GUI for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server guests in Citrix XenServer

To enable GUI on SLES VM in Citrix Xenserver, you need to edit /etc/xinit.d/vnc and change the Port from 5901 to 5900

service vnc1
{
        type            = UNLISTED
        port            = 5900
        socket_type     = stream
        protocol        = tcp
        wait            = no
        user            = nobody
        server          = /usr/bin/Xvnc
        server_args     = -noreset -inetd -once -query localhost -geometry 1024x768 -securitytypes none
        disable         = yes

Cloning SLES in Citrix Xen

Virtualisation is not only great in production environment but also the best way when it comes to development.

One of the most common and extremely useful feature is cloning of another virtual machine as it will save you a lot of time and also resources. However, when you clone using the the 'Fast' method, you will face problem with the network card as the MAC address will be similar. This affects mostly Linux distros as Windows will boot the NIC as a new card and take in the MAC address assigned by the XenServer.

For SLES, there are a couple of things you need to do overcome this. First, take note of the correct MAC address which is displayed at the network tab of the cloned VM.

Once you have the info, move the network card configuration file to reflect the right MAC address, eg

cd /etc/sysconfig/network/
mv ifcfg-eth-id-5e\:7f\:45\:e6\:46\:29 ifcfg-eth-id-aa\:fa\:53\:65\:40\:92

If you want to make the network card as a DHCP client, then edit the /var/lib/dhcpcd/dhcpcd-eth0.info file. At the bottom of the file, update the entry with the correct MAC address, eg

CLIENTID=AA:FA:53:65:40:92

Save the file, then run the network configuration wizard using YaST and you're good to go.