BRRABill's Field Report With XenServer
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So in reference to what I had posted that prompted this... which was about whether the server should have a GUI, then yes, using RSAT is absolutely GUIless. The server has no GUI.
If I told you that you needed to stop using GUIs and only work from the command line, then no, the RSAT would not meet that requirement. But that was not the context of the discussion. This was purely around how the servers get managed.
Likewise, XO is a GUI for XenServer just as the RSAT is for Windows. But XenServer itself doesn't have a GUI, XenServer has the XAPI API.
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@KOOLER said:
@FATeknollogee said:
@FATeknollogee said:
@Dashrender said:
@FATeknollogee said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@FATeknollogee said:
@FATeknollogee said:
Not to side track this thread (apologies to @BRRABill ), what is the "hyperconverged" equivalent in the XenServer world?
To all you XS experts, what is the "hyperconverged" equivalent in the XenServer world?
Similar to Starwind in the Windows world
XenServer is natively that in the Xen world. Nothing additional needed.
If you had 2, 3 or more XS bare metal installs with local drives, how do you "hyperconverge" all the local disks?
Are you saying with XS the "hyperconvergence" just auto-magically happens?
Of course not, but it doesn't for any platform. If you're setting up a greenfield situation, then you design it from the ground up with XS with single shared storage.
Let's try this again:
In Windows, you can take multiple boxes, add Starwind or Datacore = hyperconverged using local storage (no SAN needed).
How do you do the same thing with XS?
This can do HC for XenServer:
http://www.atlantiscomputing.com/products/atlantis-usxIt's interesting how much of Xen did they sell.
You mean how much of their sales is XenServer vs VMware? (since they support both)
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@BRRABill autoboot issue fixed: https://github.com/vatesfr/xo-web/issues/879
Will be released in 4.16. Thanks for the report!
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@scottalanmiller said:
If I told you that you needed to stop using GUIs and only work from the command line, then no, the RSAT would not meet that requirement. But that was not the context of the discussion. This was purely around how the servers get managed.
My question was in relation you you saying things like Linux admins would laugh at you if you needed a GUI. So, in reference to THAT, I think using RSAT is still a GUI. And hence would get you laughed at.
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@BRRABill said:
@scottalanmiller said:
If I told you that you needed to stop using GUIs and only work from the command line, then no, the RSAT would not meet that requirement. But that was not the context of the discussion. This was purely around how the servers get managed.
My question was in relation you you saying things like Linux admins would laugh at you if you needed a GUI. So, in reference to THAT, I think using RSAT is still a GUI. And hence would get you laughed at.
You are probably correct.
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@BRRABill said:
@scottalanmiller said:
If I told you that you needed to stop using GUIs and only work from the command line, then no, the RSAT would not meet that requirement. But that was not the context of the discussion. This was purely around how the servers get managed.
My question was in relation you you saying things like Linux admins would laugh at you if you needed a GUI. So, in reference to THAT, I think using RSAT is still a GUI. And hence would get you laughed at.
Oh okay, yes, if you need the RSAT Linux Admins would laugh at you. I don't know many people who are Windows Admins are rely on the RSAT. They might use it, but they don't rely on it. If you remove the local GUI on Windows, pretty universally you learn PowerShell plus RSAT, not RSAT alone.
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@olivier said:
@BRRABill autoboot issue fixed: https://github.com/vatesfr/xo-web/issues/879
Will be released in 4.16. Thanks for the report!
I'm glad I could help.
I like to go over every little thing when I am learning something new.
Hence why it seems like I am asking a lot of dumb questions.
Well, in truth a lot of them are just dumb.
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Same on Linux, there are RSAT-like tools, like Landscape. They are acceptable to use, but if you need them, no one will think you are an actual Linux Admin.
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Back to XenServer.
Decided to try an update tonight. Two "errors" popped up, and I was wondering what the mechanics were behind these error messages.
I included screen shots below to support the questions, but here they are...
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Why does autostart need to be disabled? (I am assuming it is because of #2.)
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Why is it migrating the VM somewhere? What exactly is it doing? How does this work with just one XenServer?
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- probably in case there is a startup problem. You're updating the hypervisor, if all goes well, you can re-enable autostart, at least this way, they won't be in the way if there are problems with the hypervisor update.
2)I'm not sure why it assumes you have a second or more server to migrate to, but appears to be trying to do you a solid by moving your vms to another host.
Mine did this too.
- probably in case there is a startup problem. You're updating the hypervisor, if all goes well, you can re-enable autostart, at least this way, they won't be in the way if there are problems with the hypervisor update.
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I think this is because you are trying to update while VMs are running and if it does that, they are going to go down and if they are not set to autostart they are not going to come back up at all. XenServer doesn't want to induce an unexpected outage.
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Yeah I am wondering why it would assume
a) I wanted to migrate and
b) I had another server to migrate to -
If you have the autostart flag set on your VM's it makes that assumption that you're attempting a Failover system where the VM's can get migrated to another host.
Autostart was actually removed from XC as a default option, it must be enabled via the CLI.
Disable Autostart on these VM's and try again.
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@DustinB3403 said:
If you have the autostart flag set on your VM's it makes that assumption that you're attempting a Failover system where the VM's can get migrated to another host.
Damn awesome answer! much better than my - If you're kicking off a hypervisor upgrade while a VM is running, wouldn't you assume you want it migrated?
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@BRRABill said:
Yeah I am wondering why it would assume
a) I wanted to migrate andSee my previous reply
b) I had another server to migrate to
It's ok to assume this - it wasn't a hard failure. If you had one, it would migrate, if not, it would log it and move on.
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You would, but the autostart flag is for after a power outage etc, not a migration, as the VM never gets "powered off"
Upgrading the host, attempts to migrate the VM to any other host in the pool, as its assuming you want to keep it running, since the Autostart flag is enabled.
Otherwise it'll say "you need to shutdown these VM's"
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And it always has to shut down the VMs when it does an upgrade?
I know Windows requires a lot of reboots, but they generally run the updates while everything is running.
This is more informational knowledge. I could have just suspended the VMs as it asked. Just curious as to how the sausage is made. (Boy I am full of cliches today.)
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I guess I don't understand the mechanics of upgrading here. I mean, you suspend the VM, take the 60 seconds to upgrade, and then restart it.
To migrate some VMs would take hours. Is that more in the scenario (of which I am not in even remotely) of VMs that can never be down?
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@BRRABill Xen would simply put the VM's in a suspended state, unless there is a known need to reboot the host. In which case it tells you, hey move these VM's or shut them down.
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@BRRABill said:
I guess I don't understand the mechanics of upgrading here. I mean, you suspend the VM, take the 60 seconds to upgrade, and then restart it.
To migrate some VMs would take hours. Is that more in the scenario (of which I am not in even remotely) of VMs that can never be down?
The mechanic is looking at what you have and trying to make a determination of what you are attempting to do. aka HA. Which if you don't have, you need to power off the VM's and disable autostart so the installation can complete.
