Unattended Installation of XenServer Tools

This article describes about the unattended installation of XenServer Tools using Microsoft’s Windows Installer program, msiexec. Background XenTools delivered with XenServer 6.1 version are able to make use of Microsoft’s Windows Installer program, msiexec. One of those is a way to install...

XenServer in High Availability Enabled Pool is Unresponsive and Does not Self-Fence

A XenServer in a High Availability enabled pool is unresponsive. The Virtual Machines on that host might not work, or are unable to stop, or unable to migrate any Virtual Machines...

How to Validate If XenServer is Using Bridge or vSwitch for the Network Stack

This article describes how to validate if XenServer is using Bridge or vSwitch for the network stack. By default, XenServer 6.x uses vSwitch as the network stack when the host is installed. At some point, the XenServer administrator might have changed the network stack to Bridge. When attempting ...

How to use PING to check for proper MTU level for fragmentation for storage networks

There are many times in XenServer environments where the customer will have implemented MTU of 9000 to be able to enjoy the benefits of Jumbo Frames. While this is 100% supported, it is not 100% recommended. For the best customer experience we need to be able to suggest, test, and implement the...

How to Reattach a Forgotten Integrated StorageLink (iSL) Storage Repository

This article describes how to reattach a forgotten Intergrated StorageLink iSL Storage Repository SR. Requirements CLI access to XenServer master host XenCenter Access...

How to Remove a XenServer Slave when it No Longer Exists in the Pool

XenCenter shows the red icon of the XenServer Slave that no longer exists in the pool.You want to eliminate that XenServer Slave but you receive the following error message when you issue the command from XenServer Master xe host-forget of that Slave. "This host cannot be forgotten because there...

Error: The Pool Failed to Enable External Authentication in XenServer

When attempting to enable external pool authentication in a XenServer 5.6 Feature Pack 1 pool, the operation fails with one or more of the following errors: “Error: The pool failed to enable external authentication.” “Error: Enabling Active Directory Authentication on pool '' - Could not enable...

How to Mount a CIFS (Windows File System) Share in XenServer Using the Command Line Interface

This article describes how to mount a CIFS Windows file system share in XenServer using the Command Line Interface CLI. Requirements Basic knowledge of Linux Administrator root access to XenServer host using the Command Line Interface CLI Windows username and password to access Windows share to b...

How to Configure XenServer 6.x Multi-GPU Passthrough for XenDesktop HDX 3D Pro Graphics

This article describes how to configure XenServer 6.0 with XenDesktop for HDX 3D Pro Graphics so that a host workstation with multiple graphics cards can be shared by an equal number of concurrent high-end professional graphics users one user per GPU, thereby reducing the cost per user. Hardware...

How to Remove a Server from a XenServer Pool that Contains Only One Host

This article describes how to remove a server from a XenServer pool that contains only one server. The procedure to remove servers is also described in the XenCenter help. When you remove a server from a pool that contains only one server Pool Master, the pool will be deleted and the Pool Master...

High Availability Behavior When the Heartbeat is Lost in a XenServer Pool

This article describes High Availability HA behavior in situations when the heartbeat is lost on XenServer 5.x. HA does not check the link state of the interfaces. It rather works on the bases of HA Host Groups and Network Partitions. HA Daemon chooses the larger of the network partitions to take...

How to Evaluate the Read Speeds on the Block Type Storage Repositories for XenServer

This article describes how to evaluate theread speedsof the Storage Repository SR of block device, including LVM, LVM over HBA, iSCSI, NetApp and Dell EqualLogic. Requirements Ensure that the SR is configured properly and for NetApp or Dell EqualLogic type, at least one virtual disk is created...

Alternate Method to Reverse Image Provisioning Services vDisks (XenServer Direct VHD Boot)

This article describes an alternate method to Reverse Image Provisioning Services vDisks XenServer Direct VHD Boot. Note : Reverse imaging a Provisioning Services PVS vDisk is not the only way to get a vDisk back to your hypervisor for updates. This article explains the versatility associated wit...

Partition Details are Not Displayed After a Clean Install of XenServer 6.x

On a clean install of XenServer 6.0 or later, the detailed partition does not appear for XenServer boot disk when you run the command,fdisk –l. On XenServer 6.0 or later and running thefdisk –l command, following shows the output and does not display any partition details of the booting disk. Pri...

Considerations for Connecting XenServer to the Switch Ports

This article contains information about connecting XenServer to a switch. Background Switch ports must be configured differently for a XenServer host as opposed to a standard computer. The following considerations are recommended when connecting a XenServer to a switch: If using Spanning Tree...

How to Create an ISO Storage Repository by Using a CIFS Share with NTLMv2 Authentication Enabled

This article describes how to create an ISO Storage Repository by using a CIFS share with NTLMv2 authentication enabled. When Group Policy Object GPO of the Windows domain enforces NTLMv2 authentication, you are unable to create the ISO Storage Repository by using XenCenter. The following procedu...

How to Configure XenServer to Send System Alerts through Authenticated SMTP Servers

This article describes how to configure XenServer to send system alerts through SMTP servers that require authentication. Requirements Administrative access to a XenServer host console either directly, through SSH, or by using theConsoletab in XenCenter. Background Customers can configure XenServ...

PVS Console Crashes while using XenDesktop Setup Wizard

After entering the Credentials to get the list of templates from the Hypervisor, the following error appears: "Microsoft Management Console has stopped working" Note : The issue does not occur with XenServer as Host Connections to XenServer do not allow the port number in the address...

How to Replace a Network Interface Card in a XenServer Host

This article describes the procedure to replace a Network Interface Card NIC in a XenServer Host. For example, the procedure can be used to replace a faulty NIC. Requirements The XenServer host must be standalone and not joined to a resource pool. Replacing the NIC used as management interface...

Static IP loss when updating to VM Tools for Windows 9.3.3 or earlier

Sometimes, when the drivers for XenServer VM Tools for Windows are updated through Windows Update, the static IP settings are lost and the network settings change to use DHCP. Important: This issue persists when updating from versions earlier than 9.3.3. This issue is fixed for updates from 9.3.3...