Vagrant XenServer Provider

This is a Vagrant plugin that adds a XenServer provider, allowing Vagrant to control and provision machines on a XenServer host.

Dependencies

• Vagrant >= 1.5(?) (http://www.vagrantup.com/downloads.html)
• qemu-img

Installation

vagrant plugin install http://repo.jcamp.net/gems/vagrant-xenserver/vagrant-xenserver-0.0.11.gem

XenServer host setup

N.B. Currently this will only work on XenServer 6.5 and later:

# Install netcat
yum install --enablerepo=base,extras --disablerepo=citrix -y nc

You will also need to copy your ssh key to the Xenserver host:

ssh-copy-id root@xenserver

Make sure the default_SR is set, and that a VHD-based SR is in use. Currently the NFS SR is the recommended storage type.

Usage

Converting a VirtualBox box file

• Download the box file (e.g. https://vagrantcloud.com/ubuntu/trusty64/version/v20160323.1.0/provider/virtualbox.box)
• Unpack it:

mkdir tmp
cd tmp
tar xvf ../virtualbox.box

• Convert the disk image using qemu-img

qemu-img convert -O vpc *.vmdk box.vhd

• Remove the other files

rm -f Vagrantfile box.ovf metadata.json

• Make a new metadata file

echo "{\"provider\": \"xenserver\"}" > metadata.json

• Create the box:

tar cf ../xenserver.box .

• Add the box:

vagrant box add ubuntu xenserver.box

Converting a from an .xva file

• Download and compile xva-img tools
• Follow the instruction there on how to extract the .xva to get the raw image
• convert the raw image to be vhd file just like above instructions and follow the rest

Create a Vagrantfile

# -*- mode: ruby -*-
# vi: set ft=ruby :

# Vagrantfile API/syntax version. Don't touch unless you know what you're doing!
VAGRANTFILE_API_VERSION = "2"

Vagrant.configure(VAGRANTFILE_API_VERSION) do |config|
  config.vm.box = "ubuntu"

  config.vm.provider :xenserver do |xs|
    xs.xs_host = "st29.uk.xensource.com"
    xs.xs_username = "root"
    xs.xs_password = "xenroot"
    xs.pv = true
    xs.memory = 2048
  end

  config.vm.network "public_network",
    network: "LAN",
    device: "eth1",         # Don't ever use eth0
    proto: "static",
    ip: "192.168.1.10",
    netmask: "255.255.255.0",
    gateway: "192.168.1.1",
    dns: "8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4"
end

This fork is different from the original in how to configure the network. Instead of using bridge option, here we are using the name label of the network, please see example above.

Note that by default there will be no connection to the external network, so most configurations will require a public_network defined as in the above Vagrantfile

Another consideration is that if there is already DHCP service on xenbr0 network (outside the XenServer), or you prefer to set static IP there, you should prevent the HIMN (Host Intermal Management Network) to be the default gateway. It can be done by running these commands in the Xenserver Host (as root):

himn=`xe network-list other-config:is_host_internal_management_network=true --minimal`
xe network-param-set uuid=$himn other-config:ip_disable_gw=true

To bring the VM up, it should then be as simple as

vagrant up --provider=xenserver

NFS Synced Folder

To use NFS, please specify something like this in your Vagrantfile. See the documentation for a complete reference

machine.vm.synced_folder ".", "/vagrant",
  id: "vagrant-root",
  disabled: false,
  type: "nfs",
  :nfs => true,
  :mount_options => ['nolock,vers=3,udp,noatime']

Notes for Windows OS

• You must install vagrant-winnfsd plugin

vagrant plugin install vagrant-winnfsd

• You need to install the original winnfsd or a patched version, and put the binary winnfsd.exe in C:\HashiCorp\Vagrant\bin