Objective:

Create a pool of XenServer (XS) virtualization hosts using network-attached storage (NAS) and segregated networks for Management, Storage, and guest traffic using XenServer 6.5, Service Pack 1.

Resources:

Hardware:

Any standard x86_64 computer with at least 3 Ethernet PIFs.

Software:

XenServer, Version 6.5, Service Pack 1

IP-Based Services:

This tutorial requires the following IP-based services to already be available:

1. DHCP
2. NAT
3. NFS

Discussion:

While this is a slightly more complex scenario than Scenario #1 it does illustrate how XenServer might typically be utilized in an IT environment: The consolidation of hosts to provide for the efficient, reliable operation of multiple IP-based services in an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) environment.

This tutorial makes the standard set of assumptions:

• The NAS system (i.e., NFS) has enough capacity to host all of the guests’ VHD’s.
• The available memory of the virtualization platform has enough capacity to host all of the guests plus 2 GB of RAM for the hypervisor.
• The virtualization platform’s network uplink and the network infrastructure both have enough capacity for all of the guests’ network demands.

Tutorials:

• Tutorial #1 – Resource Pool Creation and Basic Configuration
• Tutorial #2 – Bonding Network Interfaces
• Tutorial #3 – Configuring High Availability for the Resource Pool – Coming soon!