1. Xenserver Management

Thats probably not a hi demand item now that serial ports are a thing of the past (Finally!). No more baud rates. Anyway, if you have a serial device and you are wanting to use it with XenDesktop try one of those seial to usb converters and pass it through with the USB support. A printer could use something like a JetDirect box. There are also probably still some BlackBox serial-network devices (in the past I have used Xyplex). As far as Citrix/Xenserver built in support.

WinDbg is one of a number of tools available from Microsoft that can be used for debugging Windows guests in XenServer environments. You can get QEMU to passive-open a TCP port on dom0 for serial output and wait for a connection, this method will work if you're running on a machine with a dynamically.

Since its not there now I wouldn't hold my breath. Those guys are overwhelmed with just trying to get what they have functional with the new hardware constantly thrown at them. Alan Lantz SysAdmin City of Rogers, AR.

Configuring Xen to use and log to a serial console Serial console is a very good and important tool for debugging Xen and also Linux kernel problems. If your system doesn't start up, the display goes blank, the whole computer crashes during startup or during normal operation, serial console allows you to see and log everything that's happening to a text file and allows you to troubleshoot the issue much more easily. You can also paste the logged messages (as text) for online troubleshooting with other people.

What actually is a serial console? Basicly you configure Xen and/or Linux kernel to write the boot and console messages to a serial port as text. Then you setup a cable (or nowadays IP connection) between the Xen server and for example a laptop. Then you configure the laptop to listen on the serial port, and log all the Xen and Linux dom0 console boot messages to a file giving you a full log of the boot process and system operation.

You can also leave the serial console up and running allowing you to log any errors that might show up later. If your server is having problems and it crashes, you usually just see an empty VGA console when you go look at it. That doesn't help you at all troubleshooting the actual problem. Serial console to the rescue! Using a serial console you can log the full error and crash messages, and if you set up serial console logging to a file, you'll be able to easily check the logs later when you need them.

Messages won't disappear from the serial console logs when the server powers off or reboots. Components required for the serial console First of all you need two computers: 1) The actual computer running Xen to debug/troubleshoot. It needs to have a serial port for the serial console.

See below for types of supported serial ports. Remember USB-serial dongles are NOT usable for serial console on the computer running Xen.

2) Another computer that views and logs the messages from the computer running Xen. This can be another server, a desktop machine, or a laptop. On this another computer you can use USB-serial adapters. Types of serial ports on the computer running Xen There are four common types of serial ports for setting up a serial console for the computer running Xen: 1) The computer running Xen has a built-in rs232 serial port (COM1) on the motherboard, with a DB9 serial cable connector. Most servers have real serial ports on the motherboard, and also older desktop computers and laptops have it. Most current (as of 2010) deskop and laptops don't include a serial port anymore. 2) If your computer running Xen doesn't have a real physical serial port you can add a PCI add-on serial card with a DB9 serial connector.

This is a good option for many computers. 3) If you are using a laptop that doesn't have a physical serial port, you can get a serial card, for example 'SYBA SD-EXP15005' (&Tpk=SDEXP15005), which works in the same way as PCI serial cards for desktop computers. Also some laptops offer a SOL (Serial Over LAN), usually when the laptop has Intel vPro (AMT) remote management feature built in.

4) Virtual serial port, usually called SOL (Serial Over LAN). Many servers have a SOL serial port on the management processor, or on IPMI card.

Basicly SOL looks like a real serial port to the operating system (Xen/Linux), but actually it can be accessed and used over the network using an IP connection, instead of the 'oldskool' method of using a serial cable between the computers. Some new desktop and laptop computers also have a SOL provided by the Intel vPro or AMT (Active Management Technology) management features. Note that for serial console you CAN'T use USB-serial dongles on the computer running Xen! (usb-serial dongles are not seen as real serial ports by the hardware or Xen, so usb-serial ports are NOT available in the beginning of boot process).

Connection between the computers You also need a connection between the computers: 1) If you're using a physical serial port on the computer running Xen then you need to have a DB9-DB9 serial cable ('null-modem cable') between the two computers. For example serial cables that HP ships with their Procurve Ethernet Switches can be usually used between the computers for the serial console.

The other computer needs to have a physical serial port aswell. If the other computer used for logging the serial console lacks a built-in serial port, you can get a PCI serial card for it, or you can get an USB serial adapter for it.

USB serial adapter doesn't work for the computer running Xen (.), but it works for the other computer that is only used to view and log the serial console. (. unfortunately USB serial adapter is not a 'real' serial port, it's not available at boot time so you cannot write boot-time messages to an USB serial adapter). 2) If you're going to use a SOL virtual serial port then the other computer doesn't need a physical serial port, and there's no need for a serial cable between the two computers. Viewing and logging a SOL serial console only requires a network (IP) connection to the management processor of the server running Xen, and possibly a SOL viewer or terminal application on the other computer. Getting required information to set up the serial console on the computer running Xen You need to know the following things to get the serial console set up in the computer running Xen:.

IO port of the serial port. IRQ (interrupt request) of the serial port. Name of the serial device in Linux (ttyS.) You can get this information from the operating system. On Linux (dom0, if already running Xen) run 'dmesg grep ttyS'. The output should be something like: serial8250: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A serial8250: ttyS1 at I/O 0x2f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A The example output above shows the computer has two serial ports (COM1 and COM2), called ttyS0 and ttyS1 in Linux. IOport for the first serial port is 0x3f8 and the IRQ is 4, and IOport for the second serial port is 0x2f8 and the IRQ is 3.

Xenserver Management

These are the default (legacy) IOports and IRQs reserved for serial ports on the motherboard. If you have a PCI serial card, or a SOL device, or an Intel AMT card, you might need to run 'lspci -vvv' and find the serial port information from there. NOTE: With Xen 4.2, you do not have to find the serial information and Xen can find it automatically. You pass the extra argument pci in the com1 line, as so: com1=38400,8n1,pci. If you have an Intel AMT, then the extra argument is amt.