XenServer Admin Scripts

N.B.: As I no longer use XenServer in a professional capacity, I have no plans to update this repository with code improvements, enhancements, or bug fixes.

These are works in progress for performing common XenServer CLI tasks. They are somewhat site-specific and have some known bugs.

This minimal documentation began as solely internal development notes before public release and needs enhancement.

Assumptions

name labels are unique among each type of object (VM, SR, network…); exception is local storage
name labels of default templates have not been changed from original values
each host has one local storage repository with name label ‘Local storage’ (only relevant if local storage is used)
host name label is same as hostname

Environment variables

These are used to set the XE_EXTRA_ARGS environment variable if it is not set:

XE_SERVER
XE_PORT
XE_USER
XE_PASSWORD

Reasons

common multi-step tasks are tedious with xe
name labels are more user-friendly than UUIDs
vm-uninstall leaves orphan VDIs

…to be completed.

Example of VM installation

Note that xs-vm-install-vm-from-template is slated for major revision, although the command-line syntax is not expected to be changed significantly.

# xs-vm-install-from-template -h
/root/bin/xs-vm-install-from-template: option requires an argument -- h

Install a VM from a bare template.

Usage: xs-vm-install-from-template [OPTION] [...]

-l    VM NAME LABEL
-c    NUMBER OF VCPUS
-m    MEMORY SIZE in MB
-h    DISK SIZE in GB
-s    STORAGE REPOSITORY NAME LABEL or UUID
-n    NETWORK NAME LABEL or UUID
-p    MAC ADDRESS (00:16:3e:xx:xx:xx)
-t    TEMPLATE NAME LABEL or UUID
-d    DISTRIBUTION (CentOS, Ubuntu, Debian)
-v    VERSION
-a    ARCHITECTURE (i386, x86_64)
-i    INSTALLATION REPOSITORY URL
-k    KICKSTART FILE URL
-r    PRESEED FILE URL
-o    LOG FILE LOCATION
# xs-vm-install-from-template -l iptest -c 1 -m 4096 -h 15 -s 'Local storage' -n vlan-996 -t 'CentOS 6 (32-bit)' -i http://10.1.0.1/CentOS/6/os/i386 -k http://10.1.0.1/linux-install/centos/centos-vm-tmp.ks

This template appears to be for CentOS.

This template appears to be for CentOS 6.

This template appears to be for a 32-bit installation.

Log xe commands to iptest.log [y/N]?: 

VM name label: iptest
Virtual CPUs: 1
Memory size: 4096 MB
Disk size: 15 GB
Storage repository name label: Local storage
Storage repository host: 
Storage repository UUID: 377d59f2-007a-b064-b1da-48309111b875
Network name label: vlan-996
Network UUID: 9923fbcb-a495-933a-3b4c-ab9264db3060
Template name label: CentOS 6 (32-bit)
Template UUID: f544f1ac-401a-6720-fa0b-5f679617cbf5
Distribution: CentOS
Version: 6
Architecture: i386
Installation repository URL: http://10.1.0.1/CentOS/6/os/i386
PV args: ks=http://10.1.0.1/linux-install/centos/centos-vm-tmp.ks ksdevice=bootif

Immediately start VM for installation [y/N]?: 

Continue [y/N]?: y
Installing from template...done.
VM UUID: e0c5be69-2332-06b2-4f34-98b3bb2c249b
Setting VCPUs...done.
Setting memory limits...done.
Destroying virtual disk image...done.
Creating virtual disk image...done.
VDI UUID: f6943978-5400-4c0c-bcdf-13dd171758a3
Creating virtual block device...done.
VBD UUID: 47653165-d6c8-f468-468b-3301ab1f5466
Creating virtual interface...done.
VIF UUID: 7883b029-0bbf-ac5e-e685-a0dc1449dda6
Setting installation repository...done.
Setting boot parameters...done.

The following command can be used to recreate this VM:

/root/bin/xs-vm-install-from-template -l iptest -c 1 -m 4096 -h 15 -s 377d59f2-007a-b064-b1da-48309111b875 -n 9923fbcb-a495-933a-3b4c-ab9264db3060 -t f544f1ac-401a-6720-fa0b-5f679617cbf5 -d CentOS -v 6 -a i386 -i http://10.1.0.1/CentOS/6/os/i386 -k http://10.1.0.1/linux-install/centos/centos-vm-tmp.ks

Remaining work

xs-* scripts [2/10]

[ ] set arg vars to avoid env vars; always initialize vars!
[ ] NFS mount scripts from XenGateway
[X] default to localhost for xs-vm-provision-local
[ ] vm_host() is a mess
[ ] vm-vnc-toggle for PV
[X] make VM a positional arg for xs-vm-*
[ ] use space-delimited lists instead of arrays where practical
[ ] consider more default verbosity with option to disable
[ ] use bash regex matching instead of grep

xs-vm-provision-local

[ ] rename to xs-vm-provision
[ ] support shared storage (default to host’s/pool’s default)

xs-vif-create/destroy

[ ] automatically plug/unplug VIFs on running VMs

xs-vm-install-from-template

[ ] use xs-functions
[ ] check for/reduce/remove hard-coded site-specific stuff
[ ] INSTALL_REPO_URL_BASE as optional environment variable
[ ] use pedantic IEC units instead of ambiguous MB/GB
[ ] cli bug?
[X] set VCPUs
[ ] HVM-boot-params for Other install media
[X] correct default PV-args for RHEL/CentOS vs. Debian/Ubuntu
[ ] prompt for PV-args with default string shown
[ ] prompt with default in case of only one option
[ ] PV text/vnc console connection option
[ ] interactive bugs
- [ ] empty string for dist
- [ ] empty string for arch
- [ ] empty string for version?

xs-vm-xenstore-config

[X] use name label as default hostname

juxj / xenserver-admin-scripts