Posts Tagged ‘cli’

Besides the gui/vnc consoles you can still use the equivlent of xm console in Citrix XenServer.

On the host console:

• xe vm-list to get the list of domins running (just note the uuid of the domain you want).
• list_domains will list the domain name and the uuid of the domains. Match up your uuid so you get the proper dom_id
• xm console equivlent is /usr/lib/xen/bin/xenconsole dom_id

Its not in the root users $PATH though I think it ought to be. Of course you can symlink it or alter your path yourself but it would be a sensible default.

Example:

xen01 = dom0

knox = linuxpv domU

Say I want to connect to knox (a linux domU)

[root@xen01 ~]# xe vm-list
uuid ( RO)           : 8258a6d4-23f6-003d-30d7-65bd13086863
name-label ( RW): knox
power-state ( RO): running

uuid ( RO)           : 1a191475-a99d-7a77-6550-b30a0038fd92
name-label ( RW): Windows Server 2008 SP2 x86
power-state ( RO): halted

uuid ( RO)           : ffd95724-d818-4f15-b4b4-159b7ff41df4
name-label ( RW): Control domain on host: xen01
power-state ( RO): running

Now get domain ids

[root@xen01 ~]# list_domains
id |                                 uuid |  state
0 | ffd95724-d818-4f15-b4b4-159b7ff41df4 |     R
1 | bc150966-8c21-7ad9-c329-839d5823041d |    B H
7 | baa3699b-95dd-eea0-ccc4-51e8972857f5 |    B
11 | 8258a6d4-23f6-003d-30d7-65bd13086863 |    B

You can see the domain ID that matches the UUID of knox is 11. So we use xenconsole.

[root@xen01 ~]# /usr/lib/xen/bin/xenconsole 11
(press enter)
You have new mail in /var/spool/mail/root
[root@knox ~]#

Another day, another flashback. I don’t know about you but at times I have had some very odd and uncomfortable requests from vendors. It’s not wholly  uncommon for them to want to log into your system to diagnose an issue for themselves. Or perhaps for whatever reason your manager says hey give this random outside person access to some important box. As a SA you get used to extremely odd requests and figure out how to just solve the problem. This flashback outlines what I did the last time I had to let an untrusted (note I had no reason to _not_ trust this person, but then again I also had no reason _to_ trust them) person have elevated privileges on a box of mine.

Automatic session logging and monitoring with GNU screen for the paranoid