Using xe how to boot a VM in XenServer

After we have installed XenServer  there is a time to spin up an VM to test. Below are is a litle script that create a VM (code is based on: http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Installing_Linux_on_Kronos ).

	#!/bin/bash
	set -e
	set -x
	template=`xe template-list name-label="Ubuntu Lucid Lynx 10.04 (64-bit)" --minimal`
	vm=`xe vm-install template=$template new-name-label=vm-label`
	network=`xe network-list bridge=xenbr0 --minimal`
	vif=`xe vif-create vm-uuid=$vm network-uuid=$network device=0`
	xe vm-param-set uuid=$vm other-config:install-repository=http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu
	xe vm-param-set uuid=$vm PV-args="auto-install/enable=true interface=auto netcfg/dhcp_timeout=600 hostname=vm-host-name domain=mydomain.is.best"
	xe vm-start uuid=$vm

view raw spin-vm.sh hosted with ❤ by GitHub

This create and starts the VM. You need to connect over the console port and follow the installer questions. We don't need anything media or ISO files. The installer will automatically download all necessary files.

Once your VM is created you can shutdown it, export it to XVA image. Later on we can restore the VM by simply importing it back. We can use the XVA file as well to create further more VMs for testing.

	xe vm-export filename=vm-label1-export1.xva vm=vm-label
	for i in $(seq 2 10); do
	name="vm-$i"
	echo -n "creating vm $name "
	uuid=$(xe vm-import filename=vm-label1-export1.xva preserve=false)
	xe vm-param-set name-label=$name uuid=$uuid
	xe vm-start vm=$name
	done

view raw import-vms.sh hosted with ❤ by GitHub

References

http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Installing_Linux_on_Kronos
http://krypted.com/tag/list_domains

Docs on Citrix site:

http://docs.vmd.citrix.com/XenServer/6.2.0/1.0/en_gb/

XenServer 6.2.0 Technical FAQ
XenServer 6.2.0 Release Notes
XenServer Product Documentation
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