XenServer Commands
Below is a compilation of XenServer commands that I use and reference on a
frequent basis.
VMs
Status of VM
xe vm-list name-label=<Name of VM>
Shutdown VM
xe vm-shutdown vm="Name of VM"
List of VMs and their UUID
xe vm-list
Obtain the UUID of a particular VM
xe vm-list name-label=<Name of VM> (Name of VM is case sensitive)
Start VM from command line
xe vm-start vm=<name of vm>
Reboot VM from command line
xe vm-reboot name-label=<name of vm>
Resume VM from suspended mode
xe vm-resume vm=<name of VM>
When VMs have disappeared due to a failed XenServer host member
xe vm-reset-powerstate --force –multiple
xe vm-reset-powerstate name-label=<name of machine>
Check power-state status of virtual machine
xe vm-list name-label=<name of virtual machine>
Host
List of XenServer hosts along with their UUIDs
xe host-list
Check disk space on XenServer host
df –h
Review memory settings
free -m
Remove host from pool using command line
xe pool-eject host-uuid= <UUID of Host>
Emergency Master Server Failure Recovery
xe host-emergency-ha-disable force=true
xe pool-emergency-transition-to-master
pool-designate-new-master host-uuid=<UUID of member XenServer host to
become newmaster>
cat /etc/xensource/pool.conf to reflect the name of the new master.
Restarted XAPI service and it back to the pool.
Check if XenServer is a Pool Master
cat /etc/xensource/pool.conf
Output says “master” , slaves output “slave:<master host IP>”
Cancel XenServer Tasks
xe task-list
xe task-cancel uuid=<task uuid>
Identify VMs with an ISO loaded in CD tray
xe vm-cd-list --multiple
List of VMs on a particular XenServer host
xe vm-param-list uuid=<UUID of VM>
or
xe vm-list params name-label=ICORB01
To identify the XenServer host look for the field
resident-on ( RO): <UUID of XenServer Host>
xe host-list UUID=<UUID of XenServer Host>
Sending Host log messages to a central server
To write logs to a remote server
1. Set the syslog_destination parameter to the hostname or IP address of the
remote server where you want the logs to be written:
xe host-param-set uuid=<xenserver_host_uuid>
logging:syslog_destination=<hostname>
2. Issue the command:
xe host-syslog-reconfigure uuid=<xenserver_host_uuid>
Note: You can also execute this command remotely by specifying the host
parameter.
VDIs
List of VDIs on a VM with descriptions and UUIDs
xe vdi-list name-label=<name of VM> params=name-description,uuid
Obtain the VDI UUID of a particular VM
xe-vdi-list name-label=<Name of VM>
NOTE: If this does not work you must use the name of the actual storage
drive connected to the VM (Name is case sensitive)
xe-vdi-list uuid=<UUID of vdi associated with the VM>
Delete VDI
xe vdi-destroy uuid=<UUID of VDI>
You can identify orphaned VDIs by checking the VBD connections for a
VDI. If no VBD connections exist than the VDI is not connected to any VM.
Identify VBD connections for a VDI
xe vbd-list vdi-uuid=<UUID of VDI>
*VBD (virtual block devices) represent the mapping between VDIs and
VMs. PBDs represent the interface between the physical server and the
SR (storage repository)
http://forums.citrix.com/thread.jspa?threadID=265893
Command to identify excessive tree of cloned VHDs
vhd-util scan -f -m “VHD-*” -l VG_XenStorage-<UUID of SR> -p
Pool
xe pool-sync-database (run on pool master)
Force the pool database to be synchronized across all hosts in the resource
pool. This is not necessary in normal operations since the database is regularly
automatically replicated, but can be useful for ensuring changes are rapidly
replicated after performing a significant set of CLI operations.
Enable HA
xe pool-ha-enable
Disable HA
xe pool-ha-disable
Designate a new pool master
To change the pool master run the following command:
First disable high availability:
xe pool-ha-disable
Now list your XenServer hosts:
xe host-list
Using the list above, designate a new pool master by supplying the uuid
associated with the desired host:
xe pool-designate-new-master host-uuid=<UUID of member XenServer host to
become new master>
You’ll probably lose connection to the pool at this point, but that’s normal
behavior. Once XenCenter reconnects (this should happen automatically),
it’s safe to re-enable high availability:
xe pool-ha-enable
Backup Existing Pool State
Use PuTTY to connect to the pool master and run the following command
xe pool-dump-database file-name=pooldump
Use WinSCP to connect to the host and extract the pooldump file
Pool Failures (This info was taken from the XenServer 6.1 Admin Guide)
In the event that your entire resource pool fails, you will need to recreate the
pool database from scratch. Be sure to regularly back up your pool-metadata
using the xe pool-dump-database CLI command
To restore a completely failed pool
1. Install a fresh set of hosts. Do not pool them up at this point.
2. For the host nominated as the master, restore the pool database from your
backup using the xe pool-restore database command.
3. Connect to the master host using XenCenter and ensure that all your
shared storage and VMs are available again.
4. Perform a pool join operation on the remaining freshly installed member
hosts, and start up your VMs on the appropriate hosts.
Replacing a failed master with a still running member
If the master is really dead, choose one of the members and run the command
xe pool-emergency-transition-to-master
Once it has become the master, run the command below and the members will now
point to the new master
xe pool-recover-slaves
SR
Find UUID of Storage Repository (SR)
xe sr-list
Scan SR
xe sr-scan uuid=<uuid of sr>
Listing of VDI's on SR
xe vdi-list sr-uuid=<UUID of SR>
How to Remove a Storage Repository from XenServer
http://frankcontreras.com/how-to-remove-a-storage-repository-from-xenserver/
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX131328
Logs
View High Availability log file on XenServer. Can use this command to
view any log file
tail -f /var/log/xha.log
Snapshots
View a list of snapshots
xe snapshot-list
Use this to identify which vdi is not the snapshot when looking up VMs
with VDIs with snapshots
xe vdi-list name-label=<name of vdi> params=all
NOTE: field <is-a-snapshot> will be true if it is a snapshot and false if it is
not a snapshot
List of VDIs that have snapshots
xe vdi-list is-a-snapshot=true
Common
Cycle xapi service
xe-toolstack-restart
List Networks and Attributes
xe network-list
XAPI stack
service xapi status
service xapi restart
xe-toolstack-restart
If it hangs at “Stopping xapi” or “Starting xapi”, you may need to kill the process.
To identify the process ID (PID)
Type: top
To kill the process
Type: kill <pid>
Network connectivity utilities
Ethtool
Check statistics for eth0
Ethtool –S eth0
Ifconfig
Check time
Ntptime
