XEN SERVER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ARCHANA KUMAR, SUMIT KUMAR PROJECT PROGRESS REPORT 03/03/2011 Revised Project Goals:

Studying on memory optimization and implementing. Improve current XVP we have configured to include User-interface to support this memory optimization on Xen Server

Roadmap of the project (midterm/final)

Setting up the system and configuring XVP 1 weeks Learning Xen Server SDK & understanding source code of XVP 2 weeks Achieving integration of Xen server APIs & XVP 2 weeks (By midterm) Literature Review & Design 1 week Implementation of Memory optimization & Performance monitoring (simultaneous) 3 weeks Testing & Debugging 1 week (By Final Demo week)

Tasks Completed

Setting up the system - completed. Learning Xen Server SDK & XVP In progress. Integration of both the APIs by coding some sample programs - In progress [ XVP uses libxenserver].

About Virtual Machines installed:

CentOS 5.4 has been installed for the virtual machines in the server.

Installing XenServer API SDK:

1) Download Xen API SDK from http://community.citrix.com/display/xs/XenServer+SDK and unzip it. 2) Start xencenter on one windows machine. This machine is in same network in which XenServer is running. 3) Click on add server. 4) Enter IP address of xen server and press enter. Now the xencenter will be connected to the server. 5) Right click on xen server name and chose import. 6) Browse and chose XML file in unzipped Xen API SDK. This will add Xen Server SDK entry in Virtual machine browser of XenSever. Intially this entry will be yellow. 7) This import will take few minutes.Once the Xen SDK is imported status of SDK will become green. Now it is ready for use.

About XVP :
XVP is a open-source virtual machines management tool that can be used with Citrix Xen Servers and Xen Cloud Platform. xvpweb: A web front end for XenServer, running on Apache/PHP. xvpviewer: A Java applet for accessing XenServer consoles (used by xvpweb, of course). xvp: A server-side proxy for XenServer consoles, so that you can use ordinary VNC clients. xvpdiscover: A tool that queries a XenServer pool, and writes the appropriate configuration files for xvp and xvpweb. XVP is a very basic package that can be used to manage the virtual machines on Xen Server or XCP. Advantages: Just a browser is required. The VM consoles can be accessed using XVPviewer (uses Java applets). Platform-independent access to manage virtual machines. Can be enhanced with our own projects since it is a open-source. Supports role-based access configurations to server pools. The servers can be configured into pools with different users having different accesses to the different pools. Limitations: Monitoring does not currently support exhaustive displays as in a XenCenter performance monitor. Creating / Importing/ Exporting VMs not possible. Steps to Configure: 1) Download xvp virtual machine from http://www.xvpsource.org/?topic=releases&page=download. 2) xvpappliance can be installed either manually or using XenCenter. We used XenCenter to get it installed. Start XenCenter and connect it to XenServer. 3) Right click on XenServer name and choose import. 4) Browse downloaded xvp virtual machine and choose XVA file there. Now you will see one entry for xvp virtual machine in Xen server browser. The status will be yellow. 5) This import process can take few minutes. Once the import is done, the status of xvp virtual machine will start appearing green. 6) Go to the console of XVP VM. 7) Enter the password for root. 8) Configure the XVP by running the appliance using the command /usr/sbin/xvpappliance. 9) Do the network configuration for this virtual machine. The network domain of this machine and the system, from which xvpweb will be opened , should be the same. 10) Do configuration for email updates of available upgradation. 11) Add XenServer/ cloud platform pool to it using the IP address. 12) Create xvp users and assign them to pool. 13) Do the webserver configuration. For web interface choose https protocol.

14) Once the configuration is done. Quit the application. 15) On command prompt run xvp by typing service xvp start. 16) From the remote machine type the IP address of xvp virtual machine in web browser. 17) Enter xvp username and password there.

Challenges faced:
Configuring virtual machines & XVP on XenServer obtaining the right ISO images and configuring them. Changing IP address for Xenserver since the common lab is used when the network IP changes, again the DHCP configs for virtual images change, hence the xvpweb IP address also changes. Understanding code of XenServer & XVP still in progress.

References:
http://www.xvpsource.org/?topic=about&page=xvpappliance http://www.xenbear.com/2009/11/22/xvp/