XOSTOR hyperconvergence preview

peter_webbird

Is CBT meant to be supported on XOSTOR?

I've been experimenting with XOSTOR recently, but upon testing a delta-backup, noticed this warning...
couldn't enable CBT

The error message behind this is SR_OPERATION_NOT_SUPPORTED when calling Async.VDI.enable_cbt.

Running xe sr-param-list uuid={uuid} shows the following:

[~]# xe sr-param-list uuid={...}
    uuid ( RO) : {...}
    name-label ( RW): CD6
    name-description ( RW): Array of Kioxia CD6 U.2 drives, one in each Host.
    host ( RO): <shared>
    allowed-operations (SRO): unplug; plug; PBD.create; update; PBD.destroy; VDI.resize; VDI.clone; scan; VDI.snapshot; VDI.mirror; VDI.create; VDI.destroy
    {...etc}
    type ( RO): linstor
    content-type ( RO): user
    shared ( RW): true
    introduced-by ( RO): <not in database>
    is-tools-sr ( RO): false
    other-config (MRW): auto-scan: true
    sm-config (MRO):
    {...etc}

Compared to another SR, the following allowed-operations are missing:

VDI.enable_cbt;
VDI.list_changed_blocks;
VDI.disable_cbt;
VDI.data_destroy;
VDI.set_on_boot

Is this the expected behaviour? Note that this is using XCP-ng 8.2 (I've yet to test out 8.3).

olivierlambert

Ping @ronan-a or @dthenot

ronan-a

@peter_webbird We've already had feedback on CBT and LINSTOR/DRBD, we don't necessarily recommend enabling it. We have a blocking dev card regarding a bug with LVM lvchange command that may fail on CBT volumes used by a XOSTOR SR. We also have other issues related to migration with CBT.

gb.123

@ronan-a @dthenot @Team-Storage

Guys, Can you please clarify which method to use for installing XOSTOR in XCP-ng 8.3 ?

Simple :

yum install xcp-ng-linstor
yum install xcp-ng-release-linstor
./install --disks /dev/nvme0n1 --thin

Or the script in the first post ?
Or Some other script ?

dthenot

@gb.123 Hello,
The instruction in the first post are still the way to go

JeffBerntsen

@dthenot said in XOSTOR hyperconvergence preview:

@gb.123 Hello,
The instruction in the first post are still the way to go

I'm curious about that as well but the first post says that the installation script is only compatible with 8.2 and doesn't mention 8.3. Is that still the case or is the installation script now compatible with 8.3 as well? If not, is there an installation script that is compatible with 8.3?

I know that using XO is the recommended method for installation but I'm interested in an installation script as I would like to try to integrate XOSTOR installation into an XCP-ng installation script I already have which runs via PXE boot.

dthenot

@JeffBerntsen That's why I meant, the way to install written in the first post still work in 8.3, the script still work as expected also, it basically only create the VG/LV needed on hosts before you create the SR.

JeffBerntsen

@dthenot said in XOSTOR hyperconvergence preview:

@JeffBerntsen That's why I meant, the way to install written in the first post still work in 8.3, the script still work as expected also, it basically only create the VG/LV needed on hosts before you create the SR.

Got it. Thanks!

henri9813

Hello,

I plan to install my XOSTOR cluster on a pool of 7 nodes with 3 replicas, but not all nodes at once because disks are in use.
consider:

node1
node2
node ...
node 5
node 6
node 7.

with 2 disks on each

sda: 128GB for the OS
sdb: 1TB for local sr ( for now )

I emptied node 6 & 7.

so, here is what i plan to do:

On ALL NODES: setup linstor packages

Run the install script on node 6 & 7 to add their disks
so:

node6# install.sh --disks /dev/sdb
node7# install.sh --disks /dev/sdb

Then, configure the SR and the linstor plugin manager as the following

xe sr-create \ 
    type=linstor name-label=pool-01 \
    host-uuid=XXXX \
    device-config:group-name=linstor_group/thin_device device-config:redundancy=3 shared=true device-config:provisioning=thin

Normally, i should have a linstor cluster running of 2 nodes ( 2 satellite and one controller randomly placed ) with only 2 disks and then, only 2/3 working replicas.

The cluster SHOULD be usable ( i'm right on this point ? )

The next step, would be to move VM from node 5 on it to evacuate node 5. and then add it to the cluster by the following

node5# install.sh --disks /dev/sdb
node5# xe host-call-plugin \
  host-uuid=node5-uuid \
  plugin=linstor-manager \
  fn=addHost args:groupName=linstor_group/thin_device

That should deploy satelite on node 5 and add the disk.

I normally should have 3/3 working replicas and can start to deploy others nodes progressively.

I'm right on the process ?

aS mentionned in the discord, i will post my feedbacks and results from my setup once i finalized it. ( maybe thought a blog post somewhere ).

Thanks to provide xostor in opensource, it's clearly the missing piece for this virtualization stack in opensource ( vs proxmox )

Jonathon

I have amazing news!

After the upgrade to xcp-ng 8.3, I retested velero backup, and it all just works

Completed Backup

jonathon@jonathon-framework:~$ velero --kubeconfig k8s_configs/production.yaml backup describe grafana-test
Name:         grafana-test
Namespace:    velero
Labels:       objectset.rio.cattle.io/hash=c2b5f500ab5d9b8ffe14f2c70bf3742291df565c
              velero.io/storage-location=default
Annotations:  objectset.rio.cattle.io/applied=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
              objectset.rio.cattle.io/id=e104add0-85b4-4eb5-9456-819bcbe45cfc
              velero.io/resource-timeout=10m0s
              velero.io/source-cluster-k8s-gitversion=v1.33.4+rke2r1
              velero.io/source-cluster-k8s-major-version=1
              velero.io/source-cluster-k8s-minor-version=33

Phase:  Completed


Namespaces:
  Included:  grafana
  Excluded:  <none>

Resources:
  Included cluster-scoped:    <none>
  Excluded cluster-scoped:    volumesnapshotcontents.snapshot.storage.k8s.io
  Included namespace-scoped:  *
  Excluded namespace-scoped:  volumesnapshots.snapshot.storage.k8s.io

Label selector:  <none>

Or label selector:  <none>

Storage Location:  default

Velero-Native Snapshot PVs:  true
Snapshot Move Data:          true
Data Mover:                  velero

TTL:  720h0m0s

CSISnapshotTimeout:    30m0s
ItemOperationTimeout:  4h0m0s

Hooks:  <none>

Backup Format Version:  1.1.0

Started:    2025-10-15 15:29:52 -0700 PDT
Completed:  2025-10-15 15:31:25 -0700 PDT

Expiration:  2025-11-14 14:29:52 -0800 PST

Total items to be backed up:  35
Items backed up:              35

Backup Item Operations:  1 of 1 completed successfully, 0 failed (specify --details for more information)
Backup Volumes:
  Velero-Native Snapshots: <none included>

  CSI Snapshots:
    grafana/central-grafana:
      Data Movement: included, specify --details for more information

  Pod Volume Backups: <none included>

HooksAttempted:  0
HooksFailed:     0

Completed Restore

jonathon@jonathon-framework:~$ velero --kubeconfig k8s_configs/production.yaml restore describe restore-grafana-test --details
Name:         restore-grafana-test
Namespace:    velero
Labels:       objectset.rio.cattle.io/hash=252addb3ed156c52d9fa9b8c045b47a55d66c0af
Annotations:  objectset.rio.cattle.io/applied=H4sIAAAAAAAA/3yRTW7zIBBA7zJrO5/j35gzfE2rtsomymIM45jGBgTjbKLcvaKJm6qL7kDwnt7ABdDpHfmgrQEBZxrJ25W2/85rSOCkjQIBrxTYeoIEJmJUyAjiAmiMZWRtTYhb232Q5EC88tquJDKPFEU6GlpUG5UVZdpUdZ6WZZ+niOtNWtR1SypvqC8buCYwYkfjn7oBwwAC8ipHpbqC1LqqZZWrtse228isrLqywapSdS0z7KPU4EQgwN+mSI8eezSYMgWG22lwKOl7/MgERzJmdChPs9veDL9IGfSbQRcGy+96IjszCCiyCRLQRo6zIrVd5AHEfuHhkIBmmp4d+a/3e9Dl8LPoCZ3T5hg7FvQRcR8nxt6XL7sAgv1MCZztOE+01P23cvmnPYzaxNtwuF4/AwAA//8k6OwC/QEAAA
              objectset.rio.cattle.io/id=9ad8d034-7562-44f2-aa18-3669ed27ef47

Phase:                       Completed
Total items to be restored:  33
Items restored:              33

Started:    2025-10-15 15:35:26 -0700 PDT
Completed:  2025-10-15 15:36:34 -0700 PDT

Warnings:
  Velero:     <none>
  Cluster:    <none>
  Namespaces:
    grafana-restore:  could not restore, ConfigMap:elasticsearch-es-transport-ca-internal already exists. Warning: the in-cluster version is different than the backed-up version
                      could not restore, ConfigMap:kube-root-ca.crt already exists. Warning: the in-cluster version is different than the backed-up version

Backup:  grafana-test

Namespaces:
  Included:  grafana
  Excluded:  <none>

Resources:
  Included:        *
  Excluded:        nodes, events, events.events.k8s.io, backups.velero.io, restores.velero.io, resticrepositories.velero.io, csinodes.storage.k8s.io, volumeattachments.storage.k8s.io, backuprepositories.velero.io
  Cluster-scoped:  auto

Namespace mappings:  grafana=grafana-restore

Label selector:  <none>

Or label selector:  <none>

Restore PVs:  true

CSI Snapshot Restores:
  grafana-restore/central-grafana:
    Data Movement:
      Operation ID: dd-ffa56e1c-9fd0-44b4-a8bb-8163f40a49e9.330b82fc-ca6a-423217ee5
      Data Mover: velero
      Uploader Type: kopia

Existing Resource Policy:   <none>
ItemOperationTimeout:       4h0m0s

Preserve Service NodePorts:  auto

Restore Item Operations:
  Operation for persistentvolumeclaims grafana-restore/central-grafana:
    Restore Item Action Plugin:  velero.io/csi-pvc-restorer
    Operation ID:                dd-ffa56e1c-9fd0-44b4-a8bb-8163f40a49e9.330b82fc-ca6a-423217ee5
    Phase:                       Completed
    Progress:                    856284762 of 856284762 complete (Bytes)
    Progress description:        Completed
    Created:                     2025-10-15 15:35:28 -0700 PDT
    Started:                     2025-10-15 15:36:06 -0700 PDT
    Updated:                     2025-10-15 15:36:26 -0700 PDT

HooksAttempted:   0
HooksFailed:      0

Resource List:
  apps/v1/Deployment:
    - grafana-restore/central-grafana(created)
    - grafana-restore/grafana-debug(created)
  apps/v1/ReplicaSet:
    - grafana-restore/central-grafana-5448b9f65(created)
    - grafana-restore/central-grafana-56887c6cb6(created)
    - grafana-restore/central-grafana-56ddd4f497(created)
    - grafana-restore/central-grafana-5f4757844b(created)
    - grafana-restore/central-grafana-5f69f86c85(created)
    - grafana-restore/central-grafana-64545dcdc(created)
    - grafana-restore/central-grafana-69c66c54d9(created)
    - grafana-restore/central-grafana-6c8d6f65b8(created)
    - grafana-restore/central-grafana-7b479f79ff(created)
    - grafana-restore/central-grafana-bc7d96cdd(created)
    - grafana-restore/central-grafana-cb88bd49c(created)
    - grafana-restore/grafana-debug-556845ff7b(created)
    - grafana-restore/grafana-debug-6fb594cb5f(created)
    - grafana-restore/grafana-debug-8f66bfbf6(created)
  discovery.k8s.io/v1/EndpointSlice:
    - grafana-restore/central-grafana-hkgd5(created)
  networking.k8s.io/v1/Ingress:
    - grafana-restore/central-grafana(created)
  rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1/Role:
    - grafana-restore/central-grafana(created)
  rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1/RoleBinding:
    - grafana-restore/central-grafana(created)
  v1/ConfigMap:
    - grafana-restore/central-grafana(created)
    - grafana-restore/elasticsearch-es-transport-ca-internal(failed)
    - grafana-restore/kube-root-ca.crt(failed)
  v1/Endpoints:
    - grafana-restore/central-grafana(created)
  v1/PersistentVolume:
    - pvc-e3f6578f-08b2-4e79-85f0-76bbf8985b55(skipped)
  v1/PersistentVolumeClaim:
    - grafana-restore/central-grafana(created)
  v1/Pod:
    - grafana-restore/central-grafana-cb88bd49c-fc5br(created)
  v1/Secret:
    - grafana-restore/fpinfra-net-cf-cert(created)
    - grafana-restore/grafana(created)
  v1/Service:
    - grafana-restore/central-grafana(created)
  v1/ServiceAccount:
    - grafana-restore/central-grafana(created)
    - grafana-restore/default(skipped)
  velero.io/v2alpha1/DataUpload:
    - velero/grafana-test-nw7zj(skipped)

Image of working restore pod, with correct data in PV

Velero installed from helm: https://vmware-tanzu.github.io/helm-charts
Version: velero:11.1.0
Values

---
image:
  repository: velero/velero
  tag: v1.17.0

# Whether to deploy the restic daemonset.
deployNodeAgent: true

initContainers:
   - name: velero-plugin-for-aws
     image: velero/velero-plugin-for-aws:latest
     imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
     volumeMounts:
       - mountPath: /target
         name: plugins

configuration:
  defaultItemOperationTimeout: 2h
  features: EnableCSI
  defaultSnapshotMoveData: true

  backupStorageLocation:
    - name: default
      provider: aws
      bucket: velero
      config:
        region: us-east-1
        s3ForcePathStyle: true
        s3Url: https://s3.location

  # Destination VSL points to LINSTOR snapshot class
  volumeSnapshotLocation:
    - name: linstor
      provider: velero.io/csi
      config:
        snapshotClass: linstor-vsc

credentials:
  useSecret: true
  existingSecret: velero-user


metrics:
  enabled: true

  serviceMonitor:
    enabled: true

  prometheusRule:
    enabled: true
    # Additional labels to add to deployed PrometheusRule
    additionalLabels: {}
    # PrometheusRule namespace. Defaults to Velero namespace.
    # namespace: ""
    # Rules to be deployed
    spec:
      - alert: VeleroBackupPartialFailures
        annotations:
          message: Velero backup {{ $labels.schedule }} has {{ $value | humanizePercentage }} partialy failed backups.
        expr: |-
          velero_backup_partial_failure_total{schedule!=""} / velero_backup_attempt_total{schedule!=""} > 0.25
        for: 15m
        labels:
          severity: warning
      - alert: VeleroBackupFailures
        annotations:
          message: Velero backup {{ $labels.schedule }} has {{ $value | humanizePercentage }} failed backups.
        expr: |-
          velero_backup_failure_total{schedule!=""} / velero_backup_attempt_total{schedule!=""} > 0.25
        for: 15m
        labels:
          severity: warning

Also create the following.

apiVersion: snapshot.storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: VolumeSnapshotClass
metadata:
  name: linstor-vsc
  labels:
    velero.io/csi-volumesnapshot-class: "true"
driver: linstor.csi.linbit.com
deletionPolicy: Delete

We are using Piraeus operator to use xostor in k8s
https://github.com/piraeusdatastore/piraeus-operator.git
Version: v2.9.1
Values:

---
operator: 
  resources:
    requests:
      cpu: 250m
      memory: 500Mi
    limits:
      memory: 1Gi
installCRDs: true
imageConfigOverride:
- base: quay.io/piraeusdatastore
  components:
    linstor-satellite:
      image: piraeus-server
      tag: v1.29.0
tls:
  certManagerIssuerRef:
    name: step-issuer
    kind: StepClusterIssuer
    group: certmanager.step.sm

Then we just connect to the xostor cluster like external linstor controller.