Installing Citrix XenServer Express Edition 4.1.0
This post will cover an installation guide for Citrix XenServer Express Edition 4.1.0 only. I will not cover XenCenter (the management console for XenServer) and Virtual Machine (VM) installation in this post. This Express Edition supports up to 4GB physical RAM and hosting up to 4 concurrent VMs in a single XenServer host with dual socket CPU. You can download the Express Edition install CD ISO from Citrix XenServer website and burn the ISO image to a physical CD.
Let’s start. Power up your server and insert the Citrix XenServer Express Edition CD into the CD-ROM drive. The installation process starts automatically. You will see the initial boot messages. The installer will perform hardware detection and initialization. Then, you will see the “Select Keymap” screen as below. Select your preferred keymap and choose Ok to proceed.
Next, you will see the “Welcome to XenServer” screen as below. Select Install or upgrade XenServer Host and choose Ok to proceed.
You will then see the next screen “Welcome to XenServer Setup” as below telling you that the setup program will install the XenServer on the server and warns that it will erase all data on the hard drives. Choose Ok to proceed.
The “End User License Agreement” (EULA) screen is displayed below. You can read the agreement by using the up and down arrow keys to scroll through. Choose Accept EULA to proceed.
The next screen “Select Installation Source” below asks for the source of the installation packages. Since we are using a physical CD, choose Local media (CD-ROM) and choose Ok to proceed.
The next screen “Linux Pack” below asks for the Linux Pack from a second CD. This can be installed later. We are skipping this. Choose No to proceed.
The “Verify Installation Source” screen is displayed below. We will bypass this. Choose Skip verification and choose Ok to proceed.
Next, you will see the “Set Password” screen as below. Type in your preferred root password and choose Ok to proceed.
The “Select Time Zone” is displayed as below. Choose your geographical area from the displayed list. Choose Ok to proceed.
The “Select Time Zone” is displayed again as below. Choose your city or area from the displayed list. Choose Ok to proceed.
Next, you will see the “System Time” screen as below. Choose Using NTP because we want to sync the server time to timeserver. Choose Ok to proceed.
The next screen “NTP Configuration” below asks for adding NTP servers. We need to enter the NTP server manual because we don’t have DHCP server. Enter your preferred NTP server(s). Choose Ok to proceed.
The next screen “Networking” below asks for which management network interface. Choose your preferred network interface and choose Ok to proceed. No prompt will be displayed if you have only one network interface.
Again, the next screen “Networking” asks for networking configuration. Choose Static configuration. Enter your preferred IP Address, Subnet mask and Gateway. Choose Ok to proceed.
The “Hostname and DNS Configuration” is displayed as below. Enter your preferred server hostname and DNS. Choose Ok to proceed.
Next, you will see “Confirm Installation” screen as below. Choose Install XenServer to proceed with the installation.
The “Installing XenServer” screen is displayed as below. The progress bar below shows the process of installation prepration.
Next, the progress bar below shows the process of Base Pack installation.
Finally, you see the progress bar reaching the completion of XenServer installation as below.
You will see the “Installation Complete” screen as below showing that XenServer installation has completed. Choose Ok to proceed with the server reboot.
The server is rebooted and goes to the Grub screen as below and will automatically boot up the XenServer.
You will see the XenServer booting process as below.
Lastly, you will see the XenServer login prompt as below. Hooray, the XenServer is up and running!
Thank you for reading this and I hope you enjoy it. I blog about the management console, XenCenter very soon. Stay tuned.
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A simple guy trying to put his name into the WWW place.
May 6th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
This is awesome, it this free? its good is it is really free. got to try it out…very very soon
May 7th, 2008 at 12:04 am
Bro, did you install on VM or physical server? How you did the screen shots? nice
May 7th, 2008 at 12:21 am
simon, this is FREE.
Danny, this installation is on physical server. Screen shots capture using DRAC.
May 7th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Wow, cool installation guide. Mind do one guide on installing Windows 3.11?
May 7th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
DRAC ? dell management software? cool
May 14th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
very good tutorial, does you submit it to the social bookmarking websit? should able to get a lot if traffic.
May 18th, 2008 at 8:44 am
Hello,
I have also on my Xenserver a Windows XP partition. How is exactly the right line to insert for Windows Boot in Grub ?
Thank you.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Kitkat, probably I should consider doing one Windows 3.11 installation in this Citrix XenServer. Hehehe…
simon, DRAC is Dell Remote Access Controller provide functionality to access the server remotely over a network.
iCalvyn, I did submitted in two social bookmarking. Thanks for your suggestion.
Jeremy, I have no experience on that. Google may be your best answer.