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.

Issues Fixed in this Version

Security: Meltdown and Spectre - Serious processor security hole

Security researchers have discovered massive security holes in processors that were developed by security experts These holes were published under the name Meltdown or Spectre. Meltdown is the vulnerability, that allowed unprivileged processes the reading of kernel memory. Spectre is the security hole that exploits that CPUs execute many commands speculatively in advance, resulting in memory areas, that can be tapped. This update installs a kernel in version 4.4.110, with Kernel-Page-Table Isolation Implementation (PTI). This will create a kernel option “CONFIG_PAGE_TABLE_ISOLATION” enabled, which prevents kernel mapping in user mode. With PTI, a process only sees its own storage area.

More information on Meltdown and Spectre here .

Backup/Restore: Freezing VM after backup

When backing up virtual machines, in certain cases the operating system could freeze, causing the VM to be restarted. Through intensive testing and reverse engineering, Collax development was able to pinpoint the culprit in flawed program code within the software component QEMU 2.4 and inside the program code of the kernel and fix it by removing the respective patches. With this release, the backups of the affected virtual machines will work properly again under all circumstances.

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.

V-Cube+: Restore virtual harddiscs

From Collax V-Bien version 6.8.15 on the internal path for virtual harddiscs changes and a restore from previous backups isn’t possible anymore without manual intervention. In case of a baremetal resore please use the previous verion or don’t hesitate to contact support.

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.