Install XCP-ng VM Tools on Ubuntu | Debian Linux

CloudSpinx
March 12, 2025
11:47 am
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In this guide we will perform an installation of XCP-ng VM or guest tools on Ubuntu | Debian Linux system. XCP-ng VM Tools contains a guest agent application which provides extra information about the Virtual Machine to the host. The XCP-ng hypervisor will then be able to communicate with the guest operating system and for better performance.

The XCP-ng guest tools are made of two main components:

The kernel drivers for the OS
A management agent running on the guest OS

There are available methods that can be used to install XCP-ng guest tools on an Ubuntu/Debian Linux system:

From VM tools ISO image
From OS APT repositories

Method 1: Install XCP-ng VM Tools from APT repositories

XCP-ng guest tools can be installed from the Ubuntu / Debian OS online repositories with the apt command line tool.

This is the easiest installation method of XCP-ng VM Tools on Ubuntu operating system:

Ubuntu:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install xe-guest-utilities

Confirm the service is started and configured to run on boot.

sudo systemctl enable xe-linux-distribution
sudo systemctl start xe-linux-distribution

Confirm the service is running:

$ systemctl status xe-linux-distribution
● xe-linux-distribution.service - LSB: Virtual Machine daemon providing host integration services
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/xe-linux-distribution; generated)
     Active: active (running) since Wed 2023-04-14 14:50:15 UTC; 6 days ago
       Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
      Tasks: 15 (limit: 4593)
     Memory: 16.2M
     CGroup: /system.slice/xe-linux-distribution.service
             ├─831 /usr/sbin/xe-daemon -p /var/run/xe-daemon.pid
             └─844 logger -t xe-daemon -p debug

Apr 14 14:50:15 ubuntu systemd[1]: Starting LSB: Virtual Machine daemon providing host integration services...
Apr 14 14:50:15 ubuntu xe-linux-distribution[765]: $Mounting xenfs on /proc/xen: OK
Apr 14 14:50:15 ubuntu xe-linux-distribution[765]: $Detecting Linux distribution version: OK
Apr 14 14:50:15 ubuntu xe-linux-distribution[765]: $Starting xe daemon:  OK
Apr 14 14:50:15 ubuntu systemd[1]: Started LSB: Virtual Machine daemon providing host integration services.

Method 2: Install from the guest tools ISO

This installation supports many distributions including the ones that doesn’t have guest tools in their upstream repositories.

If this is your preferred method first remove xe-guest-utilities package:

# Ubuntu
sudo apt remove xe-guest-utilities

Agree to continue with package removal:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  xe-guest-utilities
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
After this operation, 3,453 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y

Attach the guest tools ISO to the VM from Xen Orchestra or XenCenter|XCP-ng Center.

From XCP-ng center console select the instance you wan to install VM Tools on. Then navigate to “General” and click on “XCP-ng VM Tools not installed” link:

In the next screen use “Install XCP-ng VM Tools” button to mount the disk on the VM.

The disk mapping should be visible in the VM console.

sudo mount /dev/cdrom /mnt

If the ISO is mounted the directory will README.txt file and Linux folder.

$ ls /mnt/
Linux  README.txt

Run the installer script:

sudo bash /mnt/Linux/install.sh

Sample execution output:

Detected `Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS' (ubuntu version 20).

The following changes will be made to this Virtual Machine:
  * packages to be installed/upgraded:
    - xe-guest-utilities_7.20.0-1_amd64.deb

Continue? [y/n] y

Selecting previously unselected package xe-guest-utilities.
(Reading database ... 119266 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../xe-guest-utilities_7.20.0-1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking xe-guest-utilities (7.20.0-1) ...
Setting up xe-guest-utilities (7.20.0-1) ...
Processing triggers for systemd (245.4-4ubuntu3.6) ...

You should now reboot this Virtual Machine.

Unmount guest tools cd rom:

sudo umount /dev/cdrom

Then reboot the system:

sudo reboot

Enjoy running your Debian / Ubuntu virtual machine on Xen / XCP-ng virtualization platform.

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