I have a pair of xenservers connected via 10Gb Ethernet to a pair of Equalogics SAN devices (iscsi). Needed to expand or increase the size of the LUN that our VDI environment was connected through while maintaining the uptime of the VDI environment. I first extended the available space on the SAN side, so this document is only for the Citrix/XenServer configuration.

Connect to your XenServer
SSH to your master server (or primary if you only have one) as root
You can either list all of your available storage or, if you know what type, you can list only iscsi. In my case I’d list the iscsi, but both commands are listed below.

List all storage
xe sr-list

List only iscsi storage
xe sr-list type=lvmoiscsi

List only the SR you want
xe sr-list name-label=YOURSR

From here we’ll see something like:

uuid ( RO) : 6f16bb1c-1a3d-b9d3-98d4-7b57b30934c0
name-label ( RW): EXT_VDI
name-description ( RW): iSCSI SR [10.10.10.10 (iqn.2001-05.com.equallogic:0-1db196-0d76a8743-a05b26ff2g651be5-extvdi; LUN 0: 6019DA3174A8760DE51A652DEE265BA0: 1500 GB (EQLOGIC))]
host ( RO):
type ( RO): lvmoiscsi
content-type ( RO):

We want the UUID from this step – and notice the size (1500 GB). I wanted to make this 2500GB instead.

Now we need to find the device location for this LVM
pvscan | grep THEUUIDFROMABOVE
pvscan | grep 6f16bb1c-1a3d-b9d3-98d4-7b57b30934c0

PV /dev/sdj VG VG_XenStorage-6f16bb1c-1a3d-b9d3-98d4-7b57b30934c0 lvm2 [1.50 TB / 688.85 GB free]

Rescan the device – change “sdj” to your dev device name from the last step
echo 1 > /sys/block/sdj/device/rescan

Next we resize the device
pvresize /dev/sdj

And one last rescan
xe sr-scan uuid=THEUUIDOFYOURDEVICE

Had a raspberry pi setup as a terminal to display statistics on a television – needed it to not go into sleep mode etc.

SSH or login to your RPi as root
I added the following script

# needs apt-get install x11-xserver-utils first
# if something errors, stop the script
set -e

# set the screensaver to off, no power savings, and no blank screen
xset s off
xset -dpms
xset s noblank

# exec the session manager so you have a toolbar still
exec /etc/alternatives/x-session-manager

I then added a path to rc.local
chmod +x YOURSCRIPTNAME.SH
chmod 777 YOURSCRIPTNAME.SH

nano /etc/rc.local
Add “/path/to/your/script.sh”

***EDIT***
Apparently that does not work – you end up getting a “cannot change display “”” type of argument.

So, change the LXDE autostart function script:
nano /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE/autostart

xset s off
xset -dpms
xset s noblank
reboot.

I wanted to install NRPE on XenServer (6.1)
Found http://www.linuxbrigade.com/install-nrpe-on-xenserver/, but I wanted to have my own copy of the procedure.

Add the Fedora repository
wget http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/5/$(uname -i)/epel-release-5-4.noarch.rpm
rpm -Uvh epel-release-*.rpm
sed -i 's/enabled=1/enabled=0/g' /etc/yum.repos.d/epel.repo

Install NRPE
yum install --enablerepo=epel nrpe

Set the auto start function
chkconfig nrpe on

Install the Nagios Plugins
yum install --enablerepo=epel nagios-plugins-users nagios-plugins-disk nagios-plugins-swap nagios-plugins-procs nagios-plugins-load

Edit the IPTables Firewall
nano /etc/sysconfig/iptables
Before the last REJECT line:
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 5666 -j ACCEPT

Restart the IPTables Firewall
service iptables restart

Edit your NRPE configuration
nano /etc/nagios/nrpe.cfg
Allow the IP address of your Nagios host!

Start the NRPE service
service nrpe start

In the Citrix Desktop Studio, under Configuration and then Hosts, I saw the following information:

And I wanted to remove the NM_VDI from both the Personal vDisk and the Virtual machine storage areas.

Click on the Desktop Studio at the top left of the navigation window
Click on the Powershell tab
In the lower right, click on Launch PowerShell

In the powershell
cd XDHyp:
ls

Search for “HostingUnitName” and “Storage”/”PersonalvDiskStorage”. We’ll need both of these for the next command

Remove-HypHostingUnitStorage -LiteralPath 'XDHyp:\HostingUnits\YOURHOSTINGUNITNAMEHERE' -StoragePath 'XDHyp:\Connections\YOURPATH\TO\STORAGE.storage'
Add a storagetype if it’s the personal storage:
Remove-HypHostingUnitStorage -LiteralPath 'XDHyp:\HostingUnits\YOURHOSTINGUNITNAMEHERE' -StoragePath 'XDHyp:\Connections\YOURPATH\TO\STORAGE.storage' -StorageType PersonalvDiskStorage

I think it’s actually chrubuntu, but you get the general idea. I also copied the script to it.thelibrarie.com/utilities/chrubuntu-install.txt just in case the s9ryd link goes dark. So here is how to remove the google chromeOS and install a fork/flavor of ubuntu. Why install? Citrix receiver was version 1.x and runs as a Chrome browser wraparound; none of the full screen buttons work, sound didn’t work, video was choppy. The receiver for Windows/Mac/Linux is 2.x and has HDX and other supported features. And the laptop seems peppy-er now anyway. Battery life went from 4.5 hours to just under 4, so keep that in mind as well. I couldn’t get the bindkeys to work on my installation, so if someone has a workaround that would be awesome to provide to me.

Documentation is a work in progress.

Enable Developer Mode
HP’s chromebook is a giant pain in the *** to enable developer mode. You end up removing all 10 screws on the bottom, carefully removing the keyboard with fingernails and a flat head screwdriver, and then removing 9 more screws from under the keyboard. Pry up the top right corner (we want to end up with the right half accessible) so you can find the toggle switch. More information here.

Access Developer Mode on ChromeOS
Start with the Chromebook off
Press hold esc and F3, then press the power button
Control + D
Turn off OS verification by pressing enter
This will then reformat the drive for you

Format the internal storage – 9MB
Control + D
Connect via ethernet. Do not sign in.
Control + Alt + F2
“chronos” is the password
curl -L -O http://goo.gl/s9ryd; sudo bash s9ryd
9

Install Chrubuntu
Control + D
Connect via ethernet. Do not sign in.
Control + Alt + F2
“chronos” is the password
curl -L -O http://goo.gl/s9ryd; sudo bash s9ryd xubuntu-desktop
Wait for “Get1287, then installation” about 3/4 finished installing
Follow the wizard (enter, enter, enter)
Verify that the GUI comes up (user/user)
sudo cgpt add -i 6 -P 5 -S 1 /dev/sda
sudo reboot
to change back to chromeos – NOT A REQUIRED STEP!!
sudo cgpt add -i 6 -P 0 -S 1 /dev/sda

Install Citrix Receiver
sudo apt-get install libmotif4 nspluginwrapper ffmpeg flashplugin-nonfree cheese nano xosd-bin
open a browser to http://www.citrix.com/downloads and navigate to the linux .deb download file
Open the deb file and install using the software center
Close the browser
Open the browser
Navigate to http://v-xendesktop

Test Citrix
Open Start > Internet > Citrix Receiver
Tools > Settings
Click Allow Audio Input
Apply and close
Start > Internet > Firefox

To enable wireless on an WPA2-AES-Enterprise AP
Add your SSID with Enterprise, PEAP and NO CERTIFICATE AUTHORITY
When it fails to connect, disable wireless
sudo nano /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/SSID
Find the line system-ca-certs=true and change this to =false
Control + X, Y
Turn on wireless. Profit

Get VPN to work (OPENCONNECT)
sudo apt-get install openconnect network-manager-openconnect
sudo reboot
Add VPN connection information via the Connections tab on the top in the network manager

Create shortcuts for Volume/Brightness – Only one example, you can figure it out from there
nano Desktop/Mon_Brighter.sh
xdotool key XF86MonBrightnessUp
Control + X, Y
chmod +x Mon_Brighter.sh

Others:
Brightness Up xdotool key XF86MonBrightnessUp
Brightness Down xdotool key XF86MonBrightnessDown
Audio Up xdotool key XF86AudioRaiseVolume
Audio Down xdotool key XF86AudioLowerVolume
Audio Mute xdotool key XF86AudioMute

Second monitor support:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xubuntu-dev/xfce-4.10
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xubuntu-dev/xfce-4.12
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo reboot

xbindkeys – not working
sudo apt-get install xdotool xbindkeys
xbindkeys –defaults > $HOME/.xbindkeysrc

I have a pair of R620’s with XenServer 6.1 installed – needed to enable some external monitoring for obvious reasons. Xen looks to be built upon a flavor of CentOS, so the update commands are “yum”.

Install SRVADMIN OMSA
SSH into your xenserver as the root user
wget -q -O - http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/latest/bootstrap.cgi | bash
nano /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo
Find “[base]” and make sure to set it to enabled=1
Save and close nano
yum install srvadmin-all
y

Edit the firewall to allow incoming SNMP/OMSA connections
system-config-securitylevel-tui
Press Tab twice, navigate to “Customize”
Other Ports/Allow Incoming
Add the following after any other text (my system had “ha-cluster:udp”)
,1311:tcp,161:udp
This should now read “ha-cluster:udp,1311:tcp,161:udp”
Select OK and then OK again to close out of the system configuration

Edit SNMP to allow RO access from all
nano /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf
Find “view systemview included snmp”
After this line add a new line containing:
view systemview included .1
Save and close nano

Restart the SNMP daemon
service snmpd restart

Start Dell OMSA
/opt/dell/srvadmin/sbin/srvadmin-services.sh start

Start OMSA after a reboot
nano /etc/rc.local
Add this to the bottom
/opt/dell/srvadmin/sbin/srvadmin-services.sh start
Save and close nano

Verify this is working
https://nameofyourserver:1311
Login with your root credentials