Requirements
An hv Host needs hardware that can boot the distribution and provide resources for dom0 and its VMs. Check this before erasing a disk. The installer validates particular inputs and disk capacity; successful validation is not a hardware certification.
Hardware and firmware
Use an x86_64 CPU with hardware virtualization enabled in firmware and boot the installer in UEFI mode. Legacy BIOS Host boot is not supported. Keep a local display or the provider's out-of-band console available through installation and the first reboot.
An IOMMU, Intel VT-d or AMD-Vi, is optional. You need it for PCI/GPU and SR-IOV passthrough, which also require PV dom0. Without an IOMMU, the Host runs dom0 in PV mode. USB passthrough does not have that IOMMU requirement. A firmware virtualization switch and an IOMMU switch are different settings.
The installer requires at least 37,378 MiB on the selected disk. Its layout reserves 512 MiB for the EFI system partition, two 6 GiB root slots, 4 GiB for shared STATE and at least 20 GiB for the local SR, plus alignment and GPT space. Capacity for the intended VMs must be planned separately from this installation minimum. Installation erases the whole chosen disk.
The installer checks disk capacity, lists writable disks and physical NICs, and probes DHCP on interfaces with a link. It does not enforce a general minimum Host RAM, CPU count or NIC speed. Size memory for dom0 and all intended VMs, and storage for their disks, Snapshots and growth. The installed kernel must recognize the disk controller and management NIC. Device firmware for common server NICs and storage controllers, together with Intel and AMD CPU microcode, is installed with hv; firmware for GPUs, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, sound and cameras is not, and neither are the drivers. Check that your particular devices appear before proceeding.
Network and browser
Before installation, record the management NIC's name or MAC, DHCP availability or static IPv4 address, prefix, gateway and DNS. A management VLAN is optional. IPv6 can be added; the answer schema still requires IPv4 configuration. A public /32 can use an off-subnet gateway. See installation.
The web console needs JavaScript. VM console access also needs WebSocket connectivity through any reverse proxy. Verify sign-in, form submission and a VM console in the browser you will use.
Check readiness and limits
Boot the ISO without committing an installation and confirm that the intended disk and NIC are visible. Verify management routing after installation and check available storage before creating VMs. Retain console access when changing networking.
BIOS guests do not boot in this release. Use UEFI guests even if an interface offers a BIOS choice. Do not assume XenServer guest-ABI or live-migration compatibility. Automatic handover of a public NIC to an Edge VM is unavailable as a complete installation or administration workflow. There is no automatic watchdog recovery promise for a hung dom0. These limits affect networking, migration and recovery.