On a new Xen server I encounterd the following error while starting a fully virtualized guest:

[root@resource1 xen]# xm create test-vps.cfg
Using config file "./test-vps.cfg".
VNC= 1
Error: Unable to connect to xend: Name or service not known. Is xend running?


This problem was caused by a problem in the name resolving. I solved this by adding the hostname and ip address of the server in /etc/hosts
After this change the guest booted without problems.