XenServer 5.6 FP1 add local drive to backup VMs with OpenFiler
The goal of the following blog is to have a cheap backup system for my XenServer @ Home. Remember snapshots are not backup and it’s not recommended to backup you VMs the way I will describe it in a production environment.
You can find a Citrix KB to add local storage here :
The idea is to install a new hard drive in my XenServer @ Home, configure it and host an OpenFiler VM to share a NFS volume. As the NFS volume will be shared, I want to use it as a backup share to archive all my VMs snapshots with the VM Protection Policies option in Citrix XenServer 5.6 FP1. This option (VM Protection Policies) is available only with the platinum XenServer license.
So I plugged the new hard drive and plug it in my XenServer @ Home and switch on the box, then to enable and activate the drive, I needed first to check XenServer was able to see the new hard drive, i used the fdisk -l command :
[root@suomixen ~]# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 523 4194304 83 Linux
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 523 1045 4194304 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 1045 121601 968371393 8e Linux LVM
Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition tableMy new hard drive is here, I can notice the /dev/sdb which is empty. Then I needed to create a physical volume by using the pvcreate /dev/sdb command line :
[root@suomixen ~]# pvcreate /dev/sdb
Physical volume "/dev/sdb" successfully createdNow the physical volume created I can create a logical volume by using the xe sr-create command line. Before I need to identify the ID of the new volume created with the xe pbd-list command : (more…)
