This plugin gives knife the ability to create guests on a XAPI compatable hyper visor

This plugin is distributed as a Ruby Gem. To install it, run:

gem install knife-xapi

Config options are extendable in the knife.rb the folowing config options can be defined there

• knife[:xapi_host] The API Host to connect to
• knife[:xapi_username] The User name to connect to the api with
• knife[:xapi_password] The Password (if not set will prompt on commandline)
• knife[:xapi_vm_template] Set a default template to be used when creating Guests
• knife[:install_repo] The install repo config option to set when using Xen builtin templates
• knife[:xapi_sr] The Storage Repository to provision from, uses pool/hypervisor default when not set
• knife[:xapi_disk_size] Default VM disk size (8g if not specified)a
• knife[:xapi_skip_disk] Skip adding any aditional disk to the vm.
• knife[:xapi_cpus] The Default CPUs to provision for guests (2 if not specified)
• knife[:xapi_mem] The Defaul ammount of Memory for guests (1g if not specified)
• knife[:kernel_params] Optional Boot paramaters to pass to the guest
• knife[:xapi_ssl_verify] Enable SSL Cert verification. Disabled due to xenserver not having valid certs on xapi

• knife[:domain] Set the domainname for the guest
• knife[:run_list] Bootstrap Run list comma sepparated.
• knife[:ssh_user] ssh user to login to the new vm as
• knife[:ssh_port] ssh port to use
• knife[:ssh_password] ssh password to use to login to the new vm
• knife[:identity_file] ssh ident file
• knife[:chef_node_name] node name to use for new guest chef run
• knife[:bootstrap_version] version to bootstrap
• knife[:bootstrap_template] template to use
• knife[:template_file] path to a different template file you would like to use
• knife[:environment] chef environment for first run
• knife[:host_key_verify] true/false Honor hostkey verification or don't
• knife[:ping_timeout] Seconds to timeout while waiting for an IP to be returned from guest
• knife[:json_attributes] A JSON string to be added to the first run of chef-client
• knife[:connect_timeout] Seconds to timeout while trying to connect to a guest

Note: The commands below when not specifing --host assumes that knife[:xapi_host] is set in ~/.chef/knife.rb

Basic usage to create a VM from existing VM template:

knife xapi guest create "NewBox" "Network 0"  --xapi-vm-template "MyBaseBox"   --host http://sandbox/ 

More verbose example using a kickstart file and booting the Centos 5 default template:

knife xapi guest create "MySpiffyBox" "pub_network" --host http://sandbox/ \
-B "dns=8.8.8.8 ks=http://192.168.6.4/repo/ks/default.ks " \
-R http://192.168.6.5/repo/centos/5/os/x86_64 -C 4 -M 4g -D 5g 

• -B Boot args where i am assigning all the centos/rhel boot args for kickstart file and dns
• -R Repo URL used by xenserver to start the net install
• -C Number of cpus for this guest
• -M Memory size
• -D Disk size

Using the same basic example you can bootstrap into a specific template

 knife xapi guest create "NewBox" "public" --xapi-vm-template "MyBaseBox" --host http://sandbox/ \
   --bootstrap-template centos5-gems --ssh-user root --ssh-password mypass \
   --run-list "role[base],role[spifybox]"

Delete is pretty simple. When there are multiple vms with a name label you should be prompted to select one

knife xapi guest delete  testing 

If you know the UUID of the VM you can specify --uuid

knife xapi guest delete b461c0d2-d24d-bc02-3231-711101f57b8e --uuid

List shows the vm's on the pool/host Ignoring Controll domains and templates. VM State, and Ip adress as reported through the xenapi. If you want to get the OpaqueRef, and UUID add -i or --show-id.

knife xapi guest list  
Name Label                 State        IP Address      
ks_test.local              Running      10.4.1.163      
dns01.local                Running      10.4.1.149      
dhcp01.local               Running      10.4.1.143      
jn_test.local              Running      10.4.1.162  

You can start/stop any instance with.. start and stop commands

knife xapi guest stop jn_test.local
knife xapi guest start jn_test.local

Create a disk on the xenserver with the specified size and name

xapi vdi create testing -D 20g 

• -D is the short option for --xapi-disk-size
• specify the SR to use with --xapi-sr or -S

Remove a disk.

xapi vdi delete testing 

Delete has a special cleanup mode that will interactivly prompt you if you want to clean up non attached volumes

xapi vdi delete --interactive  

Delete also accepts a UUID for a disk with --uuid

Report on xapi VDI's

knife xapi vdi list
================================================
VDI name: xs-tools.iso
  -UUID: bed2a28e-d68a-43d6-b8a1-2d30730b1561
  -Description: 
    -Type: user
================================================
VDI name: chef-server-root
  -UUID: 159cbeb9-45c6-43e0-8631-b88d7644beae
  -Description: Root disk for chef-server-root created by jnelson with knfie xapi
    -Type: system
      -VM name: chef01.mkd.ktc
      -VM state: Running

Output info on host/pool networks lists the MTU, the extra info and name of the network.

Name:  vlan1120.stage
  Info:  255.255.255.0 : 10.33.89.1-10.33.89.254
   MTU:  1500
  UUID:  73f6f18f-c1d9-664b-d4bb-7673ea0fc2a1

Every command should accept --help and display arguments that it accepts (as all knife plugins do)

knife xapi --help

knife xapi guest create --help