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

1. Download vhd2xen from http://download.acronis.com/vhd2xen.i686
2. Start the local command shell of Citrix XenServer;
3. Copy the installation executable vhd2xen.i686 to a directory;
4. Run vhd2xen.i686 to install the utility. It will be installed to /usr/lib/Acronis/VHD2XEN/.

Usage

1. Issue the following command:

   /usr/lib/Acronis/VHD2XEN/vhd2xen.sh [VHD file]

2. 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

1. Create a directory on the Citrix XenServer to mount the Windows share where the .vhd file is:

   mkdir /mnt/shared

2. 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

3. Issue the import command:

   /usr/lib/Acronis/VHD2XEN/vhd2xen.sh /mnt/shared/disk1.vhd

4. Go to Citrix XenCenter and connect to your Citrix XenServer;

5. 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.