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:

/ Important information

Please have a look at the Collax V-Cube 6.8.22 Release Notes if the nodes have Version 6.8.20 or above and haven’t been updated yet. For this update, it is necessary that both nodes are set in maintenance mode simultaneously.

Procedure

1. Click at High Availability within the Dashboard.
2. Select the other (not the local) V-Cube+ node and change into the Start Maintenance dialog.
3. Now, put this other node into maintenance mode by confirming the query in the dialog. Wait until the maintenance mode is reached. Depending on the number of virtual machines and hard disk, this can take some time. Virtual machines will be migrated live, which can take a few minutes depending on the size of the RAM. The progress will be displayed in the list of background activities.
4. Close the dialog.
5. In the list of nodes, select again the other node whose software is to be updated by right-clicking it.
6. Change to System Update ….
7. Click Check for Updates. The completion will be displayed as “100%”.
8. Click Download and Install. This function will download the latest software packages from the update server and install them. The completion will be displayed as Install - 100%.
9. Close the dialog and set the node to active.
10. Please repeat this procedure for the local node.

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. Please have a look at the Collax V-Cube 6.8.14 Release Notes if the nodes have Version 6.8.12 or above and haven’t been updated yet.
3. Please shut down all virtual machines before continuing with the following steps.
4. In the administration interface go to Menu → Status/Maintenance → 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!”.
5. Click Get Packages to download the software packages.
6. Click Install. This action installs the update. The end of this process is indicated by the message Done!.
7. 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.
8. If the server is updated and booted the virtual machines can be started again.

New in this Version

Backup/Restore: Preventing backup and restore errors due by pass-through Hardware

Backing up and restoring a virtual machine with pass-through hardware can in principle not be carried out in a consistent state. With this update, it is checked before the backup, if the VM has pass-through hardware and informs the administrator.

Misc: Linux Kernel 3.12.58

This update installs a patched Linux kernel 3.12.58.

Issues Fixed in this Version

V-Cube+: Important information

This updates is introducing improvements in the areas of backup and restore, UPS support, and snapshot as well as their administration via the user interface. A rare race condition, preventing VMs from proper operation after backup or snapshot, can no longer occur with this update. Please have a look at the Collax V-Cube 6.8.8 Release Notes if the nodes have Version 6.8.6 or above and haven’t been updated yet. For this update, it is necessary that both nodes are set in maintenance mode simultaneously. To do this, open the overview of the VMs and send each VM by right-clicking the shutdown-signal. Then click on the dashboard to the area “high availability” and set both nodes by right-clicking into the “maintenance mode”. If the maintenance mode of both nodes is reached, select successively for both nodes again by right-clicking “System update” and start the two update steps. After installation is complete, click on the button “Activate Nodes”. The nodes are restarted during the update process.

V-Cube+: Non-Live Online-Snapshot

In the section Snapshot, inside the virtual machine dialog, actions for creating, merging, deleting, and restoring snapshots can be selected. You can create an online snapshot or an offline snapshot. Apart from creating a separate snapshot disk, an online snapshot stores the current memory state of the machine during operation. When using the option Live the VM is no longer stopped but the process is performed during operation, unnoticed by the user. While creating non-Live snapshots it could happen under certain circumstances that the virtual machine remained in the idle state and wasn’t automatically resumed. With this update this is fixed and a patch is being implemented.

V-Cube+: Refresh USB-UPS

In the dialog UPS Devices, UPS (uninterruptible power supplies) devices can be configured. If the other node was shutdown and the button refresh USB-UPS was pressed, an error message was generated instead of the information that the other node in not reachable at the moment. With this update this is fixed.

V-Cube+: Preventing unwanted fencing at VM migration

If both motherboards of the cluster nodes have the same UUID (Universally Unique Identifier), the migration of a VM led to a Stonith. This check should prevent migrations where source and destination nodes are identical. Because duplicate UUIDs can occur, an additional criterion for distinguishing the two nodes has been introduced with this update.

GUI: UPS-Service

In the dialog UPS Devices, UPS (uninterruptible power supplies) devices can be configured. Access to the UPS service is useful if a UPS is connected to the local server. Due to an error the UPS was shown as unused in the local dashboard dialog. With this update this is fixed.

Notes

V-Cube+: Online Snapshots and backups

You can create an online snapshot or an offline snapshot. Apart from creating a separate snapshot disk, an online snapshot stores the current memory state of the machine during operation. You should commit all snapshots before updating to Collax V-Cube+ 6.8.8. Existing online snapshots can be started after the update but their current memeory state will be lost. Same for backups depending on online snapshots.

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.