XenServer Administration Handbook: Practical Recipes for Successful Deployments

Packed with practical advice, this hands-on guide provides valuable information you need to most effectively optimize and manage the XenServer open source virtualization platform. Whether you run a modest installation of a few blades or multiple global enterprise datacenters, this book focuses on the most critical issues you’re likely to encounter when designing a XenServer deployment and helps you handle day-to-day management tasks.

Tim Mackey and J.K. Benedict from Citrix Systems, the company that manages XenServer, show you how to design a deployment through best practices, deployment blueprints, and installation guidelines. The book’s second part features concise, easy-to-implement recipes for day-to-day management, such as user rights, backup strategies, and hardware maintenance.

• Learn precisely what makes a XenServer work, and how it can host 1000 virtual machines
• Explore the core components of a production XenServer environment
• Investigate several options on how and where to install XenServer
• Examine several factors for “right sizing” your XenServer deployment to fit your needs
• Work with a decision tree to optimize your XenServer deployment design
• Understand how to accommodate guest VM virtualization modes
• Use recipes that help you plan for, obtain, and apply XenServer upgrades

Table of Contents

Part I. Designing a Successful XenServer Deployment
Chapter 1. What Is a XenServer?
Chapter 2. Core Architecture and Critical Components
Chapter 3. Installing XenServer
Chapter 4. Design Assumptions Impacting Deployment
Chapter 5. Deployment Blueprint
Chapter 6. Understanding Guest VM Types

Part II. Management Recipes
Chapter 7. Installation Recipes
Chapter 8. Planning for Upgrades
Chapter 9. Log Management
Chapter 10. Backup Strategies
Chapter 11. User Management
Chapter 12. SSL Certificates
Chapter 13. Hardware Maintenance