Solved how to configure raid 5 after installing xenserver 7. To make this work, you need to drives in your system. Would quite like to get the rest of the servers onto 7. Now i want the best performance possible in a raid 5 situation, so i was wondering what settings are recommended. In may 2016, citrix released the new version of the xenserver platform. 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. Once the server comes back from the reboot, start up a software raid volume with mdadm.
Xenserver best recommended settings for raid 5 server. Convert xenserver installation to software raid1 technicus. There are plenty of them in the internet, but the bottom point is this. This instruction was written and tested for the xenserver version 7. Xenserver 7 and software raid configuration howtoforge. I have tested it three times in a row, and it works great. I did my first test install of xenserver and first thing i notice is that it. In addition, the price of software raid makes it a very desirable solution.
Create virtual machine in xenserver from command line 49,641 views. When i go to install xenserver it ask which disk i want to install the xenserver on and it list all 4 of my harddrives instead of showing the raid 5 as one disk. I did some digging online and found support treads about how to configure raid 1 on 6. That post also explains an optional adjustment to get a larger root. This article is a part 4 of a 9tutorial raid series, here we are going to setup a software raid 5 with distributed parity using three 20gb disks. The xenserver host computer is dedicated entirely to the task of running xenserver hosting vms and is not used for other applications. 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. Use xencenter to access the xenserver hosts console, or log in directly using ssh. Five types of array architectures, raid1 through raid5, were defined by the berkeley paper, each providing disk faulttolerance. Basically after that we have setup the raid, following that thread its look that there is no official documentation. The sr raid set is on a separate intel raid adapter with separate sas drives.
Xenserver doesnt really support fakeraid or software raid. After the instalaltion the xenserver should be accessible via ssh with the password entered in the answer file. Creating raid 5 striping with distributed parity in. Stop here and reboot your xenserver box to pick up the new partition changes. Setup hp switches via command line cli 32,257 views. Although citrix recommends against using software raid with xenserver due to performance issues, ive had some pretty awful experiences.
Xenserver 6 uses gpt instead of mbr to set up the partitions. This document describes how to install xenserver 6. Hey guys, are you looking for on how to keep track your xenserver status of raid disk and want to make it in a daily checking and alerting by send email. Historically xenserver does not support software raid outthebox, and this is unchanged in the latest 6. Raid 1 for two drives mdadm create devmd0 l 1 n 2 devsda3 devsdb3 raid 10 for four drives mdadm create devmd0 l 10 n 4 devsda3 devsdb3 devsdc3 devsdd3. From this we come to know that raid 0 will write the half of the data to first disk and other half of the data to second disk. We have been planning to upgrade our citrix xenserver from 5. Xencenter is a windowsbased control software to manage xenserver.
The alternative to this problem is configuring the system in software raid1. I have a server with 5 ssds and i want to install on a fresh installation of xenserver 8 express a software raid 10 for the 4 ssds that i have. Please let me know if you can help me deciding which are the best. A will write to both first and second disks, p will write to both disk. I prefer to build software raid always on identical hard drives, which makes things much more predictable. One of the biggest changes is the upgrade to the underlying dom0 environment. To begin you must to know at least basic centos command.
Well, yes, mdadm allows to build software raid from different, nonidentical hard drives. I got one more problem i have built a raid1 on over to disks on a dell s software raid controller. If the initrd is then regenerated for example, by installing a hotfix, xenserver subsequently fails to boot. Maybe i missed something but i cant configure a hardware raid or a software raid. We need to install too, but at this time we are stucked on raid software, mdadm configuration. I did my first test install of xenserver and first thing i notice is that it didnt see my hardware raid, but instead saw my 3 drives. I have also taken out one drive at a time to verify that xenserver still boots, and.
It is a method of storing information on multiple hard disks for greater protection andor performance. This new landing page provides links to citrix hypervisor content and resources available on and developer. Linux software raid is damn good and it beats low end raid controllers and usually matches performance of midend ones. The downtime obviously sucks but the downtime from restoring from backups if you hit a failure cluster on your drives and lose the array sucks way more. Setting up the second drive sdb devsda should now contain 3. Here, we are using software raid and mdadm package to create raid. 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. In raid 1 method, same data will be written to other 2 disks as follows. The installation of any third party software directly on the xenserver host i.
However their xenserver 7 install is hard raid only but its 7. 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. Xenserver 7 and software raid configuration howtoforge linux. If you have followed the steps correctly then the server should bootup with the xenserver 6. Before you get started, go through the steps to disable gpt. Dear, someone here has already installer xenserver 7. 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. If you ever lose all of your redundancy 1 drive in raid5, 2 drives in raid6 then replace the drives and let the rebuild occur at highest priority, preferably from the bios itself. But from my own expertise, building software raid off different hard drives will sooner or later bite you. Just wait a few minutes, answer a few questions with y for yes, and you will have a software raid 1 implementation of xenserver 5. I dont think xenserver actually lets you do the raid 5 array. The second partition is used for backups during a xenserver upgrade. Honestly, you are wasting your time with software raid 5, unless this is.
Jetzt mochte ich aber hierzu noch ein software raid 5 installieren. I wish that i had his name so i could give him credit but its not here on the stuff i printed out. Vmware is widely recognized as the industry leading hypervisor, but for all the extra features and alleged performance, you pay a substantial premium over. I used the notes from some guy on the citrix forums. Xenserver 7 raid1 mdadm after install running system. This happens because the initrd tries to activate the raid device inappropriately. 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. I bought 2 new servers, going to configure them in raid5 with 4 disks.
Basically, since xenserver 7 is based on centos 7, you should follow the centos 7 raid conversion guide. Minimum 3 hard drives are required to create raid 5, but you can add more disks, only if youve a dedicated hardware raid controller with multi ports. Raid is an acronym for redundant array of independent or inexpensive disks. Creating raid 5 striping with distributed parity in linux part 4. To learn more and to read the entire article at its source, please refer to the following page, configure xenserver 5. Plenty has remained the same but there are also some useful new additions to this latest release. We need to install too, but at this time we are stucked on raid software, mdadm. The first step is to disable the bios raid and configure the two sata. Xenserver 8 express how to create an software raid 10 after.
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