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

Transfer Virtual Machine - Backup Check

With the optional Collax V-Transfer module, virtual machines can be switched between the virtualization solutions with just a few clicks of the mouse transfer the Collax V-Bien, Collax V-Cube or Collax V-Cube + completely. The network name or address of the target system is required, as well as the password for administration access. With this update, before a VM is transferred, a check is carried out to determine whether there is a backup event for the VM during this or the next hour is due.

Security: Linux Kernel 4.9.270

This update installs Linux kernel 4.9.270.

Virtualization: Hyper-V Optimizations

This option turns on paravirtualization for Windows operating systems. Starting with Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10, it is recommended to run the virtual machine with Hyper-V Optimizations enabled. With paravirtualization, software interfaces are provided between the host and virtual machines. Without these interfaces, the virtual machine would assume to be installed directly on hardware. However, the host would then perform the actual hardware accesses. Paravirtualization ensures that hardware operations, among other things, are better coordinated between host and virtual machine. Enlightenments provides a virtual machine with interfaces like those provided by the Microsoft Hypervisor Hyper-V. Current Windows operating systems recognize and use these interfaces.

Virtualization: CPU Model

In virtual machines, Hyper-V optimizations can be configured in the “Advanced Settings” section. Modern processors have a number of instruction set extensions. With this option, a virtual machine can be allowed to use the processor’s extensions. The virtual machine must bring support for the required extension. Then the processing time of an algorithm can be shortened, for example, for encryption (AES extension) or video processing (AVX extension). If a particular instruction set extension is expected by a program or operating system that is not supported by the physical processor, termination, errors, or crashes may occur.

Compatible: This is the recommended setting. All instruction set extensions that meet the minimum processor requirement for installing Collax V-Bien (MMX, SSE, SSE2, etc.) are passed to the virtual machine.

Haswell: The processor must support all functions of the Haswell architecture (from Intel Xeon v3 or Intel Core i 4th generation). Only if an application demonstrably gains performance and this is also required (check CPU utilization) should this option be used. After restoring from a backup or moving the virtual machine to another hardware (e.g. with Collax V-Transfer), check the setting.

Virtualization: New system state of a virtual machine

The operating status of the virtual machine is displayed in the “Status” column. With the new release there is a new “shutoff” state. The virtual machine is turned off. If the virtual machine failed to boot during the last startup attempt, a warning is shown. The warning disappears only after the next successful boot. One cause of a failed boot operation may be that the selected CPU model is not supported by the physical processor.

Issues Fixed in this Version

Security: Microcode update

Potential security vulnerabilities in some Intel® Processors may allow information disclosure. Intel is releasing firmware updates to mitigate these potential vulnerabilities. With this update the new microcode is updated to microcode-20210608.

Notes

Hardware: 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.

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.