XenCenter

Installing XenCenter

Note:

XenCenter YYYY.x.x is currently in preview and is not supported for production use. Note that any future references to production support apply only when XenCenter YYYY.x.x and XenServer 8 go from preview status to general availability.

You can use XenCenter YYYY.x.x to manage your XenServer 8 and Citrix Hypervisor 8.2 CU1 non-production environments. However, to manage your Citrix Hypervisor 8.2 CU1 production environment, use XenCenter 8.2.7. For more information, see the XenCenter 8.2.7 documentation.

You can install XenCenter 8.2.7 and XenCenter YYYY.x.x on the same system. Installing XenCenter YYYY.x.x does not overwrite your XenCenter 8.2.7 installation.

XenCenter must be installed on a Windows machine that can connect to the XenServer host through your network.

In addition, XenCenter has the following system requirements:

  • Operating System:
    • Windows 11
    • Windows 10
    • Windows Server 2016
    • Windows Server 2019
    • Windows Server 2022
  • .NET Framework: Version 4.8
  • CPU Speed: 750 MHz minimum, 1 GHz or faster recommended
  • RAM: 1 GB minimum, 2 GB or more recommended
  • Disk Space: 100 MB minimum
  • Network: 100 Mbit/s or faster NIC
  • Screen Resolution: 1024x768 pixels, minimum

If you want XenCenter to be able to launch an external SSH console that connects to your XenServer host, install one of the following applications on the system:

  • PuTTY
  • OpenSSH (installed by default on some Windows operating systems)

To install XenCenter:

The XenCenter installation file, XenCenter.msi, is available from the XenServer download page.

  1. Launch the installer .msi file.
  2. Follow the XenCenter Setup wizard to install XenCenter.

    1. On the introduction panel, click Next.
    2. In Custom Setup, you can configure the following options:

      • Where to install XenCenter. The default location is C:\Program Files (x86)\XenServer\XenCenter\.
      • Whether to make XenCenter available for all users or just the current user. The default value is Just Me, which installs XenCenter only for the current user.

    On this panel, you can also click Disk Usage to check how much disk space is available on your computer and how much is required to install XenCenter.

    Click Next to confirm your choices.

  3. Click Install to begin the installation. The installation process takes a short time.
  4. After XenCenter installation is complete, select whether to Launch XenCenter on exiting the Setup wizard. Click Finish.

On first startup of XenCenter, you are asked whether you want to periodically check for updates to XenCenter. This capability is enabled by default. You can configure a proxy server that XenCenter goes through to check for and download updates.

For more information, see Update XenCenter.

Connect XenCenter to the XenServer host

If you have not yet installed any version of XenServer on your servers, first complete the steps in Install XenServer.

  1. Launch XenCenter. The program opens to the Home tab.
  2. Click the Add New Server icon.
  3. Enter the host name or IP address of the XenServer host in the Server field. Type the root user name and password that you set during installation of the XenServer host. Click Add.

The first time you add a host, the Save and Restore Connection State dialog box appears. This dialog enables you to set your preferences for storing your host connection information and automatically restoring host connections.

If you later want to change your preferences, you can do so by using XenCenter:

  1. From the main menu, select Tools > Options. The Options dialog box opens.
  2. Select the Save and Restore tab and set your preferences.
  3. Click OK to save your changes.

Configure XenCenter to use an external SSH console

XenCenter can launch an external SSH console that connects to a XenServer host. The supported external SSH console tools are PuTTY and OpenSSH. To use an external SSH console, ensure you have one or both of these tools installed on the system that hosts XenCenter.

You can configure the paths to both PuTTY and OpenSSH in XenCenter. However, XenCenter only attempts to use the tool that is selected in the Options dialog. By default, XenCenter selects the installed tool. If both tools are installed, PuTTY is selected.

If you have not configured the path to your external SSH console tool, XenCenter attempts on start to locate your PuTTY or OpenSSH installation and uses the paths it discovers.

To configure your external SSH console tool, complete the following steps:

  1. In the XenCenter main menu, go to Tools > Options.
  2. In the Options dialog, go to the External Tools tab.
  3. In the section External SSH Client, you can configure the following options:

    • Select the external tool that you want to use.
    • Browse to or enter the path to the executable for an external tool.
  4. To save your changes, click OK.

Uninstall XenCenter

To uninstall XenCenter:

  1. Open the Windows Control Panel.
  2. On the Control Panel, under Programs, select Uninstall a program.
  3. Select XenCenter from the list and then select Uninstall.

XenCenter user configuration data and log files are not removed when you uninstall the XenCenter application. The log files and user configuration data are stored in the folder:

%appdata%\XenServer\XenCenter
Installing XenCenter