[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index] Re: [Xen-API] Disaster Recovery of Xen XCP.
I haven't found a reason for it...But the USB stick would randomly just "disappear." One thing I noticed is that the logging on XCP was out of control. HUGE gzip'd archives several a day. I'll pull some log data and inquire later. I found this site... http://www.schirmacher.de/display/INFO/How+to+reattach+a+disk+to+XenServer Which provided some info that was helpful for CLI commands. Ultimately, I was able to get the USB stick to boot and write all the Metadata to the SR on my RAID controller. I then loaded a stand-alone SATA drive, attached the RAID SR through xsconsole, and then restored the VM's from the Metadata that I had written to the RAID SR. I had to clean up a few things but everything came back. One thing that was somewhat puzzling was the date on my system had moved forward over a week. The hardware clock thought it was Feb8th. Apparently all of my VM's did as well as they all were freaked out about the date and forced a fsck on boot. Not sure how the date got messed up. One thing I noticed is that XCP kept setting my clock back 5 hours based on my timezone settings. I don't recall that being an issue before, but I went into BIOS and set the hardware clock to be UTC, and then set XCP to be EST. I need to sift through my VM's to make sure they're seeing the right time. I'm very happy that I was able to save everything. James ________________________________________ From: Denis Cardon [denis.cardon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Monday, January 28, 2013 5:29 AM To: James Cc: Xen-api@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: [Xen-API] Disaster Recovery of Xen XCP. Hi James, > Over the past couple of weeks I've installed XCP onto a USB stick and have > built up my virtual data-center. Now it would appear that the USB stick is > failing and I would like to recover rather than rebuild. USB stick have very bad wear leveling, and you should avoid using them if they is not mounted read only (you can take a look at the debian live project to have system booting from usb mounted read only). Actually I toasted a few usb stick with basic io write pattern. I used to have a few XCP servers on usb stick/CF cards, and I switched all of them no SSD because of disastreous wear leveling. Standard XCP servers I/O pattern is not very intensive, and USB stick should theoritically be ok, however in case of problem you can get intensive logging and your USB stick will be toasted in no time. > The good: > This first showed up last night and I was able to shut down my VMs (at least > partially) and power cycle the server to get XCP back up and running. > Also good (I think) all of the VMs and their related storage is hosted from a > hardware RAID controller. > > Whether I install another USB stick or use a normal hard drive, the issue is > the same: > > How do I get my VM's recognized on a new install of XCP? XCP metadata (which define VMs setup, network config and corresponding virtual disk) are written in a db on the XCP partition (which you lost with your toasted USB stick). You can setup a daily backup using xsconsole on your storage SR for disaster recovery. Alternatively, you can do a xe pool-dump-database through cronjob to have your metadata on your backup server. > If I recall correctly, when I created the RAID array as a storage repository > for XCP, it warned me that all contents would be lost. However I don't think > I need to "create" the SR...I just need to "import" the SR and then "import" > the VM's. > > With that in mind...Surely there's an "export" option somewhere in XCP?? Your new XCP install has no clue of what is inside your SR. I don't remember the exact commands to introduce this existing SR to your new server, but it should be something like http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX121896 . Do backup first if you are not familiar with all that stuff. Cheers, Denis > > Thanks, > > James > _______________________________________________ > Xen-api mailing list > Xen-api@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > http://lists.xen.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xen-api > -- Denis Cardon Tranquil IT Systems Les Espaces Jules Verne, bâtiment A 12 avenue Jules Verne 44230 Saint Sébastien sur Loire tel : +33 (0) 2.40.97.57.55 http://www.tranquil-it-systems.fr _______________________________________________ Xen-api mailing list Xen-api@xxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.xen.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xen-api
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