A xen project domain or any unix host for that matter could create a filesystem on an evmsmanaged volume created from a region of an lvm2 container whose storage regions are each software raid devices created from network block devices exported from other. The second partition is used for backups during a xenserver upgrade. Xenserver 6 uses gpt instead of mbr to set up the partitions. Yes, idea of raid1 is that one disk is a copy of another, but this is software raid and it based on partitions. Software volume management evms, lvm and software raid md wrap hardware and other software block devices and. Any security issues found in software that is installed into dom0 can mean that the host is open to compromise. First we set up the 2nd disk by copying the partition tables whilst enabling a degraded raid on it, then copy data over with custom initrd. Setting up raid when the operating system is already installed. Linux software raid is damn good and it beats low end raid controllers and usually matches performance of midend ones. I wish that i had his name so i could give him credit but its not here on the stuff i printed out. Anytime i have a raid1 mirror, xen panics on boot when trying to mount. The raid controller that i have available is an adaptec sas3405. Setting up raid 1 and raid 5 on ibm x3650 m3 with a global hot spare.
How to configure raid 5 after installing xenserver 7. Also, i plan to use the hardware raid instead of the software raid for this. A xen project domain or any unix host for that matter could create a filesystem on an evmsmanaged volume created from a region of an lvm2 container whose storage regions are each software raid devices created from network block devices exported from other hosts. Xenserver uses this partition for temporary space during upgrades devsda3. You must copy the start and end sectors from devsda, but in practice, for xenserver checked on 6. Use the intel rapid storage technology user interface to create a raid volume. Setting up the second drive sdb devsda should now contain 3. The disk io performance loss in xen vms xenserver 5. Mccarthy has been performing pci and hippa audits for well over 9 years. A raid can be deployed using both software and hardware.
I have a dual hexcore supermicro server that i want to take full advantage of including all 16 drive bays. After installing xen there is no grub bootmenu anymore. Ill have 4 disks and want two raid 1 pools, one for the os and one for storage. There is no additional raid processor on hostraid cards. After some research on the internet it seemed that most people would point out to use software raid instead of fakeraid this is how they call onboard firmware raid. Centos 7 install with uefi boot and software raid1. In my idea if xenserver support software raid then it is a good feature. Solved how to configure raid 5 after installing xenserver 7. Finding almost no concise guide to doing this online and trying to help someone go through this in the simplest manner possible, i thought that it would be good to document the process as we typically dont see xenserver with software raid and when you find guides for that they assume that you are booting from the software raid array as well which adds a lot of unnecessary complication. But the real question is whether you should use a hardware raid solution or a software raid solution.
Software raid is a type of raid implementation that utilizes operating systembased capabilities to construct and deliver raid services. Software raid1, debian sarge fresh installation, kernel 2. I can still get my raid monitoring after hp has ported their system management software from sarge to etch after etchs release. I would hope that both ext4 and btrfs support is added in the near future. In trying to set this up, ive encountered several pitfalls and complexities. We need to install too, but at this time we are stucked on raid software, mdadm configuration. Finding almost no concise guide to doing this online and trying to help someone go through this in the simplest manner possible, i thought that it would be good to document the process as we typically dont see xenserver with software raid and when you fi. Xenserver 8 express how to create an software raid 10. Being a type1 hypervisor, the xen software can run several instances of an os or even different os in parallel on a single host. Basically after that we have setup the raid, following that thread its look that there is no official documentation. Hence, the smaller the quantity of software installed into dom0 by a pack, the lower the likelihood that xenserver hosts.
Historically xenserver does not support software raid outthebox, and this is unchanged in the latest 6. Honestly, you are wasting your time with software raid 5, unless this is just for a home lab to educate yourself. It is used to improve disk io performance and reliability of your server or workstation. As the title says, im looking for a solution to my file storage and my vms. Advanced micro devices amd sb7x0sb8x0sb9x0 sata controller. Dear, someone here has already installer xenserver 7. A little dated, but not as dated as a lot of the other docs. Xen server xen software used to virtualize hardware typically used by hosting providers and small data centers uses enterprise level storage like hp p2000 g3 msa stores disk images of virtual machines in vhd format data storage in xen servers vhd files inside a host filesystem vhd files directly in partitions xen boot partition.
Open source server virtualization xenserver open source. How to build your own xenserver with raid rethink your it infrastructure with new technology about the author. With the recent public availability of xenserver 6. Although citrix recommends against using software raid with xenserver due to performance issues, ive had some pretty awful experiences. Afterwards you can log in and record the network configuration etc networkinginterfaces. Theres also a cd drive and an ultrium tape drive in there probably ill never use it. Poor techies like unable to afford a hardware raid controller for a simple test box. The xen project is focused on advancing virtualization in a number of different commercial and open source applications, including server virtualization, infrastructure as a services iaas, desktop virtualization, security applications, embedded and hardware appliances, and automotiveaviation.
The list of fixes and enhancements is quite large but some of the highly noted enhancements from citrix include agentless antimalware introspection for guests as well as frameworks that can allow guests to. It is true that all servers have hardware raid and xenserver is. I dont know why but i think it has somthing to so with the software raid. I recently did some performance tests for a couple virtualization technologies. Jul 07, 2009 a redundant array of inexpensive disks raid allows high levels of storage reliability. Xenserver 7 raid1 mdadm after install running system. Sep 20, 2016 xenserver 7 and software raid configuration. Download the driver disk directly to the xenserver host to be updated citrix recommends storing it in the tmp directory, or first download the file to an internetconnected computer, and burn the iso image to a cd. Convert xenserver installation to software raid1 technicus. Especially because i use uefi with nvme ssd i ended up with no raid. Proxmox makes it easy to set up your disks in raid during setup i was planning on using zfs but it looks like i should probably avoid that on xcp for now, and i know that 7. Storage repository on software raid although citrix recommends against using software raid with xenserver due to performance issues, ive had some pretty awful experiences with hardware raid cards over the last few years.
Sep 14, 2009 xenserver doesnt really support fakeraid or software raid. However their xenserver 7 install is hard raid only but its 7. Xen doesnt recognize raid1 filesystem howtoforge linux. May 10, 2006 when i boot xen, it comes the message that my raid1 is recognized and than xen tries to. I prefer to build software raid always on identical hard drives, which makes things much more predictable. To learn more and to read the entire article at its source, please refer to the following page, configure xenserver 5. Advanced micro devices amd fch sata controller ahci mode sata. Does xo support the creation of an sr on a lvmmdadm created software raid on the host e. Asked by cmendoza 0 points na posted on 03062012 for those who have a dedicated server with two hdd, the common idea is to put them in a raid via software, but when you use it with a xen server, a problem will occur. It is also called intelligent raid on chip iroc or software raid and it is.
That will be many hundreds of dollars and no faster than software raid. On the steps to follow, devsda are used for the disc where the instalation was made and devsdb for the second disc with the same size. We need to install too, but at this time we are stucked on raid software, mdadm. I used the notes from some guy on the citrix forums. To make this work, you need to drives in your system.
I did my first test install of xenserver and first thing i notice is that it. Well, yes, mdadm allows to build software raid from different, nonidentical hard drives. Would quite like to get the rest of the servers onto 7. After the instalaltion the xenserver should be accessible via ssh with the password entered in the answer file.
We need to replicate the same partition structure across each of your drives and the software raid volume will span the across the third partition on each disk. This instruction was written and tested for the xenserver version 7. Xenserver dom0 is designed to ensure the security of the hosts that it is installed on to. Hi, ml110 gen10 not supported the citrix xenserver. All the processing is done by your cpu and is similar to software raid in that regard. Software raid is not officially supported on xenserver, so it will be a hot or miss issue whether it might work or not. Citrix hypervisor open source server virtualization. But from my own expertise, building software raid off different hard drives will sooner or later bite you. For linux users, hpe offers a solution that uses indistro opensource software to create a twodisk raid 1 boot volume. Xenserver 7 and software raid configuration howtoforge. Im wondering whether this is possible in the interface as it would simplify things immensely and reduce the need for cli for this task.
This sort of configuration could be used to create. The next notable upgrade in xenserver 7 is the actual upgrade from xen 4. Due to the fact that the standard update is a xenserver installation of the new xenserver with virtual machines preservation, with the loss of all the changes that were made manually on the server installed software, changing adding settings through the console, etc. You can migrate the data from a single hard drive to a raid volume that includes that hard drive and the new hard drives. The alternative to this problem is configuring the system in software raid1. I hope to address those here and provide an endtoend guide for myself and others wishing to do similar activities. But after researching more i found out that citrix xenserver does not support software raid either, out of the box. Citrix hypervisor is the leading open source virtualization platform, powered by the xen hypervisor. It is used in the worlds largest clouds and enterprises. Xenserver doesnt really support fakeraid or software raid.
If you really need software raid, id suggest investigating the xenserver alternative xcpng project, which does support software raid. Now it is time to create the software raid devices. You can also create a new raid volume using the newly added hard drives. How to build your own xenserver with raid sms it group. Storage controllers citrix hypervisor hcl xenserver. This package contains a software solution that has been replaced by a more recent version available for download from the citrix support website support. It is also called intelligent raid on chip iroc or software raid and it is built into the firmware of the controller. The following commands are dependent on your installation. I made a script that automates the process for xen 6. You need not rewrite mbr again after rebuild arrays. So my recommendation ist not to use the default xen installation with etch if you are using software raid or to show a solution for that problem. Instructions for switching to raid 1 for xenserver 6. Try with our new gen8 bl460c blade servers, with locally attached p420i raid controllers and 2gb cache.
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