Intel S3420GP, Citrix XenServer 5.5.0 Installation Manual

Citrix* XenServer* 5.5.0
Installation Guide

Intel® Server Board S3420GP

Intel® Enabled Server Acceleration Alliance (Intel® ESAA)

Recipe ID: 47CTXS650000000000-02

2 March 2010

Copyright © 2010 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Intel, the Intel logo, and Xeon are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation
or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

Citrix* XenServer* 5.5.0 Installation Guide ­Intel® Server Board S3420GP

www.intel.com/go/esaa

The information contained in this document is provided for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Intel Corporation (“Intel”)
and its contributors ("Contributors") on, as of the date of publication. Intel and the Contributors make no commitment to update the information
contained in this document, and Intel reserves the right to make changes at any time, without notice.

DISCLAIMER. THIS DOCUMENT, IS PROVIDED “AS IS.” NEITHER INTEL, NOR THE CONTRIBUTORS MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS OF ANY KIND WITH

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Intel, the Intel logo, and Intel Xeon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other
countries.

Xen®, Citrix®, XenServer™, XenCenter™ and logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. in the United States and/or
other countries. Other company or product names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

This product contains an embodiment of the following patent pending intellectual property of Citrix Systems, Inc.:

United States Non-Provisional Utility Patent Application Serial Number 11/487,945, filed on July 17, 2006, and entitled “Using Writeable Page Tables
for Memory Address Translation in a Hypervisor Environment”.

United States Non-Provisional Utility Patent Application Serial Number 11/879,338, filed on July 17, 2007, and entitled “Tracking Current Time on
Multiprocessor Hosts and Virtual Machines”.

*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. Copyright © 2010, Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

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Citrix* XenServer* 5.5.0 Installation Guide -

Intel® Server Board S3420GP

Contents

Hardware Components ......................................................................................................................... 5

Software Components .......................................................................................................................... 5

Citrix* XenServer* 5.5.0 Installation Recipe Overview ..................................................... 6

Additional Documentation ............................................................................................................................................................. 6

Enterprise-Ready Features in XenServer* 5.5.0 ....................................................................................................... 6

System Requirements ........................................................................................................................... 9

XenServer* Host System Requirements .......................................................................................................................... 9

XenCenter* Requirements............................................................................................................................................................. 9

VM Support .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 10

XenServer* Licensing ...................................................................................................................................................................... 10

Install a License File with XenCenter* ............................................................................................................................ 11

Install a License File with the “xe” CLI ............................................................................................................................. 11

Install the XenServer* and XenCenter* Software ........................................................... 12

Install the XenServer* Host ...................................................................................................................................................... 12

Install or Upgrade the XenServer* Host ........................................................................................................................ 13

Install XenCenter* .............................................................................................................................................................................. 17

Uninstall XenCenter* ....................................................................................................................................................................... 18

XenServer* Installation and Deployment Scenarios ....................................................... 18

XenServer* Hosts with Local Storage ............................................................................................................................ 18

XenServer* Hosts with Shared NFS Storage ........................................................................................................... 19

Setup an NFS Share on an NFS Server ........................................................................................................................... 19

Create a Pool-Level SR on the NFS Share ................................................................................................................... 20

XenServer* Hosts with Shared iSCSI Storage ......................................................................................................... 20

Prepare the iSCSI Storage .......................................................................................................................................................... 21

Configure the iSCSI IQN for Each XenServer* Host via the CLI ............................................................... 21

Create a Pool-Level SR on the iSCSI Share via the CLI .................................................................................... 22

Upgrade, Update, or Reinstall XenServer* ............................................................................ 22

Prepare to Upgrade XenServer* Hosts .......................................................................................................................... 22

Apply XenServer* Updates ........................................................................................................................................................ 23

Apply Updates with the CLI ...................................................................................................................................................... 24

Reinstall the Same XenServer* Version ........................................................................................................................ 25

Backup and Restore XenServer* Hosts and VMs ............................................................. 26

Backup Virtual Machine Metadata ...................................................................................................................................... 26

Backup Pooled Installations ...................................................................................................................................................... 27

Restore the Backup on a New Set of Hosts ............................................................................................................. 27

XenServer* Hosts Backup Options .................................................................................................................................... 28

Backup a XenServer* Host ........................................................................................................................................................ 28

Restore a Running XenServer* Host ............................................................................................................................... 28

Restart a Crashed XenServer* Host ................................................................................................................................. 29

Backup VMs ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 29

Appendix A: Troubleshooting ....................................................................................................... 29

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Citrix* XenServer* 5.5.0 Installation Guide ­Intel® Server Board S3420GP

Appendix B: Maintenance Procedures ..................................................................................... 30

Setup the PXE Boot Environment ...................................................................................................................................... 30

Setup a TFTP Server for PXE-Booting ........................................................................................................................... 30

Setup a DHCP Server ....................................................................................................................................................................... 32

Setup the Installation Media Host ...................................................................................................................................... 32

Prepare the Destination System .......................................................................................................................................... 33

Create an Answerfile for Unattended PXE Installation .................................................................................. 33

Installation Media Repository Format ............................................................................................................................. 35

Installation Media Repository Metadata ....................................................................................................................... 35

Package Metadata ............................................................................................................................................................................. 36

XS-REPOSITORY ................................................................................................................................................................................. 37

XS-PACKAGES ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 37

Best Practice Notes ......................................................................................................................................................................... 37

Appendix C: Xen Memory Usage ................................................................................................. 38

Set Control Domain Memory .................................................................................................................................................... 38

Support Information ........................................................................................................................... 39

Intel® ESAA – Your Recipe for Success .................................................................................... 39

4

Hardware Components

Quantity

Item

Manufacturer

Model

1

Intel® Server Board S3420GP

Intel

S3420GP

1

Intel® Server Chassis

Intel

SR1630GP or SR1630HGP

4 GB or
more

Memory modules

THOL

Refer to the tested memory list at

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboard
s/server/s3420gp/sb/CS-030738.htm

1

Intel® Xeon® Processors

Intel

3400 series
Refer to the tested processor list at

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboard
s/server/s3420gp/sb/CS-030740.htm

1 Minimum
SATA

SATA hard drives or SSD

THOL

Refer to the tested hardware list at

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboard
s/server/s3420gp/sb/CS-030737.htm

Item

Version

Manufacturer

Comment

Citrix* XenServer* 5.5.0

5.5.0

Citrix Systems, Inc.*

Table 1 – Intel® Server Board S3420GP Hardware Configuration

Citrix* XenServer* 5.5.0 Installation Guide -

Intel® Server Board S3420GP

Software Components

Table 2 – Software Components

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Citrix* XenServer* 5.5.0 Installation Guide ­Intel® Server Board S3420GP

Citrix* XenServer* 5.5.0 Installation Recipe Overview

This Intel® ESAA recipe is an installation guide for Citrix* XenServer* 5.5.0, a platform virtualization
solution. The XenServer package contains everything needed to create a network of virtual x86
computers running on Xen*, the open-source paravirtualizing hypervisor with near-native performance.
This recipe contains information for the installation, configuration, and initial operation of XenServer.
This recipe also contains information about troubleshooting problems that may occur during
installation, and where to go for further information.

Additional Documentation

Other documentation shipped with this release includes:

 XenServer Virtual Machine Installation Guide - Describes how to install Linux* and Windows* VMs

on top of a XenServer* deployment. In addition to explaining how to install new VMs from install
media or via the VM templates provided with the XenServer release, this guide also explains how
to create VMs from existing physical machines, via a process called “P2V”.

 XenServer Administrator's Guide - Describes the steps to configure a XenServer* deployment,

how to set up storage, networking and resource pools, and how to administer XenServer hosts
using the “xe” command line interface (CLI).

 XenServer Software Development Kit Guide - Presents an overview of the XenServer* SDK*, a

selection of code samples that demonstrate how to write applications that interface with
XenServer hosts.

 XenAPI Specification - Provides a programmer's reference guide to the XenServer* API*.
 Release Notes - Provides a list of known issues that affect this release.

Enterprise-Ready Features in XenServer* 5.5.0

XenServer* 5.5.0 includes a number of new features and ongoing improvements in hardware support,
performance and scalability. For a detailed list, refer to the XenServer 5.5.0 Release Notes. The
following is a summary of features in XenServer 5.5.0 that deliver enterprise-class virtualization
infrastructure, with those added in version 5.5.0 indicated

New Guest Support
The following new guest operating systems have been added in XenServer* 5.0.0 and XenServer

5.5.0:

 Windows Server* 2008 32-bit and 64-bit support, with WHQL signed paravirtual drivers and initial

enlightenment optimizations.

 Windows XP* Service Pack 3 and Vista* Service Pack 1 support.
 SUSE* Enterprise Linux* 9 SP4 32-bit and 10 SP1/2 and 11 64-bit support.
 Red Hat* Enterprise Linux* 4.7 32-bit and 5.2 and 5.3 32-bit/64-bit support, including graphical

installation.

 SUSE* Enterprise Linux* 10 installation directly from CD or ISO images as well as network

repositories.

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Citrix* XenServer* 5.5.0 Installation Guide -

Intel® Server Board S3420GP

Linux* guests have been refreshed to their latest upstream versions, including the bundled XenServer*
kernels which fixes stability issues not addressed in the upstream releases.

Business Continuity
XenServer* supports several features to maximize service uptime in the event of infrastructure failure.
These include:

 Redundant storage (via multipath) and network (via NIC bonding) heartbeats eliminate single

points of network failure and permit reliable detection of genuine host failure.

 Generate e-mail and XenCenter* alerts on host failures.
 Integrated disaster recovery to enable regular backups of virtual machine metadata. Peer-to-peer

"self-healing" architecture ensures there is no single point of management failure.

 When combined with SAN storage replication, this provides an efficient way to migrate entire

resource pools to another physical site and continue running services with little interruption. It also
permits the use of storage repositories, including the metadata for VMs installed on them, which
permits a "transportable VM" model across resource pools.

 iSCSI multipath support, configurable from the XenCenter* GUI. This ensures redundant storage

links to an iSCSI SR and permits link failures without loss of service.

 Improved network reliability by support active/active NIC aggregation. Existing active/passive NIC

bonds on older installations are upgraded to aggregation mode for active/active usage, permitting
full use of all available bandwidth while still maintaining redundant links.

 Multiple management network interfaces can be defined in the control domain, and individual

networks can be dedicated for use by network storage, e.g., iSCSI or NFS. This improves isolation
between VMs and storage infrastructure traffic.

With the addition of Citrix* Essentials* for XenServer*, resource pools can be configured for
automated high-availability. This addresses individual host failures by restarting VMs running on a host
onto the next available machine in the resource pool. Additional reliability features in Citrix Essentials
include:

 The ability to set VM restart priorities individually to control the order services are restarted in a

host failure.

 Dynamic failure planning algorithms allow administrators to see how many hosts failures can be

tolerated without compromising services.

One of the most common reasons for system failure is misconfiguration by an operator. Citrix
Essentials for XenServer now provides e-mail and XenCenter alerting for potentially dangerous
configurations, for example, when VM performance will be degraded or a resource pool is
overcommitted with respect to high availability.

Storage and Provisioning
Diskless virtual machines running on Citrix* Provisioning Server* now support more advanced PXE
configurations, such as DHCP Proxy ARP responses or wide-area DHCP relays. Support for PXE servers
such as Altiris* and Windows Deployment Services* (WDS) is improved. There is support in XenServer*

5.5.0 for VM storage snapshots for backup enablement, and CLI-only support for quiesced, fully
consistent VM storage snapshots for Windows* VMs.

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Citrix* XenServer* 5.5.0 Installation Guide ­Intel® Server Board S3420GP

Citrix* Essentials* for XenServer includes a new storage integration service called StorageLink. Via
StorageLink, administrators may directly manage the fast cloning, snapshot, and thin provisioning
capabilities of many models of intelligent storage.

Usability and Reliability

Performance statistics now persist in a round-robin database on the XenServer* pool, with decreasing
granularity as time passes. This enables long-term trending and resource optimization for complex
data center deployments. The XenCenter* GUI supports connecting to hosts running the current and
previous release, and has several new features:

 Host networking configuration support, including dedicating network interfaces for storage use.
 Permit editing settings on existing SRs, and improved workflow for detaching and reattaching SRs.
 Support user-defined grouping and searching across VMs, hosts and resource pools, including

defining custom fields and tags to identify resources.

 New interactive graphing interface to display persistent performance statistics across resource

pools.

 Detect when a host has been re-installed and warn the administrator.
 Enhanced support for keeping hosts up-to-date with the latest improvements:
 Rolling zero-downtime resource pool upgrades from the previous release to XenServer* hosts.
 XenCenter* support to automatically check for updates and generate alerts for the administrators

if any are available.

 Integration with StorageLink SRs (only in Citrix Essentials)

A menu-driven text console is now present when connecting to the main screen of the XenServer*
host. This new interface provides an alternative to XenCenter* for common operations or when
networking is not otherwise available. The boot process is more user-friendly, with a graphical splash
screen and progress indicator.

Performance and Hardware
The core Xen* hypervisor has been upgraded to a version based on the stable 3.3.1 release. Major
improvements include:

 Support for Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series, (Intel® microarchitecture, code named Nehalem)

including Enhanced Page Table (EPT) optimizations and other performance improvements

 Improvements to emulating legacy 16-bit code means a wider variety of older applications and

bootloaders will run successfully. Support for foreign-language versions of Windows* are
improved.

 The Windows* paravirtual storage drivers now utilize a SCSI filter interface which reduces

overhead and increases performance when used with multiple virtual disks.

 Citrix* XenApp* performance is further optimized with improvements to Xen* shadow page-table

handling.

Reduced memory usage in the control domain increases the maximum number of VMs supported.

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Citrix* XenServer* 5.5.0 Installation Guide -

CPUs

One or more 64-bit x86 CPU(s), 1.5 GHz minimum, 2 GHz or faster multicore CPU
recommended

To support VMs running Windows*, an Intel® VT 64-bit x86-based system with one or more
(up to 32) CPUs is required.

Note: To run Windows* VMs, hardware support for virtualization must be enabled on the
XenServer* host. This is an option in the BIOS. It is possible the system BIOS might have
virtualization support disabled. Consult BIOS documentation for more details.

To support VMs running supported paravirtualized Linux*, a standard 64-bit x86-based
system with one or more (up to 32) CPUs is required.

RAM

1 GB minimum; 2 GB or more recommended.

Disk Space

Locally attached storage SATA, SAS with 16 GB of disk space minimum.
60 GB of disk space recommended
General disk space requirements for VMs:

 Product installation creates two 4GB partitions for the XenServer* host control domain;

the remaining space is available for VMs:

 VMs based on the Debian* templates are allocated a 4 GB root device, and a 512 MB

swap device.

 Linux* VMs are allocated an 8 GB root device.
 Windows* Vista* VMs are allocated a 16 GB root device; other Windows VMs default

to 8 GB.

Network

100 Mbit/s or faster network interface card (NIC). A gigabit NIC is recommended for faster
P2V and export/import data transfers and for live relocation of VMs.

Intel® Server Board S3420GP

System Requirements

XenServer* requires at least two separate physical x86 computers:

 One to be the XenServer* host.
 One to run the XenCenter* application.

The XenServer host machine is dedicated to the task of hosting VMs and is not used for other
applications. The computer that runs XenCenter can be any general-purpose Windows* computer with
the hardware requirements, and can be used to run other applications simultaneously.

XenServer* Host System Requirements

The XenServer* host is a 64-bit, x86 server-class machine devoted to hosting multiple VMs. This
machine runs a stripped-down Linux* operating system with a Xen*-enabled kernel that controls the
interaction between the virtualized devices seen by VMs and the physical hardware. The following are
the system requirements for the XenServer host:

Table 3 – System Requirements for the XenServer* Host

XenCenter* Requirements

The remote XenCenter* application for managing the XenServer* host can be installed and run on any
Windows* 2003*, Windows XP*, Windows Vista* workstation or laptop.
The following are the system requirements for XenCenter*:

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Citrix* XenServer* 5.5.0 Installation Guide -

Operating system

Windows* XP*, Windows Server* 2003, or Windows Vista*.

.NET framework

Version 2.0 or above.

CPU Speed

750 MHz minimum, 1 GHz or faster recommended.

RAM

1 GB minimum; 2 GB or more recommended.

Disk space

100 MB minimum.

Network interface card

100Mb or faster NIC.

Intel® Server Board S3420GP

Table 4 – System Requirements for XenCenter

VM Support

Windows* VMs can be created only on XenServer* hosts equipped with Intel® VT-enabled CPUs. All
Windows VMs are created by installing the operating system from either the Microsoft* installation
media in the XenServer host physical CD/DVD-ROM drive or a network-accessible ISO image to the
appropriate template.

Linux* VMs do not require XenServer hosts equipped with Intel® VT-enabled CPUs.
For a list of supported Windows* and Linux* distributions, refer to the XenServer Virtual Machine
Installation Guide.

XenServer* Licensing

When XenServer* 5.5.0 is first installed, the product is enabled with the XenServer* feature set for 30
days. To continue using the product beyond the 30-day window or to enable the more advanced
capabilities found in Citrix Essentials for XenServer, a corresponding license key, in the form of a
license file, must be installed on each system.

The license key is provided in the form of a license file with the “.xslic” extension. Extending the
XenServer activation period is done via the XenCenter console. In-product activation extends the
XenServer license for a year; the product must be reactivated at no cost annually. Citrix* Essentials*
license files are issued to the designated organization by Citrix; they are perpetual licenses, and do not
require annual renewal. License files can be installed on a XenServer host system in a number of
different ways including:

 Applying the license file to a selected server from within XenCenter*.
 With the “xe” command line interface (CLI) “xe host-license-add” command.

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Citrix* XenServer* 5.5.0 Installation Guide -

Intel® Server Board S3420GP

Install a License File with XenCenter*

To install a license file, open XenCenter* and perform these steps:

1) Select the server in the “Resources” pane.

2) In the “Server” menu, click “Install License Key”.

3) Locate the license file and click “Open”. By default, only license files with the “.xslic” extension is

displayed.

Install a License File with the “xe” CLI

To install a license file with the “xe” CLI, on the server console, enter the command:

host-license-add license-file=<path/license_filename>

Note: Each host system in a resource pool must be individually licensed. For example, if supporting
four XenServer hosts in a resource pool, apply four unique license files to each of the four host
systems.

The following are scenarios regarding the XenServer 5.5.0 license:

 Q: The XenServer* (annual, not-for-resale, or trial) license has expired. What is going to happen?
 A: If the license on a XenServer host expires while the system is still running, all active virtual

machines continue to run as long as the host system is not disrupted. However, new VMs cannot
be launched. If the host system is disrupted, VMs cannot be restarted.

Note: Citrix* strongly encourages customers who opt for the XenServer* annual license to renew
their new annual license before the expiration date to ensure the greatest degree of continuity.
XenCenter alerts will be generated daily from 30 days before the license is due to expire, to give
enough notice to upgrade.

 Q: The license file from a previous version of XenServer* does not work with XenServer 5.0.0
 A: All license files, beginning with XenServer* 3.x, are incompatible with XenServer 5.0.0.

XenServer 3.x customers under valid software maintenance or Subscription Advantage
agreements will receive a valid XenServer 4.x license file from Citrix* and these newly-issued
license files should be used in conjunction with XenServer 5.0.0. XenServer 4.0.1 and 4.1.0 license
files are forward-compatible with XenServer 5.0.0 and 5.5.0.


 Q: This XenServer* 4.0.1 license file has a “.txt” extension, but the product licensing instructions

reference a license file with the “.xslic” extension. Does this mean the XenServer 4.0 license is
incompatible?

 A: No. In general, XenServer* 4.0 license files are forward-compatible with XenServer 5.0.0 and

up and as a result, Xen-Center* can import valid XenServer 4.x license files of any extension. For
some administrators, it may be easier to rename an older XenServer 4.0 license key with a “.txt”
extension to a file with the “.xslic” extension prior to applying the license file in XenCenter.

 Q: Is there a way to manually install a XenServer* license file without using XenCenter*?

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Citrix* XenServer* 5.5.0 Installation Guide ­Intel® Server Board S3420GP

 A: Yes. First, license files can be manually installed using the “xe” CLI. The “host-license-add”

command allows a local license file to be installed on a particular XenServer* host. For more
information about using the “xe” command, refer to the XenServer Administrator's Guide. Another
option is to use Secure Copy (SCP) to upload a license file from a system where the license file
resides to a XenServer host. The target path on the XenServer host system must be
“/etc/xensource/license”. Citrix* strongly recommends using SCP to apply a license file only as a
last resort, such as when the XenCenter console or “xe” CLI are unavailable.

Install the XenServer* and XenCenter* Software

Any XenServer* network, from the simplest deployment to the most complex, is made up of one or
more XenServer hosts, each running a given number of VMs, and one or more workstations running
XenCenter* to administer the XenServer hosts. To create resource pools and enable XenMotion* (live
migration of VMs), shared storage also needs to be deployed on the network. This version of the
XenServer product family supports Fibre Channel, NetApp* filers, LVM over iSCSI, and NFS shared
storage.

This section explains how to:

 Install XenServer* host software on physical servers.
 Install XenCenter* on Windows* workstations.
 Connect them to form the infrastructure for a network of Virtual Machines.

Included in the detailed installation steps for the XenServer* host and XenCenter* are deployment
scenarios and information specific to each scenario. Installers for the XenServer host and XenCenter
are included in the installation media. The installation media also includes:

 A set of XenServer* product documents in Adobe* Acrobat* PDF format.
 A P2V tool to create VM templates from existing instances of supported Linux* distributions

running on physical servers. See the XenServer Virtual Machine Installation Guide for details.

 A tool to restore a backed-up XenServer host control domain file system. See the Backup a

XenServer Host section on page 28 for details.

Install the XenServer* Host

The XenServer* host consists of:

 A Xen*-enabled Linux* operating system.
 A management agent.
 VM templates.
 A local storage repository reserved for VMs.

The XenServer host must be installed on a dedicated 64-bit x86 server. XenServer* is not supported in
a dual-boot configuration with any other operating system. The XenServer host can be installed from
the installation CDs or booted via PXE from a network-accessible TFTP server. For details about
setting up a TFTP server for PXE-booting the installer, see Appendix B: Maintenance Procedures on
page 30.

12