How to Setup XenServer 6.x to Auto-Start Virtual Machines

Objective

In XenServer versions 6.x, the direct GUI ability to auto-start a Virtual Machine on the startup of XenServer was removed. This article describes how to set Virtual Machines to auto-start.

Requirements

XenServer version 6.x

Background

In XenServer 6.x, the auto-start functionality was removed because it interfered with High Availability (HA) and produced unexpected results during HA functions.

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Instructions

Setting the XenServer to allow Auto-Start

1. Gather the UUIDs of the pools you wish to auto-start.
   
2. To get the list of the pools on your XenServer, run “xe pool-list”
   
3. Copy the UUID of the pool. If you have just one server, it will still have a pool UUID as noted in the following
   
   
   
4. Then type the following command to set the pool or server to allow auto-start:
   xe pool-param-set uuid=UUID other-config:auto_poweron=true
   Note: Replacing UUID with the UUID of the XenServer or pool.
   

Setting the Virtual Machines to Auto-Start

1. Gather the UUIDs of the Virtual Machine you want to auto-start by running xe vm-list.
   Note: This generates a list of Virtual Machines in your pool or server and their associated UUIDs.
   
2. Copy the UUID of the Virtual Machines you want to auto-start, and run the following command for each Virtual Machine to auto-start:
   xe vm-param-set uuid=UUID other-config:auto_poweron=true
   Note: Replace UUID with the UUID of the Virtual Machine to auto-start. 

 Source : http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX133910