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 6.9.0 Release Notes if the nodes have Version 6.8.28 or above and haven’t been updated yet. For updates below 6.8.22, 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. A new kernel is going to be installed. The node will automatically be rebooted two minutes after the installation of the system update. This wll be indicated upon completion of the update procedure. Wait for the node to reboot.
10. Close the dialog and set the node to active.
11. Please repeat this procedure for the local node.

New in this Version

Linux Kernel 4.9.312

This update installs the Linux kernel 4.9.312.

New Windows Virtio drivers for virtual machines.

The Virtio drivers for Windows are renewed with this update. Starting from this update Virtio drivers are available in the version virtio-win-0.1.215. They also include the Viogpudo driver for Virtio VGA for better video support of Windows Server 2022.

Operating system type Windows Server 2022

Starting from this release, Windows Server 2022 operating system type is added to the Virtual Machine Wizard.

Virtio VGA

A new virtual graphics driver is required to use the console of a Windows Server 2022 via screen console: Virtio VGA. This is automatically adopted by the wizard. The driver is also suitable for other VMs, such as the previous versions of Windows. The emulated graphics card can be changed via the Advanced settings of a virtual machine.

Network cards Intel E810

With this update the network cards Intel E810 with transfer speeds up to 100 GBit/s are supported.

RAID controller Broadcom 95xx MegaRAID

This update introduces support for RAID controllers with the LSI SAS3916 chipset. The Broadcom 95xx MegaRAID controller family, which uses this, was thus certified. The controllers now support NVMe in addition to HDD and SSD.

RAID status monitoring on Broadcom controllers

With the introduction of the Broadcom 95xx MegaRAID controller family a change of the management tool from “megacli” to “storcli” became necessary. Please note that the output of the messages of the monitoring (Nagios) will change as a result. With the new check, the temperatures of the controller, the disks and the cache buffering unit (BBU or CacheVault) are now also monitored. If the threshold temperatures are exceeded, the administrator is informed.

Issues Fixed in this Version

Intel Microcode Update

Potential security vulnerabilities in some Intel® processors may allow information disclosure. Intel releases firmware updates to mitigate these potential vulnerabilities. This update updates the new microcode to microcode-20220510.

AMD Microcode Update

Potential security vulnerabilities in some of AMD’s “Epyc” server processors may allow the information disclosure. AMD lists 22 security vulnerabilities for this and releases Firmware updates for the 17h/19h processor family.

More info can be found here.

Notes

V-Cube+: 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.

Changed partition scheme for new installation since version 6.9.0 / Important

when replacing a node

If one of the nodes is defective, it can simply be exchanged via the “Add New Node” dialog. Due to a changed partition schemes take a few things into account.

• Both nodes should have nearly identical hardware equipment - Both nodes must have the same version - An additional 10 GB of free space must be available on the storage volume “default” if the version of the existing node at installation was older than 6.9.0. Under “Virtual Disks” click on “Storage Volumes”, then right click on the storage volume “default” and check the free space specified under Size.