XenServer

Unattended Installation

Christian Ferber
Systems Engineer Datacenter & Cloud

July 19th, 2013

Disclaimer

• This slide deck has been created as part of a project implementation

• It does not guarantee completeness of content
• The information provided here is no official Citrix support recommendation.
• Content can be used at own risk.

© 2012 Citrix
Why unattended installation?

• Avoid manual CD handling

• Create reproducable XenServer installations
• Datacenters sometimes have limited physical access
• Speed-up installation/upgrade process
• Desaster recovery
• ...or just to be a lazy administrator

© 2012 Citrix
Installation using file share
Installation using file share

• XenServer can retrieve installation files from

ᵒ CD
ᵒ NFS
ᵒ HTTP
ᵒ FTP
• Installation can be invoked by CD or PXE boot media
• File share installation typically is used for full unattended installation
• File share can be specified interactively during installation or by unattend file

© 2012 Citrix
Installation repository on file share

• Simple file share for hosting the installation files

• Access to share can be provided by FTP, HTTP or NFS
• Copy full CD content to file share

© 2012 Citrix
Installation repository structure

• packages.main
ᵒ Base installation files
• packages.xenserver
ᵒ Repository information
• packages.transfer-vm
ᵒ Transfer-VM installation package
• Only for XenServer 6.0.2
ᵒ packages.XS…
• Full CD copy required to installation share (incl. XS-REPOSITORY-LIST)!!

© 2012 Citrix
Sample installation with file share source

• Boot from CD and select network

installation source
• Select if DHCP or fixed IP should be used
for the installation process
ᵒ This does not configure IP settings for
XenServer after installation!
• Specify installation directory where
packages.x folders are stored
• Provide optional credentials

© 2012 Citrix
Unattended installation
Installation Types

• XenServer installation can be invoked by

ᵒ CD media
ᵒ PXE boot environment
• For both mentioned installation types an unattended installation can be used
complementary

© 2012 Citrix
Starting unattended installation
by CD
Starting unattended installation by CD

• Boot XenServer CD
• Type menu.c32 in first prompt (be fast)
• Push „tab“ key
• Add line for unattended file and push
„enter“
ᵒ answerfile=ftp://172.16.0.249/ftp/unattend.xml
ᵒ install

© 2012 Citrix
Answerfile options

• kernel parameter „answerfile=„ is used to specify unattend.xml file

• FTP/HTTP
ᵒ answerfile=http://<share + file>
ᵒ e.g. answerfile=http://192.168.0.1/xs60/xenserver01.xml
ᵒ Optionally include authentication credentials
• e.g. ftp://user:passwd@host...
• NFS
ᵒ answerfile=nfs://<server>:/<nfs path + file>
ᵒ e.g. answerfile=nfs://192.168.0.1:/xs60/xenserver01.xml

© 2012 Citrix
PXE based installation
PXE boot environment - requirements

• DHCP server
ᵒ provide IP addresses
ᵒ provide boot options like TFTP server and boot loader file name
• TFTP Server to provide boot loader
• PXE enabled server

© 2012 Citrix
DHCP vs PXE vs Proxy DHCP?

• PXE Server = Proxy DHCP

• Architecture 1
ᵒ DHCP provides IP addresses and boot options
• Architecture 2
ᵒ DHCP provides IP addresses
ᵒ PXE / Proxy DHCP provides boot options
ᵒ Both services run on different servers
• Architecture 3
ᵒ DHCP provides IP addresses
ᵒ PXE / Proxy DHCP provides boot options
ᵒ Both services run on the same server

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Standalone DHCP (Architecture 1)

• Configure DHCP server to provide IP addresses

• Add options to DHCP server
ᵒ 66 = TFTP server IP
ᵒ 67 = boot file name (pxelinux.0)
• Usually used
ᵒ when only 1 network based installation is available in datacenter
ᵒ full access to DHCP server is granted

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DHCP + PXE on different hosts (Architecture 2)

• Configure DHCP server to provide IP addresses

• Configure PXE (Proxy DHCP) on different host to provide boot options
ᵒ next server
• TFTP server IP
ᵒ boot file
• pxelinux.0
• <path>/pxelinux.0 (in case pxelinux.0 is not in the root path of the tftp server)
• Usually used
ᵒ When DHCP server cannot be modified
ᵒ More PXE based installation technologies are available in the datacenter (PXE could
be separated by VLAN)

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Setup TFTP server

• Use any available TFTP server

• Copy to TFTP root
ᵒ mboot.c32, menu.c32 & pxelinux.0 from <CD>/boot/pxelinux
• Create /xenserver dir in TFTP root
• Copy to /xenserver
ᵒ install.img from <CD>/
ᵒ vmlinuz & xen.gz from <CD>/boot
• Create /pxelinux.cfg dir in TFTP root
ᵒ Create default file in /pxelinux.cfg directory
• For details refer to installation guide
ᵒ http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX130421
© 2012 Citrix
 Example „default“ file

default xenserver
label xenserver
kernel mboot.c32
append xenserver/xen.gz dom0_max_vcpus=2 dom0_mem=752M com1=115200,8n1 console=com1,vga ---
xenserver/vmlinuz xencons=hvc console=hvc0 console=tty0 answerfile=ftp://172.16.0.249/ftp/unattend.xml
install --- xenserver/install.img

© 2012 Citrix
 „default“ file with menu structure

default menu.c32
prompt 0
menu title PXE Boot Menu

label bootlocal
menu label Local Boot
menu default
localboot 0
timeout 100

label xs01
kernel mboot.c32
append xenserver/xen.gz dom0_max_vcpus=2 dom0_mem=752M com1=115200,8n1 console=com1,vga --- xenserver/vmlinuz xencons=hvc console=hvc0 console=tty0
answerfile_device=eth1 answerfile=nfs://10.10.11.100:/vol/vol_xs_inst/xs60/unattend.files/xs01.xml install --- xenserver/install.img

label xs02
kernel mboot.c32
append xenserver/xen.gz dom0_max_vcpus=2 dom0_mem=752M com1=115200,8n1 console=com1,vga --- xenserver/vmlinuz xencons=hvc console=hvc0 console=tty0
answerfile_device=eth1 answerfile=nfs://10.10.11.100:/vol/vol_xs_inst/xs60/unattend.files/xs02.xml install --- xenserver/install.img

label xs03
kernel mboot.c32
append xenserver/xen.gz dom0_max_vcpus=2 dom0_mem=752M com1=115200,8n1 console=com1,vga --- xenserver/vmlinuz xencons=hvc console=hvc0 console=tty0
answerfile_device=eth1 answerfile=nfs://10.10.11.100:/vol/vol_xs_inst/xs60/unattend.files/xs03.xml install --- xenserver/install.img

label xs04
kernel mboot.c32
append xenserver/xen.gz dom0_max_vcpus=2 dom0_mem=752M com1=115200,8n1 console=com1,vga --- xenserver/vmlinuz xencons=hvc console=hvc0 console=tty0
answerfile_device=eth1 answerfile=nfs://10.10.11.100:/vol/vol_xs_inst/xs60/unattend.files/xs04.xml install --- xenserver/install.img

© 2012 Citrix
Poor man‘s PXE server

• Download Serva (32bit/64bit)

ᵒ http://www.vercot.com/~serva/
• DHCP, ProxyDHCP and TFTP server for Windows (and much more)
• Example configuration for ProxyDHCP/PXE to use external DHCP for IP
addressing

© 2012 Citrix
Answerfile
About the answerfile

• Refer to installation guide

ᵒ http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX130421
ᵒ Installation guide does not document all options
• Answerfile is in XML format
ᵒ Options almost self-explaining
ᵒ Not anaconda-style
• Answerfile needs to be stored on http/ftp/nfs share

© 2012 Citrix
Sample answerfile (basic)

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<installation>
<keymap>de</keymap>
<primary-disk>sda</primary-disk>
<guest-disk>sda</guest-disk>
<root-password>citrix</root-password>
<source type="url">ftp://172.16.0.249/ftp/xs602</source>
<admin-interface name="eth0" proto="dhcp" />
<timezone>Europe/Berlin</timezone>
<hostname>autoinsttest</hostname>
<name-server>172.16.10.10</name-server>
<name-server>172.16.0.254</name-server>
</installation>

© 2012 Citrix
Sample answerfile (more comprehensive)

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<installation mode="fresh" srtype="lvm">
<bootloader>extlinux</bootloader>
<primary-disk gueststorage="yes">sda</primary-disk>
<keymap>de</keymap>
<hostname>xen01</hostname>
<root-password>citrix</root-password>
<source type="url">http://172.16.3.20/Xenserver/</source>
<admin-interface name="eth0" proto="static">
<ip>172.16.3.254</ip>
<subnet-mask>255.255.255.0</subnet-mask>
<gateway>172.16.3.1</gateway>
</admin-interface>
<name-server>172.16.3.1</name-server>
<name-server>172.16.3.10</name-server>
<timezone>Europe/Berlin</timezone>
<time-config-method>ntp</time-config-method>
<ntp-server>0.de.pool.ntp.org</ntp-server>
<ntp-server>1.de.pool.ntp.org</ntp-server>
<ntp-server>2.de.pool.ntp.org</ntp-server>
</installation>

© 2012 Citrix
Post installation script
Post installation script

• Start task after successful installation

• Installation script has to be created in UNIX style
ᵒ For Windows use editors like
• http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/de/download.php
• http://www.grahl-software.com/en/ab-edit/
• http://www.brixoft.net/prodinfo.asp?id=1
• Script has to be stored
ᵒ On file share (nfs, http, ftp)
ᵒ Locally (file)
• Script is executed during installation, not after boot of server!!

© 2012 Citrix
Workflow with post script

XenServer XenServer
post-script.sh first-boot-script.sh
installation boot

• Copy first-boot-script.sh to local • Run XenServer configuration

disk commands (xe …)
• Enable start of first-boot-script.sh • Remove itself from autostart
after boot of XenServer

© 2012 Citrix
Post installation script - invoke post-script.sh

• Invoke post install script by

ᵒ <script stage="filesystem-populated" type="url">ftp://172.16.0.249/ftp/post-script.sh</script>

• Stage options
ᵒ stage=“installation-start”
ᵒ stage=“file-system-populated”
• was “post-install-script” in earlier releases
• Invoked before installation has finished
• Root disk is still mounted
• Script will get parameter specifying root mount point (to be used with $1 in script)
ᵒ stage=“installation-complete”
• was “install-failed-script” in earlier releases
• Invoked after installation has finished
• Can run script conditionally e.g. when installation failed
• Root disk not mounted anymore
• Script will get parameter showing installation success (to be used with $1 in script)
- 0 = success
- not 0 = failure
© 2012 Citrix
Post installation script post-script.sh

• Post installation script is invoked during installation, not after

boot of server
• During execution of script, XAPI is not running yet
• Post installation script is primarily used to
ᵒ copy script (which is run on first boot) to server
ᵒ Enable execution of copied script on first server boot
• Script example
#!/bin/sh
touch $1/tmp/post-executed
wget ftp://172.16.0.249/ftp/xenserver.scripts/first-boot-script-602-std.sh -O $1/tmp/first-boot-script.sh
chmod 777 $1/tmp/first-boot-script.sh
ln -s /tmp/first-boot-script.sh $1/etc/rc3.d/S99zzpostinstall

© 2012 Citrix
First boot script first-boot-script.sh

• Usually stored on file share

• Copy to server invoked by post install script (e.g. wget command)
• Includes all required configuration steps using xapi / xe commands or similar

#!/bin/bash
# Wait before start
sleep 60
# Assign License to server
HOSTNAME=$(hostname)echo $HOSTNAME
HOSTUUID=$(xe host-list name-label=$HOSTNAME --minimal)
xe host-apply-edition edition=platinum host-uuid=$HOSTUUID license-server-address=172.16.10.10 license-server-port=27000

# Disable first boot script for subsequent reboots

rm -f /etc/rc3.d/S99zzpostinstall

# Final Reboot
reboot

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 Unattend file including post install script
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<installation>
<keymap>de</keymap>
<primary-disk>sda</primary-disk>
<guest-disk>sda</guest-disk>
<root-password>citrix</root-password>
<source type="url">ftp://172.16.0.249/ftp/xs60</source>
<script stage="filesystem-populated" type="url">ftp://172.16.0.249/ftp/xs60/postinstall.scripts/post-script.sh</script>
<admin-interface name="eth0" proto="dhcp" />
<timezone>Europe/Berlin</timezone>
<hostname>autoinsttest</hostname>
<name-server>172.16.10.10</name-server>
<name-server>172.16.0.254</name-server>
</installation>

© 2012 Citrix
Integrating Drivers
Driver types

• Driver required for installation

ᵒ usually storage driver
• Driver update required after installation
ᵒ all driver types
• Driver required for accessing network to get access to unattend.xml
ᵒ usually NIC driver

© 2012 Citrix
Manual driver installation (compared to
unattended)
• Provided as zip download which includes
iso file
• Manual installation (2 methods)
ᵒ Select installation of supplemental disk and
attach iso/CD during installation
ᵒ install driver after XenServer installation by
running install.sh from iso file
• Optionally point to a file share where driver
is stored (requires extraction of iso file)

© 2012 Citrix
Driver required for installation

• Create driver repository

ᵒ extract content from iso file
ᵒ store it on installation source in sub directory (e.g. driver.<name>)
• Add line to unattend.xml
ᵒ point to driver sub dir on repository
ᵒ <driver-source type="url">ftp://172.16.0.249/ftp/xs60/driver.qlcnic</driver-source>

• Specified in unattend.xml
ᵒ driver will be used for installation
ᵒ driver will be installed on XenServer
ᵒ no need to install supplement separately or modify XS-REPOSITORY-LIST

© 2012 Citrix
Driver update after installation

• Drivers will not be considered for installation itself

• Drivers will be installed on XenServer
• No need to add content to unattend.xml
• Unattended installation
ᵒ copy drivers to sub dir on repository (same step as shown on
previous slides)
ᵒ Add sub dir(s) to XS-REPOSITORY-LIST file in installation
root

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Unattended installation of
updates
Unattended installation of updates

• Download updates from support.citrix.com

• Store .xsupdate files in sub folder of unattend install dir
• Update script tasks
ᵒ Copy updates to local server
ᵒ Execute update step by step
ᵒ Delete applied update
ᵒ Restart xapi or restart host depending on update type
ᵒ Re-invoke script after reboot
• See example script on next slide
• Include script section to update drivers as part of first boot script

© 2012 Citrix
Example update script (first boot)
#!/bin/bash
# Install XenServer Updates
HOSTUUID=$(xe host-list name-label=$HOSTNAME --minimal)
cd /tmp
if [ -a /tmp/secondboot ]
then
echo "Secondboot"
else
mkdir updates
cd updates
echo "Downloading Updates..."
wget ftp://172.16.0.249/ftp/xs602/postinstall.updates/*.xsupdate
cd /tmp
touch /tmp/secondboot
fi

for updatefile in `ls /tmp/updates`; do

sleep 60
echo "Uploading Update $updatefile ..."
echo "Uploading Update $updatefile ..." >> /var/log/messages
PATCHUUID=$(xe patch-upload file-name=/tmp/updates/$updatefile)
sleep 10
echo "Installing Update $updatefile ..."
echo "Installing Update $updatefile ...">> /var/log/messages
xe patch-apply host-uuid=$HOSTUUID uuid=$PATCHUUID
rm -f /tmp/updates/$updatefile
PATCHACTION=$(xe patch-list uuid=$PATCHUUID params=after-apply-guidance --minimal)
if [ "$PATCHACTION" == "restartXAPI" ]
then
/opt/xensource/bin/xe-toolstack-restart
sleep 60
elif [ "$PATCHACTION" == "restartHost" ]; then
reboot;
sleep 60
fi
done

# Disable first boot script for subsequent reboots

rm -f /etc/rc3.d/S99zzpostinstall
rm -f /tmp/secondboot

# Final Reboot
reboot

© 2012 Citrix
Additional information
Installation Debugging

• During installation: Move to TTY 2,3,4 (Strg + Alt + Fx)

• See e.g. DHCP messages
• Installation log file
/var/log/installer/install-log
• Tool for collecting all installer logs
/opt/xensource/installer/report.py

© 2012 Citrix
Undocumented answerfile
parameters
Installation / Mode

Element Description Required?

<installation> All nodes should be within a root node named installation. Y

Attributes:
You can specify an installation mode attribute with possible values fresh,
reinstall, upgrade, oemhdd and oemflash. For example:

<installation mode="fresh" >

If this attribute is not specified, the default is fresh.

© 2012 Citrix
Installation / Srtype

Element Description Required?

<installation> All nodes should be within a root node named installation. N

Attributes:
You can specify the type of your storage repository with the srtype attribute
with possible values lvm or ext. For example:

<installation mode="fresh" srtype="lvm">

If this attribute is not specified, the default is lvm.

© 2012 Citrix
Source

Element Description Required?

<source> Specifies where the packages should be installed from. Y

Attributes:
type: url, nfs, or local
If local, leave the element empty.
Example URLs:
http://[user[:passwd]]@host[:port]/path/
https://[user[:passwd]]@host[:port]/path/
ftp://[user[:passwd]]@host[:port]/path/
file:///path/
nfs://server:/path/

© 2012 Citrix
Network backend

Element Description Required?

<network-backend> Attributes: N
You can specify the network-backend to be used. Values can be bridge or
openvswitch. Default uses the default of the XenServer version used for
installation.

Example:
<network-backend>openvswitch</network-backend>

© 2012 Citrix
Root-Password
Element Description Required?

<root-password> The desired root password for the XenServer host. N

If type is not specified, XenServer will ask for password after installation.

Possible values for type:

type=plaintext
type=hash

Example:
<root-password type="plaintext|hash">passwd</root-password>

Used password has to be extracted from /etc/passwd file from a running

system.

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Nameserver

Element Description Required?

<name-server> The IP address of a name-server. You should use one of these elements for N
each name-server you want to use.

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NTP-Server

Element Description Required?

<ntp-server> The IP address or FQDN of a timeserver. You should use one of these N
elements for each time server you want to use.

© 2012 Citrix
Work better. Live better.
Backup
Answerfile parameters
Pre XenServer 6.0