XenServer load balancing with XO

Hi everyone! Today, I'll introduce you a new feature of Xen Orchestra [https://xen-orchestra.com]: live load balancing of your XenServer VMs. As usual here, we'll first explore quickly the concept of load balancing, then the problems, and finally our solution. Concepts Starting with Wikipedia

Beyond XenServer migration limits

If you are using extensively the Storage XenMotion feature [https://www.citrix.com/content/dam/citrix/en_us/documents/products-solutions/storage-xenmotion-live-storage-migration-with-citrix-xenserver.pdf?accessmode=direct] in XenServer [https://xen-orchestra.com/#!/xenserver], you probably encountered some limitations. Let's recap first what

Self Service dashboard

Coming for the Xen Orchestra [https://xen-orchestra.com] next release (4.15), here is a dashboard dedicated to the resource usage of your configured self-service for XenServer. You can read a recap of the feature itself in our previous blog post: XenServer self service portal [/blog/xenserver-self-

Xen Orchestra 4.14

XO 4.14 is now available with a brand new self-service system plus a full CloudInit support. And as usual, bug fixes and various enhancements. Self-service This is a feature we wanted for a long time. But it's not trivial. Users creating VMs leads to a

XenServer self service portal

This is something our Xen Orchestra [https://xen-orchestra.com] users asked for a long time: a self service portal for creating VMs without bothering the system administrator. But this is not something you make in few minutes, because giving access to VM creation means resource usage, and maybe uncontrolled

Full CloudInit power in XenServer

This is a new article, related to our previous CloudInit [https://xen-orchestra.com/blog/cloudinit-support-for-xenserver/] introduction, and how it works thanks to Xen Orchestra [https://xen-orchestra.com]: without any extra plugin to install on your hosts! Also, if you need help to build a template

Xen Orchestra 4.13

Welcome to XO 4.13! This one is all about security, stability and fixes, plus UI improvements. One of the major feature is the possibility to use SMB remote for full backups. SMB remotes You can add SMB (ex-CIFS) remotes for your backups. It doesn't work yet

PV vs PVHVM on next XenServer

Here is a new set of benchmarks using latest XenServer Beta (Dundee Beta 2), comparing Xen in PV and PVHVM modes[1]. And on a decent hardware (Haswell CPU with AVX2 instructions). Last benchmarks we made 2 years ago [https://xen-orchestra.com/blog/debian-pvhvm-vs-pv/] gave roughly

Xen Orchestra 4.12

Happy new year! And happy new release :) This one add 2 major things: continuous replication and continuous delta backup for your XenServer hosts. Without having any extra hardware or software to install, only with Xen Orchestra [https://xen-orchestra.com/#!/?pk_campaign=blog_4.12]. VM Continuous replication Protect your

XenServer VM continuous replication

What about having a continuous replication system for your XenServer VMs without any storage vendor lock-in? We just did it in Xen Orchestra [https://xen-orchestra.com/#!/?pk_campaign=blog_continuous_replication]. You can now replicate a VM every xx minutes/hours on a any storage repository. It could

Continuous Delta Backup

Less than one month after our first release of XenServer incremental backup [/blog/xenserver-incremental-backup/], we made a major improvement inside Xen Orchestra [https://xen-orchestra.com/#!/?pk_campaign=blog_continuous_backup]: Continuous Delta Backup. And we are very happy to present you this exclusive feature on XenServer! It

Create multiple VMs at once

Do you ever wanted to create multiple XenServer VMs at once? Until now, you needed to repeat the operation as often as necessary. Boring when you need to create 10 or even 100 VMs! What about now? We added an option inside Xen Orchestra [https://xen-orchestra.com/#!/?pk_campaign=

Create VMs ready in less than 30 sec

By ready, we mean: * from the click on "Create VM" * to a SSH access on a 100% working system And also from a generic template: which we can select the disk size dynamically and RAM/CPU. How can it be possible? Using CloudInit! You can find working templates

Debian cloud template for XenServer

TL;DR: a working and validated Debian 8 (Jessie) template is available here [https://cloud.vates.fr/index.php/s/jynIvCjhso47nR8/download] if you want. The story continue, after implementing the XenServer Cloud Init support [https://xen-orchestra.com/blog/cloudinit-support-for-xenserver/] in Xen Orchestra [https://xen-orchestra.

Xen Orchestra 4.11

Last release of the year! This 4.11 is among the biggest releases ever (45 issues/enhancements closed!) Some features of this version: * Delta backup * CloudInit support * Improved filtered search * XMPP alert plugin * VDI resizing and moving (working on any XenServer version!) * better XenServer 6.1/6.2 support The

Backup

XenServer incremental backup

Incremental backup is now possible with XenServer and Xen Orchestra.

CentOS cloud template for XenServer

TL;DR: a working template is available here [https://cloud.vates.fr/index.php/s/NoUNeaP24wf33Bn/download] if you want. After implementing the XenServer Cloud Init support [https://xen-orchestra.com/blog/cloudinit-support-for-xenserver/] in Xen Orchestra [https://xen-orchestra.com/#!/?pk_campaign=blog_cloud_centos], let'

CloudInit support for XenServer

We are proud to announce that you can now use the CloudInit system with XenServer, without any plugin to install on your hosts. Only by using Xen Orchestra [https://xen-orchestra.com/#!/?pk_campaign=blog_cloud_support]. Let's see what it can do for you and how to

Moving a VDI offline in XenServer

As you may know in XenServer, you can move a VDI -from a running VM- to another SR (Storage Repository). We exposed this feature almost 1 year ago in our article explaining how to move a VDI in live [blog/moving-vdi-in-live/]. But what about a VDI on

Set the XenServer default SR

💡This guide is 100% compatible with XCP-ng. In XenServer, the default SR (Storage Repository) is where your VDIs are stored by default. It's very useful for a lot of things, avoiding the user to configure itself for each operation. With Xen Orchestra Just go inside your pool

Recover or reinstall your XenServer PV VMs

This blog post will explain how to deal with your existing PV guests, when they can't boot anymore. The problem Typically, when you failed your installation of a PV guest, you got: The bootloader for this VM returned an error -- did the VM installation succeed? Error from bootloader:

Improved search for your XenServer infrastructure

Here is some news about a nice improvement coming in the next version of Xen Orchestra: an improved search bar. Our previous search system worked for filtering in live VM/host/SR/pool name, IP address, tags and whatever inside those objects. But what about advanced requests? We wanted to

XMPP notifications for XenServer backups

Since last release [/blog/xen-orchestra-4-10/], we added email notifications for all backup events (full backup [https://xen-orchestra.com/docs/full_backups.html], rolling snapshots [https://xen-orchestra.com/docs/rolling_snapshots.html] or even DR [https://xen-orchestra.com/docs/delta_backups.html]): Not fun enough?

Xen Orchestra 4.10

Last release of the month! This one is pretty big: * 30+ issues/enhancements closed * 10 new usable features * a lot of improvements * and multiple bug fixes! In few words: we finished the first batch of backup features, and we included a lot of things you'll love :) The official

Auto start VM on XenServer boot

This article explains how to start automatically a VM when you boot or reboot your XenServer host. Indeed, if for a reason you need to restart your host (or if it reboots for any "non-planned" reason), it's a good thing to have your VM started