OVH [SoYouStart] Configuration

In case you are renting an OVH, Kimsufi or SoYouStart dedicated server, it's pretty easy to get up and running with a Xen server !

With those dedicated servers, you have the opportunity to use a “ready made” installation template that will setup your server in a Citrix XenServer 6.5 (64bits) or Citrix XenServer 7.0.0 (BETA) (no SoftRAID) (64bits) configuration.

It's outside the scope of this article to explain how to install those configurations on your dedicated server, and we'll assume here that you've already managed to have a running Xen Server. In our example we'll be operating on a Citrix XenServer 6.5 (64bits) configuration…

We could use the CLI to execute all the commands required, but since this tutorial is aimed at keeping things simple we'll introduce a few GUI applications that will greatly ease access and manipulation of our Xen Server.

The easiest way to jump start using your Xen Server is to use a management tool.

When it comes to Xen GUI applications, there are roughly only two choices available:

• Install XenCenter (Windows only), by typing your Xen Server IP into a Web Browser, you'll see a link to download the XenCenterSetup.exe
• Install OpenXenManager, which is a (python) multiplatform implementation of XenCenter. To install OpenXenManager on Debian or Ubuntu, you can follow this tutorial.

One of the best available tool at the time of this writing probably is Xen Orchestra, which is a web based GUI for XenServer that can be installed in two flavors:

• XOA - Xen Ochestra Appliance
• XO - Xen Ochestra from sources

The main difference between those 2 flavors is that XOA is based on paid subscription plans, while XO is totally free, open-source, software. So what's the catch?

• XOA comes with paid support plans and it can be upgraded right through it's web interface. As one can expect, the level of support plan, as well as the monthly price, defines the options that are accessible in the Web GUI.
• XOA also offers a Virtual Appliance, that can be easily installed using a command as simple as bash -c “$(curl -s http://xoa.io/deploy)”, to find more about deploying the XOA appliance to your Xen Server, read this page of the XOA documentation…

• XO offers no possibility to upgrade from it's Web GUI.
• XO requires you to build a VM from scratch.
• XO has all of the Web GUI options available.

Our purpose here will be to have Xen Orchestra installed from sources.
Oddly enough, since the XOA installation process has been made so simple, the shortest way to this objective starts by installing the Xen Orchestra Appliance to our fresh Xen Server.

SSH, as root, into your XenServer and simply type the following command:

> bash -c "$(curl -s http://xoa.io/deploy)"

Your IP configuration will be requested: it's in DHCP by default, otherwise you can enter a fixed IP address (eg 192.168.0.10). If DHCP is selected, the script will continue automatically. Otherwise, a netmask, gateway and DNS should be provided. XOA will be deployed on your default storage repository. You can move it elsewhere anytime after.

The VM should be started automatically.
To verify whether it's running and if you need to start it use the following commands:

> xe vm-list
> xe vm-start vm="XOA Unified"

We'll need a base OS as a host for our XO deployment, you can delve into the details of configuring a Debian base template, but we'll try to provide a link to a usable template (soon?)…

We'll be using this Debian 8.9 template in the following example.