XCP-ng Getting Started

25th April 2024

The Host:
Get a USB stick, at least 8gb
Format the USB with Ventoy. Now it can be used to install Operating Systems AND store files.
Download the XCP-NG .ISO install image and copy it onto the USB
Boot your host, watch for whatever key lets you do a 1 time boot menu, F10 on my HP server hardware
Ventoy will display a menu of Operating Systems that you can install, pick XCP-NG, and confirm
Hit Next a dozen times and set a root password to get XCP-NG installed
On first boot XCP-NG will show you the IP address it got from DHCP. maybe take a cellphone photo
find a workstation and browse to that IP address
Deploy Xen Orchestra (XO) from https://vates.tech/deploy/ quick deploy never tells you the password :/

Setup Shared Disk: NFS is preferred for THIN provisioning. iScsi is bit faster but NO thin provision.

Setup a space/share for .ISO Operating System installable images. In Xen this is a different kind of share than VM space

Install your first VM. Shut it down when you are done.
Install the guest drivers (like VmWare Tools) by downloading them from https://xenserver.com/downloads (XenServer VM Tools for Windows v#). Install, reboot, Profit.

if you are installing Windows 11 you will need to enable Advanced Options, virtual TPM. Secure boot works well, too. These settings are backed up via the built-in backup option and portable across hosts and pools.

Screen resolution is only settable in the Bios? very inconvenient.

Source link

Update a host:
login using putty
yum check-update
yum update
y
shutdown -r

xe vm-list
uuid ( RO) : 24afcbdd-b145-4d5e-b4b3-949f57c59b96
name-label ( RW): Control domain on host: xcp-ng-1
power-state ( RO): running

uuid ( RO) : 7adc9f19-90b2-e3db-f5c4-454eae8b888a
name-label ( RW): XOA
power-state ( RO): halted

xe vm-start uuid=7adc9f19-90b2-e3db-f5c4-454eae8b888a