The XenServer guest installer allows you to install an operating system from a network-accessible copy of vendor media into a VM. In preparation for installing from vendor media, you need to make an exploded network repository of your vendor media (not ISO images), exported via NFS, HTTP or FTP accessible to the XenServer Host administration interface. See Appendix B, Setting Up a Red Hat Installation Server for information on how to copy a set of installation CDs to a network drive. For further information, see the section "Preparing for a Network Installation" in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Installation Guide for details.

The network repository must be accessible from the Control Domain of the XenServer host, normally via the management interface. The URL should point to the base of the CD/DVD image on the network server, and be of the form:

The XenServer "New VM Wizard" provides an additional step for vendor-installable templates which prompts for the repository URL. When using the CLI, install the template as normal using vm-install and then set the other-config-install-repository key to the value of the URL. When the VM is subsequently started, it will begin the network installation process.