In our previous tutorial, we discussed how to install XCP-ng server. Before deploying our first VM, let us get familiar with XCP-ng configuration menu. Allow me to give you a screenshot tour to get started with XCP-ng Management Console.
XCP-ng Management Console
After successful XCP-ng installation, you will see the XCP-ng configuration menu as shown in the screenshot below.
On the left hand, you see various menus and on the right hand side, you see what's in the selected menu item. Let us have a quick glance of each menu item.
1. Status Display
In this section, you will see the XCP-ng host's processor information and management network interface details such as device name, IP address, netmask, and gateway. You can press ENTER key to view the SSK key fingerprints for your host system. Press F5 at any time to refresh the details.
2. Network and Management Interface
In this section, you can do the following:
- Configure the network management interface settings such as IP address, netmask, gateway and hostname.
- Set or change DNS server details.
- View. Enable/Disable and Add, and remove one or multiple NTP servers.
- Test the configured network interface using ping utility.
- Display the configured NICs.
- Perform emergency network reset. This command will reboot the host and reset its network configuration. While performing this action, all VMs will be forcibly shutdown. So I suggest you to shutdown all running VMs and disable HA before running this operation.
Press ENTER to view and change configuration settings in each section. Press ESC to go back to the previous menu.
3. Authentication
The authentication section allows the logged-in user to change the login password and configure auto-logout timeout.
4. Virtual Machines
In this section, you can view the detailed information about all running virtual machines in the host, display hosts system's performance and display the status of all VMs (running and stopped).
5. Disks and Storage Repositories
This section allows you to display information storage repositories, create new storage repository and attach existing storage repository, detach and destroy storage repositories.
6. Resource Pool Configuration
The Resource Pool Configuration section allows the hosts to share resources i.e. Storage repositories and migrate running virtual machines between hosts in the pool. From this section, we can add a host to a resource pool or remove a host from the resource pool.
7. Hardware and BIOS Information
In this section, we can view the host's hardware and BIOS information such as system manufacturer, system model, processor, memory, disk controller and BIOS etc.
8. Keyboard and Timezone
This section helps you to choose correct language and keyboard layout for your keyboard, and set timezone for the XCP-ng server.
9. Remote Service Configuration
In this section, we can configure remote logging using syslog, enable or disable remote access login via SSH. By default, the remote login is enabled.
10. Backup, Restore and Update
From this section, you can backup and restore system database and virtual machine metadata to/from the storage repository. You can also apply software updates to XCP-ng server.
11. Technical Support
In the Technical support section, you can check or validate the basic configuration of this server, save or upload bug report and view the installed XCP-ng software build information.
12. Reboot or Shutdown
This section allows you to enter or exit maintenance mode and reboot or shutdown the XCP-ng server. Please note that once you enter the maintenance mode, all running virtual machines on the current host will be migrated to other host(s) in the resource pool.
13. Local Command Shell
This section allows you to start local command shell with root privileges on your XCP-ng server.
To start Local command shell, simply press ENTER key. You will be prompted to enter the password for the root user.
Now you will be landed in the shell as root user.
After done with the shell, simply type exit and hit enter to go back to the management console.
You will have now a basic idea on working with XCP-ng management console. From now on, you can start deploying the virtual machines. But before doing that, let us see how to update XCP-ng server.
Update XCP-ng
Login to the XCP-ng Local command shell as described in the previous section.
Make sure all the third-party repositories have been disabled before updating XCP-ng. If any repository is enabled, simply edit the relevant file in /etc/yum.repos.d/ and set enabled=0 to disable the respective repository.
From the local command shell, run the following command to update XCP-ng server:
# yum update
After the update is completed, restart the XAPI toolstack on XCP-ng server. But before restarting toolstack, make sure that no task is currently running using command:
# xe task-list
If no task is running, restart XAPI tollstack by running the following command:
# xe-toolstack-restart
It is safe to reboot every time an update is installed in your XCP-ng server.
Conclusion
I hope you're now comfortable to use the XCP-ng management console and know what each section is used for. In our upcoming articles, we will discuss more about XCP-ng usage.
