Tools for Windows VM's
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What is the current recommended best practice for modern Window's OS and the XCP/Xen tools?
I've tried by checking the Windows Update option and pulling down the Xen versions, which works fine for the drivers, but my XCP-NG instances never pick up the agent. This leads to bad commmunication via the reboot button, no RAM reporting, and no little windows logo for OS identification in the gui.
I then spun up a brand new vm and installed the XCP-NG drivers/agent as found in git. However, development on those appears to have stalled out in 2019, so I'm concerned about security, reliability, and moving forward.
Any suggestions?
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@nerdyviking88 Hi,
First I recommend you read the documentation about guest tools here: https://xcp-ng.org/docs/guests.html#windows
For Citrix tools you need to install management agent separately they are not available through Windows update.
For XCP-ng tools We are reworking them but the current available are very stable and don't cause any issues so form me unless you have spécific issues with them they are the best way to go. -
@Darkbeldin Aren't there a few features that the Citrix tools allow for that the XCP-ng one's DON'T? I don't recall what they were, but I remember coming across this at one point in the past, really wish I could remember lol.
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@planedrop Not to my knowledge, but i could be wrong, for me the only use case where I should recommend going for Citrix tools would be server 2022 because they will have better compatibility.
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@Darkbeldin Hmmmm I'll look through my notes and see if I can find what the issue I had was. I remember something fairly significant and since then I've ONLY used the Citrix tools, it's been a while though (years) so I'm not 100% sure.
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Thank you for that clarification.
Am I correct in assuming the Windows Agent for the Citrix Tools is also not available as open source?
Is there an official recommendation on which one performs better/less issues/etc, or is this up to each induvial user?
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@nerdyviking88 If it helps at all, and I have nothing against using the XCP-ng tools, but I manage a decent sized org with a number of Windows VMs and I always install the Citrix tools, have never had a single issue and performance is great.
But the Cirtix ones are NOT open source so there is a downside there too.
I will say it's nice for the drivers to be auto updated through Windows updates though, which is something the XCP-ng ones can't do.
I think in most situations though both will work just fine, just don't mix them on the same VM (as mentioned in the docs), it will break things, I tried it just for fun and it basically nuked the VM lol.
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@Darkbeldin and @nerdyviking88 I found it! You can't use secure boot with the XCP-ng tools, has to be done with the Citrix ones right now.
Per the docs:
Until we can re-sign XCP-ng's PV drivers for Windows, you will need the PV drivers from Citrix before enabling Secure Boot for a Windows VM. See Setup Secure Boot for Windows VMs. -
@planedrop Thank you, this is exactly what I'm looking for.
Are the citrix tools available somewhere, or is it only behind a subscription? We're open to subscriptions if needed.
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@planedrop Ah... well, that solves that. We've got secure boot required per compliance.
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@nerdyviking88 Yeah seems like using Citrix is the way to go for you, hopefully the XCP-ng ones get fixed later to support secure boot, but I also wouldn't recommend changing between the two after the fact (can be a tough process, it is doable though).
As for the installation, it's all free from Citrix but you do have to make an account with them, it's explained more in the docs here https://xcp-ng.org/docs/guests.html#windows
Just scroll down a bit to the section about Citrix and you'll see a green note box that talks about some changes of recent and how to get the drivers and agent.
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Just making sure I'm not missing anything...The latest version of the XCP-ng drivers/agent is a RC from 2019?
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@JamesG You are correct about that, this is another reason I use the Citrix ones personally.
Also, as I mentioned above, don't forget that you can't use secure boot with the XCP-ng tools.
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It is no longer possible to download from citrix. I can't create an account. You need an existing company account, and I don't see any option to create company account.
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@JoyceBabu They are now available at https://www.xenserver.com/downloads
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@Danp Thanks for sharing, this is great.
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@Danp Thank you for sharing.
I have already installed XCP-ng tools, and as per the documentation there is no cleanup script for removing XCP-ng. Is Citrix tools worth the trouble of re-installing Windows?
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@JoyceBabu You can manually remove the xcp tools and reinstall the xen tools (or the other way) without reinstalling windows. There are some programs/scripts from a while ago that shows what's still there so you can remove them. Here's a post. Here's info from citrix. Make a snapshot first in case of trouble.
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@JoyceBabu Here's a direct link to XCP-ng-Windows-Guest-Tools-Cleaner_alpha
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Thank you @Andrew. I went ahead and re-created the VM. I didn't want to risk a future instability.
