .................................................................................................................. 71

VLANs ...................................................................................................................... 71

Using VLANs with Management Interfaces ......................................................... 71

Using VLANs with Virtual Machines ................................................................... 71

Using VLANs with Dedicated Storage NICs .......................................................... 71

Combining Management Interfaces and Guest VLANs on a Single Host NIC ........... 71

NIC Bonds ................................................................................................................ 71

Switch Configuration ......................................................................................... 73

Active-Active Bonding ....................................................................................... 74

Active-Passive Bonding ...................................................................................... 75

Initial Networking Configuration ................................................................................ 76

Managing Networking Configuration .................................................................................. 76

Cross-Server Private networks ................................................................................... 76

Creating Networks in a Standalone Server ................................................................. 77

Creating Networks in Resource Pools ......................................................................... 78

Creating VLANs ......................................................................................................... 78

Creating NIC Bonds on a Standalone Host .................................................................. 78

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Creating a NIC bond ......................................................................................... 79

Controlling the MAC Address of the Bond .......................................................... 79

Reverting NIC bonds ......................................................................................... 80

Creating NIC bonds in resource pools ........................................................................ 80

Adding NIC bonds to new resource pools ........................................................... 80

Adding NIC bonds to an existing pool ................................................................ 81

Configuring a dedicated storage NIC .......................................................................... 81

Using SR-IOV Enabled NICs ........................................................................................ 82

Controlling the rate of outgoing data (QoS) ................................................................ 82

Changing networking configuration options ............................................................... 83

Hostname ......................................................................................................... 84

DNS servers ...................................................................................................... 84

Changing IP address configuration for a standalone host ..................................... 84

Changing IP address configuration in resource pools ........................................... 84

Primary management interface ......................................................................... 85

Disabling management access ........................................................................... 85

Adding a new physical NIC ................................................................................ 85

Networking Troubleshooting ............................................................................................. 85

Diagnosing network corruption ................................................................................. 86

Recovering from a bad network configuration ............................................................ 86

Disaster Recovery and Backup ........................................................................ 87

Understanding XenServer DR ............................................................................................. 87

DR Infrastructure Requirements ........................................................................................ 88

Deployment Considerations .............................................................................................. 89

Steps to Take Before a Disaster ................................................................................. 89

Steps to Take After a Disaster ................................................................................... 89

Steps to Take After a Recovery .................................................................................. 89

Enabling Disaster Recovery in XenCenter ........................................................................... 89

Recovering VMs and vApps in the Event of Disaster (Failover) ............................................. 90

Restoring VMs and vApps to the Primary Site After Disaster (Failback) ................................. 90

Test Failover ..................................................................................................................... 91

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vApps ............................................................................................................................... 92

Using the Manage vApps dialog box in XenCenter ...................................................... 93

Backing Up and Restoring XenServer Hosts and VMs .......................................................... 93

Backing up Virtual Machine metadata ....................................................................... 94

Backing up single host installations .................................................................... 95

Backing up pooled installations ......................................................................... 95

Backing up XenServer hosts ...................................................................................... 95

Backing up VMs ........................................................................................................ 96

VM Snapshots .................................................................................................................. 97

Regular Snapshots .................................................................................................... 97

Quiesced Snapshots .................................................................................................. 97

Snapshots with memory ........................................................................................... 97

Creating a VM Snapshot ........................................................................................... 97

Creating a snapshot with memory ............................................................................. 98

To list all of the snapshots on a XenServer pool .......................................................... 98

To list the snapshots on a particular VM .................................................................... 98

Restoring a VM to its previous state .......................................................................... 99

Deleting a snapshot .......................................................................................... 99

Snapshot Templates ................................................................................................ 100

Creating a template from a snapshot ............................................................... 100

Exporting a snapshot to a template ................................................................. 100

Advanced Notes for Quiesced Snapshots .......................................................... 101

VM Protection and Recovery ........................................................................................... 102

Naming convention for VM archive folders ............................................................... 102

Coping with machine failures .......................................................................................... 102

Member failures ..................................................................................................... 103

Master failures ....................................................................................................... 103

Pool failures ........................................................................................................... 104

Coping with Failure due to Configuration Errors ........................................................ 104

Physical Machine failure .......................................................................................... 104

Monitoring and Managing XenServer ........................................................... 106

Alerts ............................................................................................................................. 106

Customizing Alerts .................................................................................................. 107

Configuring Email Alerts .......................................................................................... 108

Custom Fields and Tags ................................................................................................... 109

Custom Searches ............................................................................................................ 109

Determining throughput of physical bus adapters ............................................................. 109

Troubleshooting ............................................................................................. 110

XenServer host logs ........................................................................................................ 110

Sending host log messages to a central server .......................................................... 110

XenCenter logs ............................................................................................................... 111

Troubleshooting connections between XenCenter and the XenServer host ......................... 111

A. Command Line Interface ........................................................................... 112

Basic xe Syntax ............................................................................................................... 112

Special Characters and Syntax ......................................................................................... 113

Command Types ............................................................................................................. 113

Parameter Types ..................................................................................................... 114

Low-level Parameter Commands .............................................................................. 115

Low-level List Commands ........................................................................................ 115

xe Command Reference .................................................................................................. 116

Appliance Commands ............................................................................................. 116

Appliance Parameters ..................................................................................... 116

appliance-assert-can-be-recovered ................................................................... 116

appliance-create ............................................................................................. 116

appliance-destroy ........................................................................................... 117

appliance-recover ........................................................................................... 117

appliance-shutdown ........................................................................................ 117

appliance-start ................................................................................................ 117

Audit Commands .................................................................................................... 117

audit-log-get parameters ................................................................................. 117

audit-log-get ................................................................................................... 117

Bonding Commands ................................................................................................ 118

Bond Parameters ............................................................................................ 118

bond-create .................................................................................................... 118

bond-destroy .................................................................................................. 118

CD Commands ........................................................................................................ 118

CD Parameters ................................................................................................ 118

cd-list ............................................................................................................. 119

Console Commands ................................................................................................ 120

Console Parameters ........................................................................................ 120

Disaster Recovery (DR) Commands .......................................................................... 120

drtask-create .................................................................................................. 120

drtask-destroy ................................................................................................. 121

vm-assert-can-be-recovered ............................................................................ 121

appliance-assert-can-be-recovered ................................................................... 121

appliance-recover ........................................................................................... 121

vm-recover ..................................................................................................... 121

sr-enable-database-replication ......................................................................... 121

sr-disable-database-replication ........................................................................ 121

Example Usage ............................................................................................... 121

Event Commands .................................................................................................... 122

Event Classes .................................................................................................. 122

event-wait ...................................................................................................... 123

GPU Commands ...................................................................................................... 123

Physical GPU (pGPU) Parameters ..................................................................... 123

GPU Group Parameters ................................................................................... 124

Virtual GPU (vGPU) Parameters ....................................................................... 124

vgpu-create .................................................................................................... 125

vgpu-destroy ................................................................................................... 125

Host Commands ..................................................................................................... 125

Host Selectors ................................................................................................. 125

Host Parameters ............................................................................................. 126

host-backup .................................................................................................... 129

host-bugreport-upload .................................................................................... 129

host-crashdump-destroy .................................................................................. 129

host-crashdump-upload ................................................................................... 129

host-disable .................................................................................................... 129

host-dmesg ..................................................................................................... 129

host-emergency-management-reconfigure ....................................................... 130

host-enable .................................................................................................... 130

host-evacuate ................................................................................................. 130

host-forget ..................................................................................................... 130

host-get-system-status .................................................................................... 130

host-get-system-status-capabilities ................................................................... 131

host-is-in-emergency-mode ............................................................................. 132

host-apply-edition .......................................................................................... 132

host-license-add ............................................................................................. 132

host-license-view ............................................................................................ 132

host-logs-download ......................................................................................... 132

host-management-disable ............................................................................... 132

host-management-reconfigure ......................................................................... 133

host-power-on ................................................................................................ 133

host-get-cpu-features ...................................................................................... 133

host-set-cpu-features ...................................................................................... 133

host-set-power-on .......................................................................................... 133

host-reboot .................................................................................................... 133

host-restore .................................................................................................... 134

host-set-hostname-live .................................................................................... 134

host-shutdown ................................................................................................ 134

host-syslog-reconfigure ................................................................................... 134

host-data-source-list ....................................................................................... 135

host-data-source-record .................................................................................. 135

host-data-source-forget ................................................................................... 135

host-data-source-query ................................................................................... 135

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Log Commands ....................................................................................................... 136

log-set-output ................................................................................................. 136

Message Commands ............................................................................................... 136

Message Parameters ....................................................................................... 136

message-create ............................................................................................... 136

message-destroy ............................................................................................. 137

message-list .................................................................................................... 137

Network Commands ............................................................................................... 137

Network Parameters ....................................................................................... 137

network-create ............................................................................................... 138

network-destroy ............................................................................................. 138

Patch (Update) Commands ...................................................................................... 138

Patch Parameters ............................................................................................ 138

patch-apply .................................................................................................... 139

patch-clean ..................................................................................................... 139

patch-pool-apply ............................................................................................. 139

patch-precheck ............................................................................................... 139

patch-upload .................................................................................................. 139

PBD Commands ...................................................................................................... 139

PBD Parameters .............................................................................................. 139

pbd-create ...................................................................................................... 140

pbd-destroy .................................................................................................... 140

pbd-plug ......................................................................................................... 140

pbd-unplug ..................................................................................................... 140

PIF Commands ........................................................................................................ 140

PIF Parameters ............................................................................................... 141

pif-forget ........................................................................................................ 143

pif-introduce ................................................................................................... 143

pif-plug ........................................................................................................... 143

pif-reconfigure-ip ............................................................................................ 143

pif-scan .......................................................................................................... 144

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pif-unplug ....................................................................................................... 144

Pool Commands ...................................................................................................... 144

Pool Parameters ............................................................................................. 144

pool-designate-new-master ............................................................................. 145

pool-dump-database ....................................................................................... 145

pool-eject ....................................................................................................... 146

pool-emergency-reset-master .......................................................................... 146

pool-emergency-transition-to-master ............................................................... 146

pool-ha-enable ............................................................................................... 146

pool-ha-disable ............................................................................................... 146

pool-join ......................................................................................................... 146

pool-recover-slaves ......................................................................................... 146

pool-restore-database ..................................................................................... 146

pool-sync-database ......................................................................................... 146

Storage Manager Commands ................................................................................... 147

SM Parameters ............................................................................................... 147

SR Commands ........................................................................................................ 147

SR Parameters ................................................................................................ 147

sr-create ......................................................................................................... 148

sr-destroy ....................................................................................................... 149

sr-enable-database-replication ......................................................................... 149

sr-disable-database-replication ........................................................................ 149

sr-forget ......................................................................................................... 149

sr-introduce .................................................................................................... 149

sr-probe ......................................................................................................... 149

sr-scan ........................................................................................................... 149

Task Commands ...................................................................................................... 150

Task Parameters .............................................................................................. 150

task-cancel ..................................................................................................... 151

Template Commands .............................................................................................. 151

Template Parameters ...................................................................................... 151

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template-export .............................................................................................. 157

Update Commands ................................................................................................. 157

update-upload ................................................................................................ 158

User Commands ..................................................................................................... 158

user-password-change ..................................................................................... 158

VBD Commands ...................................................................................................... 158

VBD Parameters .............................................................................................. 158

vbd-create ...................................................................................................... 159

vbd-destroy .................................................................................................... 160

vbd-eject ........................................................................................................ 160

vbd-insert ....................................................................................................... 160

vbd-plug ......................................................................................................... 160

vbd-unplug ..................................................................................................... 160

VDI Commands ....................................................................................................... 160

VDI Parameters ............................................................................................... 161

vdi-clone ........................................................................................................ 162

vdi-copy ......................................................................................................... 162

vdi-create ....................................................................................................... 162

vdi-destroy ..................................................................................................... 163

vdi-forget ........................................................................................................ 163

vdi-import ...................................................................................................... 163

vdi-introduce .................................................................................................. 163

vdi-resize ........................................................................................................ 163

vdi-snapshot ................................................................................................... 164

vdi-unlock ....................................................................................................... 164

VIF Commands ....................................................................................................... 164

VIF Parameters ............................................................................................... 164

vif-create ........................................................................................................ 166

vif-destroy ...................................................................................................... 166

vif-plug ........................................................................................................... 166

vif-unplug ....................................................................................................... 166

VLAN Commands .................................................................................................... 166

vlan-create ..................................................................................................... 167

pool-vlan-create .............................................................................................. 167

vlan-destroy .................................................................................................... 167

VM Commands ....................................................................................................... 167

VM Selectors .................................................................................................. 167

VM Parameters ............................................................................................... 167

vm-assert-can-be-recovered ............................................................................ 174

vm-cd-add ...................................................................................................... 174

vm-cd-eject .................................................................................................... 174

vm-cd-insert ................................................................................................... 174

vm-cd-list ....................................................................................................... 174

vm-cd-remove ................................................................................................ 174

vm-clone ........................................................................................................ 175

vm-compute-maximum-memory ...................................................................... 175

vm-copy ......................................................................................................... 175

vm-crashdump-list .......................................................................................... 175

vm-data-source-list ......................................................................................... 176

vm-data-source-record .................................................................................... 176

vm-data-source-forget ..................................................................................... 176

vm-data-source-query ..................................................................................... 176

vm-destroy ..................................................................................................... 177

vm-disk-add .................................................................................................... 177

vm-disk-list ..................................................................................................... 177

vm-disk-remove .............................................................................................. 177

vm-export ....................................................................................................... 177

vm-import ...................................................................................................... 178

vm-install ........................................................................................................ 178

vm-memory-shadow-multiplier-set .................................................................. 179

vm-migrate ..................................................................................................... 179

vm-reboot ...................................................................................................... 179

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vm-recover ..................................................................................................... 179

vm-reset-powerstate ....................................................................................... 179

vm-resume ..................................................................................................... 180

vm-shutdown ................................................................................................. 180

vm-start ......................................................................................................... 180

vm-suspend .................................................................................................... 180

vm-uninstall .................................................................................................... 181

vm-vcpu-hotplug ............................................................................................. 181

vm-vif-list ....................................................................................................... 181

Workload Balancing XE Commands .......................................................................... 181

pool-initialize-wlb ............................................................................................ 181

pool-param-set other-config ............................................................................ 181

pool-retrieve-wlb-diagnostics ........................................................................... 182

host-retrieve-wlb-evacuate-recommendations .................................................. 182

vm-retrieve-wlb-recommendations .................................................................. 182

pool-certificate-list .......................................................................................... 182

pool-certificate-install ...................................................................................... 182

pool-certificate-sync ........................................................................................ 182

pool-param-set ............................................................................................... 182

pool-deconfigure-wlb ...................................................................................... 183

pool-retrieve-wlb-configuration ....................................................................... 183

pool-retrieve-wlb-recommendations ............................................................... 183

pool-retrieve-wlb-report ................................................................................. 183

pool-send-wlb-configuration ........................................................................... 184

B. Workload Balancing Service Commands ................................................... 186

Service Commands ......................................................................................................... 186

Logging in to the Workload Balancing Virtual Appliance ............................................ 186

service workloadbalancing restart ............................................................................ 186

service workloadbalancing start ............................................................................... 186

service workloadbalancing stop ............................................................................... 186

service workloadbalancing status ............................................................................. 186

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Modifying the Workload Balancing configuration options .......................................... 187

Editing the Workload Balancing configuration file ..................................................... 187

Increasing the Detail in the Workload Balancing Log ................................................. 188

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Document Overview

This document is a system administrator's guide for Citrix XenServer®, the complete server virtualization platform from Citrix®. It contains procedures to guide you through configuring a XenServer deployment. In particular, it focuses on setting up storage, networking and resource pools, and how to administer XenServer hosts using the xe command line interface.

This document covers the following topics:

• Managing users with Active Directory and Role Based Access Controls

• Creating resource pools and setting up High Availability

• Configuring and managing storage repositories

• Configuring virtual machine memory using Dynamic Memory Control

• Setting control domain memory on a XenServer host

• Configuring networking

• Recovering virtual machines using Disaster Recovery and backing up data

• Monitoring and managing XenServer

• Troubleshooting XenServer

• Using the XenServer xe command line interface

Introducing XenServer

Citrix XenServer® is the complete server virtualization platform from Citrix®. The XenServer package contains all you need to create and manage a deployment of virtual x86 computers running on Xen®, the open-source paravirtualizing hypervisor with near-native performance. XenServer is optimized for both Windows and Linux virtual servers.

XenServer runs directly on server hardware without requiring an underlying operating system, which results in an efficient and scalable system. XenServer works by abstracting elements from the physical machine (such as hard drives, resources and ports) and allocating them to the virtual machines running on it.

A virtual machine (VM) is a computer composed entirely of software that can run its own operating system and applications as if it were a physical computer. A VM behaves exactly like a physical computer and contains its own virtual (software-based) CPU, RAM, hard disk and network interface card (NIC).

XenServer lets you create VMs, take VM disk snapshots and manage VM workloads. For a comprehensive list of major XenServer features and editions, visit www.citrix.com/xenserver.

Benefits of Using XenServer

Using XenServer reduces costs by:

• Consolidating multiple VMs onto physical servers

• Reducing the number of separate disk images that need to be managed

• Allowing for easy integration with existing networking and storage infrastructures

Using XenServer increases flexibility by:

• Allowing you to schedule zero downtime maintenance by using XenMotion to live migrate VMs between XenServer hosts

• Increasing availability of VMs by using High Availability to configure policies that restart VMs on another XenServer host if one fails

• Increasing portability of VM images, as one VM image will work on a range of deployment infrastructures

Administering XenServer

There are two methods by which to administer XenServer: XenCenter and the XenServer Command-Line Interface (CLI).

XenCenter is a graphical, Windows-based user interface. XenCenter allows you to manage XenServer hosts, pools and shared storage, and to deploy, manage and monitor VMs from your Windows desktop machine.

The XenCenter Help is a great resource for getting started with XenCenter.

The XenServer Command-line Interface (CLI) allows you to administer XenServer using the Linux-based xe commands.

For a comprehensive list of xe commands and descriptions, see the XenServer Administrator's Guide.

XenServer Editions

The features available in XenServer depend on the edition. The four editions of XenServer are:

• Citrix XenServer (Free): Proven virtualization platform that delivers uncompromised performance, scale, and flexibility at no cost.

• Citrix XenServer Advanced Edition: Key high availability and advanced management tools that take virtual infrastructure to the next level.

• Citrix XenServer Enterprise Edition: Essential integration and optimization capabilities for production deployments of virtual machines.

• Citrix XenServer Platinum Edition: Advanced automation and cloud computing features for enterprise-wide virtual environments.

For more information about how the XenServer edition affects the features available, visit www.citrix.com/

xenserver.

New Features in XenServer 6.0

XenServer 6.0 includes a number of new features and ongoing improvements, including:

Integrated Site Recovery (Disaster Recovery):

• Automated remote data replication between storage arrays with fast recovery and failback capabilities. Integrated Site Recovery replaces StorageLink Gateway Site Recovery used in previous versions, removes the Windows VM requirement, and works with any iSCSI or Hardware HBA storage repository.

Integrated StorageLink:

• Access to use existing storage array-based features such as data replication, de-duplication, snapshot and cloning. Replaces the StorageLink Gateway technology used in previous editions and removes the requirement to run a VM with the StorageLink components.

GPU Pass-Through:

• Enables a physical GPU to be assigned to a VM providing high-end graphics. Allows applications to leverage GPU instructions in XenDesktop VDI deployments with HDX 3D Pro.

Virtual Appliance Support (vApp):

• Ability to create multi-VM and boot sequenced virtual appliances (vApps) that integrate with Integrated Site Recovery and High Availability. vApps can be easily imported and exported using the Open Virtualization Format (OVF) standard.

Rolling Pool Upgrade Wizard:

• Simplify upgrades (automated or semi-automated) to XenServer 6.0 with a wizard that performs pre-checks with a step-by-step process that blocks unsupported upgrades.

Microsoft SCVMM and SCOM Support:

• Manage XenServer hosts and VMs with System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2012. System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) 2012 will also be able to manage and monitor XenServer hosts and VMs. System Center integration is available with a special supplemental pack from Citrix. For more information refer to

Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012.

Distributed Virtual Switch Improvements:

• New fail safe mode allows Cross-Server Private Networks, ACLs, QoS, RSPAN and NetFlow settings to continue to be applied to a running VM in the event of vSwitch Controller failure.

Increased Performance and Scale:

• Supported limits have been increased to 1 TB memory for XenServer hosts, and up to16 virtual processors and 128 GB virtual memory for VMs. Improved XenServer Tools with smaller footprint.

Networking Improvements:

• Open vSwitch is now the default networking stack in XenServer 6.0 and now provides formal support for ActiveBackup NIC bonding.

VM Import and Export Improvements:

• Full support for VM disk and OVF appliance imports directly from XenCenter with the ability to change VM parameters (virtual processor, virtual memory, virtual interfaces, and target storage repository) with the Import wizard. Full OVF import support for XenServer, XenConvert and VMware.

SR-IOV Improvements:

• Improved scalability and certification with the SR-IOV Test Kit. Experimental SR-IOV with XenMotion support with Solarflare SR-IOV adapters.

Simplified Installer:

• Host installations only require a single ISO.

Enhanced Guest OS Support:

• Support for Ubuntu 10.04 (32/64-bit).

• Updated support for Debian Squeeze 6.0 64-bit, Oracle Enterprise Linux 6.0 (32/64-bit), and SLES 10 SP4 (32/64bit).

• Experimental VM templates for CentOS 6.0 (32/64-bit) Ubuntu 10.10 (32/64-bit) and Solaris 10.

Workload Balancing Improvements:

• New, ready-to-use Linux-based virtual appliance with a smaller footprint replaces the Windows-based virtual appliance and eliminates the Windows licensing dependency.

XenDesktop Enhancements:

• HDX enhancements for optimized user experience with virtual desktops, GPU Pass-Through, and increased VM and XenServer host limits.

VM Protection and Recovery:

• Now available for Advanced, Enterprise and Platinum Edition customers.

NFS Support for High Availability:

• HA Heartbeat disk can now reside on a NFS storage repository.

XenCenter Improvements:

• XenCenter operations now run in parallel, and XenCenter will be available in Japanese and Simplified Chinese (ETA Q4 2011).

Host Architectural Improvements:

• XenServer 6.0 now runs on the Xen 4.1 hypervisor, provides GPT support and a smaller, more scalable Dom0.

XenServer Documentation

XenServer documentation shipped with this release includes:

• Release Notes cover known issues that affect this release.

• XenServer Quick Start Guide provides an introduction for new users to the XenServer environment and components. This guide steps through the installation and configuration essentials to get XenServer and the XenCenter management console up and running quickly. After installation, it demonstrates how to create a Windows VM, VM template and pool of XenServer hosts. It introduces basic administrative tasks and advanced features, such as shared storage, VM snapshots and XenMotion live migration.

• XenServer Installation Guide steps through the installation, configuration and initial operation of XenServer and the XenCenter management console.

• XenServer Virtual Machine Installation Guide describes how to install Windows and Linux VMs within a XenServer environment. This guide explains how to create new VMs from installation media, from VM templates included in the XenServer package and from existing physical machines (P2V). It explains how to import disk images and how to import and export appliances.

• XenServer Administrator's Guide gives an in-depth description of the tasks involved in configuring a XenServer deployment, including setting up storage, networking and pools. It describes how to administer XenServer using the xe Command Line Interface.

• vSwitch Controller User Guide is a comprehensive user guide to the vSwitch and Controller for XenServer.

• Supplemental Packs and the DDK introduces the XenServer Driver Development Kit, which can be used to modify and extend the functionality of XenServer.

• XenServer Software Development Kit Guide presents an overview of the XenServer SDK. It includes code samples that demonstrate how to write applications that interface with XenServer hosts.

• XenAPI Specification is a reference guide for programmers to the XenServer API.

For additional resources, visit the Citrix Knowledge Center.

Managing Users

Defining users, groups, roles and permissions allows you to control who has access to your XenServer hosts and pools and what actions they can perform.

When you first install XenServer, a user account is added to XenServer automatically. This account is the local super user (LSU), or root, which is authenticated locally by the XenServer computer.

The local super user (LSU), or root, is a special user account used for system administration and has all rights or permissions. In XenServer, the local super user is the default account at installation. The LSU is authenticated by XenServer and not an external authentication service. This means that if the external authentication service fails, the LSU can still log in and manage the system. The LSU can always access the XenServer physical server through SSH.

You can create additional users by adding their Active Directory accounts through either the XenCenter's Users tab or the CLI. All editions of XenServer can add user accounts from Active Directory. However, only XenServer Enterprise and Platinum editions let you assign these Active Directory accounts different levels of permissions (through the Role Based Access Control (RBAC) feature). If you do not use Active Directory in your environment, you are limited to the LSU account.

The permissions assigned to users when you first add their accounts varies according to your version of XenServer:

• In the XenServer and XenServer Advanced edition, when you create (add) new users, XenServer automatically grants the accounts access to all features available in that version.

• In the XenServer Enterprise and Platinum editions, when you create new users, XenServer does not assign newly created user accounts roles automatically. As a result, these accounts do not have any access to the XenServer pool until you assign them a role.

If you do not have one of these editions, you can add users from Active Directory. However, all users will have the Pool Administrator role.

These permissions are granted through roles, as discussed in the section called “Authenticating Users With Active

Directory (AD)”.

Authenticating Users With Active Directory (AD)

If you want to have multiple user accounts on a server or a pool, you must use Active Directory user accounts for authentication. This lets XenServer users log in to a pool's XenServers using their Windows domain credentials.

The only way you can configure varying levels of access for specific users is by enabling Active Directory authentication, adding user accounts, and assign roles to those accounts.

Active Directory users can use the xe CLI (passing appropriate -u and -pw arguments) and also connect to the host using XenCenter. Authentication is done on a per-resource pool basis.

Access is controlled by the use of subjects. A subject in XenServer maps to an entity on your directory server (either a user or a group). When external authentication is enabled, the credentials used to create a session are first checked against the local root credentials (in case your directory server is unavailable) and then against the subject list. To permit access, you must create a subject entry for the person or group you wish to grant access to. This can be done using XenCenter or the xe CLI.

If you are familiar with XenCenter, note that the XenServer CLI uses slightly different terminology to refer to Active Directory and user account features:

XenCenter Term XenServer CLI Term

Users Subjects

Add users Add subjects

Understanding Active Directory Authentication in the XenServer Environment

Even though XenServers are Linux-based, XenServer lets you use Active Directory accounts for XenServer user accounts. To do so, it passes Active Directory credentials to the Active Directory domain controller.

When added to XenServer, Active Directory users and groups become XenServer subjects, generally referred to as simply users in XenCenter. When a subject is registered with XenServer, users/groups are authenticated with Active Directory on login and do not need to qualify their user name with a domain name.

Note:

By default, if you did not qualify the user name (for example, enter either mydomain\myuser or myser@mydomain.com), XenCenter always attempts to log users in to Active Directory authentication servers using the domain to which it is currently joined. The exception to this is the LSU account, which XenCenter always authenticates locally (that is, on the XenServer) first.

The external authentication process works as follows:

1. The credentials supplied when connecting to a server are passed to the Active Directory domain controller

for authentication.

2. The domain controller checks the credentials. If they are invalid, the authentication fails immediately.

3. If the credentials are valid, the Active Directory controller is queried to get the subject identifier and group

membership associated with the credentials.

4. If the subject identifier matches the one stored in the XenServer, the authentication is completed successfully.

When you join a domain, you enable Active Directory authentication for the pool. However, when a pool is joined to a domain, only users in that domain (or a domain with which it has trust relationships) can connect to the pool.

Note:

Manually updating the DNS configuration of a DHCP-configured network PIF is unsupported and might cause Active Directory integration, and consequently user authentication, to fail or stop working.

Upgrading XenServer

When you upgrade from an earlier version of XenServer, any user accounts created in the previous XenServer version are assigned the role of pool-admin. This is done for backwards compatibility reasons. As a result, if you are upgrading from a previous version of XenServer, make sure you revisit the role associated with each user account to make sure it is still appropriate.

Configuring Active Directory Authentication

XenServer supports use of Active Directory servers using Windows 2003 or later.

Active Directory authentication for a XenServer host requires that the same DNS servers are used for both the Active Directory server (configured to allow for interoperability) and the XenServer host. In some configurations, the active directory server may provide the DNS itself. This can be achieved either using DHCP to provide the IP address and a list of DNS servers to the XenServer host, or by setting values in the PIF objects or using the installer if a manual static configuration is used.

Citrix recommends enabling DHCP to broadcast host names. In particular, the host names localhost or linux should not be assigned to hosts.

Warning:

XenServer hostnames should be unique throughout the XenServer deployment.

Note the following:

• XenServer labels its AD entry on the AD database using its hostname. Therefore, if two XenServer hosts have the same hostname and are joined to the same AD domain, the second XenServer will overwrite the AD entry of the first XenServer, regardless of if they are in the same or in different pools, causing the AD authentication on the first XenServer to stop working.

It is possible to use the same hostname in two XenServer hosts, as long as they join different AD domains.

• The XenServer hosts can be in different time-zones, as it is the UTC time that is compared. To ensure synchronization is correct, you may choose to use the same NTP servers for your XenServer pool and the Active Directory server.

• Mixed-authentication pools are not supported (that is, you cannot have a pool where some servers in the pool are configured to use Active Directory and some are not).

• The XenServer Active Directory integration uses the Kerberos protocol to communicate with the Active Directory servers. Consequently, XenServer does not support communicating with Active Directory servers that do not utilize Kerberos.

• For external authentication using Active Directory to be successful, it is important that the clocks on your XenServer hosts are synchronized with those on your Active Directory server. When XenServer joins the Active Directory domain, this will be checked and authentication will fail if there is too much skew between the servers.

Warning:

Host names must consist solely of no more than 63 alphanumeric characters, and must not be purely numeric.

Once you have Active Directory authentication enabled, if you subsequently add a server to that pool, you are prompted to configure Active Directory on the server joining the pool. When you are prompted for credentials on the joining server, enter Active Directory credentials with sufficient privileges to add servers to that domain.

Active Directory integration

Make sure that the following firewall ports are open for outbound traffic in order for XenServer to access the domain controllers.

Port Protocol Use

53 UDP/TCP DNS

88 UDP/TCP Kerberos 5

123 UDP NTP

137 UDP NetBIOS Name Service

139 TCP NetBIOS Session (SMB)

389 UDP/TCP LDAP

445 TCP SMB over TCP

464 UDP/TCP Machine password changes

3268 TCP Global Catalog Search

Note:

To view the firewall rules on a Linux computer using iptables, run the following command:

iptables - nL

Note:

XenServer uses Likewise (Likewise uses Kerberos) to authenticate the AD user in the AD server, and to encrypt communications with the AD server.

How does XenServer manage the machine account password for AD integration?

Similarly to Windows client machines, Likewise automatically updates the machine account password, renewing it once every 30 days, or as specified in the machine account password renewal policy in the AD server. For more information, refer to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/154501.

Enabling external authentication on a pool

• External authentication using Active Directory can be configured using either XenCenter or the CLI using the

command below.

xe pool-enable-external-auth auth-type=AD \ service-name=<full-qualified-domain> \ config:user=<username> \ config:pass=<password>

The user specified needs to have Add/remove computer objects or workstations privileges, which is the default for domain administrators.

Note:

If you are not using DHCP on the network used by Active Directory and your XenServer hosts, use you can use these two approaches to setup your DNS:

1. Set up your domain DNS suffix search order for resolving non-FQDNs:

xe pif-param-set uuid=<pif-uuid_in_the_dns_subnetwork> \ “other-config:domain=suffix1.com suffix2.com suffix3.com”

2. Configure the DNS server to use on your XenServer hosts:

xe pif-reconfigure-ip mode=static dns=<dnshost>

3. Manually set the primary management interface to use a PIF that is on the same network as your DNS server:

xe host-management-reconfigure pif-uuid=<pif_in_the_dns_subnetwork>

Note:

External authentication is a per-host property. However, Citrix advises that you enable and disable this on a per-pool basis – in this case XenServer will deal with any failures that occur when enabling authentication on a particular host and perform any roll-back of changes that may be required, ensuring that a consistent configuration is used across the pool. Use the host-param-list command to inspect properties of a host and to determine the status of external authentication by checking the values of the relevant fields.

Disabling external authentication

• Use XenCenter to disable Active Directory authentication, or the following xe command:

xe pool-disable-external-auth

User Authentication

To allow a user access to your XenServer host, you must add a subject for that user or a group that they are in. (Transitive group memberships are also checked in the normal way, for example: adding a subject for group A, where group A contains group B and user 1 is a member of group B would permit access to user 1.) If

you wish to manage user permissions in Active Directory, you could create a single group that you then add and remove users to/from; alternatively, you can add and remove individual users from XenServer, or a combination of users and groups as your would be appropriate for your authentication requirements. The subject list can be managed from XenCenter or using the CLI as described below.

When authenticating a user, the credentials are first checked against the local root account, allowing you to recover a system whose AD server has failed. If the credentials (i.e. username then password) do not match/ authenticate, then an authentication request is made to the AD server – if this is successful the user's information will be retrieved and validated against the local subject list, otherwise access will be denied. Validation against the subject list will succeed if the user or a group in the transitive group membership of the user is in the subject list.

Note:

When using Active Directory groups to grant access for Pool Administrator users who will require host ssh access, the number of users in the Active Directory group must not exceed

500.

Allowing a user access to XenServer using the CLI

• To add an AD subject to XenServer:

xe subject-add subject-name=<entity name>

The entity name should be the name of the user or group to which you want to grant access. You may optionally include the domain of the entity (for example, '<xendt\user1>' as opposed to '<user1>') although the behavior will be the same unless disambiguation is required.

Removing access for a user using the CLI

1. Identify the subject identifier for the subject t you wish to revoke access. This would be the user or the group containing the user (removing a group would remove access to all users in that group, providing they are not also specified in the subject list). You can do this using the subject list command:

xe subject-list

You may wish to apply a filter to the list, for example to get the subject identifier for a user named user1 in the testad domain, you could use the following command:

xe subject-list other-config:subject-name='<domain\user>'

2. Remove the user using the subject-remove command, passing in the subject identifier you learned in the previous step:

xe subject-remove subject-uuid=<subject-uuid>

3. You may wish to terminate any current session this user has already authenticated. See Terminating all

authenticated sessions using xe and Terminating individual user sessions using xe for more information about

terminating sessions. If you do not terminate sessions the users whose permissions have been revoked may be able to continue to access the system until they log out.

Listing subjects with access

• To identify the list of users and groups with permission to access your XenServer host or pool, use the following command:

xe subject-list

Removing Access for a User

Once a user is authenticated, they will have access to the server until they end their session, or another user terminates their session. Removing a user from the subject list, or removing them from a group that is in the subject list, will not automatically revoke any already-authenticated sessions that the user has; this means that

they may be able to continue to access the pool using XenCenter or other API sessions that they have already created. In order to terminate these sessions forcefully, XenCenter and the CLI provide facilities to terminate individual sessions, or all currently active sessions. See the XenCenter help for more information on procedures using XenCenter, or below for procedures using the CLI.

Terminating all authenticated sessions using xe

• Execute the following CLI command:

xe session-subject-identifier-logout-all

Terminating individual user sessions using xe

1. Determine the subject identifier whose session you wish to log out. Use either the session-subjectidentifier-list or subject-list xe commands to find this (the first shows users who have sessions, the second shows all users but can be filtered, for example, using a command like xe subject-list other-config:subjectname=xendt\\user1 – depending on your shell you may need a double-backslash as shown).

2. Use the session-subject-logout command, passing the subject identifier you have determined in the previous step as a parameter, for example:

xe session-subject-identifier-logout subject-identifier=<subject-id>

Leaving an AD Domain

Warning:

When you leave the domain (that is, disable Active Directory authentication and disconnect a pool or server from its domain), any users who authenticated to the pool or server with Active Directory credentials are disconnected.

Use XenCenter to leave an AD domain. See the XenCenter help for more information. Alternately run the pool-

disable-external-auth command, specifying the pool uuid if required.

Note:

Leaving the domain will not cause the host objects to be removed from the AD database. See

this knowledge base article for more information about this and how to remove the disabled

host entries.

Role Based Access Control

Note:

The full RBAC feature is only available in Citrix XenServer Enterprise Edition or higher. To learn more about upgrading XenServer, click here.

XenServer's Role Based Access Control (RBAC) allows you to assign users, roles, and permissions to control who has access to your XenServer and what actions they can perform. The XenServer RBAC system maps a user (or a group of users) to defined roles (a named set of permissions), which in turn have associated XenServer permissions (the ability to perform certain operations).

As users are not assigned permissions directly, but acquire them through their assigned role, management of individual user permissions becomes a matter of simply assigning the user to the appropriate role; this simplifies common operations. XenServer maintains a list of authorized users and their roles.

RBAC allows you to easily restrict which operations different groups of users can perform- thus reducing the probability of an accident by an inexperienced user.

To facilitate compliance and auditing, RBAC also provides an Audit Log feature and its corresponding Workload Balancing Pool Audit Trail report.

RBAC depends on Active Directory for authentication services. Specifically, XenServer keeps a list of authorized users based on Active Directory user and group accounts. As a result, you must join the pool to the domain and add Active Directory accounts before you can assign roles.

The local super user (LSU), or root, is a special user account used for system administration and has all rights or permissions. In XenServer, the local super user is the default account at installation. The LSU is authenticated via XenServer and not external authentication service, so if the external authentication service fails, the LSU can still log in and manage the system. The LSU can always access the XenServer physical host via SSH.

RBAC process

This is the standard process for implementing RBAC and assigning a user or group a role:

1. Join the domain. See Enabling external authentication on a pool

2. Add an Active Directory user or group to the pool. This becomes a subject. See the section called “To Add a

Subject to RBAC”.

3. Assign (or modify) the subject's RBAC role. See the section called “To Assign an RBAC Role to a Created subject”.

Roles

XenServer is shipped with the following six, pre-established roles:

• Pool Administrator (Pool Admin) – the same as being the local root. Can perform all operations.

Note:

The local super user (root) will always have the "Pool Admin" role. The Pool Admin role has the same permissions as the local root.

• Pool Operator (Pool Operator) – can do everything apart from adding/removing users and modifying their

roles. This role is focused mainly on host and pool management (i.e. creating storage, making pools, managing the hosts etc.)

• Virtual Machine Power Administrator (VM Power Admin) – creates and manages Virtual Machines. This role is

focused on provisioning VMs for use by a VM operator.

• Virtual Machine Administrator (VM Admin) – similar to a VM Power Admin, but cannot migrate VMs or perform

snapshots.

• Virtual Machine Operator (VM Operator) – similar to VM Admin, but cannot create/destroy VMs – but can

perform start/stop lifecycle operations.

• Read-only (Read Only) – can view resource pool and performance data.

Note:

You cannot add, remove or modify roles in this version of XenServer.

Warning:

You can not assign the role of pool-admin to an AD group which has more than 500 members, if you want users of the AD group to have SSH access.

For a summary of the permissions available for each role and more detailed information on the operations available for each permission, see the section called “Definitions of RBAC Roles and Permissions”.

All XenServer users need to be allocated to an appropriate role. By default, all new users will be allocated to the Pool Administrator role. It is possible for a user to be assigned to multiple roles; in that scenario, the user will have the union of all the permissions of all their assigned roles.

A user's role can be changed in two ways:

1. Modify the subject -> role mapping (this requires the assign/modify role permission, only available to a Pool

Administrator.)

2. Modify the user's containing group membership in Active Directory.

Definitions of RBAC Roles and Permissions

The following table summarizes which permissions are available for each role. For details on the operations available for each permission, see Definitions of permissions.

Table 1. Permissions available for each role

Role permissions

Assign/ modify roles

Server backup/ restore

Import/ export OVF/ OVA packages and disk images

Pool Admin Pool

Operator

VM Power Admin

VM Admin VM Operator Read Only

Log out active user connections

Create and dismiss alerts

X X

+ 177 hidden pages

Citrix Systems Server 6 User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Citrix XenServer ® 6.0 Administrator's Guide

Contents

Document Overview

Introducing XenServer

Benefits of Using XenServer

Administering XenServer

XenServer Editions

New Features in XenServer 6.0

XenServer Documentation

Managing Users

Authenticating Users With Active Directory (AD)

Configuring Active Directory Authentication

User Authentication

Removing Access for a User

Leaving an AD Domain

Role Based Access Control

Roles

Definitions of RBAC Roles and Permissions