Debian 8 Jessie on XenServer 6.5

Olivier Lambert

• 2 min read

Just after the fresh release of XenServer 6.5, and maybe an upgrade from 6.2, we'll start to enjoy the new possibilities!

The first one is to install Debian 8 (Jessie) without any glitches. For those who tried on 6.2 and before, you know the deal: you can't boot your VM, due to an old version of pyGrub (used to read your VM Grub configuration and boot the PV domain). It's explained in this post, on the official Citrix forum. The workaround was to create a HVM guest.. or to wait for the next release of XenServer!

Let's see now if this 6.5 solves the problem!

Creating the VM

For this tutorial, we are using the web interface Xen Orchestra to install this VM. Do not hesitate to take a look on the features page in video, it could be relevant for your needs.

First, let's go to the VM creation page by clicking on Create VM:

You can choose the template Debian Wheezy 7.0 (64-bit), it doesn't matter, because we'll use the last ISO of Debian Jessie available here. Choose the name and description you want:

Now, click on Create VM:

You're done!

Installation

Classic: choose the language, keymap and answer other questions given by the Debian installer. As you can see, we are doing everything in Xen Orchestra, directly in the console view. Note the presence of the ISO loaded on the top:

When it's done (rebooted and without the install CD mounted), the system is fully operational:

XenServer tools

Now, it's time to install the XS tools: this program is a daemon getting more metrics in your guest system, and send them to your host. Just mount the xs-tools.iso in the console view:

Then:

  • mount the CD in the system with a mount /dev/cdrom /mnt
  • install the agent with dpkg -i /mnt/Linux/xe-guest-utilities_6.5.0-1393_amd64.deb
  • unmount the CD with umount /mnt

That's it!