Virtualization using XenEnterprise with Dell PowerEdge Servers and

Dell OpenManage

Dell | Global Solutions Engineering www.dell.com/virtualization

May 2007

Dell Inc. 1 www.dell.com/virtualization

Table of Contents Table of Contents................................................................................................................... 2 1  Introduction.................................................................................................................... 3 2  Virtualization with Xen.................................................................................................. 3 

2.1  Open Source Xen Hypervisor ................................................................................. 3 2.2  Paravirtualization vs. Emulation-Translation Virtualization .................................. 3 

3  XenEnterprise ................................................................................................................ 5 3.1  Product Introduction................................................................................................ 5 3.2  Product Features...................................................................................................... 5 3.3  XenEnterprise differentiation from open source Xen ............................................. 6 3.4  XenEnterprise Architecture..................................................................................... 7 

4  Dell PowerEdge Servers and Features........................................................................... 8 5  XenEnterprise Installation ............................................................................................. 8 

5.1  How to get XenEnterprise binaries and licenses..................................................... 8 5.2  Installation on Dell PowerEdge servers .................................................................. 8 

5.2.1  Dell BIOS and Firmware Updates ................................................................... 8 5.2.2  Configure Local Storage RAID ....................................................................... 9 5.2.3  Install XenEnterprise 3.2 ................................................................................. 9 

5.3  Install Virtual Machines ........................................................................................ 11 6  Systems Management using Dell™ OpenManage™ .................................................. 14 

6.1  Dell Systems Management.................................................................................... 14 6.2  Dell OMSA Install ................................................................................................ 14 6.3  Using Dell IT Assistant (ITA) to manage XenEnerprise Hosts ............................ 15 

7  Xen Support ................................................................................................................. 16 7.1  Support available from XenSource ....................................................................... 16 7.2  Community support using XenEnterprise forums and KnowledgeBase............... 16 

8  Additional Resources ................................................................................................... 17 

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1 Introduction Server Virtualization is fast becoming a fore-front technology in datacenters. Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers and storage coupled with XenEnterprise™ software from XenSource™ provide a compelling solution to realize a scalable and dynamic virtual datacenter. This paper describes an overview of XenSource’s XenEnterprise virtualization software and the installation and configuration steps for XenEnterprise on Dell PowerEdge servers and using Dell OpenManage™ to manage the XenEnterprise hosts.

2 Virtualization with Xen

2.1 Open Source Xen Hypervisor With Xen virtualization, a thin software layer known as the Xen hypervisor is inserted between the server’s hardware and the operating system. This provides an abstraction layer that allows each physical server to run one or more “virtual machines” or “guests”, effectively decoupling the operating system and its applications from the underlying physical server. Xen enables IT managers to increase utilization of server resources, achieve server consolidation, scale their test & development environments, and achieve greater business continuity through dynamic provisioning.

2.2 Paravirtualization vs. Emulation-Translation Virtualization First generation hypervisors present each virtual machine with an emulated hardware layer that offers the guest operating system the illusion of a standard server with well-known hardware devices. When a running guest attempts to control the hardware using privileged instructions, the hypervisor stops execution and emulates the legacy hardware device, hiding the real hardware underneath. It then patches the operating system code of the running guest, in real time, to make its future hardware accesses virtualization safe. Of course, this complexity impacts performance, much as emulated floating-point computation did prior to the implementation of hardware floating-point support. The Xen hypervisor introduced a powerful virtualization architecture called paravirtualization, pioneered by the XenSource founders. Paravirtualization can deliver near-native performance to virtual machines while ensuring that physical resources are fairly shared between them. In Xen, guests interface with the hypervisor via the hypercall API, rather than through hardware emulation. This allows the hypervisor and operating system to cooperate to optimally virtualize the underlying hardware and schedule guest CPU and I/O, resulting in outstanding performance, security and portability.

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First Generation Virtualization

• A mini-OS under the guests

• Requires binary patching of the OS at runtime & device emulation

• Hypervisor contains device drivers

Xen Paravirtualization

• Tiny efficient hypervisor ideally suited to hardware virtualization

• Guests co-operate with hypervisor for resource management & I/O

• Device drivers outside hypervisor

• Significant performance gains for paravirtualized Linux guests

Figure 1: Emulation vs. Paravirtualization

A key advantage of Xen paravirtualization is that it can reuse the hardware qualification and driver certification of existing operating systems. The driver stack is simply a standard operating system, certified on the hardware by the system vendor, with specific privileges to perform I/O to real hardware on behalf of other guests. This use of an off-the-shelf operating system requires no need to port drivers into a separate hypervisor. XenEnterprise, built on top of open source Xen hypervisor, supports the same set of server hardware, storage and I/O devices as any Enterprise Linux distribution. Another important catalyst to virtualization is Intel’s VT and AMD’s AMD-V enabled chips, which simplify virtualization of the processor. Paravirtualization is ideally suited for this next generation advance hardware assist for virtualization from Intel and AMD. Basically, virtualization is accessible at the chip level in the newest processors, indicating a major shift in the adoption of server virtualization. Dell PowerEdge 1950, 1955, 2900, 2950, 2970, 6850 and 6950 servers support hardware assist for virtualization. Both Intel VT and AMD virtualization provide a processor-level hardware-accelerated vector that automatically enters the hypervisor (akin to a “hardware hypercall”) when a running guest executes a privileged operation. Intel and AMD also offer new instructions allowing Xen guests to benefit from fast paravirtualized I/O. With the majority of the server market running Windows, the XenServer product family makes it easy for Windows IT professionals to adopt the Xen architecture, leveraging the performance advantages of paravirtualization for consolidation. IT organizations will be

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able to consolidate Windows servers secure in the knowledge that their use is supported by Microsoft.1

3 XenEnterprise

3.1 Product Introduction The XenServer product family delivers to the mainstream market the power of Xen paravirtualization in a full featured, enterprise ready, and easy-to-use virtualization solution. It is the industry’s first open, enterprise class virtualization platform enabling multiple levels of consolidation across the mainstream server continuum. It incorporates the Xen hypervisor, easy to use installers for Xen and guests, Physical to Virtual (P2V) conversion tools for virtualization of existing server operating system installations, and a multi-server management console in a single affordable package.

3.2 Product Features XenEnterprise is a virtualization platform for multiple guest operating systems (Windows and Linux) that:

• Supports both paravirtualized and fully virtualized guests • Uses Intel VT or AMD-V hardware virtualization assist available on all Dell 9th

generation servers to run Windows and other unmodified guests • Delivers fast paravirtualized I/O for all guests • Enables Windows guests with support from Microsoft for their Premier Support

customers XenEnterprise brings all of the benefits of Xen paravirtualization to the multi-OS virtualization market, meeting the IT department need for support of legacy Windows and Linux, and the upcoming releases of operating systems with paravirtualization support from Microsoft and enterprise Linux vendors. The product leverages the hardware assisted virtualization features of Intel VT and AMD-V processors to virtualize Windows. The offering includes enhancements for legacy operating systems, offering the benefits of Xen paravirtualization to every guest virtual server. The combination of paravirtualization and hardware-assisted virtualization, coupled with the enhanced disk and network drivers for Windows supplied in XenEnterprise, can deliver performance that is comparable to the performance of other leading virtualization platforms across a broad range of Windows benchmarks. In Linux benchmarks, reported paravirtualization speedups exhibited by Linux guests have been seen in double-digit percentage improvements over traditional binary translation virtualization.) For a detailed performance analysis, refer to the white paper entitled “A Performance Comparison of Commercial Hypervisors.” at http://www.xensource.com/performancepaper200703.

1 XenSource Press Release: http://www.xensource.com/news/pr040306.html

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XenEnterprise provides a single fully compatible platform virtualization architecture that scales to the needs of IT from the desk-side to the lab to the production environment, offering simple license-based upgrades; there is no need to reinstall server software or to convert virtual machines to take advantage of the features of higher-end product versions. Consolidated deployment and management of servers in all roles is attained easily and cost-effectively, including:

• Mainstream, highly consolidation-targeted workloads such as file, print, web, directory, and infrastructure services

• Development, test, and support of multiple environments and multi-tier applications • Branch office and departmental consolidation

By mid-2007, an increased range of data center class features are expected to be added to XenEnterprise. Upcoming features will include:

• A 64-bit hypervisor, offering support for 64-bit and 32-bit guests, as well as increased physical and guest memory

• Support for shared storage, as well as enhanced Fibre Channel and iSCSI integration

• Live and static migration of guest virtual machines between servers • An XML-RPC API offering control of virtual machine lifecycle, server and storage

configuration, offering enhanced scripting and management software integration

3.3 XenEnterprise differentiation from open source Xen In addition to the efficient, high-performance virtualization platform provided by the Xen hypervisor, XenEnterprise delivers the components of a full platform virtualization solution, making it the easiest way for IT organizations to implement the full value and capabilities of Xen virtualization. The added value attributes include:

• A simplified bare-metal installer that allows IT staff to prepare a Dell server for Xen virtualization in minutes, either by booting it from CD (or virtual CD provided by the Dell Remote Access Controller (DRAC) management interface) and answering a small number of simple questions or by preparing an answer-file and installing the software via PXE boot

• Optimized disk and network drivers for Windows guests, making it possible to achieve high I/O performance for business-critical services.

• A graphical Administrator interface through which system administrators can create, manage and monitor virtual machines and interact with their consoles (or, alternatively, launch other desktop interfaces such as Remote Desktop). The Administrator Console supports the management of multiple XenEnterprise servers and their associated virtual machines from a single easy-to-operate application from any Windows or Linux desktop.

• A powerful command line interface for managing the lifecycle of virtual machines from creation through start/stop/suspend/resume iterations, managing the configuration and allocations of virtual machines and their associated storage. The command line interface can be run on the server or on any other Windows or Linux

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system, making it useful not only for interactive management, but also for scripted integration with other management tools.

• The ability to clone virtual machines via either user interface, as well as to export them to a desktop system or another server, preparing them for import to the same or another XenEnterprise system. This functionality makes it possible to maintain a library of standard server images, to share server images between organizations, and to acquire software pre-loaded in “virtual appliances” from open source projects, software vendors including XenSource Technology Partners, and other users.

• Guest installers and physical-to-virtual (P2V) conversion tools for common Linux distributions, providing rapid implementation and deployment of Linux virtual machines.

XenSource also offers two other server virtualization products aimed at different price/functionality points:

• XenServer, offering high-performance virtualization for Windows guests with the same multi-server management available in XenEnterprise

• XenExpress, a free entry-level server virtualization product for Windows and Linux guests, with single-machine management

Both of these products offer subsets of the capacity and features of XenEnterprise. A server can be upgraded at any time from XenServer or XenExpress to XenEnterprise without loss of virtual machine configuration information – in many cases, simply by entering a new license key.

3.4 XenEnterprise Architecture XenEnterprise is based on the Xen hypervisor, which is loaded at boot time directly on the server hardware. It in turn boots an initial privileged virtual machine, known as Domain 0. Domain 0 virtual machine is based on the CentOS 4 distribution. Domain 0 provides the management services for other virtual machines. Within it, the “backend” I/O drivers that provide access to devices perform I/O on behalf of the “frontend” drivers in other guests; these I/O operations are passed through a high-performance memory-mapped communications channel within the Xen hypervisor, known as XenBus. It also runs the agent infrastructure used to provide and coordinate management services, and is accessed by the graphical and command line administrative interfaces, providing lifecycle control functionality for virtual machines. Interactions with the hypervisor are then performed via the control API, for which processes running in Domain 0 serve as the client for the server provided by the hypervisor. For guests using hardware-assisted virtualization (principally Windows guests, but also modern Linux guests taking advantage of installation processes using in-place P2V technology), the open source QEMU emulator provides basic I/O services for installation and boot, until the optimized paravirtualized drivers are loaded, as well as support services for lower-speed devices such as CDROM.

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Figure 2: XenEnterprise Architecture

4 Dell PowerEdge Servers and Features The Dell PowerEdge 1950, 1955, 2900, 2950, 2970 and 6950 servers provide an ideal choice to host virtualized infrastructure. Dell servers are optimally designed to meet demands of virtualized workloads with latest features such as Intel® VT, AMD®-V, quad core processors, large memory support, PCI Express I/O, support for Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), Fibre Channel storage at 4Gbps speed and low power consumption. With standards based scalable architecture, Dell PowerEdge servers help enterprises to seamlessly grow their datacenters with increase in demand. For specific information and comparison of different server capabilities, please refer to the Dell Product Specifications Guide.

5 XenEnterprise Installation

5.1 How to get XenEnterprise binaries and licenses Customers can download a 30 day trial version of XenEnterprise 3.2 at: http://xensource.com/products/xen_enterprise For information on purchasing perpetual or subscription licenses via XenSource Solution Provider partners or the XenSource online store, visit http://xensource.com/buy

5.2 Installation on Dell PowerEdge servers This section describes the necessary steps to install XenEnterprise on Dell servers. For the purpose of this white paper, a Dell PowerEdge 2950 server with PERC 5/I storage controller was used; however the steps should be same for other server models.

5.2.1 Dell BIOS and Firmware Updates Make sure that you have the latest BIOS and firmware for your server and peripherals. Latest releases of BIOS and Firmware can be downloaded from http://support.dell.com

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Enable Virtualization Technology (if available on your server) in BIOS:

1. Select F2 during server boot process to enter the Server Setup. 2. Select CPU Information and then Virtualization Technology. 3. Using Left/Right arrow keys, set Virtualization Technology to ‘Enabled’.

5.2.2 Configure Local Storage RAID Boot the server and enter the configuration menu for Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC) by pressing Ctrl-R during controller initialization. Depending on the number of local drives and performance/availability requirements, create a RAID volume:

1. Select the Controller, press F2 and select ‘Create new VD’ 2. Hit Enter to select the RAID level of the virtual disk. 3. Hit Tab and space bar to select physical drives to be part of the new virtual disk. 4. Hit Tab to enter the name for the virtual disk. 5. Select OK 6. Initialize the virtual disk: Select the newly created virtual disk. 7. Hit F2, select Initialization and then Fast Initialization. 8. Exit the menu and reboot the system.

5.2.3 Install XenEnterprise 3.2

XenEnterprise 3.2 Installation Insert the XenEnterprise 3.2 Install CD into the desired server. Reboot the server and select F11 to bring up the boot menu. Select IDE CD-ROM. (Installation of XenEnterprise can also be performed remotely by using Dell Remote Access Controller (DRAC) Virtual CD/DVD ROM functionality). The system loads the installer for XenEnterprise 3.2. Select the appropriate options for various installation steps:

1. Select Keymap: Select default US or appropriate regional key map. Hit Enter. 2. Select ‘Install XenServer Host’ to install a fresh copy of XenEnterprise 3.2. Hit

Enter and confirm installation. Note that a fresh install will wipe all data on the storage. XenEnterprise also supports conversion of a physical system to a virtual machine on a XenEnterprise Host. Select ‘Convert an existing OS on this machine to a XenVM (P2V)’ in case such a conversion is desired. Refer to XenEnterprise Users Guide for more information on P2V conversion.

3. Read through the End User’s License Agreement (EULA) and select ‘Accept EULA’ to proceed with installation.

4. If the server does not have Intel Virtualization Technology (VT) or AMD-V enabled, the install process will invoke an error for the same. XenEnterprise requires Intel VT or AMD-V to run unmodified operating systems like Windows.

5. Select ‘Local media (CD-ROM)’ as the source for installation binaries and select Ok. If the XenEnterprise server will be used to run Linux VMs, select Yes on the next screen to install Linux Pack from the second CD.

6. Choose to continue with or skip verification of the installation source. 7. Specify the root password for your XenEnterprise host. This password is used to

connect the server from the administrator console. 8. Specify the geographical and localized area for the host’s location.

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9. Select the method for setting system time. Choose ‘Manual time entry’ in case no NTP server is available.

10. Specify networking configuration for the network devices on the server. 11. Select ‘Install XenServer’ to start installation. The installation of XenEnterprise 3.2

will start. 12. If you selected to install the Linux Pack, the install process will ask to insert the

Linux Pack CD. Insert the CD into the server, and follow subsequent instructions. Storage Repositories for Virtual Machines XenEnterprise uses Logical Volume Manager (LVM) to virtualize physical storage and create storage for virtual machines. A default installation of XenEnterprise creates two 4GB partitions: one for XenEnterprise code and utilities and the other for storing VM snapshots, backups, etc. The rest of the space is used to create storage for virtual machines. A logical volume is created for each virtual disk attached to a VM. A collection of physical disks and logical volumes is called a Storage Repository (SR). Apart from the logical volumes for virtual machines, a separate volume inside an SR holds virtual machine configuration files. Each virtual machine image is called a Virtual Disk Image (VDI). So a Storage Repository, managed as a single instance, contains VDIs and associated configuration files. Multiple SRs can be attached to a XenEnterprise host, however at this time only one SR can be active at any given time. Administrators can create SRs and attach to the XenEnterprise host using the command line interface. After XenEnterprise installation administrators can add extra disks to the server, or attach external direct connect storage like Dell PowerVault storage or Fibre Channel SAN such as Dell|EMC CLARiiON storage to create storage repositories. Create a new Storage Repository: To create a new SR on a partition say /dev/sdb, issue the following command on the XenEnterprise host:

$ sm create /dev/sdb The XenEnterprise Storage Manager creates a new SR and returns a unique identifier (UUID). To make the newly created SR as the default SR for virtual machines, follow the below steps:

1. Mark the newly created SR as active: $ xe host-sr-set -u root sr-id=rep_uuid active=true

where rep_uuid is the UUID of the newly created SR 2. Attach the SR to XenEnterprise host:

$ sm attach <rep_uuid> none 3. Restart storage and xenagenet services:

$ service smtab restart $ service xenagentd restart

4. The newly created SR should now be visible in the output of the following command:

$ sm info

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Install Administrator Console XenEnterprise Administrator Console is a JAVA based application required to manage one or multiple XenEnterprise hosts and virtual machines. The Administrator Console needs to be installed on a separate Windows or Linux server. Installation on a Windows server:

1. Insert the XenEnterprise CD into the Windows server. Open the ‘client_install’ directory on the CD and start the installation by double clicking on the xenserver_client.exe file.

2. Follow through the installation wizard and complete the installation. 3. After the installation is complete, open the administrator console from Start->All

Programs->XenSource XenServer->Administrator Console Installation on a Linux server:

1. Mount the XenEnterprise CD on the linux server: $ mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

2. Navigate to client_install directory: $ cd /mnt/cdrom/client_install

3. Install the required RPMs: $ rpm –ivh *.rpm

4. Open the Administrator console: $ xenserver-client

5.3 Install Virtual Machines Use Administrator Console to create/configure virtual machines As mentioned earlier, among many other features, the Administrator Console enables administrators to create and configure virtual machines. Follow the below steps to create virtual machines on the newly installed XenEnterprise Host: Add Host to Administrator Console

1. Add the XenEnterprise Host as a managed host to the Administrator Console. Inside the Administrator Console interface, select File->Add XenServer Host. Provide the DNS name or the IP and password for the newly installed XenEnterprise host. Check Remember Me to store host information for subsequent administrator console sessions.

2. After the host has been added, provide the host with a valid license key. Dell recommends putting all license key files on the server where Administrator Console is installed. Right click on the host, and select License Key. Provide the correct path to your XenEnterprise license file and click Apply License. The appropriate licensing information should appear under the Overview tab.

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Figure 3: XenEnterprise Administrator Console

Install Virtual Machines The following section describes steps to create a Windows 2003 Server and a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 virtual machine. Creating a Windows 2003 Server virtual machine (VM):

1. Insert the Windows 2003 Server installation CD into the server or connect the OS ISO using DRAC Virtual Media.

2. Select the XenEnterprise Host and click on Install XenVM button. The virtual machine configuration tab will appear.

3. Select Windows Server 2003 Standard/Enterprise for the Install From field. 4. Provide a name, say Windows2003EE_VM1, for the VM. 5. Provide a description, say Windows File Share Server, for the VM. 6. Provide the number of Virtual CPUs for the VM. XenEnterprise 3.2 allows for a

maximum of 4 virtual CPUs to be exposed to a Windows VM. 7. Provide the amount of memory to be assigned for this virtual machine. You can

allocate a maximum of 8192MB of memory to a Windows VM. 8. Check Start on Server Boot checkbox to automatically start the virtual machine

each time after the XenEnterprise host boots. 9. Select the CPU Weightage for the VM. XenEnterprise uses CPU Shares mechanism

to prioritize the CPU availability when multiple VMs contend for CPU cycles. For

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example, in case of CPU time contention, a VM with High CPU Weightage will be awarded twice the CPU cycles as compare to a VM with Normal, and four times the CPU cycles as compared to a VM with a Low CPU Weightage.

10. Click the Install button to start the OS installation. Click on the Graphical Console to display the Windows setup program. The installation instructions are same as for any physical server install.

11. After the installation process completes, install the high performance paravirtualized drivers. Click on the CD-ROM drive pull-down in the upper left corner of VM graphical console. Select XenSource Windows Tools, to start the driver installation process. Follow the instructions to install the drivers.

Figure 4: Virtual Machine Configuration from Administrator Console Creating a paravirtualized Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 4 virtual machine (VM): To install a paravirtualized RHEL VM, the installation source needs to be on a network location, exported via NFS, HTTP or FTP.

1. Select the XenEnterprise Host and click on Install XenVM button. The virtual machine configuration tab will appear.

2. Select Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.4 Repository for the Install From field. 3. Provide a name and description for the VM. 4. Provide the number of Virtual CPUs for the VM. XenEnterprise 3.2 allows for a

maximum of 32 virtual CPUs to be exposed to a Linux VM. 5. Provide the amount of memory to be assigned for this virtual machine. You can

allocate a maximum of 16384 MB of memory to a Linux VM. 6. Check Start on Server Boot checkbox to automatically start the virtual machine

each time after the XenEnterprise host boots. 7. Select the CPU Weightage for the VM. 8. Click the Install button to start the guest OS installation in text mode. Click the Text

Console tab to display the installation screen. The installation instructions are same as for any physical server install.

9. Refer to ‘Appendix B: Configuring VNC for XenVMs’ for specific steps to enable graphical console for Linux VMs.

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For more information on creating and configuring other types of virtual machines, refer to the XenServer Users Guide.

6 Systems Management using Dell™ OpenManage™

6.1 Dell Systems Management OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) is a comprehensive systems management tool for PowerEdge servers. It provides easy-to-use management and administration of local and remote systems through a set of integrated management services. OMSA resides solely on the system being managed and is accessible both locally and remotely. Dell OMSA agent can be installed inside the Domain0, that is based on CenOS4 distribution. Dell IT Assistant (ITA) is a comprehensive and standards-based console for managing all Dell servers, storage, tape libraries, network switches, printers and clients systems. Among many features, ITA provides administrators with ability to:

• Have web-based one-view console for Dell systems with red, yellow and green status indication

• Capture events and alerts generated by Dell servers running OMSA • Configure actions based on events and alerts • Monitor server performance statistics such as CPU, memory, I/O, etc.

6.2 Dell OMSA Install This section describes the steps necessary to install OMSA agent inside XenEnterprise 3.2 Domain0. For the purpose of these steps, OpenManage 5.2 was used. Please note that OMSA is not supported by Dell inside a CentOS distribution as Dell has not tested OMSA in this environment. The below steps are provided to enable customers to manage XenEnterprise hosts, without any implied support or warranty.

1. Download the Dell OpenManage Server Administrator Managed Node software package for RedHat Enterprise Linux 4 from http://support.dell.com

2. Copy the tar.gz file to the XenEnterprise host. 3. Extract the tar.gz file by using the command

$ tar -zxvf yourfilename.tar.gz 4. Edit the setup script to enable installation on XenEnterprise server:

a. First, change the permissions of the setup.sh script to make it writeable: $ chmod +w setup.sh

b. Then, edit the file: $ vi setup.sh

c. Then, go to line 2976 and change the following lines # Set default values for return variables. GBL_OS_TYPE=${GBL_OS_TYPE_UKNOWN} GBL_OS_TYPE_STRING="UKNOWN" to # Set default values for return variables. GBL_OS_TYPE=${GBL_OS_TYPE_RHEL4} GBL_OS_TYPE_STRING="RHEL4"

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d. Save changes and close the file. 5. Install the package compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-47.3 on the XenServer

Host: $ cd linux/RPMS/supportRPMS $ rpm –ivh compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-47.3.i386.rpm

6. Download and install the following packages from http://mirror.centos.org/centos/4/os/i386/CentOS/RPMS/ $ rpm –ivh procmail-3.22-14.i386.rpm

7. Start the Dell OpenManage installation by using the command: $ ./setup.sh

8. Follow the instructions on the screen and finish the installation. 9. After installation finishes successfully, change the firewall settings to allow

communication through the ports that OpenManage uses: a. Edit the firewall rules file:

$ vi /etc/sysconfig/iptables b. Add the following firewall rules (in bold) in the INPUT section to open

OpenManage and SNMP ports: :INPUT ACCEPT [0:0] -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --sport 1024:65535 –-dport 1311 -m state --state NEW -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --sport 1024:65535 --dport 1311 -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p udp --dport 161 -j ACCEPT Save and close the file.

c. Restart iptables service: $ service iptables restart

10. Connect to the Dell OpenManage web interface of the server. Point the browser to https://yourserver:1311 and login with root username and password.

6.3 Using Dell IT Assistant (ITA) to manage XenEnerprise Hosts ITA uses Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to manage the Dell servers running Linux OS distributions. On the XenServer host, you can configure the SNMP agent to change the community name, enable Set operations, and send traps to an IT Assistant system. Follow the below steps to configure XenServer host interaction with the ITA server. Changing the SNMP Community Name:

1. In the file /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf, find the line that reads: com2sec notConfigUser default public

2. Edit this line by replacing public with the new SNMP community name: com2sec notConfigUser default community_name

Configure XenServer host to send SNMP Traps to ITA Server:

1. Edit /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf and add the following line at the end of the file: trapsink <ITA_IP_Address> <community name>

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where ITA_IP_Address is the IP address of the ITA server and community name is the SNMP community name.

2. Save the snmpd.conf file and restart snmpd service $ service snmpd restart

For more information on how to use IT Assistant, refer to the ITA User’s Guide at http://support.dell.com

7 Xen Support

7.1 Support available from XenSource

XenSource presents its customers with a support offering that is designed to assist during all stages of product usage:

• Assistance with problems when you are installing and configuring our products • Assistance in resolving problems and issues you encounter while in development or

QA • Assistance in resolving availability and stability issues when you are operating in a

production environment

This program is offered on an annual fee basis.

Customers enter support cases via a convenient web-based interface, making it possible to upload supporting information such as logs and screenshots easily. Response time commitments are dependent on the severity of the problem, that is, its impact on the customer’s operations.

Often, customer issues can be addressed via investigation and explanation. In other cases, workarounds or even software fixes may be required; these will be delivered as appropriate to customers with support and maintenance agreements.

For full details of the support offering see the Technical Support Guide at http://xensource.com/support

7.2 Community support using XenEnterprise forums and KnowledgeBase

All users of XenSource commercial products, including XenEnterprise, have access to freely available support resources (via http://xensource.com/support/). These resources include:

• A searchable knowledgebase providing tips, “how-to” guides, and other commonly accessed information to enable users to make the most of their XenEnterprise experience

• User support forums, in which customers can ask questions about the products and have them answered by the user community, including other customers, XenSource Solution Provider partners, XenSource Technology Partners, and XenSource personnel.

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• Online access to XenEnterprise product documentation

8 Additional Resources • Dell Product Support: http://support.dell.com • Dell Virtualization Solutions Homepage: http://www.dell.com/virtualization

THIS WHITE PAPER IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, AND MAY CONTAIN TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS AND TECHNICAL INACCURACIES. THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED AS IS, WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND. Dell, the Dell Logo and PowerEdge are trademarks of Dell Inc. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Intel and Xeon are registered trademarks of Intel Corp. XenEnterprise and Xen are either registered trademark and/or trademark of XenSource, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. AMD, AMD Opteron and AMD-V are trademarks or registered trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices. Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell disclaims proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. Copyright 2007 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden. For more information, contact Dell. Information in this document is subject to change without notice.

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