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Proof of Concepts
Version History
1.0 Steve Atkinson Document Creation 27/12/2007
1.1 Anthony Francis Updated for XenServer 5.0 and PVS 27/11/2008
1.3 Anthony Francis Updated for PVS 5.x deployment as part of E4XS PoC 14/07/2009
1.4 Anthony Francis Update for Essentials for XenServer 5.5 03/08/2009
1.5 Anthony Francis Re-entered success criteria/business case sections, along with 10/08/2009
expected completion date
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Contents
Introduction........................................................................................................................................................................................ 5
Executive Summary..................................................................................................................................................................... 5
Overview ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 5
Scope ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 8
Responsibilities ............................................................................................................................................................................. 9
Hardware .................................................................................................................................................................................11
Shared Storage.......................................................................................................................................................................11
Operating System...................................................................................................................................................................12
Software ...................................................................................................................................................................................12
Licensing..................................................................................................................................................................................12
Installation........................................................................................................................................................................................13
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Installation Order ........................................................................................................................................................................15
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Introduction
Executive Summary
It is the intention of Citrix to provide a Systems Engineer to install and configure Citrix XenServer for the purposes of
demonstrating key features of this technology. It is perceived that a successful POC will provide enough knowledge
to the customer for them to make informed decisions as to if / how they take the technology forward into semi and
fully production environments.
To ensure that it is fully understood what is needed from both parties it will be necessary to agree to the points listed
in this document. This will form the basis for the POC and will ensure that the most is obtained from it both while it is
running and moving forward into production and semi-production environments.
Overview
Citrix XenServer 5.5 is a server virtualization platform that makes data centre’s more agile and efficient through faster
application delivery, higher levels of availability and improved utilization of IT resources. XenServer delivers the
advanced features required by mission critical workloads (operating systems, applications and configurations) without
sacrificing the ease-of-use necessary for wide-scale deployments.
As a native 64-bit virtualisation platform built on the open source Xen hypervisor, XenServer installs directly on bare -
metal servers requiring no dedicated host operating system. The platform is ideal for rapid adoption of virtualization
for server consolidation, software development, and business continuity as well as comprehensive application
workload provisioning for virtual and physical infrastructure.
Essentials for XenServer 5.5, Enterprise Edition – provides advanced virtualisation management features on top
of the free XenServer virtualisation platform and optimis es business-critical server workloads, enabling data centre’s
to be flexible, efficient, and cost effective pools of computing and storage resources with:
All features included in XenServer 5.5 plus:
High Availability that automatically restart VMs upon host server failure
Workload Balancing of VMs
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StorageLink for deep storage integration and storage management for virtualisation
Automated Lab Management for virtual environments
Dynamic Workload Provisioning of virtual machines only
Workflow Studio orchestration
Essentials for XenServer 5.5, Platinum Edition – provides advanced virtualisation management features on top of
the free XenServer virtualisation platform and optimises business-critical server workloads, enabling data centre’s to
be flexible, efficient, and cost effective pools of computing and storage resources with:
All features included in Essentials for XenServer 5.5, Enterprise Edition plus:
Dynamic Workload Provisioning of virtual and physical machines
Stage Management
Additionally, Citrix offers OEM editions of XenServer which are available as embedded software in x86 servers from
HP, Dell, and other vendors.
PoC Planning
Details of what should be discussed with the customer regarding scope of the pilot, e.g . things like inclusion of certain
applications when testing XenApp.
Full Name
E-mail Address
Mobile Telephone
Office Telephone
Office Address
Technical Contact
Full Name
E-mail Address
Mobile Telephone
Office Telephone
Office Address
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Site Name
Site Contact Name
Site Contact
Telephone
Site Contact E-mail
Site Full Address
Full Name
E-mail Address
Mobile Telephone
Office Telephone
Full Name
E-mail Address
Mobile Telephone
Office Telephone
Criteria 1
Notes
Achievement Status
Criteria 2
Notes
Achievement Status
Criteria 3
Notes
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Achievement Status
Business Case
Enter any information that may be useful to help build a business case around the PoC .
Scope
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• Setup or configuration of external storage systems such as SAN or NAS technologies, (see below for further
details)
• Setup or configuration of the following
• Networking hardware such as routers or switches
Any software applications (such as SQL, Exchange, and SAP) other than those stated as part of the XenServer
system.
Responsibilities
Customer/Citrix Systems/Citrix Partner Responsibilities:
Staffing Requirements
On-site Requirements
Additional Requirements
It is necessary to be accompanied by authorised personnel that can assist with anything that is needed to
complete the POC. They should be fully familiar with the testing environment and available throughout the
implementation of the POC
For a POC, any integration with existing production services is discouraged. If any component of the POC is
to be integrated with an existing production system (e.g. DHCP server changes, Active Directory integration,
XenApp farm inclusion etc.) a legal disclaimer will need to be signed by the customer prior to the POC
engagement.
An element of education will be provided during the building of the POC if desired which can be extremely
useful to continue the POC into production but this is not to be confused with structured training that can be
obtained though Citrix authorised training partners which can be obtained at any time.
Valid application software and operating system licenses will be provided by the customer for the duration of
the POC.
The following points should all have been agreed, completed or provided before the Engineer be dispatched to site
All prerequisites listed in the following section are met in full
A conference call or meeting has occurred that has allowed the success criteria to be agreed
Make, model number and specification of server hardware and shared storage to be used
What is the workload being virtualised i.e. Windows Server 2003, XenApp and MS Office 2007, SAP R/3 or
Linux, etc
Virtual Machines, (VMs) will be built via what process i.e. standard install , scripted installation, PXE
deployment solution, P2V or CD Image, etc
Please note that 30-day evaluation licenses will be provided along with all XenServer skills. However any
workload specific skills such MS Exchange, SQL Server, SAP and even Citrix Xen App may need to be
provided by the CSA partner or the end-user to ensure a successful POC
Mutually agreed date set for the work to be carried out
Remote facilities to the systems that are being worked on as well as access to the consoles of these
systems
Completion of the Citrix Systems demonstration agreement.
Failure to comply with any of these prerequisites will result in the engineer leaving site and not returning until they are
met in full.
The POC is focused on proving the basic concept of a XenServer system. Anything further may involve further
consultancy and is likely to be chargeable. A full working day starting is normally deemed to be sufficient time for the
POC, however if Platinum Edition is being evaluated as part of the POC a second day ma y be required. Any
additional time required may be chargeable.
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Support of the POC will be on a best endeavors basis by the engineer that installed the system plus any other
support arrangements setup prior to the POC.
It is in the interest of both Citrix and the customer to have a successful POC but this relies on preparation and a
mutually agreed time scale and desire to work together If this is possible then the POC should occur in a timely and
cost effective manner and its objectives be met in full.
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Pre-Installation Requirements
Hardware
• One or ideally at least two 64-bit x86 CPU(s) servers, 1.5 GHz minimum, 2 GHz or faster multi-core CPU
recommended.
• To support VMs running Windows, an Intel VT or AMD-V x86-based system with one or more (up
to 32) CPUs is required.
• To run Windows VMs, hardware support for virtualization must be enabled on the machine running
XenServer. This is usually an option in the BIOS. Consult your BIOS documentation for more
details
• Note: To ensure compatibility, it is recomm ended that branded servers be used for the project.
Lower cost “white box” units may give unpredictable results. Servers listed on the XenServer
compatibility list at www.citrix.com/xenserver/hcl offer the greatest chance of success.
• 4 GB minimum or more recommended depending on how many VMs will ultimately be hosted
• Locally attached storage (ATA, SATA, SCSI) with 16 GB of disk space minimum, 60 GB of disk space
recommended
• Product installation creates two 4GB partitions for the XenServer Control Domain; remaining space
is available for VMs
• Note: Any existing OS or software installed on the server will be deleted as part of the XenServer
installation.
• 100 Mbit/s or faster network interface card (NIC). A gigabit NIC is recommended for faster P2V and
export/import data transfers and for live relocation of VMs.
• Capability for booting from CD / DVD
XenCenter Workstation
• Windows XP SP2 (Preferred) or Windows Vista SP1
• 1GB RAM
• Disk Storage; Sufficient for initial O/S
• Routed network connectivity to the same subnet as the XenServer without a firewall
Local Storage
• Single locally installed disk storage on the XenServer is sufficient for the storage of VMs and the XenServer
operating system as stated above.
Shared Storage
Shared virtual machine storage will be required if features such as XenMotion and High Availability are to be tested.
Any shared storage will be configured by the customer prior to the engineer arriving. The storage must be:
iSCSI, Fiber Channel or NFS-based
The storage on the SAN should have been pre-configured with the appropriate LUNs, volumes or
aggregates.
Physical connectivity between the XenServer and the storage should already be configured
Supported HBAs or iSCSI hardware should have been pre installed in the server(s)
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Provisioning Services 5.0 SP2
• Service account – PVS service account in AD with appropriate rights to SQL Server database, full Admin
rights to PVS servers and vDisk CIFS share, http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120080
• Operating Systems - Windows 2003 Server SP2 (32 or 64-bit) Windows 2008 Server (supported in
Provisioning Server 5.0.sp1a and greater
• Processor - Intel or AMD x86 or x64 compatible; 2 GHz minimum; 3 GHz preferred; 3.5 GHz Dual Core/HT
or similar for loads greater than 250 target devices
• Memory - Minimum of 2 GB RAM; 4 GB preferred
• Network Adapter - Static IP, 1 GB Ethernet preferred; but Dual 1 GB Ethernet with no HP NIC Teaming
software can be used to test NIC Fail-over Note: Two NICs often perform better than a single dual -ported
NIC and should be connected to separate switches
• Hard Disk and Storage - 65GB CIFS share on a file-server or HA Cluster
Operating System
All required Microsoft Operating Systems and Applications such as MS office all be provided a s ISO files on a
CIFS/NFS share local to the XenServer host(s).
Software
Detail any 3 rd party software that will be needed, e.g. database servers, web servers, etc.
Licensing
Citrix XenServer 5.0 will be used and a license will be activated on -site. All Microsoft and third-party licenses will be
provided by customer.
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Installation
Environment Verification Questions
Please complete the tables listed below with the details of the server and storage h ardware to be used:
XenServer Host 1
Make Model
CPU #Sockets #Cores
Type/Speed
RAM
#NICs (PIFs) Speed
Mbps
SCSI
Controller/HBA
Disk Type Disk Size #Spindles
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XenServer Host 2
Make Model
CPU #Sockets #Cores
Type/Speed
RAM
#NICs (PIFs) Speed
Mbps
SCSI
Controller/HBA
Disk Type Disk Size #Spindles
Storage
Array
Make Model
#NICs Speed
Mbps
Disk Type Disk Size #Spindles **
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Installation Order
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Configuration Guidelines
The shared storage device will need to be configured with at least one 65GB LUN, however if two 65GB LUNs where
created.
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Server NIC MAC Address Network
Hostname Number
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Toolkits and Useful Links
The XenApp on XenServer Test toolkit
http://community.citrix.com/cdn/xs/XenServer+Resource+Kit
http://support.citrix.com/servlet/KbServlet/download/17370-102-190240/Port%20Usage%20Visio%20Diagram.zip
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX117374
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX115113
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120080
http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA2-5116ENW.pdf
http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA2-5115ENW.pdf
Antivirus Software Configuration Guidelines for Access Essentials/XenApp
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX114522
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