I'm trying to familiarize myself with the Xen Cloud platform with no particular expectations but to see it work.

I installed the XCP Base ISO to a blank 80GB drive, dropped to CLI, used partition 3 (as created by the installer) for my ~70GB VHD, created a VM with the CentOS 5.4 (64-bit) template, bound my VHD and physical CD-ROM with the installation media to the VM, and finally started up the VM.

The VM is shown to be running, but where do I go from here?

Should I be able to interact with the VM graphically? Does Xen provide a terminal interface to the VM? Or, is there no option but to SSH into the VM with the help of KickStart?

For that matter, am I better off installing Xen over an existing OS then going the P2V route?

Any help with this is greatly appreciated!

(P.S. As the title says, I'm very uneducated in the ways of Xen, so don't hesitate to call me out if I'm trying to golf with a hockey stick.)

[Edit: I've seemingly solved my problem using the steps I posted below, although the steps are by no means a comprehensive XCP set-up guide. I just hope they are of some help to others who seek to build their own cloud.]

YES. You can interact with VM graphically. Xen provides terminal interface to the VM. In addition, You can even ssh to your VM and or access it graphically through VNC provided that you have a running VNC server installed on that particular VM... just the same as what a "physical machine" do. But then, it's more important to have an overall control on your cloud.

You can use OpenXenManager (an alternative to Citrix's XenServer XenCenter) and install it from any client machine within your network to control your XenServer Host. You can monitor your virtual machines, access virtual machine consoles, perform allowed operations (start, stop, suspend, reboot...), create virtual machines, and more.

The vnc is able to help you view the VM graphically!

Well, this has been, (and continues to be,) one crazy trip!

I hesitate to mark the thread solved already, (as I'm still working through problems,) but here's what I've determined thanks to the guidance I've gotten here:

1. Did a clean XCP 0.5.0 install
2. Booted Ubuntu LiveUSB on a second PC

a. Installed OpenXenCloud and python-gtk-vnc
b. Downloaded and unzipped XVPAppliance (Hint: use a mounted drive with ample free space)
c. Connected to XCP host using OpenXenCloud

i. Imported the XVPAppliance image (Hint: import progress is shown in the new VM's log)
ii. Started the XVPAppliance VM

3. Connected to XVPAppliance on XCP host:

Code:

/usr/lib/xen/bin/xenconsole `xe vm-list params=dom-id name-label=xvpappliance --minimal`

a. Configured XVP (Hint: console emulation is very buggy at this stage. Use the XVP configuration instructions to guide you)

i. IP set to XCP network (i.e. 192.168.128.2)
ii. Gateway set to XCP bridge (i.e. 192.168.128.1)
iii. Default web server settings used (Hint: DO fill in the fields for the SSL cert)

b. Quit xenconsole with Ctrl+]

4. Restarted XVPAppliance (Hint: "xe vm-reboot name-label=xvpappliance")
5. Connected to XVPAppliance via SSH

a. Edited /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

Code:

DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
...

b. Quit SSH
c. Restarted VM network (Hint: "/etc/init.d/network restart")
d. Got DHCP address (Hint: "ifconfig eth0")

6. Restarted XVPAppliance
7. Opened XVP web interface (i.e. https://192.168.1.xxx)

Now I am able to create/edit VMs using OpenXenManager, and connect reliably, (and at the earliest stages - i.e. for installation,) to their consoles over VNC using the XVP web interface.

If someone wants to try retracing these steps to make sure I recalled them accurately I would surely appreciate it! And in general let me know if I could make these steps any more comprehensive/useful!