source: trunk/packages/xen-common/xen-common/tools/python/scripts/README @ 34

Xen API Test
============

xapi.py is a simple command line tool to test the functionality of a
domain lifecycle supporting, Xen API talking version of Xend.

Creating a VM is slightly more work under the Xen API. The differences
with this and xm is:

1. None of the devices are created during vm-create. You must use
   vbd-create and vif-create to attach a new device to the VM.

2. VM's that are created using vm-create will not start by
   default. You must use vm-start to "start" the domain.

3. VM's that are created using vm-create will not be removed on
   shutdown. You must remove it using vm-delete.

Example Configuration Files
---------------------------

xapi.py uses a simple python configuration file similar to xm in the
face of the lack of any other reasonable format.

All the fields are directly mapped to the arguments that are in the
Xen API constructore for the respective classes.

xapi.domcfg.py: example configuration for a paravirtualised domain.
xapi.vbdcfg.py: example configuration for a file based block device.
xapi.vifcfg.py: example configuration for a simple bridged network
                device.

Example Session
---------------

xapi.py vm-list
xapi.py vm-create xapi.domcfg.py
xapi.py vbd-create <DomainName> xapi.vbdcfg.py
xapi.py vif-create <DomainName> xapi.vifcfg.py

Notes
-----

Currently lacking:

1. Any real authentication. XendAuthSessions need to be filled in with
   a proper authentication implementation either using PAM or other
   means.