Posts Tagged 'virtualization'

Convert Physical Windows Systems Into Virtual Machines To Be Run On A Linux Desktop

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Category: Software

Published on Tuesday, 20 February 2007 20:02

Written by Administrator

Hits: 8708

This article shows how you can convert a physical Windows system (XP, 2003, 2000, NT4 SP4+) into a VMware virtual machine with the free VMware Converter Starter. The resulting virtual machine can be run in the free VMware Player and VMware Server, and also in VMware Workstation and other VMware products. Vmware Converter comes in handy if you want to switch to a Linux desktop, but feel the need to run your old Windows desktop from time to time. By converting your Windows desktop into a virtual machine, you can run it under VMware Server/Player, etc. on your Linux desktop.

I Will try that this week end!

Basic operations with XEN server: export, import of VM templates and guests

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Category: Technical

Published on Friday, 23 July 2010 21:55

Written by Administrator

Hits: 15200

More and more I am using XEN at work, and here is a small how to of some very common operations.

Citrix® XenServer® is a complete, managed server virtualization platform built on the powerful Xen® hypervisor. Xen technology is widely acknowledged as the fastest and most secure virtualization software in the industry. XenServer is designed for efficient management of Windows® and Linux® virtual servers and delivers cost-effective server consolidation and business continuity.

By the way if you succeed installing XEN server on a Strato.com dedicated Linux server with a minimal downtime, contact me I am interested!

Basic operations

Determine the XEN guest uuid

This uuid is required to identify XEN guest.

# xe vm-list
uuid ( RO)           : 99bb0e42-0616-6f02-ed41-be48bb338280 
     name-label ( RW): server01
    power-state ( RO): running

Determine the XEN sr-uuid of a disk storage

A sr-uuid identify a storage resources attached to a XEN server, this unique id is required for some operations as it allow you for eample to import XEN guest into it.

Run as root, in the XEN server console

# xe sr-list
uuid ( RO)                : 99f191c4-4563-8672-7d8e-4602850fbeb0
        name-label ( RW): Local storage
        name-description ( RW): 
        host ( RO): xen01
        type ( RO): lvm
        content-type ( RO): user

Identify the locale storage by looking at the name-label and copy the uuid

Export XEN Guest

1. You need to stop the XEN guest prior to any operations
2. You need to determine the XEN guest uuid (see basic operations)
3. Mount a NFS / CIFS / Samba share if you want to move from one XEN server to another as the filename can be located anywhere.

Run as root, in the XEN server console

# xe vm-export vm=99bb0e42-0616-6f02-ed41-be48bb338280  filename=server01.xva

Import XEN Guest

1. You need to determine the XEN guest sr-uuid (see basic operations) : the storage unique id
2. Mount a NFS / CIFS / Samba share if you want to move from one XEN server to another as the filename can be located anywhere.

Run as root, in the XEN server console

# xe vm-import filename=server01.xva  sr-uuid=99bb0e42-0616-6f02-ed41-be48bb338280 

Export a XEN template to disk

1. Log to the XEN server where this template is located, and list all templates
2. Mount a NFS / CIFS / Samba share if you want to move from one XEN server to another as the filename can be located anywhere.

# xe template-list

If there is too much templates, you can filter with grep or by using name-label

# xe template-list  name-label="myTemplate label”
uuid ( RO) : c4962b6b-5678-a72b-85cd-e33f01b1320a
name-label ( RW): mytemplate label
name-description ( RW):

To export, run

# xe template-export uuid=c4962b6b-5678-a72b-85cd-e33f01b1320a filename=myTemplate.xva

You can see the export progression in tab “logs“ of that template in XEN-Center

Import a XEN template to a new XEN Server

1. Log to the XEN server where you want to import the new template
2. You need to determine the XEN guest sr-uuid (see basic operations) : the storage unique id

To import, run

# xe vm-import filename=myTemplate.xva  sr-uuid=99bb0e42-0616-6f02-ed41-be48bb338280 

TO be continued…

Make a VMWARE copy of a live Linux server

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Category: Technical

Published on Thursday, 18 June 2009 00:00

Written by Administrator

Hits: 16951

My idea is to be able to run my production server (STRATO- OpenSuse) hosting www.waltercedric.com  in a VMWARE instance. So I can test and make change to the operating first there before bringing down my host for several hours ;-)

I would like to duplicate the whole LINUX system (lets call it PROD for now), including data and make 2 VMWARE instance.. why two instances you may ask?

1. One will be called DEV, and be very instable by definition, it is always a copy of the TEST instance, and will be use to try dirty system changes, that may never be deployed to TEST or PROD
2. The instance named TEST will be by definition identical to the main server (or PROD). All changes made there has to be documented in small release notes so they can be applied to PROD.

I am in the process of documenting everything, and I will  provide You the set of scripts to make the whole things works. (mainly a bash file that use RSYNC to keep your new server TEST up to date with the PROD), First step is to copy the server on the fly and luckily this is the purpose of this article!

Read more: Make a VMWARE copy of a live Linux server