How to install XenCenter on Linux

Citrix XenCenter is client software with GUI for managing XenServer/XCP hosts remotely. Using XenCenter, you can create virtual machines (VMs), access VM consoles, and configure VM storage and networking. As of this writing, Citrix only offers a Windows native client for XenCenter, and they don’t seem to plan on releasing XenCenter Linux client any time soon. So if you would like to install XenCenter on Linux, you need to find an alternative to XenCenter on Linux, which is what this post is about.

Fortunately, there is a pretty good open-source alternative to XenCenter on Linux, which is called OpenXenManager. It allows users to manage XenServer and Xen Cloud Platform (XCP) hosts remotely via GUI.

If you don’t have already then install Python setup tools

sudo apt-get install python-setuptools
For Python 3.x
sudo apt-get install python3-setuptools

You can install OpenXenManager on Linux as follows.

Install OpenXenManager on Debian or Ubuntu.

sudo apt-get install git python-gtk2 glade python-gtk-vnc python-glade2 python-configobj
cd /opt/
sudo git clone https://github.com/OpenXenManager/openxenmanager.git
cd openxenmanager
sudo python setup.py install

Install OpenXenManager on CentOS, Fedora or RHEL

sudo yum install pygtk2 gtk-vnc-python rrdtool
cd /opt/
sudo git clone https://github.com/OpenXenManager/openxenmanager.git
cd openxenmanager
sudo python setup.py install

Manage XenServer Host Remotely with OpenXenManager

To launch OpenXenManager, just type the following command:

openxenmanager

Connect to a remote XenServer host by clicking on “Add New Server” button on the top.

Once you are connected to a remote XenServer host, you will be able to see the resources (CPU, memory, storage) available on the host, and access its virtual console via OpenXenManager GUI.

To create a guest VM:

To create a new storage repository:

As an open-source clone of XenCenter, OpenXenManager implements pretty much the same functionality of XenCenter. The latest OpenXenManager even supports Citrix-specific features of XenCenter, such as activating a free XenServer license and installing XenServer updates.