Building Out XenServer 6.5 with USB Boot and Software RAID 10

DustinB3403

Has anyone attempted this guide on XS7? Confirming what works and what doesn't.

Alex Sage

@DustinB3403 I'll try it tomorrow night.

scottalanmiller

@aaronstuder said in Building Out XenServer 6.5 with USB Boot and Software RAID 10:

@DustinB3403 I'll try it tomorrow night.

Thanks

Alex Sage

@scottalanmiller Well, change of plans, I ordered 32GB more RAM and 2 New 64GB thumbdrives, which will be here Saturday. Will upgrade then and test

DustinB3403

There appears to be a bug with XS7 and upgrading / using an existing MD array.

https://bugs.xenserver.org/browse/XSO-545

Alex Sage

@DustinB3403 Interesting. I will be starting fresh... Would you like to to try a upgrade as well?

DustinB3403

@aaronstuder Tried upgrading, and I'm getting several errors on my test system. Which ran XS6.5 just fine.

Going to try again and see what happens, this time not using the existing array, but the same boot device.

Alex Sage

@DustinB3403 Ah, I see. Have you tried a fresh install?

DustinB3403

@aaronstuder Working on that now.

DustinB3403

It looks as though I'm going to have to clean the drives that are a part of the old array before I can proceed. I'm getting an error

 no such file or directory: '/sys/block/md127p1'

Alex Sage

@DustinB3403 Bummer. On a side note, how do I quickly remove all partitions on a drive in Linux? I want a blank drive with nothing on it

DustinB3403

@aaronstuder said in Building Out XenServer 6.5 with USB Boot and Software RAID 10:

@DustinB3403 Bummer. On a side note, how do I quickly remove all partitions on a drive in Linux? I want a blank drive with nothing on it

I'm assuming on the software array, correct?

mdadm --stop /dev/md0
mdadm --remove /dev/md0
mdadm --zero-superblock /dev/sda    (per drive)
sfdisk -d /dev/sda | sfdisk /dev/sdb

travisdh1

@aaronstuder

parted /dev/device
rm 1

Repeat rm for each partition on the drive.

Edit: @DustinB3403 method is better if it's an mdadm array.

Alex Sage

@travisdh1 @DustinB3403 Thanks guys!

DustinB3403

I had to erase each of the disks before being able to proceed.

So if this were a production system or other system that you really want your VM's from take a backup.

DustinB3403

I've selected no VM storage, and enabled Thin Provisioning at the initial screen. I'm checking the installation media for issues as well. I'll update shortly from there.

So far no issues found.

Proceeding.

JaredBusch

@DustinB3403 said in Building Out XenServer 6.5 with USB Boot and Software RAID 10:

I had to erase each of the disks before being able to proceed.

So if this were a production system or other system that you really want your VM's from take a backup.

That means you cannot upgrade.

DustinB3403

@JaredBusch Correct.

With this system I had removed the bootable USB prior too, with it in place I may have been able to upgrade.

But since this was a test system it was already torn down and the drives had data stuck to them that was causing some issues.

DustinB3403

So I was able to upgrade, obviously the array is gone.

With XS7 you need to install a newer version of XenCenter if you want to manage it.

Kelly

@DustinB3403 The new version is backwards compatible with 6.5 though.