Book Image

Citrix XenServer 6.0 Administration Essential Guide

By : Daniele Tosatto
Book Image

Citrix XenServer 6.0 Administration Essential Guide

By: Daniele Tosatto

Overview of this book

Virtualization helps an organization reduce costs and achieve low maintenance. It is fast becoming an important skill for all administrators. Citrix's XenServer is one of the leading virtualization solutions for enterprises and helps companies reduce costs while allowing them to integrate, automate and easily manage their datacenters. It comes with a steep learning curve, but the results are well worth the effort. This practical guide on XenServer administration shows you how to manage XenServer pools; create, configure and manage virtual machines and a datacenter. With the help of real-world examples in this book, you will be able to apply these concepts directly in your everyday life. Packed with author's tips and helpful advice; the book is your best choice for anything related to XenServer administration. This is the only book that focuses on the most vital aspect of XenServerñadministration. You don't have to struggle through the lesser-documented tasks anymore, this book will provide all the information you need to create and run a perfectly designed datacenter using XenServer.You will begin your journey towards becoming an expert XenServer administrator by configuring XenServer pools and managing role-based user authentication. Your next step is to create and manage virtual machines. In the following chapters you will learn to configure storage. The book discusses some of the more difficult tasks like configuring and managing VM memory. In the end you will be capable of handling your datacenter and virtual machines through a network, and you will learn how to monitor and backup your XenServer setup. All through the book, the author adds his helpful tips and advice that will help you choose the best options for your setup.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Citrix XenServer 6.0 Administration Essential Guide
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Appendix B. Applying Updates and Hotfixes

After the release of a XenServer version, Citrix occasionally makes available updates and hotfixes.

Hotfixes are released in order to fix bugs or issues that you experience while using the product.

Updates are similar to a service pack because they contain a set of hotfixes and also offer improvements to the initial release.

Public hotfixes and updates are made available for download from the Citrix Knowledge Center.

Note

The Citrix Knowledge Center is available at http://support.citrix.com.

When you plan to install a hotfix or an update, remember to follow the information and instructions that come with each update file. This is important because Citrix usually provides recommendations, requirements, and post-update operations that you need to satisfy and accomplish in order to complete the hotfix or update installation successfully.

Note

It is a best practice to not automatically apply each hotfix released by Citrix. Install only those that solve specific issues you are experiencing in your environment.

Hotfixes and updates can often be applied with minimal service interruption by using the Install Update wizard available in XenCenter or by using the xe CLI. Usually, the faster mode to apply a hotfix or update is using XenCenter.

Before you update XenServer hosts, take a note of the following recommendations:

  • Take a backup of the state of the pool or the host before starting with the update process.

  • Empty the CD/DVD drives of any VMs you plan to suspend.

  • It is best to update all hosts in a pool within a short period. Running a pool that includes updated and non-updated hosts is not supported by Citrix.

  • Start to update the pool master.

  • Reboot any hosts that you plan to update to ensure that the hosts are healthy and the configurations correct.

    Note

    The reboot action is not required if you use XenCenter for installing updates or hotfixes because the Install Update wizard will reboot each host automatically before applying the update file.

  • Disable the High Availability feature if it is in place.

  • Log on to XenServer hosts using the local root account, or a user account that is a member of the Pool Administrator role, if you have configured Role Based Access Control.