If you create a lot of virtual machines using the Citrix XenCenter, you’ll want to create an installation repository somewhere containing the installation software. Â You need an http server & the installation .iso file for your particular version of Linux. Here’s how to create an http repository for Redhat 5.3 Enterprise edition with Apache:
Make a Mount Point Directory & Mount The .iso Image File
mkdir /mnt/rhel53
mount -o loop -t iso9660 rhel-server-5.3-x86_64-dvd.iso /mnt/rhel53
Create An Installation Directory & Copy The Contents Of The .iso File There
mkdir /distros/redhat/install
cp -var /mnt/rhel53/* /distros/redhat/install
In your webserver, presuming Apache in this example, create a symbolic link from your document root pointing to the installation repository directory. If your DocumentRoot was “/var/www/html”, create a symbolic link in that directory to the repository directory:
cd /var/www/html
ln -s /distros/redhat/install redhat
Now, when you create a VM in XenCenter, use the ip address (or name if you have it in dns) and the path to the install:
