Installation Notes

Install Update within Cluster

Please read the following release notes carefully, before continuing. When installing this update on a Collax V-Cube+ cluster the following steps have to be performed:

Note: If starting the update from 6.1.8 to 6.1.10 no down time of the running virtual machines or applications is required.

Procedure

1. If the nodes have the version 6.1.8 or prior: Please read the appropriate notes for that release including the documented procedure first.
2. The software packages can be downloaded whithin a running Cluster to prepare the update and minimize the planned downtime. Go to the local administration of each node and access the form System Operation → Software → Systemupdate. Then click Get Package List. This will download the list of available update packages. The successful update of the package list is indicated by the message Done!. Click Get Packages. If the packages are downloaded successfully then the message Done! will be displayed.
3. Put one node into standby mode. Go to Status/Maintenance → Cluster Nodes and execute the action Standby. Please wait until the cluster resources are stopped or the VMs are migrated.
4. Now, put this node into maintenance mode. Go to the dialog Status/Maintenance → Cluster Services and stop the service HA Cluster for this node.
5. Click Install within the dialog Systembetrieb → Software → Systemupdate to install all update packages. The end of this process is indicated by the message Done!.
6. If a new kernel is going to be installed the system will be rebooted automatically after installing the update. An appropriate note will be shown. Please wait for the reboot in that case.
7. Start the service HA Cluster on the node that has been updated. Please wait until the service ist started and information about Cluster Resources are available before you proceed with the next step.
8. Once the service HA Cluster has been started resume the node by using the action Set active within the dialog Status/maintenance → Cluster Nodes .
9. Afterwards check the status of the eSAN-disk synchronization in the form Cluster Administration → Virtual Hard Disks. Do not continue with the next step until the column Status shows 100% or OK for all eSAN disks.
10. Please repeat this procedure from step 2 on the next node that needs to be updated.

Install Update on a Collax V-Cube

To install this update on a Collax V-Cube without a Cluster interconnection please follow these steps:

Procedure

1. Please read this document before proceeding to the next step.
2. In the administration interface go to System → System Operation → Software → System Update and then click Get Package List. This will then download the listed update packages. The successful update of the package list is indicated by the message “Done!”.
3. Click Get Packages to download the software packages.
4. Click Install. This action installs the update. The end of this process is indicated by the message Done!.
5. A new kernel is going to be installed. The system will be rebooted automatically after installing the update. An appropriate note will be shown once the update process is completed.
6. If the server is updated and booted the virtual machines can be started again.

New in this Version

Virtualization: Virtualization I/O-Driver for Windows

From this update on new virtio driver for Windows guest VMs are available. The virtio drivers for virtual Disks need to be updated on running machines to prevent data loss or system crashes.

Virtualization: Start Delay for Auto Start VMs (V-Cube)

If virtual machines shall start automatically when the virtualization host boots it can be useful that a domain controller starts before other member servers will be booted. From this update on a start delay in minutes can be set for virtual machines with the option Autostart enabled.

V-Cube+: Edit MAC Addresses

From this update on MAC addresses can be set for network interfaces of virtual machines. The setting can be found within the hardware settings of a virtual machines.

V-Cube+: Stopping VM Resource executes Mangaged Save

From this update on a virtual machine can be stopped by the cluster manager with the method Managed save. The option can be enabled within the setup of an virtual machine. That process is similar to the suspend to disk mechanism of operating systems, i.e. the memory state is written to hard disk before the virtual machine is going to be paused. If using this method the shutdown of a virtual machine is accelerated considerably.

V-Cube+: Manual Tests for E-Mail-Server and Fencing Device

The setup of the fencing device or the email relay can be tested manually before activating the settings. The tests are available within the dialogs Fencing Device, Infrastructure and within the wizard Cluster init.

V-Cube+: Aggregation Mode Using two 10GbE Network Interfaces

The bond aggregation mode for 10GbE network interfaces used by the cluster interconnect network will be set automatically to active backup within the wizard for the cluster network.

Backup/Restore: Recovery Token contains Metadata about Logical Volumes

From this software version on information about the virtual disk (logical volume) of a virtual machine is going to be stored within the recovery token. This token is going to be used if a bare metal restore of the whole system needs to be executed.

System Management: Monitoring while joining a Cluster and setting a Node stand-by

The system monitoring is improved if a cluster node is joining a cluster or a cluster node is set to stand-by mode. Since these actions are manual the state of related services and resources are not considered as critical.

System Management: Monitoring of the Cluster Share Filesystem

The system monitoring is improved to check the file system OCFS2 that is used to create the cluster share. The file system is checked if it is mounted and has read and write access.

System Management: Show Progress while setting Cluster Node Active

From this update on a progress is shown if a cluster node is set to an active cluster node. The progress is shown within the job notify window an within the dialog.

Hardware: Support of UPS Online Zinto (USB) with nut 2.6.5

This update installs the Network UPS Tool (nut) 2.6.5. This extends the support for UPS with USB-Connection, e.g. Zinto UPS by Online AG. A list of supported devices can be found in the Collax HWCL or on the site www.networkupstools.org .

Issues Fixed in this Version

Virtualization: Network Connection is Interrupted Shortly during a VM Start

If a virtual machine was started the network connection could be disrupted shortly. This happend if the vendor ID number within the MAC address of local network interface was higher than the virtual interface MAC address which depended on the vendor of the physical network interface. From this update on this issue is corrected.

V-Cube+: Progress Bar when Migrating VMs between Nodes

Up to now a migration of a virtual machine could be reported as concluded immediately after the migration had been started even though data was still transferred. This is going to be corrected with this update.

V-Cube+: System Lock was not deleted when VM was migrated

The system lock could remain after a migration of a virtual machine in certain circumstances. An activation of configuration settings was not possible anymore. From this update on background locks are going to be used instead of Semaphores .

V-Cube+: Virtual Machine May Run on a Certain Cluster Node only

Preferring a virtual machine to run only on one specific cluster node did not work if the cluster node was set to standby. This is going to be corrected with this update.

V-Cube+: Split Brain when eSAN disk had not been in use

If eSAN disk had not been in use of startet virtual machines for some time, about one week, the administraton of a Cluster, e.g. setting a cluster node to stand-by, could lead to a fencing event. In that case one cluster node was shut off. From this update on the idle status of eSAN disks is avoided and deactivating of a cluster node because of normal GUI administration is prevented.

Backup/Restore: V-Recovery, Removing Temporary Data

Temporary restored data of a virtual machine could not be deleted completely from the host server. With this update all files of the temporarily restored VM can be deleted.

GUI: Virtual Machines, GUI Refresh: could not query memory balloon

If the dialog Virtual Machines was refreshed while a virtual machine was shutting down the GUI showed an error could not query memory balloon. From this update on displaying the list of virtual machines is improved when the dialog is refreshed often.

Authentication: Incorrect Calculation of the Primary Email Address when using ActiveDirectory and

the Collax AD-Proxy

The calculation of default mail addresses was broken for various reasons when user data was imported from ActiveDirectory via the Collax AD proxy. With this update a number of additional configuration variables are introduced to be used by the Collax AD proxy. This allows the calculation of the addresses to be performed correctly during runtime rather than configuration time.

System Management: Information BBU Charge State

The charge state of a battery backup unit of LSI RAID controllers will be checked and a warning is sent if the charge is less than 85%. The state will be considered as critical if the charge is less than 50%. Additional the maximum capacity is going to be checked and reported as critical if falls below 20% capacity. Also a warning will be sent if the BBU is calibrating.

Hardware: Proportion of RAM and I/O Performance

Special system parameters define from which percentaged system memory the buffer cache memory needs to be written to the hard disk device. In that case every other I/O operations are blocked until the whole buffer cache is written. Problems occurred if the system memory was big and the I/O performance bad. From this update on these system parameters are set to a lower value so the amount of buffer cache can be written without blocking other I/O operations.

Notes

Virtualization: Number of CPU Sockets for VMs with Windows Server 2012/Windows 8 and 2012R2/8.1

The number of cpu sockets for virtual machines with the operating system Windows Server 2012/Windows 8 and 2012R2/8.1 must be set to one. Otherwise the installation will stop with a blue screen. The number of CPU cores may be set higher than one.

Misc: Windows Setup notes Error Message 0x80300001

If Windows Server 2008 R2 and above is to be installed on Virtio hard disks using the Virtio driver CD for Windows, Windows reports the error code 0x80300001. The error message occurs if the partitions are recognized and the user clicks the button Next. The message means, that the installation CD of Windows needs to be inserted again.