HP BL680c XenServer Software Development Kit Guide 4.1.0 - Page 8

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Chapter 2. Getting Started

2.1. System Requirements and Preparation

The XenServer SDK is packaged as a Linux VM that must be imported into a XenServer Host. This document

refers to the SDK virtual machine interchangeably as an SDK and an SDK VM. The first step towards

working with the SDK is to install XenServer. A free version, Express Edition, is available to download at

http://www.xensource.com/

. Please refer to the

XenServer Installation Guide

for detailed instructions on

how to set up your development host. When the installation is complete, please note the

host IP address

and the

host password.

.

Once you have installed your XenServer Host, install XenCenter on a Windows PC. Launch the application

and connect to your new XenServer Host using its IP address and the password.

2.2. Downloading

The SDK is available for download as a ZIP file at

http://www.xensource.com/

of around 250MB.

2.3. Installation

Ensure that your XenServer Host is up and running. In XenCenter, right-click on the XenServer Host and

select Import VM from the context menu, or select Import... from the VM menu, then double-click on the

sdk

directory and click the Import button. When the import has completed, the SDK VM is installed and ready

to go. Click on the Overview tab of the SDK VM and inspect the networking configuration. If the SDK is to

be accessed remotely, then ensure that it has an interface connected to the correct network. Note that the

SDK VM will attempt to acquire an IP address via DHCP each time it boots.

2.4. What's new

Starting with version 4.0, we now provide a rich management infrastructure consisting of a comprehensive

object model together with an application program interface (API) to install, monitor and manage various

aspects of virtual machine infrastructure.

This is the first version of a supported Software Development Kit that Citrix has published. Prior to this

version, the primary means of integrating Citrix products into the existing IT infrastructure was through

command line interface tools.

The XenServer 4.1.0 SDK provides the API with C and Python language bindings, and C# language binding

compatible with .NET 2.0. The SDK also provides a new and improved CLI that provides a comprehensive

set of commands to manage your XenServer Hosts. The CLI is available for both Linux and Windows

platforms.

2.5. Content Map

The following is an overview of the contents of the /SDK directory. Where necessary, subdirectories have

their own individual README files.

Directory

Description

/SDK/

Contains README.txt, a brief text overview

/SDK/docs/pdf/

Contains api.pdf , the PDF version of the reference

for the API

Section	Page
XenServer Software Development Kit Guide	1
Table of Contents	4
Chapter 1. Introduction	7
Chapter 2. Getting Started	8
2.1. System Requirements and Preparation	8
2.2. Downloading	8
2.3. Installation	8
2.4. What's new	8
2.5. Content Map	8
2.6. Building Samples for the Linux Platform	9
2.7. Building Samples for the Windows Platform	9
2.8. Running the CLI	9
2.8.1. Tab Completion	9
2.9. Accessing SDK reference	9
Chapter 3. Overview of the XenServer API	11
3.1. Getting Started with the API	11
3.1.1. Authentication: acquiring a session reference	11
3.1.2. Acquiring a list of templates to base a new VM installation on	11
3.1.3. Installing the VM based on a template	12
3.1.4. Taking the VM through a start/suspend/resume/stop cycle	12
3.1.5. Logging out	12
3.1.6. \	13
3.2. Object Model Overview	13
3.3. Working with VIFs and VBDs	15
3.3.1. Creating disks and attaching them to VMs	15
3.3.1.1. Creating a new blank disk image	16
3.3.1.2. Attaching the disk image to a VM	16
3.3.1.3. Hotplugging the VBD	17
3.3.2. Creating and attaching Network Devices to VMs	17
3.3.3. Host configuration for networking and storage	17
3.3.3.1. Host storage configuration: PBDs	18
3.3.3.2. Host networking configuration: PIFs	18
3.4. Exporting and Importing VMs	18
3.5. Where to look next	19
Chapter 4. Using the API	20
4.1. Anatomy of a typical application	20
4.1.1. Choosing a low-level transport	20
4.1.2. Authentication and session handling	20
4.1.3. Finding references to useful objects	21
4.1.4. Invoking synchronous operations on objects	21
4.1.5. Using Tasks to manage asynchronous operations	22
4.1.6. Subscribing to and listening for events	22
4.2. Language bindings	23
4.2.1. C	23
4.2.2. C#	24
4.2.3. Python	24
4.2.4. Command Line Interface (CLI)	25
4.3. Complete application examples	25
4.3.1. Simultaneously migrating VMs using XenMotion	25
4.3.2. Cloning a VM via the XE CLI	28
Chapter 5. XenServer API extensions	30
5.1. VM console forwarding	30
5.1.1. Retrieving VNC consoles via the API	30
5.1.2. Disabling VNC forwarding for Linux VM	31
5.2. Paravirtual Linux installation	32
5.2.1. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.1/4.4	32
5.2.2. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.5/5.0	32
5.2.3. SUSE Enterprise Linux 10 SP1	33
5.2.4. CentOS 4.5/5.0	33
5.3. Adding Xenstore entries to VMs	33
5.4. Security enhancements	33
5.5. Advanced settings for network interfaces	34
5.5.1. ethtool settings	34
5.5.2. Miscellaneous settings	35
5.6. Internationalization for SR names	35
5.7. Hiding objects from XenCenter	36

HP BL680c XenServer Software Development Kit Guide 4.1.0 - Page 8

Getting Started, 2.1. System Requirements and Preparation, 2.2. Downloading, 2.3.

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