Install XCP-ng | XCP-ng Documentation (2024)

How to install XCP-ng.

💿 ISO installation​

If you want to use the netinstall ISO, see the Netinstall section.

Download and create media​

You can download the latest 8.2 ISO here: https://mirrors.xcp-ng.org/isos/8.2/xcp-ng-8.2.1-20231130.iso?https=1.

SHA256 checksums, GPG signatures and net-install ISO are available here.

Then, create the install media (e.g. a USB key 1GB or larger should work):

dd if=xcp-ng-8.2.1-20231130.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=8M oflag=direct

Finally, boot on that media and go to the next section.

Start the host​

Start the host and boot on the USB media.

Follow instructions​

1. UEFI vs BIOS​

Boot screens are just slightly different on start between BIOS and UEFI mode:

BIOS splash screen:

UEFI splash screen:

2. Language selection​

3. Welcome​

4. EULA/license​

5. Disk selection​

This is the screen where you'll select where XCP-ng system will be installed. XCP-ng is a specialized Linux distribution, so you need to dedicate a physical disk to it. Partitioning is done automatically.

Alternatively, if you have two identical disks, you can use Software RAID (mdadm) :

6. VM storage selection​

This is the place where your VM disks will be stored. It's called a Storage Repository (SR). It can use the same disk you installed the system on. It will automatically use the free space after system partitions.

7. Installation source​

If you use the default ISO, just select "Local media":

Then, you can verify your media or not:

8. Host password​

This will be the root password, used to connect to the host with SSH and XAPI.

9. Networking​

Here you can select between DHCP and static network, even using a VLAN:

10. Hostname and DNS​

Configure the hostname of your server and the DNS resolvers.

11. Timezone and time​

12. Installation​

13. Supplemental packs and end of install​

Not relevant in almost all cases. Skip it:

14. Reboot​

After a reboot, you should see the GRUB menu:

It means the system is correctly installed! Enjoy XCP-ng 🚀

🌐 Netinstall​

The netinstall image is a lightweight ISO (around 150MiB) that will only contain the installer, but no actual RPM packages. Sometimes, it's more convenient/faster when your ISO is on a slow connection (e.g. a virtual media using a server IPMI).

You can download it on this URL: https://mirrors.xcp-ng.org/isos/8.2/xcp-ng-8.2.1-20231130-netinstall.iso?https=1.

As with the regular installation ISO, write it on a USB media:

dd if=xcp-ng-8.2.1-20231130-netinstall.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=8M oflag=direct

Everything else is like the regular install, except that it will not offer to install from local media, only from distant ones.

🎬 PXE boot install​

Requirements​

To get XCP-ng installed from PXE, you need:

• DHCP and TFTP configured servers
• Any NFS, FTP or HTTP server (your choice) to host XCP-ng installation files
• A PXE-boot compatible network card on your host

TFTP server configuration​

TFTP server configuration - BIOS boot​

1. In your TFTP root directory (eg /tftp), create a folder named xcp-ng.
2. Copy the mboot.c32 and pxelinux.0 files from the installation media to the TFTP root directory.
3. From the XCP-ng installation media, copy the files install.img (from the root directory), vmlinuz, and xen.gz (from the /boot directory) to the new xcp-ng directory on the TFTP server.
4. In the TFTP root directory, create a folder called pxelinux.cfg
5. In the pxelinux.cfg directory, create your configuration file called default.

The file itself will contain the way to install XCP-ng: manually (with answer to provide on the host console/screen) or fully automated (see Automated install below).

Here is an example of a manual installation:

default xcp-ng
label xcp-ng
 kernel mboot.c32
 append xcp-ng/xen.gz dom0_max_vcpus=2 dom0_mem=2048M,max:2048M com1=115200,8n1 console=com1,vga --- xcp-ng/vmlinuz xencons=hvc console=hvc0 console=tty0 --- xcp-ng/install.img

How TFTP folder looks like when configured

tree -L 1 /srv/tftp/
srv/tftp
├── mboot.c32
├── pxelinux.0
├── pxelinux.cfg
│ └── default
└── xcp-ng
 ├── install.img
 ├── vmlinuz
 └── xen.gz

TFTP server configuration - UEFI boot​

If you want to make an installation in UEFI mode, you need to have a slightly different TFTP server configuration:

1. In your TFTP root folder, create a directory called EFI/xcp-ng
2. Configure your DHCP server to provide /EFI/xcp-ng/grubx64.efi as the boot file
3. Create a grub.cfg as follow:

 menuentry "XCP-ng Install (serial)" {
 multiboot2 /EFI/xcp-ng/xen.gz dom0_mem=2048M,max:2048M watchdog \
 dom0_max_vcpus=4 com1=115200,8n1 console=com1,vga
 module2 /EFI/xcp-ng/vmlinuz console=hvc0 console=tty0 install
 module2 /EFI/xcp-ng/install.img
 }

4. Copy this grub.cfg file to EFI/xenserver folder on the TFTP server
5. Get the following files from XCP-ng ISO: grubx64.efi, install.img (from the root directory), vmlinuz, and xen.gz (from the /boot directory) to the new EFI/xcp-ng directory on the TFTP server.

How TFTP folder looks like when configured

tree -L 1 /srv/tftp/
srv/tftp
└── EFI
 ├── xcp-ng
 │ ├── grubx64.efi
 │ ├── install.img
 │ ├── vmlinuz
 │ └── xen.gz
 └── xenserver
 └── grub.cfg

On the FTP, NFS or HTTP server, get all the installation media content in there.

For layout example check the official repository.

On the host​

1. Start your host
2. Enter the boot menu (usually F12)
3. Select boot from the Ethernet card
4. You should see the PXE menu you created before!

✨ iPXE over HTTP install​

This guide is for UEFI boot, using iPXE over an HTTP server to serve files needed for installation.

Requirements​

To get XCP-ng installed from iPXE over HTTP, you need:

• An HTTP server to host XCP-ng installation files
• A iPXE compatible network card and iPXE firmware on your host

1. In your HTTP root directory copy the contents of the net install ISO.

The top-level should look like this:

tree -L 1 /path/to/http-directory/
.
├── EFI