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XCP-NG Virtualization Platform with management by Xen Orchestra

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One of the first virtualization platforms out there which is getting its popularity exploding is XCP-NG virtualization platform by vates.tech from France. It all started in 2011-2012 so it's not a new platform.

UPDATE: Make sure to read the update as I have finally managed to find the time and redeploy the Xen Orchestra. It's pretty cool…

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XCP-NG is a virtualization platform based on the Xen Project, which is a Linux Foundation project that develops open-source hypervisors and related tools. XCP-NG aims to bridge the gap between users and developers, and to offer a reliable, secure, and high-performance solution for enterprise-level virtualization. XCP-NG is compatible with Citrix XenServer, but it also adds more features and flexibility, such as unlimited RAM, CPU, and storage support, GPU passthrough, ZFS storage, and live migration.

Quote:

The very first version of Xen Orchestra is born. Originally designed as an internal tool, it got the attention of some of Vates' original customers and benefits from a seed round of investments to become an Open Source solution with pro support for companies.

Table of contents

Note: I'm no mean an expert in XCP-NG, but after the recent “disaster” with Broadcom/VMware, it looks like a viable solution for homelabers, SMB and more. It's not the only one, I know. I have not enough hardware to test this as I'd like to, so my home test solution consists of using nested virtualization and install it as a VM.

Xen orchestra is a web-based management interface for XCP-NG and XenServer. It allows users to visualize, control, backup, and delegate their virtualization infrastructure from a single dashboard. Xen orchestra is also integrated with a CLI, a REST API, a Terraform provider, and other connectors/plugins. Xen orchestra is designed to be user-friendly, scalable, and robust, and to provide advanced features such as disaster recovery, continuous replication, load balancing, and cloud-init.

Vendor Lock IN? The benefits of XCP-NG and Xen Orchestra

  • Open-source and community-driven, which means they are constantly updated, improved, and supported by a large network of contributors and users.
  • Cost-effective and flexible, as they do not require any license fees (except if you want a PRO Support) or vendor lock-in, and they can run on any hardware that supports virtualization.
  • Very powerful and efficient, as they leverage the Xen hypervisor, which is one of the most mature and widely used hypervisors in the industry, and which offers low overhead, high security, and broad compatibility.
  • Live Migration, Scalable and allowing you to grow as you need. You run your private cloud. Control your VMs on your own bare metal servers.
  • easy to install and use, as they provide a turnkey appliance that can be deployed on a bare-metal machine, and a web UI that can manage multiple hosts and VMs from anywhere.

The default screen looks like ESXi -:)

Deployment and Installation

At first, you need to deploy the XCP-NG, the Xen Hypervisor, actually (which is has similar “server” look like ESXi from VMware). This is the image above.

Next, you need to connect to the host via your web browser and deploy the Xen Orchestra so you have a cluster management. In fact, within their jargon they don't say cluster, but pool. Apparently even if you have a single server, you have a pool.

Obviously everything is new so far, but the basic config of the network, time zone, keyboard, and storage from within the console seems to be easy.

The connection to the server is done via https://Ip_of_your_xcpng so this is no difference compared to ESXi. However, once here, you don't have any management UI to create a VMs, on this single host….

Sorry if it seems basic, but to attract more customers, I'd definitely add a simple basic host management. Something similar we have had with ESXi FREE Version.

Here we have only the Quick deploy button, CLI documentation, Pro Support or Community forums buttons.

Xen Orchestra Deployment

Well, ok, let's try to deploy Xen Orchestra. Let's see how it goes. (Note that I'm using Brave browser so that's why in my quick test I failed to deploy the solution?).

After clicking the quick deploy, you'll get a pop-up overlay window asking you to fill in the login details…

Ok, I put in the login information, I've created my account on xen-orchestra.com website and set the XOA password and…… FAIL -:).

That's surprising, isn't it. As easy to deploy solution, it offers some initial resistance, isn't it? Let's try to switch browser in case this thing is some kind of sensitive to my hardened Brave browser. Let's try Chrome…..

All right. Same error.

Well, this is not encouraging, unfortunately. I'll have to dig through forums, unless someone could help, from my readers. I'd appreciate that.

Never mind. I still like the idea, to be free, to have a choice. Screenshot from XCP-NG.org website.

This is not the only way to deploy Xen Orchestra. This is the supported way. (Perhaps I have to take the basic support package in order to be able to deploy it? Other methods of deploying are via some kind of “light version”.

Introducing XO Lite

Xen Orchestra Lite is a lightweight version of the Xen Orchestra meant for single-host administration, running directly from your browser without having to deploy anything, hosted on XCP-ng directly.

NOTE: XO Lite is still a work in progress! However, it's meant to cover all basic actions you need to boostrap your infrastructure or just do basic operation on your VMs.

INFO: XO Lite isn't an orchestrator, it's just a local management console. If you want to orchestrate your VMs (load balancing, backup, warm migration and so on), you MUST use Xen Orchestra! You deploy your XCP-NG and Xen Orchestra to manage, to have a full blown UI, an alternative to vCenter Server.

Wrap Up

This is an introductory post into XCP-NG. Even if we were not able to deploy the Xen Orchestra via the first try, we still like the idea. You got the idea. There are alternatives to VMware. There are other hypervisors which may fit the SMB sector that is clearly left behind by Broadcom/VMware.

If you're working for an SMB, it's definitely time to start looking for an alternative. Don't hesitate to leave a comment if you like what we write and suggestions of other virtualization platforms with their benefits! I'm listening to my readers and want to write about what's interesting not only for me, but also for you my readers! -:)

Update!!

As you could see, the first install went completely wrong and I wasn't able to deploy Xen Orchestra Appliance (XOA). I know why -:). My nested virtualization setup within VMware Workstation or rather the internal disk space allocated for the XCP-NG was just too small! So I went ahead and created a new VM in VMware Workstation (use New VM wizard with Linux > CentOS 8 x64 bit template) and allocated 200 Gb of disk.

From then, the rest of the install is the same, and I was also able to deploy the Xen Orchestra. So when on this screen, I just filled in the required fields with my account previously created at Vates.tech site. You can see the Deploying XOA button where the system is deploying XOA to my XCP-NG system.

XOA Dashboard

The system will redirect you directly to the XOA dashboard login screen. You need to assign an IP address to XOA and here we go a new screen…

After that, you get into the XOA dashboard. Think of XOA as a vCenter Server. You can see your hosts, your VMs, your networking etc etc….

We'll do a separate article about XCP-NG and Xen Orchestra I think, because there is a strong community, and I like the way this project has started. I also like that the French made this happened!!

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About Vladan SEGET

This website is maintained by Vladan SEGET. Vladan is as an Independent consultant, professional blogger, vExpert x16, Veeam Vanguard x9, VCAP-DCA/DCD, ESX Virtualization site has started as a simple bookmarking site, but quickly found a large following of readers and subscribers.

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