Xenclient usage Summary-Virtual Machine installation and management tips

For an xen-based virtual machine, xenclient currently only supports xp, vista, and win7. Xenclient currently only supports ubuntu 11.04. according to my experiment, an error occurred while installing ubuntu 11.11. ubuntu 11.04 can be installed normally, and xc-tools can be installed to improve the system. (there are still many problems, which will be explained later ).
 
I also tried to install centos, and the recent version 6.2 installation process was dead. After the version was reduced to version 5.4, the installation was normal. But without xc-tools, it seems that the power management is poor, obviously the cpu is idle, and the fan will go crazy after a while.
 
Speaking of xc-tools, this patch should have enhanced the performance of virtual machines. Xp is disappointing. At the beginning, I installed all the functions. As a result, I had to wait for 1 to 2 minutes each time I started the system. So I took a closer look at the content of xc-tools. Surprisingly, this Assembly was written in. net, and some were. net2.0 and some were. net3.0. As a system-level software, it is really eye-catching to be so proud of. net ....
 
Fortunately, Huang Tianyan had a hard time looking for it. In a subdirectory of the xc-tools CD, he finally found a program that does not depend on. net. It was great to run it. It turned out to be a driver assembly.
 
However, the driver assembly is only a basic function. Other additional functions, such as inserting a usb device to a VM, cannot be implemented. So we have another win7 Virtual Machine System. net and xc-tools are all installed. Xp, or simply forget it.
 
 
After the installation, the xp startup machine is found to be slow. After xc-tools is fixed, the resource manager occasionally gets stuck ...... This situation has never been met since the dual-core cpu, and I did not expect to reproduce it on the virtual machine. So I quickly read the cpu information. It is a pity that all the virtual machines are single-cpu, the cpu usage of the system may be full if any dead loop or process is stuck, which is hard to be called out by the task manager. You have to find a solution.
 
The result is very simple. Use the console to modify the cpu parameters of the virtual machine. Xec-vm-n name get | set vcpus has been introduced in the previous article.
 
In earlier versions, the number of CPUs was optional when a VM was created. However, the latest version 2.1 shields this. You can only adjust it manually on the console. The official statement is that the support for multiple vcpus is blocked if the problem persists. Multi-core cpu is almost indispensable for modern new operating systems. From this point of view, xenclient is indeed not perfect.
 
I have changed vcpus to 2. I encountered many problems in the use process, but it does not seem to be due to vcpus. I can only continue to observe.
 
 
In addition to vcpus, the hard disk is another important one. A default hard disk is usually enough, but if you need to add hard disks for special customization and sharing, you can use the xec-vm-n name add-disk command to add a hard disk to the virtual machine. However, this command is not complete. At least when I use it, the new hard disk path is empty in the modified virtual machine configuration file, you need to create or copy a vhd file by yourself in/storage/disks, and then enter the path of the vhd file into the configuration file of the virtual machine. Note: modifying the virtual machine configuration file from the console is easily overwritten by the interface. Even pressing ctrl + q is not necessarily the case. The method I have summarized is to modify it in the console and immediately restart it to ensure that it will not be overwritten.
 
 
 
After finishing the hard drive, let's talk about the optical drive.
 
A virtual optical drive is configured for each virtual machine by default. The content is the iso file in/storage/isos. Copy the iso file to this directory. On the ctrl + q Update page, you can select the iso file to be mounted. This virtual optical drive is designed to install xc-tools. But in fact, it is better to use it to install the system, which can avoid the steps of burning CDs. An online article says that this virtual optical drive cannot be used for startup. I have tried it. Except for the first system that has no experience installing CDs, I have copied iso to the/storage/isos/directory for other systems.
 
The bios of the xenclient virtual machine is very simple, does not have the common bios function, and does not set system parameters. You can only press F12 in the system to choose one of the boot Methods: floppy disk, hard disk, CD, and network. I also tried to start the pxe network. Yes.


From whoo's column