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.

New in this Version

Virtualization: Support for operating systems Windows Server 2019

With this update the wizard for virtual machines adds support for the operating system Windows Server 2019.

Hardware: Additional hardware support

This update brings support for SmartRAID Storage Controllers from Microsemi Adaptec. These include the SmartRAID 315x RAID adapters. Please also update to the latest firmare, (1.60B0 at the moment) otherwise performance and instabilitiy problems may occur.

Issues Fixed in this Version

V-Cube+: Snapshot “restore” action

When using a VM with eSAN-type virtual disks and the snapshot action “restore” was selected, to go back to a previous snapshot and if then the VM was stopped and configuration changes were made in the cluster and activated, the data was lost, since the “Restore” action in the VM. This will be corrected with this update.

Virtualization: Expanding diskimages

A disk image file could only be extended in size, when used by a virtual machine. This will work now within this Update. Disks of type “diskimage” can also be enlarged if they are not used by any VM.

Virtualization: Generating diskimage template

A diskimage can be used as a template for virtual machine clones. Double-clicking on a diskimage used by a VM called up the “Extend Disk” dialog box, in contrast to this, the “Generate template” dialog was called if it was not used by any VM. The behavior becomes unified so that the “Expand disk” dialog is called by default.

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.