Virtualization using XenEnterprise with Dell PowerEdge Servers and ...

Virtualization using XenEnterprise 

with Dell PowerEdge Servers and 

Dell OpenManage 

Dell | Global Solutions Engineering 

www.dell.com/virtualization 

May 2007 

Dell Inc. 1 www.dell.com/virtualization

Table of Contents 

Table of Contents................................................................................................................... 2 

1 Introduction.................................................................................................................... 3 

2 Virtualization with Xen.................................................................................................. 3 

2.1 Open Source Xen Hypervisor ................................................................................. 3 

2.2 Paravirtualization vs. Emulation-Translation Virtualization .................................. 3 

3 XenEnterprise ................................................................................................................ 5 

3.1 Product Introduction................................................................................................ 5 

3.2 Product Features...................................................................................................... 5 

3.3 XenEnterprise differentiation from open source Xen ............................................. 6 

3.4 XenEnterprise Architecture..................................................................................... 7 

4 Dell PowerEdge Servers and Features........................................................................... 8 

5 XenEnterprise Installation ............................................................................................. 8 

5.1 How to get XenEnterprise binaries and licenses..................................................... 8 

5.2 Installation on Dell PowerEdge servers .................................................................. 8 

5.2.1 Dell BIOS and Firmware Updates ................................................................... 8 

5.2.2 Configure Local Storage RAID ....................................................................... 9 

5.2.3 Install XenEnterprise 3.2 ................................................................................. 9 

5.3 Install Virtual Machines........................................................................................ 11 

6 Systems Management using Dell OpenManage .................................................. 14 

6.1 Dell Systems Management.................................................................................... 14 

6.2 Dell OMSA Install ................................................................................................ 14 

6.3 Using Dell IT Assistant (ITA) to manage XenEnerprise Hosts............................ 15 

7 Xen Support ................................................................................................................. 16 

7.1 Support available from XenSource ....................................................................... 16 

7.2 Community support using XenEnterprise forums and KnowledgeBase............... 16 

8 Additional Resources................................................................................................... 17 


1 Introduction 

Server Virtualization is fast becoming a fore-front technology in datacenters. Dell 

PowerEdge servers and storage coupled with XenEnterprise software from 

XenSource provide a compelling solution to realize a scalable and dynamic virtual 

datacenter. This paper describes an overview of XenSource’s XenEnterprise virtualization 

software and the installation and configuration steps for XenEnterprise on Dell PowerEdge 

servers and using Dell OpenManage to manage the XenEnterprise hosts. 

2 Virtualization with Xen 

2.1 Open Source Xen Hypervisor 

With Xen virtualization, a thin software layer known as the Xen hypervisor is inserted 

between the server’s hardware and the operating system. This provides an abstraction layer 

that allows each physical server to run one or more “virtual machines” or “guests”, 

effectively decoupling the operating system and its applications from the underlying 

physical server. 

Xen enables IT managers to increase utilization of server resources, achieve server 

consolidation, scale their test & development environments, and achieve greater business 

continuity through dynamic provisioning. 

2.2 Paravirtualization vs. Emulation-Translation Virtualization 

First generation hypervisors present each virtual machine with an emulated hardware layer 

that offers the guest operating system the illusion of a standard server with well-known 

hardware devices. When a running guest attempts to control the hardware using privileged 

instructions, the hypervisor stops execution and emulates the legacy hardware device, 

hiding the real hardware underneath. It then patches the operating system code of the 

running guest, in real time, to make its future hardware accesses virtualization safe. Of 

course, this complexity impacts performance, much as emulated floating-point computation 

did prior to the implementation of hardware floating-point support. 

The Xen hypervisor introduced a powerful virtualization architecture called 

paravirtualization, pioneered by the XenSource founders. Paravirtualization can deliver 

near-native performance to virtual machines while ensuring that physical resources are 

fairly shared between them. 

In Xen, guests interface with the hypervisor via the hypercall API, rather than through 

hardware emulation. This allows the hypervisor and operating system to cooperate to 

optimally virtualize the underlying hardware and schedule guest CPU and I/O, resulting in 

outstanding performance, security and portability. 


First Generation Virtualization 

• A mini-OS under the guests 

• Requires binary patching of the 

OS at runtime & device emulation 

• Hypervisor contains device drivers 

Xen Paravirtualization 

• Tiny efficient hypervisor ideally suited 

to hardware virtualization 

• Guests co-operate with hypervisor 

for resource management & I/O 

• Device drivers outside hypervisor 

• Significant performance gains for 

paravirtualized Linux guests 

Figure 1: Emulation vs. Paravirtualization 

A key advantage of Xen paravirtualization is that it can reuse the hardware qualification 

and driver certification of existing operating systems. The driver stack is simply a standard 

operating system, certified on the hardware by the system vendor, with specific privileges 

to perform I/O to real hardware on behalf of other guests. This use of an off-the-shelf 

operating system requires no need to port drivers into a separate hypervisor. 

XenEnterprise, built on top of open source Xen hypervisor, supports the same set of server 

hardware, storage and I/O devices as any Enterprise Linux distribution. 

Another important catalyst to virtualization is Intel’s VT and AMD’s AMD-V enabled 

chips, which simplify virtualization of the processor. Paravirtualization is ideally suited for 

this next generation advance hardware assist for virtualization from Intel and AMD. 

Basically, virtualization is accessible at the chip level in the newest processors, indicating a 

major shift in the adoption of server virtualization. Dell PowerEdge 1950, 1955, 2900, 

2950, 2970, 6850 and 6950 servers support hardware assist for virtualization. Both Intel 

VT and AMD virtualization provide a processor-level hardware-accelerated vector that 

automatically enters the hypervisor (akin to a “hardware hypercall”) when a running guest 

executes a privileged operation. Intel and AMD also offer new instructions allowing Xen 

guests to benefit from fast paravirtualized I/O. 

With the majority of the server market running Windows, the XenServer product family 

makes it easy for Windows IT professionals to adopt the Xen architecture, leveraging the 

performance advantages of paravirtualization for consolidation. IT organizations will be 


able to consolidate Windows servers secure in the knowledge that their use is supported by 

Microsoft. 1 

3 XenEnterprise 

3.1 Product Introduction 

The XenServer product family delivers to the mainstream market the power of Xen 

paravirtualization in a full featured, enterprise ready, and easy-to-use virtualization 

solution. It is the industry’s first open, enterprise class virtualization platform enabling 

multiple levels of consolidation across the mainstream server continuum. It incorporates 

the Xen hypervisor, easy to use installers for Xen and guests, Physical to Virtual (P2V) 

conversion tools for virtualization of existing server operating system installations, and a 

multi-server management console in a single affordable package. 

3.2 Product Features 

XenEnterprise is a virtualization platform for multiple guest operating systems (Windows 

and Linux) that: 

• Supports both paravirtualized and fully virtualized guests 

• Uses Intel VT or AMD-V hardware virtualization assist available on all Dell 9th 

generation servers to run Windows and other unmodified guests 

• Delivers fast paravirtualized I/O for all guests 

• Enables Windows guests with support from Microsoft for their Premier Support 

customers 

XenEnterprise brings all of the benefits of Xen paravirtualization to the multi-OS 

virtualization market, meeting the IT department need for support of legacy Windows and 

Linux, and the upcoming releases of operating systems with paravirtualization support 

from Microsoft and enterprise Linux vendors. 

The product leverages the hardware assisted virtualization features of Intel VT and AMD- 

V processors to virtualize Windows. The offering includes enhancements for legacy 

operating systems, offering the benefits of Xen paravirtualization to every guest virtual 

server. 

The combination of paravirtualization and hardware-assisted virtualization, coupled with 

the enhanced disk and network drivers for Windows supplied in XenEnterprise, can deliver 

performance that is comparable to the performance of other leading virtualization platforms 

across a broad range of Windows benchmarks. In Linux benchmarks, reported 

paravirtualization speedups exhibited by Linux guests have been seen in double-digit 

percentage improvements over traditional binary translation virtualization.) For a detailed 

performance analysis, refer to the white paper entitled “A Performance Comparison of 

Commercial Hypervisors.” at http://www.xensource.com/performancepaper200703. 

1 XenSource Press Release: http://www.xensource.com/news/pr040306.html 


XenEnterprise provides a single fully compatible platform virtualization architecture that 

scales to the needs of IT from the desk-side to the lab to the production environment, 

offering simple license-based upgrades; there is no need to reinstall server software or to 

convert virtual machines to take advantage of the features of higher-end product versions. 

Consolidated deployment and management of servers in all roles is attained easily and costeffectively, 

including: 

• Mainstream, highly consolidation-targeted workloads such as file, print, web, 

directory, and infrastructure services 

• Development, test, and support of multiple environments and multi-tier applications 

• Branch office and departmental consolidation 

By mid-2007, an increased range of data center class features are expected to be added to 

XenEnterprise. Upcoming features will include: 

• A 64-bit hypervisor, offering support for 64-bit and 32-bit guests, as well as 

increased physical and guest memory 

• Support for shared storage, as well as enhanced Fibre Channel and iSCSI 

integration 

• Live and static migration of guest virtual machines between servers 

• An XML-RPC API offering control of virtual machine lifecycle, server and storage 

configuration, offering enhanced scripting and management software integration 

3.3 XenEnterprise differentiation from open source Xen 

In addition to the efficient, high-performance virtualization platform provided by the Xen 

hypervisor, XenEnterprise delivers the components of a full platform virtualization 

solution, making it the easiest way for IT organizations to implement the full value and 

capabilities of Xen virtualization. 

The added value attributes include: 

• A simplified bare-metal installer that allows IT staff to prepare a Dell server for 

Xen virtualization in minutes, either by booting it from CD (or virtual CD provided 

by the Dell Remote Access Controller (DRAC) management interface) and 

answering a small number of simple questions or by preparing an answer-file and 

installing the software via PXE boot 

• Optimized disk and network drivers for Windows guests, making it possible to 

achieve high I/O performance for business-critical services. 

• A graphical Administrator interface through which system administrators can 

create, manage and monitor virtual machines and interact with their consoles (or, 

alternatively, launch other desktop interfaces such as Remote Desktop). The 

Administrator Console supports the management of multiple XenEnterprise servers 

and their associated virtual machines from a single easy-to-operate application from 

any Windows or Linux desktop. 

• A powerful command line interface for managing the lifecycle of virtual machines 

from creation through start/stop/suspend/resume iterations, managing the 

configuration and allocations of virtual machines and their associated storage. The 

command line interface can be run on the server or on any other Windows or Linux 


system, making it useful not only for interactive management, but also for scripted 

integration with other management tools. 

• The ability to clone virtual machines via either user interface, as well as to export 

them to a desktop system or another server, preparing them for import to the same 

or another XenEnterprise system. This functionality makes it possible to maintain a 

library of standard server images, to share server images between organizations, and 

to acquire software pre-loaded in “virtual appliances” from open source projects, 

software vendors including XenSource Technology Partners, and other users. 

• Guest installers and physical-to-virtual (P2V) conversion tools for common Linux 

distributions, providing rapid implementation and deployment of Linux virtual 

machines. 

XenSource also offers two other server virtualization products aimed at different 

price/functionality points: 

• XenServer, offering high-performance virtualization for Windows guests with the 

same multi-server management available in XenEnterprise 

• XenExpress, a free entry-level server virtualization product for Windows and Linux 

guests, with single-machine management 

Both of these products offer subsets of the capacity and features of XenEnterprise. A 

server can be upgraded at any time from XenServer or XenExpress to XenEnterprise 

without loss of virtual machine configuration information – in many cases, simply by 

entering a new license key. 

3.4 XenEnterprise Architecture 

XenEnterprise is based on the Xen hypervisor, which is loaded at boot time directly on the 

server hardware. It in turn boots an initial privileged virtual machine, known as Domain 0. 

Domain 0 virtual machine is based on the CentOS 4 distribution. 

Domain 0 provides the management services for other virtual machines. Within it, the 

“backend” I/O drivers that provide access to devices perform I/O on behalf of the 

“frontend” drivers in other guests; these I/O operations are passed through a highperformance 

memory-mapped communications channel within the Xen hypervisor, known 

as XenBus. 

It also runs the agent infrastructure used to provide and coordinate management services, 

and is accessed by the graphical and command line administrative interfaces, providing 

lifecycle control functionality for virtual machines. Interactions with the hypervisor are 

then performed via the control API, for which processes running in Domain 0 serve as the 

client for the server provided by the hypervisor. 

For guests using hardware-assisted virtualization (principally Windows guests, but also 

modern Linux guests taking advantage of installation processes using in-place P2V 

technology), the open source QEMU emulator provides basic I/O services for installation 

and boot, until the optimized paravirtualized drivers are loaded, as well as support services 

for lower-speed devices such as CDROM. 


Figure 2: XenEnterprise Architecture 

4 Dell PowerEdge Servers and Features 

The Dell PowerEdge 1950, 1955, 2900, 2950, 2970 and 6950 servers provide an ideal 

choice to host virtualized infrastructure. Dell servers are optimally designed to meet 

demands of virtualized workloads with latest features such as Intel® VT, AMD®-V, quad 

core processors, large memory support, PCI Express I/O, support for Serial Attached SCSI 

(SAS), Fibre Channel storage at 4Gbps speed and low power consumption. With standards 

based scalable architecture, Dell PowerEdge servers help enterprises to seamlessly grow 

their datacenters with increase in demand. For specific information and comparison of 

different server capabilities, please refer to the Dell Product Specifications Guide. 

5 XenEnterprise Installation 

5.1 How to get XenEnterprise binaries and licenses 

Customers can download a 30 day trial version of XenEnterprise 3.2 at: 

http://xensource.com/products/xen_enterprise 

For information on purchasing perpetual or subscription licenses via XenSource Solution 

Provider partners or the XenSource online store, visit http://xensource.com/buy 

5.2 Installation on Dell PowerEdge servers 

This section describes the necessary steps to install XenEnterprise on Dell servers. For the 

purpose of this white paper, a Dell PowerEdge 2950 server with PERC 5/I storage 

controller was used; however the steps should be same for other server models. 

5.2.1 Dell BIOS and Firmware Updates 

Make sure that you have the latest BIOS and firmware for your server and peripherals. 

Latest releases of BIOS and Firmware can be downloaded from http://support.dell.com 


Enable Virtualization Technology (if available on your server) in BIOS: 

1. Select F2 during server boot process to enter the Server Setup. 

2. Select CPU Information and then Virtualization Technology. 

3. Using Left/Right arrow keys, set Virtualization Technology to ‘Enabled’. 

5.2.2 Configure Local Storage RAID 

Boot the server and enter the configuration menu for Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller 

(PERC) by pressing Ctrl-R during controller initialization. Depending on the number of 

local drives and performance/availability requirements, create a RAID volume: 

1. Select the Controller, press F2 and select ‘Create new VD’ 

2. Hit Enter to select the RAID level of the virtual disk. 

3. Hit Tab and space bar to select physical drives to be part of the new virtual disk. 

4. Hit Tab to enter the name for the virtual disk. 

5. Select OK 

6. Initialize the virtual disk: Select the newly created virtual disk. 

7. Hit F2, select Initialization and then Fast Initialization. 

8. Exit the menu and reboot the system. 

5.2.3 Install XenEnterprise 3.2 

XenEnterprise 3.2 Installation 

Insert the XenEnterprise 3.2 Install CD into the desired server. Reboot the server and select 

F11 to bring up the boot menu. Select IDE CD-ROM. (Installation of XenEnterprise can 

also be performed remotely by using Dell Remote Access Controller (DRAC) Virtual 

CD/DVD ROM functionality). The system loads the installer for XenEnterprise 3.2. Select 

the appropriate options for various installation steps: 

1. Select Keymap: Select default US or appropriate regional key map. Hit Enter. 

2. Select ‘Install XenServer Host’ to install a fresh copy of XenEnterprise 3.2. Hit 

Enter and confirm installation. Note that a fresh install will wipe all data on the 

storage. XenEnterprise also supports conversion of a physical system to a virtual 

machine on a XenEnterprise Host. Select ‘Convert an existing OS on this machine 

to a XenVM (P2V)’ in case such a conversion is desired. Refer to XenEnterprise 

Users Guide for more information on P2V conversion. 

3. Read through the End User’s License Agreement (EULA) and select ‘Accept 

EULA’ to proceed with installation. 

4. If the server does not have Intel Virtualization Technology (VT) or AMD-V 

enabled, the install process will invoke an error for the same. XenEnterprise 

requires Intel VT or AMD-V to run unmodified operating systems like Windows. 

5. Select ‘Local media (CD-ROM)’ as the source for installation binaries and select 

Ok. If the XenEnterprise server will be used to run Linux VMs, select Yes on the 

next screen to install Linux Pack from the second CD. 

6. Choose to continue with or skip verification of the installation source. 

7. Specify the root password for your XenEnterprise host. This password is used to 

connect the server from the administrator console. 

8. Specify the geographical and localized area for the host’s location. 


9. Select the method for setting system time. Choose ‘Manual time entry’ in case no 

NTP server is available. 

10. Specify networking configuration for the network devices on the server. 

11. Select ‘Install XenServer’ to start installation. The installation of XenEnterprise 3.2 

will start. 

12. If you selected to install the Linux Pack, the install process will ask to insert the 

Linux Pack CD. Insert the CD into the server, and follow subsequent instructions. 

Storage Repositories for Virtual Machines 

XenEnterprise uses Logical Volume Manager (LVM) to virtualize physical storage and 

create storage for virtual machines. A default installation of XenEnterprise creates two 

4GB partitions: one for XenEnterprise code and utilities and the other for storing VM 

snapshots, backups, etc. The rest of the space is used to create storage for virtual machines. 

A logical volume is created for each virtual disk attached to a VM. A collection of physical 

disks and logical volumes is called a Storage Repository (SR). Apart from the logical 

volumes for virtual machines, a separate volume inside an SR holds virtual machine 

configuration files. Each virtual machine image is called a Virtual Disk Image (VDI). So a 

Storage Repository, managed as a single instance, contains VDIs and associated 

configuration files. 

Multiple SRs can be attached to a XenEnterprise host, however at this time only one SR 

can be active at any given time. Administrators can create SRs and attach to the 

XenEnterprise host using the command line interface. After XenEnterprise installation 

administrators can add extra disks to the server, or attach external direct connect storage 

like Dell PowerVault storage or Fibre Channel SAN such as Dell|EMC CLARiiON storage 

to create storage repositories. 

Create a new Storage Repository: 

To create a new SR on a partition say /dev/sdb, issue the following command on the 

XenEnterprise host: 

$ sm create /dev/sdb 

The XenEnterprise Storage Manager creates a new SR and returns a unique identifier 

(UUID). 

To make the newly created SR as the default SR for virtual machines, follow the below 

steps: 

1. Mark the newly created SR as active: 

$ xe host-sr-set -u root sr-id=rep_uuid active=true 

where rep_uuid is the UUID of the newly created SR 

2. Attach the SR to XenEnterprise host: 

$ sm attach none 

3. Restart storage and xenagenet services: 

$ service smtab restart 

$ service xenagentd restart 

4. The newly created SR should now be visible in the output of the following 

command: 

$ sm info 


Install Administrator Console 

XenEnterprise Administrator Console is a JAVA based application required to manage one 

or multiple XenEnterprise hosts and virtual machines. The Administrator Console needs to 

be installed on a separate Windows or Linux server. 

Installation on a Windows server: 

1. Insert the XenEnterprise CD into the Windows server. Open the ‘client_install’ 

directory on the CD and start the installation by double clicking on the 

xenserver_client.exe file. 

2. Follow through the installation wizard and complete the installation. 

3. After the installation is complete, open the administrator console from Start->All 

Programs->XenSource XenServer->Administrator Console 

Installation on a Linux server: 

1. Mount the XenEnterprise CD on the linux server: 

$ mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom 

2. Navigate to client_install directory: 

$ cd /mnt/cdrom/client_install 

3. Install the required RPMs: 

$ rpm –ivh *.rpm 

4. Open the Administrator console: 

$ xenserver-client 

5.3 Install Virtual Machines 

Use Administrator Console to create/configure virtual machines 

As mentioned earlier, among many other features, the Administrator Console enables 

administrators to create and configure virtual machines. Follow the below steps to create 

virtual machines on the newly installed XenEnterprise Host: 

Add Host to Administrator Console 

1. Add the XenEnterprise Host as a managed host to the Administrator Console. Inside 

the Administrator Console interface, select File->Add XenServer Host. Provide the 

DNS name or the IP and password for the newly installed XenEnterprise host. 

Check Remember Me to store host information for subsequent administrator console 

sessions. 

2. After the host has been added, provide the host with a valid license key. Dell 

recommends putting all license key files on the server where Administrator Console 

is installed. Right click on the host, and select License Key. Provide the correct path 

to your XenEnterprise license file and click Apply License. The appropriate 

licensing information should appear under the Overview tab. 


Figure 3: XenEnterprise Administrator Console 

Install Virtual Machines 

The following section describes steps to create a Windows 2003 Server and a Red Hat 

Enterprise Linux 4 virtual machine. 

Creating a Windows 2003 Server virtual machine (VM): 

1. Insert the Windows 2003 Server installation CD into the server or connect the OS 

ISO using DRAC Virtual Media. 

2. Select the XenEnterprise Host and click on Install XenVM button. The virtual 

machine configuration tab will appear. 

3. Select Windows Server 2003 Standard/Enterprise for the Install From field. 

4. Provide a name, say Windows2003EE_VM1, for the VM. 

5. Provide a description, say Windows File Share Server, for the VM. 

6. Provide the number of Virtual CPUs for the VM. XenEnterprise 3.2 allows for a 

maximum of 4 virtual CPUs to be exposed to a Windows VM. 

7. Provide the amount of memory to be assigned for this virtual machine. You can 

allocate a maximum of 8192MB of memory to a Windows VM. 

8. Check Start on Server Boot checkbox to automatically start the virtual machine 

each time after the XenEnterprise host boots. 

9. Select the CPU Weightage for the VM. XenEnterprise uses CPU Shares mechanism 

to prioritize the CPU availability when multiple VMs contend for CPU cycles. For 


example, in case of CPU time contention, a VM with High CPU Weightage will be 

awarded twice the CPU cycles as compare to a VM with Normal, and four times the 

CPU cycles as compared to a VM with a Low CPU Weightage. 

10. Click the Install button to start the OS installation. Click on the Graphical Console 

to display the Windows setup program. The installation instructions are same as for 

any physical server install. 

11. After the installation process completes, install the high performance 

paravirtualized drivers. Click on the CD-ROM drive pull-down in the upper left 

corner of VM graphical console. Select XenSource Windows Tools, to start the 

driver installation process. Follow the instructions to install the drivers. 

Figure 4: Virtual Machine Configuration from Administrator Console 

Creating a paravirtualized Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 4 virtual machine (VM): 

To install a paravirtualized RHEL VM, the installation source needs to be on a network 

location, exported via NFS, HTTP or FTP. 

1. Select the XenEnterprise Host and click on Install XenVM button. The virtual 

machine configuration tab will appear. 

2. Select Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.4 Repository for the Install From field. 

3. Provide a name and description for the VM. 

4. Provide the number of Virtual CPUs for the VM. XenEnterprise 3.2 allows for a 

maximum of 32 virtual CPUs to be exposed to a Linux VM. 

5. Provide the amount of memory to be assigned for this virtual machine. You can 

allocate a maximum of 16384 MB of memory to a Linux VM. 

6. Check Start on Server Boot checkbox to automatically start the virtual machine 

each time after the XenEnterprise host boots. 

7. Select the CPU Weightage for the VM. 

8. Click the Install button to start the guest OS installation in text mode. Click the Text 

Console tab to display the installation screen. The installation instructions are same 

as for any physical server install. 

9. Refer to ‘Appendix B: Configuring VNC for XenVMs’ for specific steps to enable 

graphical console for Linux VMs. 


For more information on creating and configuring other types of virtual machines, refer to 

the XenServer Users Guide. 

6 Systems Management using Dell OpenManage 

6.1 Dell Systems Management 

OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) is a comprehensive systems management tool 

for PowerEdge servers. It provides easy-to-use management and administration of local 

and remote systems through a set of integrated management services. OMSA resides solely 

on the system being managed and is accessible both locally and remotely. Dell OMSA 

agent can be installed inside the Domain0, that is based on CenOS4 distribution. 

Dell IT Assistant (ITA) is a comprehensive and standards-based console for managing all 

Dell servers, storage, tape libraries, network switches, printers and clients systems. Among 

many features, ITA provides administrators with ability to: 

• Have web-based one-view console for Dell systems with red, yellow and green 

status indication 

• Capture events and alerts generated by Dell servers running OMSA 

• Configure actions based on events and alerts 

• Monitor server performance statistics such as CPU, memory, I/O, etc. 

6.2 Dell OMSA Install 

This section describes the steps necessary to install OMSA agent inside XenEnterprise 3.2 

Domain0. For the purpose of these steps, OpenManage 5.2 was used. Please note that 

OMSA is not supported by Dell inside a CentOS distribution as Dell has not tested OMSA 

in this environment. The below steps are provided to enable customers to manage 

XenEnterprise hosts, without any implied support or warranty. 

1. Download the Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Managed Node software 

package for RedHat Enterprise Linux 4 from http://support.dell.com 

2. Copy the tar.gz file to the XenEnterprise host. 

3. Extract the tar.gz file by using the command 

$ tar -zxvf yourfilename.tar.gz 

4. Edit the setup script to enable installation on XenEnterprise server: 

a. First, change the permissions of the setup.sh script to make it writeable: 

$ chmod +w setup.sh 

b. Then, edit the file: 

$ vi setup.sh 

c. Then, go to line 2976 and change the following lines 

# Set default values for return variables. 

GBL_OS_TYPE=${GBL_OS_TYPE_UKNOWN} 

GBL_OS_TYPE_STRING="UKNOWN" 

to 

# Set default values for return variables. 

GBL_OS_TYPE=${GBL_OS_TYPE_RHEL4} 

GBL_OS_TYPE_STRING="RHEL4" 


d. Save changes and close the file. 

5. Install the package compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-47.3 on the XenServer 

Host: 

$ cd linux/RPMS/supportRPMS 

$ rpm –ivh compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-47.3.i386.rpm 

6. Download and install the following packages from 

http://mirror.centos.org/centos/4/os/i386/CentOS/RPMS/ 

$ rpm –ivh procmail-3.22-14.i386.rpm 

7. Start the Dell OpenManage installation by using the command: 

$ ./setup.sh 

8. Follow the instructions on the screen and finish the installation. 

9. After installation finishes successfully, change the firewall settings to allow 

communication through the ports that OpenManage uses: 

a. Edit the firewall rules file: 

$ vi /etc/sysconfig/iptables 

b. Add the following firewall rules (in bold) in the INPUT section to open 

OpenManage and SNMP ports: 

:INPUT ACCEPT [0:0] 

-A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --sport 1024:65535 –-dport 

1311 -m state --state NEW -j ACCEPT 

-A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --sport 1024:65535 --dport 

1311 -j ACCEPT 

-A INPUT -p udp --dport 161 -j ACCEPT 

Save and close the file. 

c. Restart iptables service: 

$ service iptables restart 

10. Connect to the Dell OpenManage web interface of the server. Point the browser to 

https://yourserver:1311 and login with root username and password. 

6.3 Using Dell IT Assistant (ITA) to manage XenEnerprise Hosts 

ITA uses Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to manage the Dell servers 

running Linux OS distributions. On the XenServer host, you can configure the SNMP agent 

to change the community name, enable Set operations, and send traps to an IT Assistant 

system. Follow the below steps to configure XenServer host interaction with the ITA 

server. 

Changing the SNMP Community Name: 

1. In the file /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf, find the line that reads: 

com2sec notConfigUser default public 

2. Edit this line by replacing public with the new SNMP community name: 

com2sec notConfigUser default community_name 

Configure XenServer host to send SNMP Traps to ITA Server: 

1. Edit /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf and add the following line at the end of the file: 

trapsink 


where ITA_IP_Address is the IP address of the ITA server and community 

name is the SNMP community name. 

2. Save the snmpd.conf file and restart snmpd service 

$ service snmpd restart 

For more information on how to use IT Assistant, refer to the ITA User’s Guide at 

http://support.dell.com 

7 Xen Support 

7.1 Support available from XenSource 

XenSource presents its customers with a support offering that is designed to assist during 

all stages of product usage: 

• Assistance with problems when you are installing and configuring our products 

• Assistance in resolving problems and issues you encounter while in development or 

QA 

• Assistance in resolving availability and stability issues when you are operating in a 

production environment 

This program is offered on an annual fee basis. 

Customers enter support cases via a convenient web-based interface, making it possible to 

upload supporting information such as logs and screenshots easily. Response time 

commitments are dependent on the severity of the problem, that is, its impact on the 

customer’s operations. 

Often, customer issues can be addressed via investigation and explanation. In other cases, 

workarounds or even software fixes may be required; these will be delivered as appropriate 

to customers with support and maintenance agreements. 

For full details of the support offering see the Technical Support Guide at 

http://xensource.com/support 

7.2 Community support using XenEnterprise forums and 

KnowledgeBase 

All users of XenSource commercial products, including XenEnterprise, have access to 

freely available support resources (via http://xensource.com/support/). These resources 

include: 

• A searchable knowledgebase providing tips, “how-to” guides, and other commonly 

accessed information to enable users to make the most of their XenEnterprise 

experience 

• User support forums, in which customers can ask questions about the products and 

have them answered by the user community, including other customers, XenSource 

Solution Provider partners, XenSource Technology Partners, and XenSource 

personnel. 


• Online access to XenEnterprise product documentation 

8 Additional Resources 

• Dell Product Support: http://support.dell.com 

• Dell Virtualization Solutions Homepage: http://www.dell.com/virtualization 

THIS WHITE PAPER IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, AND MAY CONTAIN 

TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS AND TECHNICAL INACCURACIES. THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED 

AS IS, WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND. 

Dell, the Dell Logo and PowerEdge are trademarks of Dell Inc. Microsoft and Windows are 

registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Intel and Xeon are registered trademarks of Intel 

Corp. XenEnterprise and Xen are either registered trademark and/or trademark of XenSource, Inc. 

in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. AMD, AMD Opteron and AMD-V are trademarks or 

registered trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices. Other trademarks and trade names may be 

used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. 

Dell disclaims proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. 

Copyright 2007 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any manner whatsoever without the 

express written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden. For more information, contact Dell. 

Information in this document is subject to change without notice.

Virtualization using XenEnterprise with Dell PowerEdge Servers and ...

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