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I would like to capture the video output of virtual machine running on Xenserver from boot-up and through reboots. I know I can capture the video by capturing the output of an assigned VGA adapter, but that's not really a great option for us, and it's not very quickly repeatable.

A little background: we're a mostly Linux shop with a few (but growing number) of Windows machines. As a Linux shop we don't really have very much expertise managing standard Windows services like Active Directory, so we're hiring a consultant to come in and configure it and show us how to maintain it. I would like to capture every button press and menu selection that the consultant does while he's here so we can look back to see exactly how he did it for long-term documentation.

The easiest solution would be to capture the video output of the console window on a machine running Xencenter but I'd prefer a more elegant, built-in, solution.

Is there a way to get Xencenter (possibly via a plugin I'm unaware of) to just capture the output of the console, even through reboots? We also use OpenXenManager in Linux, but AFAIK, it won't work this way either.

fishybell
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If you were to track what I normally do, flicking back and forth between multiple screens, testing intermediate steps, confirming settings with a requirements doc, etc. etc. I can pretty much guarantee that trying to follow that from a screen capture will not be very instructive for the uninitiated.

To be of any real value a good video is scripted, start with A ; Do B ; Do C and set values x, y, z, to 1, 2, 3 , all the way to working end-state.

And doesn't that scenario sound remarkably like an installation guide with tick boxes you can actually follow step by step?

HBruijn
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  • I'll be in the room watching over the consultant the entire time, talking with him/her asking questions. The video is just as a permanent documentation, and the current need is just that; a current need. I can think of other reasons why this ability would be useful, and I'm sure others can as well. – fishybell Jul 12 '14 at 01:20