Nova flags for XenServer

When configuring Nova and XenServer, please take care with the following settings in nova.conf.

Networking

For more information on networking, see:

XenServer/NetworkingFlags

Storage

You can specify which Storage Repository to use with nova by looking at the following flag. The default is to use the local-storage setup by the default installer:

sr_matching_filter="other-config:i18n-key=local-storage"

Another good alternative is to use the "default" storage (for example if you have attached NFS or any other shared storage):

sr_matching_filter="default-sr:true"

Please note: if you want to use a XenServer pool, you must create the pool using the Host Aggregates feature.

Flat Injection

Unless you know what guests you are having and test this works, it is best to use FlatDHCP, and so turn off the network injection (uses DHCP instead)

flat_injected=False

Connection

It is common to use the "Host Internal Management Network" to contact XenAPI, and so you can use the following IP for XenServer: 169.254.0.1 (This is the default DevStack uses)

Please note, using the above address will only work when you have a single hypervisor. If you are trying to migrate VMs across machines, or work with host aggregates you will need to use management network IP address of the XenServer.

The three flags you will need to set, so nova can talk to XenAPI, are:

xenapi_connection_url=http://111.111.111.111
xenapi_connection_username=root
xenapi_connection_password=your_password_goes_here

VNC Proxy Address

Assuming you are talking to XenAPI through the host local managmenet network, and XenServer is on the address: 169.254.0.1, you can use the following:

vncserver_proxyclient_address=169.254.0.1

TODO: double check what config is needed here?

Firewall

The default firewall may be specific to libvirt. There are two options.

Using IP Tables in mova network:

firewall_driver=nova.virt.firewall.IptablesFirewallDriver

Doing the isolation in Dom0:

firewall_driver=nova.virt.xenapi.firewall.Dom0IptablesFirewallDriver

Guest Agent

If you don't have the guest agent on your VMs, it will take a long time for nova to decide the VM has successfully started.

While the large timeout is required for Windows instances, you may want to tweak the following flag:

agent_version_timeout=300 # number of seconds to wait, 300 is the default

Obsolete:XenServer/NovaFlags

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