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Chapter 3. Installing Windows VMs
XenServer allows you to install Windows 2000 SP4, Windows Server 2003 (32-/64- bit), Windows Server
2008, Windows XP SP2/3, or Windows Vista as a VM. Installing Windows VMs on a XenServer host requires
hardware virtualization support (Intel VT or AMD-V).
The process of installing a Windows VM can be broken down into two main steps:
• installing the Windows operating system
• installing the paravirtualized device drivers known as the Citrix Tools for Virtual Machines
Windows VMs are installed by cloning an appropriate template using either XenCenter or the CLI. The
templates for individual guests have predefined platform flags set which define the configuration of the
virtual hardware. For example, all Windows VMs are installed with the ACPI Hardware Abstraction Layer
(HAL) mode enabled. If you subsequently change one of these VMs to have multiple virtual CPUs, Windows
automatically switches the HAL to multi-processor mode.
The available Windows templates are:
• Windows Server 2008
can be used to install Windows Server 2008 32-bit.
• Windows Server 2008 x64
can be used to install Windows Server 2008 64-bit.
• Windows Server 2003
can be used to install Windows Server 2003 32-bit SP0, SP1, SP2, and R2. The Server, Enterprise, Data
Centre, and SBS editions are supported.
• Windows Server 2003 x64
can be used to install Windows Server 2003 64-bit. The Server, Enterprise, Data Centre, and SBS editions
are supported.
• Windows Server 2003, optimized for Citrix XenApp
can be used to install Windows Server 2003 32-bit SP0, SP1, SP2, and R2. The Server, Enterprise, Da-
ta Centre, and SBS editions are supported. This template is specially tuned to optimize XenApp perfor-
mance.
• Windows Server 2003 x64, optimized for Citrix XenApp
can be used to install Windows Server 2003 64-bit. The Server, Enterprise, Data Centre, and SBS editions
are supported. This template is specially tuned to optimize XenApp performance.
• Windows 2000 SP4
can be used to install Windows 2000 Server Service Pack 4. Earlier service packs are not supported.
• Windows Vista
can be used to install Windows Vista 32-bit. The Enterprise edition is supported.
• Windows XP SP3
can be used to install Windows XP Service Pack 3. Earlier service packs are not supported.
• Windows XP SP2
can be used to install Windows XP Service Pack 2. Earlier service packs are not supported.
The Windows VM can be installed either from an install CD in a physical CD-ROM on the XenServer host,
or from an ISO image of your Windows media. See Appendix A, Creating ISO images for information on
how to make an ISO image from a Windows install CD and make it available for use.