Getting Started With Xen¶

Setup Dependencies¶

This driver requires a copy of the freely available XenAPI.py Python module.

Information about the Xen API Python module in the XenServer SDK can be found at https://pypi.org/project/XenAPI/

Place a copy of this module on your system. For example, it can be placed in the site packages location on your system.

The location of site packages can be determined by running:

python -m site --user-site

Provider Configuration¶

Xen requires login credentials to a XenServer.

Set up the provider cloud configuration file at /etc/salt/cloud.providers or /etc/salt/cloud.providers.d/*.conf.

# /etc/salt/cloud.providers.d/myxen.conf
myxen:
  driver: xen
  url: https://10.0.0.120
  user: root
  password: p@ssw0rd

url:

The url option supports both http and https uri prefixes.

user:

A valid user id to login to the XenServer host.

password:

The associated password for the user.

Profile Configuration¶

Xen profiles require a provider and image.

provider:

This will be the name of your defined provider.

image:

The name of the VM template used to clone or copy.

clone:

The default behavior is to clone a template or VM. This is very fast, but requires the source template or VM to be in the same storage repository of the new target system. If the source and target are in different storage repositories then you must copy the source and not clone it by setting clone: False.

deploy:

The provisioning process will attempt to install the Salt minion service on the new target system by default. This will require login credentials for Salt cloud to login via ssh to it. The user and password options are required. If deploy is set to False then these options are not needed.

resource_pool:

The name of the resource pool used for this profile.

storage_repo:

The name of the storage repository for the target system.

ipv4_cidr:

If template is Windows, and running guest tools then a static ip address can be set.

ipv4_gw:

If template is Windows, and running guest tools then a gateway can be set.

Set up an initial profile at /etc/salt/cloud.profiles or in the /etc/salt/cloud.profiles.d/ directory:

# file: /etc/salt/cloud.profiles.d/xenprofiles.conf
sles:
  provider: myxen
  deploy: False
  image: sles12sp2-template

suse:
  user: root
  password: p@ssw0rd
  provider: myxen
  image: opensuseleap42_2-template
  storage_repo: 'Local storage'
  clone: False
  minion:
    master: 10.0.0.20

w2k12:
  provider: myxen
  image: w2k12svr-template
  clone: True
  userdata_file: /srv/salt/win/files/windows-firewall.ps1
  win_installer: /srv/salt/win/files/Salt-Minion-2016.11.3-AMD64-Setup.exe
  win_username: Administrator
  win_password: p@ssw0rd
  use_winrm: False
  ipv4_cidr: 10.0.0.215/24
  ipv4_gw: 10.0.0.1
  minion:
    master: 10.0.0.21

The first example will create a clone of the sles12sp2-template in the same storage repository without deploying the Salt minion.

The second example will make a copy of the image and deploy a new suse VM with the Salt minion installed.

The third example will create a clone of the Windows 2012 template and deploy the Salt minion.

The profile can be used with a salt command:

salt-cloud -p suse  xenvm02

This will create an salt minion instance named xenvm02 in Xen. If the command was executed on the salt-master, its Salt key will automatically be signed on the master.

Once the instance has been created with a salt-minion installed, connectivity to it can be verified with Salt:

salt xenvm02 test.version

# salt-cloud --list-sizes myxen

# salt-cloud --list-images myxen

# salt-cloud --list-locations myxen