The Tabs
The tab-based navigation in XenCenter provides quick access to your managed resources without needing to open and close dozens of windows at the same time. The tabs available at any time depend on what you have selected in the Resources pane. For example, most resources have a General tab. The HA and WLB tabs are available only when a pool is selected and the Snapshots tab is only available when a VM is selected.
Citrix (preview)
When XenCenter has an active connection to a Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops environment, XenCenter shows a Citrix tab for the following resources:
Console
On this tab, you can run a console session on a VM or a managed server.
See also Run a Remote Console Session to read about the different types of remote VM console supported in XenCenter.
Switch to Remote Desktop or Switch to Default Desktop
Switches between Windows remote console types
Switch to Graphical Console or Switch to Text Console
Switches between Linux remote console types. You might need to enter your VNC password first when switching to a graphic console.
Open SSH Console
Opens an external SSH console as a pop-up window. This option is available
- On the host’s Console tab to access the Control Domain (Dom0) console
-
On the Console tab of a Linux VM to access the VM’s console.
Note:
Ensure that the Linux guest agent is installed on the VM to launch the SSH console.
Send Ctrl+Alt+Del
Sends the Ctrl+Alt+Del key sequence to the remote console.
Most keyboard shortcuts are transmitted to the server or VM when you use a remote console. However, your local system always intercepts the Ctrl+Alt+Del key sequence and prevents it from being sent if you type it in directly at the remote console.
Undock (Alt+Shift+U)
Undocks the Console tab into a floating window.
To shut down or reboot a server, install XenServer VM Tools, shut down, reboot or suspend a virtual machine from within the floating console window, select the lifecycle icon in the top-left corner of the window and then click a command.
To use a different keyboard shortcut for docking and undocking the console, go to the XenCenter Options dialog box: click Tools > Options.
Find Console
Opens the floating console window when it has been minimized or brings it to the front if it is hidden behind other windows.
Redock (Alt+Shift+U) or Reattach Console
Docks the floating console window back to the Console tab.
Scale
Scales the remote console screen to fit within the Console tab or window so that you can easily see everything on the remote console. Clear the check box to display the remote console screen at its normal size.
By default, the scale setting used in the Console tab is preserved when you undock the console or switch between console types, but this behavior is configurable. To change this setting, go to the Console tab of the Options dialog box.
Fullscreen (Ctrl+Enter)
Displays the console in full-screen mode. Press Ctrl+Alt to exit full-screen mode; to use a different key sequence, go to the XenCenter Changing XenCenter Options dialog box.).
When you point to the top center of the screen in full-screen mode, the Connection bar is displayed. The Connection bar shows the name of the VM or server you are working on and including two controls: a Pin button to allow you to turn the Connection bar on permanently, and a Restore down button that you can click to exit full-screen mode.
You can control various console settings in the Options dialog box. For example, the text clipboard on your local machine is shared with the remote console by default. Items you cut or copy are placed on the clipboard and made available for pasting on either your local computer or on the remote console. You can turn clipboard sharing off and change various other console settings from the XenCenter Options dialog box; see Changing XenCenter Options.
General
View general properties of the selected container, virtual machine, server, resource pool, template, or storage repository on the General tab; click Properties to set or change properties.
Copy any of the values shown on this pane to the Windows clipboard by right-clicking on the value and clicking Copy on the shortcut menu.
More information about the general properties of some types of resource is available in the following articles:
GPU
The GPU tab allows you to view or edit the GPU placement policy, view the available GPUs and virtual GPU types. The GPUs are grouped based on the supported virtual GPU types. You can modify the virtual GPU types allowed on a particular GPU using the Edit Selected GPUs option. The horizontal bar in each group represents a physical GPU and it displays information about VMs running on the GPU.
For more information, see the following articles:
Note:
- GPU Pass-through and Graphics Virtualization are available for XenServer Premium Edition customers. The GPU tab is displayed when the pool meets the license requirements and also has GPUs that support various virtual GPU types.
- There is no licensing restriction to use NVIDIA GPU pass-through for Linux VMs.
High availability
On the HA tab for a pool, you can:
- Enable high availability using the Configure HA button.
- Change the pool’s high availability configuration using the Configure HA button.
- Disable high availability.
When high availability has been enabled, you can see high availability status (failure capacity and server failure limit) and the status of the selected heartbeat storage repositories on the HA tab.
For more information, see the following articles:
Home
The Home tab allows you to add a server to the list of managed servers or open a browser window to find out more about XenServer.
Memory
You can enable Dynamic Memory Control (DMC) and configure dynamic memory limits on the Memory tab. VMs can have a static memory allocation or can use DMC. DMC allows the amount of memory allocated to a VM to be adjusted on-the-fly as memory requirements on the server change without having to restart the VM. The Memory tab also lets you update the Control Domain (dom0) memory.
For more information, see the following articles:
Networking
The Networking tab displays a list of networks configured on the pool, server, or the VM you have selected. It provides a centralized location to access or modify your network settings.
For more information, see the following articles:
NICs
View detailed information about the physical NICs on the selected server and configure NIC bonds on the NICs tab.
NIC bonding (or “NIC teaming”) can improve server resiliency by using two or more physical NICs as if they were one: if one NIC within the bond fails, the server’s network traffic is automatically routed over the second NIC, ensuring server management connectivity. See Configuring NICs.
Note:
Use vSwitch as your network stack to bond four NICs. You can only bond two NICs when using Linux bridge.
Performance
View performance data for your VMs and managed servers on the Performance tab. Full performance data is only available for VMs with XenServer VM Tools installed.
The tab provides real-time monitoring of performance statistics across resource pools and graphical trending of virtual and physical machine performance. By default, graphs showing CPU, memory, network I/O, and disk I/O are displayed on the tab. Click Actions to add more performance data and change the appearance of the graphs. For more information, see Configuring Performance Graphs.
Performance alerts can be generated when CPU, memory usage, network, storage throughput, or VM disk activity go over a specified threshold on a managed server, VM, or SR. For more information, see Configuring Performance Alerts.
Search
Select the top-level XenCenter item, pool, or server in the Resources pane and then click the Search tab to perform complex searches of your managed resources. You can construct queries based on object types, folders, and attributes such as name, description, tags, high availability status or restart priority, and power state.
For more information, see the following articles:
Snapshots
Create, delete and export VM snapshots, revert a VM to a selected snapshot, and use existing snapshots to create VMs and templates on the Snapshots tab.
See VM Snapshots.
Storage
View the storage configuration of the selected virtual machine, server, resource pool, or storage repository on the Storage tab. The settings shown on this tab depend on the type of resource currently selected in the Resources pane.
| Selected resource | What’s shown on the Storage tab | Learn more |
|---|---|---|
| VMs and templates | Information about each virtual disk on the VM is shown. This information includes its size and location (the SR where the virtual disk is located), its data access status, and disk access priority. To edit a virtual disk’s settings, select it in the list and click Properties. Click Add to add a disk or Attach to attach an existing disk. | Configuring Virtual Storage |
| Servers and pools | A list of the available storage repositories (SRs) is shown, with summary information about their type, size, free space, and share status. To edit the name or description of an SR, select it in the list and click Properties. Click Add to add an SR or Detach to detach the selected SR. | Managing Storage Repositories (SRs) |
| Storage repositories | A list of the virtual disks or ISOs on the selected SR is shown. Click Add to add a new virtual disk. | Add Virtual Disks |
USB
The USB tab allows you to pass through individual physical USB devices to a VM so the VM’s OS can use it as a local USB device. You can enable or disable pass-through by clicking the Enable Pass-through or Disable Pass-through button on the USB tab. To attach a USB, perform the following steps:
- Shut down the VM.
- Right-click the VM and select Properties.
- On the left pane, click USB.
- Click Attach.
- In the Attach USB dialog box, click Attach.
- Start the VM. The USB is now attached to the VM.
- In the same way, click Detach to detach the USB from the VM.
USB pass-through support has the following restrictions:
- USB pass-through is supported for the following USB versions: 1.1, 2.0, and 3.0.
- USB pass-through supports a maximum of 6 USBs to be passed through to a single VM.
- Snapshot/Suspend/ Pool Migrate/ Storage Migrate operations are not supported when USB is passed through to VM.
- USB pass-through feature is available for XenServer Premium Edition customers.
- Plugging in untrustworthy USB devices to your computer might put your computer at risk. Assign USB devices with modifiable behavior only to trustworthy guest VMs.
- Do not boot BIOS from USB devices.
- Ensure that the USB device to pass-through is trustworthy and can work stably in normal Linux environment.
- USB device pass-through is blocked in a VM if high availability is enabled on the pool and the VM has restart priority as Restart. The USB attach button is disabled and the following message is displayed: The virtual USB cannot be attached because the VM is protected by HA. When configuring high availability for a pool, if a VM is not agile, the Restart option is disabled with the following tooltip: The VM has one or more virtual USBs. Restart cannot be guaranteed.
Users
Configure role-based access to XenServer users and groups through AD user account provisioning and Role Based Access Control (RBAC) on the Users tab. In this tab you can do the following tasks:
- Join a pool or server to an Active Directory (AD) domain
- Add an AD user or group to a pool
- Assign roles to users and groups.
For more information, see Managing Users.
WLB
Access key Workload Balancing features, including configuration, optimization recommendations, and status on the WLB tab.
Note:
WLB is available for XenServer Premium Edition customers. For more information about licensing, see About XenServer Licensing.