Update 2 is already here and is double size vompare to the first one, here is some more informations : This update resolves the network connectivity issues that affected customers with both IPv4 and IPv6 network interfaces enabled who installed Update 1. This issue is described in XenServer 5.5 Update 1 Upgrade Causes Virtual Machines to Lose Network Connectivity. Additional Changes in Update 2 Addressed an issue where the system was falsely reporting lost access to the HA metadata disk. Fixed issues upgrading from XenServer 5.0 to the roll-up ISO for XenServer 5.5. In addition, the XenServer 5.5 documentation was rereleased to coincide with Update 2. While the changes in the documentation are not significant, there are some differences between XenServer 5.5 and XenServer 5.5, Update 2. You can download it here : http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX124027 You can download the updated ISO files here : http://downloadns.citrix.com.edgesuite.net/4701/XenServer-5.5.0-Update2-install-cd.iso
Citrix release today the first update for XenServer 5.5 : Changes included in this update LVHD Snapshots When LVHD snapshots are deleted, disk space is reclaimed by freeing unused snapshot data. This is provided automatically by XenServer while VMs continue to run. However, there is a known limitation in the 5.5 implementation of this feature: when all snapshots are deleted for a given VM?s disks, some disk space allocated to these snapshots may remain. To address this limitation, Update 1 includes an 'Off-line Coalesce' tool that can reclaim all disk space previously allocated to deleted snapshots while the VM is temporarily set offline. The Off-line Coalesce tool and its use are described in full in an associated KB article: CTX123400. XenCenter Improvements CA-30569, CA-32164, CA-30200 Fixed various 'Application Errors' in XenCenter. CA-32241 XenCenter saved searches are now visible under 'Apply Saved search' and 'Delete saved search' options. CA-33918 Big improvements to XenCenter performance when connecting to multiple pools. Storage CA-30577 Snapshot errors after upgrade from 5.0 to 5.5. Previously released as hotfix XS55E001 and documented in KB article CTX122142. CA-24607 When multipathing is disabled, then this information is now correctly displayed in XenCenter. CA-31159 The XenCenter New Storage Wizard now works as expected when multipath is enabled. CA-30475 Legacy LVM VDIs (created on versions of XenServer prior to 5.5) greater than 2TB in size now work after upgrade to 5.5 as expected. CA-33256 The multipath path-checker has been improved for Pillar Data arrays to make it more resilient to transient path failures. CA-30549 Importing VMs preserves sparseness where possible. CA-30049 When taking a snapshot of a legacy LVM VDI (created with a previous version of XenCenter) and then deleting this snapshot, then the deleted snapshot is now coalesced into the LVM VDI to reclaim space as expected. CA-30757 SR.scan on NetApp SRs inadvertently caused snapshots created externally to XenServer (e.g. those created using a utility like SnapMirror) to be deleted. This caused utilities such as SnapMirror to fail when used with the NetApp SR. This issue is now fixed: SR.scan will only remove snapshots created by XenServer. As a result utilities such as SnapMirror will work as expected. CA-29367 SRs with non-ASCII characters in their names now work as expected. Active Directory Improvements CA-32857 Memory leak in dom0 components used to manage Active Directory integration fixed. …
Now the final release of XenServer 5.5 is available for download (Â https://www.citrix.com/English/ss/downloads/results.asp?productID=683148 with you MyCitrix account ) I had to upgrade my XenServer 5.5 beta 1 to this new release. My first step was to download all iso files and XenCenter 5.5, the I began with and upgrade of XenCenter, and the problem I had once everything was install, that didn't work... The XenCenter console disn't show up, the I choose to uninstall everything and delete the folder in "c:\program files\Citrix\XenCenter" and proceed the setup again. It did the trick. Then I was able to use this console to shutdown all the virtual computers, and then you can watch this quikc video to check what's happen during an upgrade of XenServer, it's quite simple but if you don't have the opportunity to see it at least you'll know how it looks like. [flash medium=7]
Updated post HERE : XenServer 5.6 FP1 add local drive to backup VMs with OpenFiler BE AWARE !! To follow instructions in this blog post you have to know linux shell and XenServer command line usage. You can wipe data if you don't understand what you're trying to do. Try in a TEST environment before making any change in production. A Citrix KB is available here : http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX121313 Today I had to add two 500Gb SATAu hard drive to my XenServer. Plug this two hot plug drive in this Dell 2950 III was the easy part, configure the new RAID1 in the Perc 6i controller wasn't so easy... This bios is very annoying and after 2 hours we found the good menu and where to create the new volume... Once this step done, and after 16Gb of memory more, XenServer started without any problem, the drive wasn't available through the XenCenter so I though I had to mount it or something like that. So here comes the few steps to add a local storage to your XenServer 5.5 : Type : fdisk -l you'll see the list of all volumes and hard drives, then : Type : pvcreate /dev/sdb sdb is my new volume and then to configure it as a local storage : Type : xe sr-create type=lvm content-type=user device-config:device=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_ST3320620AS_5QF7QZZL name-label="LOCAL SR" scsi-SATA_ST3320620AS_5QF7QZZL is the name of my volume, you'll have to change this value with your own, and name-label is the name you want to give to your local storage. and this is it ! Remark : If your XenServer is a pool, you need to put it off, follow above steps and put back the XenServer in your pool.
[Issues at the end of this post...] Here it is ! Full of promizes, and full of new options we are all waiting for. Let me tell you first, this is BETA release from Citrix, so don't complain to me or to Citrix if you crash your production servers, you have to run test and wait for the final new release. You can access the whole stuff from your MyCitrix account in Tech/Beta preview of XenServer. You have to download the two isos files, the proper license file and XenCenter (there is a new 5.5 version). To perfom this update just boot on the CD you just download and follow the instruction on the screen, this is what I did in the next video : [flash medium=6] Once it's done, just reboot and you did it ! Now let's me show you some of the new things I saw, I will come back later on it with a full report, it's sunday and I'm suppose to stop to geeking around during the week end :) Edit : later in the afternoon... First issue : The network didn't work at all on the new XenServer 5.5 Beta 1. I wasn't able to ping it and wasn't able to ping from it. Weird behave, it looks like the system doesn't have the parameters showing in the console recorded in the network configuration file. First try was the good, just reconfigure the network management card with the same parameters as before, so the configuration will be record again in the filesystem. BUT I DIDN'T LAST.... I had to browse a bit Citrix's support to find out I had to edit a file : /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 and add : ETHTOOL_OPTS="speed 100 duplex full" I think it finaly did the trick... I will wait for tomorow to tell you it was good.
