XenCenter shows "Management Agent not installed" for Linux VM

[Gerald Vogt]

I have a AlmaLinux 8 VM for which XenCenter shows the Virtualization State:

 

I/O optimized
Management Agent not installed
Not able to receive updates from Windows Update

 

Citrix VM Tools for Linux are installed.

 

For all my other Linux VMs including another AlmaLinux 8 VM it always just shows simpy "Optimized (version 8.2 installed)".

 

So it looks to me as if XenCenter thinks this is a windows vm, though it's not.

 

How can I fix this?

[Gerald Vogt]

O.K. I think I finally found the reason: the new AlmaLinux 8 VM was installed using the "Other install media" template. It seems Xen assumes this to be something Windows alike.

 

After comparing the params of both VMs with "xe vm-list params=all" and trying to adjust some of the differences I eventually found this:

 

# xe vm-list uuid=316be3f9-6ed5-166b-f0a6-39b8d5aa49f9 params=platform
platform (MRW)    : viridian: true; hpet: true; secureboot: false; timeoffset: 0; device-model: qemu-upstream-compat; nx: true; pae: true; apic: true; acpi: 1; cores-per-socket: 4

It seems viridian is only used with Windows and XenCenter uses to determine the virtualization state:

# xe vm-param-set uuid=316be3f9-6ed5-166b-f0a6-39b8d5aa49f9 platform:viridian=false
# xe vm-list name-label=jh-prod8 power-state=running params=platform
platform (MRW)    : viridian: false; hpet: true; secureboot: false; timeoffset: 0; device-model: qemu-upstream-compat; nx: true; pae: true; apic: true; acpi: 1; cores-per-socket: 4

and almost immediately XenCenter shows "Optimized (version 8.2 installed)" for the VM.

 

Thus if you install a non Windows VM with "Other install media" you may have to adjust this.

[Alan Lantz]

I guess a reinstall didn't work? Did you restart the VM after installing the agent ?

Not sure what firewall ports are involved, maybe a firewall issue ?

 

--Alan--

 

[Tobias Kreidl]

I've had to sometime run the installation for the management agent multiple times before it would "take". Was there an older version installed, or are these new VMs?

 

-=Tobias

[Gerald Vogt]

On 11/4/2021 at 2:58 PM, Alan Lantz said:

I guess a reinstall didn't work? Did you restart the VM after installing the agent ?

Not sure what firewall ports are involved, maybe a firewall issue ?

 

I have removed, reinstalled, tried the EPEL 8 version, rebooted a couple of times, too. Nothing helps. There is no firewall involved. The hypervisor talks through the kernel with the VM.

 

On 11/4/2021 at 8:46 PM, Tobias Kreidl said:

I've had to sometime run the installation for the management agent multiple times before it would "take". Was there an older version installed, or are these new VMs?

 

It is a new VM which was installed from installation media. Directly after the installation of Alma8 the same version of the VM tools were installed which are running everywhere else on our EL8 VMs including another Alma8 VM (which however was a migration from CentOS 8).

 

Also: XenCenter shows the correct OS name, performance stats and can suspend, reboot, etc. the VM. XenCenter can talk just fine with the VM tools on the VM.

 

XenCenter, however, still thinks it could run the Management Agent, which of course doesn't exist for Linux.

[Tobias Kreidl]

I do have vague memories of the Veridian parameter causing issues in the past. Good find!