http://virt-manager.org/

Virtual Manager is a desktop user interface for managing virtual machines.

In order to be managed within virt-manager, virtual machines must be imported in the the xenstore, so that libvirt library can recognize and manage them, via the command:

root@serv1:~# xm new /etc/xen/vm.cfg

(syntax: xm new )

Every time .cfg is modified, the virtual machine(s) to be imported must be deleted from xenstore

root@serv1:~# xm delete vm

and then added back to it again.

Once inserted in the xenstore, virtual machines can be shown through the command:

root@serv1:~# xm list

even if the are not booted (normally, this would not be true).

In order to start/stop them from command line, the command:

xm create /etc/xen/vm.cfg (or xm shutdown vm)

does not work anymore.

The command:

root@serv1:~# virsh start vm (and virsh shutdown vm)

must be used instead.

After having done so for every virtual machine we intend to manage, two management modes are possible:

1) local (on xen Dom0)

Only in this mode, the function “create new virtaul machine” is active. So:

root@serv1:~# aptitude install virt-manager
root@serv1:~# nano /usr/bin/virt-manager

#!/bin/sh

exec sudo python "/usr/share/virt-manager/virt-manager.py" "$@"

(add "sudo")

1.a launching from graphical interface (insert user password for sudo)

1.b launching from command line by connecting via ssh, with X forwarding enabled, in the following way:

user@yourpc:~$ ssh user@serv1 -X -C
user@yourpc:~$ virt-manager
user@yourpc:~$

(instert user password for sudo)

2) remote (from a client)

On the host (Dom0), in the file /etc/xen/xend-config.sxp, comment out the following two lines:

(xend-http-server yes)
(xend-unix-server yes)

Then, in the client:

root@yourpc:# aptitude install virt-manager

and then launch virt-manager from menu "application" -> "system tools" (under gnome).
In both modes, it is possible to watch virtual machines state, including
the relative details and resources usage and to shutdown, boot and reboot them.