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

Virtualization: Increasing security when using snapshots

To increase safety when using snapshots, the behavior in case the disk space is running low has been improved. The space a snapshot could occupy was not limited until now, which could cause them to fill up the hard disk completely. As a result of this committing the snapshots required more effort. This update integrates a background process, which continuously monitors the remaining capacity against a calculated threshold, verifying enough free space is available to commit the snapshots. A warning is issued once there is only a 10 GB buffer to the critical limit. Should it be reached the affected VM is paused and another warning is issued. If your VMs have already exceeded their limits prior to the update, a notification is being given via mail stating which VMs are affected and by how much the limit has been exceeded. There is a transitional period of five days after your update in which the VMs will not get paused immediately. Please use this time to free up the required disk space. If necessary, the Collax Support can give advice in freeing disk space or assist in committing the snapshots. The background process monitors all VMs of Collax V-Cube and Collax V-Cube+, regardless of whether they run in the cluster or locally, on a disk image, a logical volume, or in the embedded SAN.

V-Cube+: Active monitoring of ethernet connection to the Localnet

The virtual network switches are used for mapping and virtualizing the network environment. The ethernet connection to the Localnet is going to be monitored within this update. If a physical ethernet connection is broken, because the cable of the device is not connected, a notification will be sent.

V-Cube+: Switch Off Paused VM

A virtual machine can be paused in which the use of resources is low. Until now the switch off of virtual machine was prevented. Within this release the virtual maschine can be switched off immediately. Note: Any data in the virtual memory may be lost.

GUI: Configuration GUI

The modern configuration GUI has been clearly arranged now. The table look-up and sorting have been optimized. The layout and color scheme have been modified.

Hardware: Additional hardware support

This update brings support for additional 10 gigabit network interface cards based on the Intel ixgbe driver v4.1.2 for the Intel Xeon-D platform. To install the server you have to change into text-only-mode.

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.