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

Security: Important security relevant System Components

This update will also install/update the following important system components:

• openssl 1.0.2k
• bind 9.9.9.6
• openssh 7.4p1

Virtualization: Remote Access to VM Consoles

For security reasons, the remote access to services of the Collax V-Cube+ is limited to the local area network. The remote access options allow access from all networks, so they can be accessed over the Internet. The settings are used to create access for external service providers. For certain security concepts, it may be useful to disable this option. It is recommended to check the accesses on the upstream firewall. With this update VMs can also be reached from networks other than the local network via the protocols RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) and VNC (Virtual Network Computing).

Virtualization: New Windows Virtio Driver for virtual Machines

The Virtio drivers for Windows will be renewed with this update. From this update on virtio driver version virtio-win-0.1.118 are available.

Changelog / Windows Virtio Drivers

Virtualization: HDD-Caching for Collax-VMs

For VMs with the type “Collax Server” which are created by the wizard, “Performance” is selected as the setting for HDD caching.

V-Cube+: Proactive HA: Hardware-state

The fencing mechanism ensures that all VMs remain available even after a spontaneous hardware failure. Some hardware failures, however, are predictable. With Proactive HA, permanent checks of the hardware components are performed. All errors are monitored which indicates an imminent hardware failure. If such an error is detected, the node is evacuated. This means that all VMs will be moved to the other node in a timely, uninterrupted manner by live migration.

Virtualization: Add extra options to the kvm emulator process

With this update you can add extra options to the kvm emulator process of a virtual machine through the extended settings of the vm. Note that incorrect entries in this field can hinder the vm from starting.

V-Cube+: Replacing a Node with additional storage volumes

If one of the nodes is defective, a V-Cube node can easily be replaced in three steps. If there existed a Windows partition on an additional storage volume, adding the new node could lead to an error. Within this update, additional storage volumes will be erased using the wipedisk command to prepare the node for replacing the other.

Hardware: Skylake™ support within installation process

This update of the installation process of the ISO medium provides the support for Intel® Skylake™ platforms. The setup menu will be set to the text mode per default by now, which is necessary for Intel® Skylake™ platforms.

Hardware: Hardwaresupport and Linux Kernel 3.12.72

This update installs Linux kernel 3.12.72. It contains support for the new megaraid_sas drivers for LSI SAS 3216 devices and for Intel I219-LM and I219-V network chipsets. Adaptec updates its drivers to version 1.2.1-41024. It also contains various bugfixes and security patches.

Issues Fixed in this Version

Virtualization: fix VM state after backup

Under certain circumstances, a virtual maschine could be paused for a short period after an online backuo. This is going to be fixed within this update. The ressource will remain in activate state.

Virtualization: system message notification

Important system messages will be sent to the system administrator. The system message of the logfile rotation “gzip: stdin: file size changed while zipping” occured sometimes and worried the system administrator. We fixed the message using a delaycompress option for the logfile rotation process.

Virtualization: Instant-VM from V-Recovery missing in list

An Instant-VM that was restored using V-Recovery was not displayed in the list of VMs. This error is corrected and Instant-VMs are displayed and can be started and stopped as usual at the push of a button.

V-Cube+: Display console blank after boot/reboot

Under certain circumstances, the display console for virtual machines was blank after booting or rebooting a server. This is going to be fixed within this update.

Backup/Restore: Error in saving the config file

The missing fole “/usr/bin/config-flush” lead in bacula based backups to an errormessage “ERR=No such file or directory”. With this update, this is going to be 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.

Misc: Install Collax-Server from template

When installing a Collax Server from a template only Collax Servers from version 7.x and later are supported. The installation of version 5.x is no longer supported.