XCP-ng 8.1.0 beta now available!

stormi

A version of netdata patched to build against Xen 4.13 (thanks to @r1's patch) is now available. I'm interested in feedback: does it work for you? Does it gather information about the VMs as expected?

If you already upgraded to 8.1 beta:

yum install netdata-ui

stormi

zstd was updated to version 1.4.4, possibly bringing even better performance for import and export (not benchmarked here).

To update from 8.1 beta:

yum update

gdixon

New to XCP-ng.
Upgraded from 8.0 to 8.1 Beta. No problems. Having problems with Local Storage and EXT4 though. I saw that sm-additional-drivers package is still required. Tried to get it via:
yum install sm-additional-drivers sm sm-rawhba --enablerepo='xcp-ng-updates_testing'
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Error getting repository data for xcp-ng-updates_testing, repository not found
Questions:

How to properly download/use sm-additional-drivers package?
Should /etc/fstab be modified and EXT3 be replaced with EXT4?
The command:
xe sr-create content-type=user name-label="Store1" shared=false device-config:device=/dev/sdc1 type=ext
works but creates an EXT3 filesystem even though the 6TB drive has an EXT4 partition. How to change the command to create EXT4?
Thanks!!!

stormi

Hi,

Simply yum install sm-additional-drivers in 8.0 and 8.1. If there's outdated doc, feel free to update it or point us at it. However you should not need it for ext4 in 8.1 and I'm going to remove the ext4 additional driver once I've made sure it's not needed anymore and there's a transition path from our ext4 driver to the default one.
For new EXT SRs, I expect ext4 to be in fstab. I'm sure that when I tested it at installation the created SR was ext4. However this won't change an existing ext3 SR to ext4 and you shouldn't modify /etc/fstab if the underlying filesystem is ext3.
I'd expect the filesystem to be ext4 from what I've seen in the code. I'll test it.

gdixon

@stormi
Your help is much appreciated!
I was able to yum install sm-additional-drivers. Excellent. I rebooted and the fstab was still saying ext3. This is shown below. To test further, I deleted my SR (a 6TB disk) which was EXT3; used parted and other commands to create a new partition which was EXT4 (shown below) and then used the following:
xe sr-create content-type=user name-label="Store1" shared=false device-config:device=/dev/sdc1 type=ext

It created EXT3 LVM2_member type storage repository.

So, that's my question. How to create an EXT4 SR?

Thanks.

I hope my testing shown below is helpful.

You asked where I found the outdated docs. I found the outdated instructions I used the first time around at the top of the page in https://xcp-ng.org/forum/topic/839/new-ext4-driver-please-test-it
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
(updated on 2019-02-07 to add installation of updated sm and sm-rawhba packages)

We introduced in testing, a new extra driver, using ext4. Please test it and give your feedback. To install it:

yum install sm-additional-drivers sm sm-rawhba --enablerepo='xcp-ng-updates_testing'
xe-toolstack-restart

My testing follows:
Removing the SR Storage Repository since it was installed as EXT3.

[19:05 xcpng ~]# xe sr-list name-label=Store1
uuid ( RO) : d3f2dfbc-9682-cd51-79c2-be4e1d6c0923
name-label ( RW): Store1
name-description ( RW):
host ( RO): xcpng
type ( RO): ext
content-type ( RO): user

[19:05 xcpng ~]# xe pbd-list sr-uuid=d3f2dfbc-9682-cd51-79c2-be4e1d6c0923
uuid ( RO) : 0bd2ecc8-78d4-4479-57db-45634b317bd3
host-uuid ( RO): 67782a24-14f6-4a91-bc53-23d1bb3bfb62
sr-uuid ( RO): d3f2dfbc-9682-cd51-79c2-be4e1d6c0923
device-config (MRO): device: /dev/sdc1
currently-attached ( RO): true

[19:09 xcpng ~]# xe pbd-unplug uuid=0bd2ecc8-78d4-4479-57db-45634b317bd3

[19:12 xcpng ~]# xe sr-forget uuid=d3f2dfbc-9682-cd51-79c2-be4e1d6c0923

Rebooted server

[19:26 xcpng ~]# cat /etc/fstab
LABEL=root-glwhel / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=BOOT-GLWHEL /boot/efi vfat defaults 0 2
LABEL=swap-glwhel swap swap defaults 0 0
LABEL=logs-glwhel /var/log ext3 defaults 0 2

[19:31 xcpng ~]# parted /dev/sdc mklabel gpt
Warning: The existing disk label on /dev/sdc will be destroyed and all data on
this disk will be lost. Do you want to continue?
Yes/No? yes
Information: You may need to update /etc/fstab.

[19:34 xcpng ~]# parted -a opt /dev/sdc mkpart primary ext4 0% 100%
Information: You may need to update /etc/fstab.

[19:35 xcpng ~]# mkfs.ext4 -L STORE1 /dev/sdc1
mke2fs 1.42.9 (28-Dec-2013)
Filesystem label=STORE1
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks
183144448 inodes, 1465130240 blocks
73256512 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=3613392896
44713 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
4096 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872, 71663616, 78675968,
102400000, 214990848, 512000000, 550731776, 644972544

Allocating group tables: done
Writing inode tables: done
Creating journal (32768 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

[19:36 xcpng ~]# lsblk -f
NAME FSTYPE LABEL UUID MOUNTPOINT
nvme0n1
??nvme0n1p1 LVM2_mem hmjtFc-J03x-cGWz-60no-nQMY-WAcs-yfYuCK
??XSLocalEXT--b64be29d--7b4e--4c35--23ad--c2835d6d68c9-b64be29d--7b4e--4c35--23ad--c2835d6d68c9
ext3 4932e44b-06ab-45d6-944c-f95c57aa40c0 /run/sr-mo
sdd
??sdd1 ext4 STORE2 d6b13b13-4066-4470-add7-ffe978b24a50

sdc
??sdc1 ext4 STORE1 80901059-41fa-4089-aa8f-65e6929afea6
sda LVM2_mem DzdKkZ-zud3-MXhE-GFCS-hzB4-a6K5-NU2qoQ
??XSLocalEXT--dd84c28d--6d39--ac03--28d3--99c18c24aa68-dd84c28d--6d39--ac03--28d3--99c18c24aa68
ext3 ebd0226e-01da-4ec6-8dd4-1bdb007bcb92 /run/sr-mo
[19:37 xcpng ~]#
[19:40 xcpng ~]# lsblk -d -fs /dev/sdc1
NAME FSTYPE LABEL UUID MOUNTPOINT
sdc1 ext4 STORE1 80901059-41fa-4089-aa8f-65e6929afea6

[19:45 xcpng ~]# xe sr-create content-type=user name-label="Store1" shared=false device-config:device=/dev/sdc1 type=ext
2cd1c746-c5aa-1376-66bb-5fb9d89ad689

[19:48 xcpng ~]# lsblk -d -fs /dev/sdc1
NAME FSTYPE LABEL UUID MOUNTPOINT
sdc1 LVM2_member Oe9xwf-UqrZ-FeNI-CZwI-7Sn0-ua21-nvDPGy

olivierlambert

Hi,

Please use the correct Markdown syntax (code blocks) so it would be easier to read you.

HeMaN

@stormi said in XCP-ng 8.1.0 beta now available!:

yum repolist --verbose

I just had the time to look at this and this is the output.
It is clear why I do not see the updates since the xcp-ng repo is still pointing to the 8.0
Only thing is I do not understand why it did not update to the 8.1 repo I wget before ....

xcp-ng-release-8.0.0-13.x86_64
[10:51 xenserver-2 ~]# yum repolist --verbose
Loading "fastestmirror" plugin
Config time: 0.833
Yum version: 3.4.3
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
Excluding mirror: updates.xcp-ng.org
 * xcp-ng-base: mirrors.xcp-ng.org
Excluding mirror: updates.xcp-ng.org
 * xcp-ng-updates: mirrors.xcp-ng.org
Setting up Package Sacks
pkgsack time: 1.180
Repo-id      : dell-system-update_dependent/7/x86_64
Repo-name    : dell-system-update_dependent
Repo-revision: 1568175395
Repo-updated : Wed Sep 11 06:16:38 2019
Repo-pkgs    : 45
Repo-size    : 173 M
Repo-mirrors : https://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/DSU_19.09.00/mirrors.cgi?osname=el7&basearch=x86_64&native=1
Repo-baseurl : https://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/DSU_19.09.00/os_dependent/RHEL7_64/
Repo-expire  : 21,600 second(s) (last: Wed Feb  5 22:39:17 2020)
  Filter     : read-only:present
Repo-filename: /etc/yum.repos.d/dell-system-update.repo

Repo-id      : dell-system-update_independent
Repo-name    : dell-system-update_independent
Repo-revision: 1568175279
Repo-updated : Wed Sep 11 06:16:15 2019
Repo-pkgs    : 697
Repo-size    : 11 G
Repo-baseurl : https://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/DSU_19.09.00/os_independent/
Repo-expire  : 21,600 second(s) (last: Wed Feb  5 22:39:18 2020)
  Filter     : read-only:present
Repo-exclude : dell-system-update*.i386
Repo-filename: /etc/yum.repos.d/dell-system-update.repo

Repo-id      : xcp-ng-base
Repo-name    : XCP-ng Base Repository
Repo-revision: 1563798190
Repo-updated : Mon Jul 22 14:23:10 2019
Repo-pkgs    : 2,073
Repo-size    : 2.3 G
Repo-baseurl : http://mirrors.xcp-ng.org/8/8.0/base/x86_64/,
             : http://updates.xcp-ng.org/8/8.0/base/x86_64/
Repo-expire  : 21,600 second(s) (last: Wed Feb  5 22:39:20 2020)
  Filter     : read-only:present
Repo-filename: /etc/yum.repos.d/xcp-ng.repo

Repo-id      : xcp-ng-updates
Repo-name    : XCP-ng Updates Repository
Repo-revision: 1576509411
Repo-updated : Mon Dec 16 16:16:51 2019
Repo-pkgs    : 116
Repo-size    : 199 M
Repo-baseurl : http://mirrors.xcp-ng.org/8/8.0/updates/x86_64/,
             : http://updates.xcp-ng.org/8/8.0/updates/x86_64/
Repo-expire  : 21,600 second(s) (last: Wed Feb  5 22:39:21 2020)
  Filter     : read-only:present
Repo-filename: /etc/yum.repos.d/xcp-ng.repo

repolist: 2,931

stormi

What files do you have in /etc/yum.repos.d? Does /etc/yum.repos.d/xcp-ng.repo correctly point at 8.1? Is there another repo file there that points à 8.0?

HeMaN

@stormi

I checked the /etc/ym.repos.d and there were repositories for CentOS-Base, -Debuginfo, -Sources, dell-system-update, epel and epel-testing. Only the dell repo was enabled, none of them contained references to xcp-ng

the other repo was like expected the xcp-ng.repo
This contained the reference to 8.0, not 8.1

I was able to make it work by again doing the copy command for the 8.1 repo I initially got with the wget from /root.
I checked and this time it did correctly replace the 8.0 repo to 8.1

I do not know why it did not do so before. There is no indication in the output the cp command did not do its' thing the first time.

Anyway, thanks for helping me and pointing in the right direction. Just started the update to 8.1 now

HeMaN

Ok, new issue after the update:
After the reboot of the server none of the VM's were started (including the VM with XO from the sources). I checked this in the status screen with a display connected to the server.

I downloaded the latest daily version of xcp-ng center. Was able to connect to the server but no vm's were started as suspected.

There I saw an error for my ISO repository that resides on my NAS (Samba). Trying to solve it from xcp-ng center did not work (SM has thrown thrown a generic python exception).

I was able to start the XO vm and from there when trying to reconnect the ISO repository I got this error in the log:
SR_HAS_NO_PBDS(OpaqueRef:d259a8f1-6bbe-46bb-b135-447bb352e888)

When trying to reconnect from the console:

[13:21 xenserver-2 ~]# xe pbd-list
uuid ( RO)                  : 46ee05c2-2f4d-ecbf-cbbd-5194384df464
             host-uuid ( RO): 0092f4dd-09ae-41ba-98e6-2d45febf0e77
               sr-uuid ( RO): ebc08968-b804-4cd5-7c1e-9e5f2c37e2de
         device-config (MRO): iso_path: /Xen; location: //n5550.home.xxx.yyy/Bestanden; type: cifs; vers: 3.0
    currently-attached ( RO): false

[13:22 xenserver-2 ~]# xe pbd-plug uuid=46ee05c2-2f4d-ecbf-cbbd-5194384df464
Error code: SR_BACKEND_FAILURE_1200
Error parameters: , 'username',

HeMaN

Did some googeling and testing, but could not get the ISO repository to connect.
Finally simply deleted the repository and created a new one to the same samba share. That worked at once.

Think I might have created the issue myself bij not having ejected one "cd" from one of the vm's. Not sure is this was the cause, but will update my own documentation to eject all cd's first

Another thing I noticed is my VM's I set to autostart at boot do not autostart anymore at all.

I already tried removing and setting the autostart option again for those vm's in XO, but after a reboot they still do not autostart

gdixon

@olivierlambert Sorry. I'm new to this. Can you point me to a description of how it should look? Thanks. I appreciate your patience.

stormi

stormi

@gdixon so I just added a virtual disk to an XCP-ng 8.1 VM (I often use nested virtualisation for testing) that appeared as sdc. I connected that XCP-ng host to Xen Orchestra and used XO to create an ext SR.

That SR was created as ext4. No need for sm-additional-drivers for ext4 in XCP-ng 8.1.

Extract from fstab

/dev/mapper/XSLocalEXT--d0866df5--f9fe--2c3a--1332--8d549468dce7-d0866df5--f9fe--2c3a--1332--8d549468dce7 on /run/sr-mount/d0866df5-f9fe-2c3a-1332-8d549468dce7 type ext4 (rw,relatime)

Note: even for ext local SRs, XCP-ng uses an LVM layer on top, hence the output of lsblk.

stormi

About VM autostart: as @r1 found out, there's a missing symlink in an XCP-ng updated via yum. That's a bug in the upgrade scripts that is present in CH 8.1 too, and we reported it to them.

Here's the fix:

systemctl enable xapi-wait-init-complete.service

speedy01

@stormi @r1

great find! I tested this, and it appears to at least correct the issue with autostart.
Thanks

olivierlambert

Thanks for the feedback

HeMaN

@stormi @r1 thank you! I do not have the equipment to test with ch8.1 but this is solved already I see. great catch

olivierlambert

Indeed, also we reported the problem to Citrix, they might provide a fix one way or another.

stormi

Announcement about our former experimental ext4 SR driver:

It is now deprecated in 8.1. For a good reason: in XCP-ng 8.1 and above, following upstream changes, the ext driver now formats new SRs as EXT4.

There is no easy way to convert an existing SR created with our driver, so those using it will need to move the VDIs out (to another SR or to export them), destroy the SR and create an EXT SR instead. Make sure to do this on XCP-ng 8.1.

The sm-additional-drivers package remains available in XCP-ng 8.1 in order to ease the transition (update: and also because it contains the XFS driver). However I've broken the sr-create command on purpose. Any attempt to create a SR of type ext4 will result in an error with a message that explains that you need to use the ext type instead.

Our experimental driver will be completely removed in a later release, possibly XCP-ng 8.2. Unless someone convinces me to delay the removal for a good reason. I will accept reasons such as "I know I shouldn't have used the experimental driver in production, but I did and need more time to convert my SR while at the same time I really need feature xxx from XCP-ng 8.2", but I really would prefer to drop it in 8.2.

Feedback from people doing the transition is welcome to make sure we document the transition in the best way possible.