[Citrix XenServer 5.

6 Guide]

Citrix XenServer

Quick Proof of Concept

How to set up a XenServer 5.6 cluster

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[Citrix XenServer 5.6 Guide]

Contents

Contents...............................................................................................................................2
Overview..............................................................................................................................3
Step 1 – Create Pool.............................................................................................................4
Step 2 - Create Storage Repository......................................................................................6
Step 3 – Configure High Availability..................................................................................9
Step 4 - Configure Xenmotion and Dynamic Memory Control........................................13
Step 5 - Configure Active Directory Authentication.........................................................14
Summary...........................................................................................................................15

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[Citrix XenServer 5.6 Guide]

Overview

This document provides guidance for setting a very basic Citrix XenServer 5.6
cluster of two hosts attached to ISCSI storage. The features that will configured
are as below

• XenMotion
• HA
• Shared ISCSI storage repository
• Active Directory integration
• Dynamic Memory control

Requirements

In order to set up the cluster two hosts will need to set up with Xenserver
installed, hosts will need to set up with IP addresses and configured to be
managed via XenCenter as below.

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Step 1 – Create Pool

The first step is to

create a pool; this is
very similar to
creating a cluster in
Vsphere.

1: Right click on
XenCenter >and
choose New Pool

2: Choose a name for

the cluster in this
instance well will be
calling the cluster
XenCluster

3: Select the required

hosts to be members
of the cluster.

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4:We will now see the

XenServer Cluster
appear with the two
member servers

5:We now need to

license the servers:
use >Tools >License
manager and enter
the IP address of
your license server*

*You will need to use

enterprise edition or
above to use the
Dynamic memory
control functionality

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Step 2 - Create Storage Repository

1: We now need to
create the shared
storage repository
this is similar to
creating a VMFS
volume in Vsphere
but with XenServer
this a LVM SR.

2: Choose ISCSI as
the SR type and
choose an name and
then enter the target
host IP (in this
instance it will be the
virtual IP of the HP
Left-hand storage) *

*Note you will need to

have configured your
ISCSI storage to
accept the ISCSI IQN
Of the two nodes in
the cluster

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1: After the IP has

been entered use the
discover IQNs button
to scan for the
presented IQN, you
will then see the LUN
appear in the Target
IQN tab.

2:Now use the

discover LUN’s
button to scan for the
presented LUN, you
will then see the LUN
appear in the Target
LUN tab

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3: Click finish to
create the SR and
you will presented
with the following
message, which
basically means the
LUM will formatted
with the LVM and a
SR will be created

4: In the XenCenter
management console
you will now see the
ISCSI SR appear.
You can now
implement this SR for
Virtual machines.

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Step 3 – Configure High Availability

1: We now need to
configure high
availability this is
similar to Vsphere
HA, but XenServer
uses a Quorum
heartbeat LUN
instead of the HA
agents on each node

2: A small LUN
(around 500mb)
needs to created on
the ISCSI SR and
presented to both
hosts*

*Use the methods

explained in the
Create Storage
section to create and
present the LUN

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3: We now need to
configure the
heartbeat SR for HA
Right click on the
Cluster and choose
>High Availability

4: Click next and

choose the created
HA SR to use as the
heartbeat SR*

*Note you will given

the option to choose
virtual machine
restart priority in the
event of HA failover,
but as no machines
have been created
we will configure this
at a later stage.

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5: XenServer HA
works on the concept
of Pool masters(the
master will always be
the server listed
directly under
XenCenter). The
configuration is
populated amongst
the hosts but only
one is the master
server. If you wish to
change this for any
reason you will need
to run the following
commands*
Go to the >console
tab and open the
mgmt shell

6: Firstly we need to
disable HA in the
cluster

Type > xe pool-ha-

disable

*I have included
these commands as
you will not be able to
use XenCenter to
manage your cluster
if the pool master
node is unavailable.

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7: We now need to
find out the UUID of
the hosts this can be
achieved by typing >
xe host-list

8: Now we need to
promote the slave by
using the UUID of the
slave server found in
the previous
command.

Type > xe pool-

designate-new-
master host-uuid=****

When you reconnect

via XenCenter you
will now see the new
pool master listed at
the top of the tree

Now enable HA as in
step 1

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Step 4 - Configure Xenmotion and Dynamic Memory Control

1: XenMotion is very
easy to configure, the
only requirements are
shared storage and
Connectivity you just
need to make sure
that Xentools are
running on each
machine.
Either drag and drop
onto the required host
or right click on the
VM and choose
>migrate to server

2: XenServer
Dynamic memory
control permits
memory utilization of
existing VM’s to be
compressed so you
can add more
machines to the
node.
You need use the
memory tab > then
edit and chose a
minimum and
maximum allocation
based on your
requirements this
again is similar to the
memory reservation
function in Vsphere
though not as
advanced as TPS

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Step 5 - Configure Active Directory Authentication

1:AD integration is
very simple in
Xenserver, simply
click on the users tab
and then > Join
domain

2:Once you have

added your domain
you can then drill
down and add users
and apply
permissions based on
roles, Simply use the
> add user button
and then choose the
required role

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Summary

As you can see XenServer 5.5 is very simple to configure the new licensing
model means with the advanced edition you now have the option for HA, Memory
over commit, Snapshots and live migrations all for around 700 pounds per
server, I think this is a great fit for server hosting and VDI environments.

Feature Free Advanced Enterprise Platinum

XenServer hypervisor

XenMotion® live migration

Free VM Disk Snapshot and Revert
virtual
infrastructure XenCenter multi-server management

Resilient distributed management architecture

Conversion tools

High availability

Memory optimization

Performance alerting and reporting

Automated workload balancing

Heterogeneous pools

Advanced Host power management

management
Provisioning services (virtual)
and
automation Role-based administration

Live memory snapshots and reverts

Citrix® StorageLink™

Lifecycle management

Provisioning services (physical)

Site recovery

Cost per server Free $1,000 $2,500 $5,000

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