You can use a special Acronis utility to import a .vhd file to Citrix XenServer
Introduction
To import a .vhd file to Citrix XenServer you can use an interactive command line utility called vhd2xen. The utility is developed by Acronis.
The vhd2xen utility imports a .vhd file into Citrix XenServer repository of virtual disks. The utility supports importing both to local or remote XenServer repository.
The supported systems are:
- Citrix XenServer 4.1
- Citrix XenServer 5
- Citrix XenServer 5.5
For information on how to convert a .tib file to .vhd disk please see:
- Acronis True Image Echo: V2P and P2V Migration
- Acronis Backup & Recovery 10: Converting Backup Archive of a Windows System to a Virtual Machine
Solution
Installation
- Download vhd2xen from http://download.acronis.com/vhd2xen.i686
- Start the local command shell of Citrix XenServer;
- Copy the installation executable vhd2xen.i686 to a directory;
- Run vhd2xen.i686 to install the utility. It will be installed to /usr/lib/Acronis/VHD2XEN/.
Usage
-
Issue the following command:
/usr/lib/Acronis/VHD2XEN/vhd2xen.sh [VHD file]
-
In Citrix XenServer local command shell you will need to specify:
- Repository from the list of available repositories where the .vhd file should be imported to;
- XEN name for imported disk.
(!) To import the .vhd file to a local repository, you should have write permissions to the directory, where the .vhd file is. Otherwise, vhd2xen will fail to import.
Example
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Create a directory on the Citrix XenServer to mount the Windows share where the .vhd file is:
mkdir /mnt/shared
-
Mount the share to the created directory:
mount.cifs //windows_host/share /mnt/shared -o username=test
(!) In this example the user test should have write permissions to //windows_host/share
-
Issue the import command:
/usr/lib/Acronis/VHD2XEN/vhd2xen.sh /mnt/shared/disk1.vhd
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Go to Citrix XenCenter and connect to your Citrix XenServer;
-
You will find the imported disk in the repository you have selected.
Uninstallation
To uninstall the vhd2xen utility execute the following command:
./vhd2xen.i686 --uninstall
More information
See also Acronis Backup & Recovery 10: Limitations on Converting TIB to Citrix XenServer VHD.