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Chapter 9. Advanced Notes for Virtual
Machines
This chapter provides some advanced notes for Virtual Machines.
9.1. VM Boot Behavior
There are two options for the behavior of a Virtual Machine's VDI when the VM is booted:
Note:
The VM must be shut down before you can make any changes to its boot behavior setting.
9.1.1. Persist (XenDesktop - Private Desktop Mode)
This is the default behaviour on VM boot; the VDI is left in the state it was at the last shutdown.
Select this option if you plan to allow users to make permanent changes to their desktops. To do this, shut down
the VM, and then enter the following command:
xe vdi-param-set uuid=<vdi_uuid> on-boot=persist
9.1.2. Reset (XenDesktop - Shared Desktop Mode)
On VM boot, the VDI is reverted to the state it was in at the previous boot. Any changes made while the VM is
running will be lost when the VM is next booted.
Select this option if you plan to deliver standardized desktops that users cannot permanently change. To do this,
shut down the VM, and then enter the following command:
xe vdi-param-set uuid=<vdi_uuid> on-boot=reset
Warning:
After making the change to on-boot=reset, any data saved to the VDI will be discarded
after the next shutdown/start or reboot
9.2. Making the ISO Library Available to XenServer Hosts
To make an ISO library available to XenServer hosts, create an external NFS or SMB/CIFS share directory. The
NFS or SMB/CIFS server must allow root access to the share. For NFS shares, this is accomplished by setting the
no_root_squash flag when you create the share entry in /etc/exports on the NFS server.
Then either use XenCenter to attach the ISO library, or connect to the host console and run the command:
xe-mount-iso-sr host:/volume
For advanced use, additional arguments to the mount command may be passed.
If making a Windows SMB/CIFS share available to the XenServer host, either use XenCenter to make it available,
or connect to the host console and run the following command:
xe-mount-iso-sr unc_path -t smbfs -o username=myname/myworkgroup
The unc_path argument should have back-slashes replaced by forward-slashes. -t cifs can be used for CIFS
instead of SMB. For example:
