XenCenter to XCP-NG Upgrade using Bash
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I use XCP-NG but someone is using Xenserver 6.5. I'm not happy them using that old hypervisor. I'm going to export them VM's as precautionary backup anyway, But I wondered if anyone on here a successfully use the upgrade script built into XCP-NG?
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@stuartjordan Assume that you mean Xen Server 6.5 (Xen Center is just the Windows management GUI). I can't speak to any scripts, and XCP-ng might have a quirk or 2 different from Citrix Xen, but you should just be able to boot the install media and for the "traditional" Citrix hypervisor there's the options for both a clean install or to upgrade the existing hypervisor without touching the VMs. Coming from 6.5, and if you can move the VMs or perform a backup/restore I'd advocate a clean install since the default partition layout has changed and you won't be able to move to it with an upgrade. Good luck!
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@notverypunny said in XenCenter to XCP-NG Upgrade using Bash:
@stuartjordan Assume that you mean Xen Server 6.5 (Xen Center is just the Windows management GUI). I can't speak to any scripts, and XCP-ng might have a quirk or 2 different from Citrix Xen, but you should just be able to boot the install media and for the "traditional" Citrix hypervisor there's the options for both a clean install or to upgrade the existing hypervisor without touching the VMs. Coming from 6.5, and if you can move the VMs or perform a backup/restore I'd advocate a clean install since the default partition layout has changed and you won't be able to move to it with an upgrade. Good luck!
Yep I did mean xenserver 6.5, just changed that typo. I might just backup VM's and start a fresh then if the partition structure is different.
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@stuartjordan said in XenCenter to XCP-NG Upgrade using Bash:
@notverypunny said in XenCenter to XCP-NG Upgrade using Bash:
@stuartjordan Assume that you mean Xen Server 6.5 (Xen Center is just the Windows management GUI). I can't speak to any scripts, and XCP-ng might have a quirk or 2 different from Citrix Xen, but you should just be able to boot the install media and for the "traditional" Citrix hypervisor there's the options for both a clean install or to upgrade the existing hypervisor without touching the VMs. Coming from 6.5, and if you can move the VMs or perform a backup/restore I'd advocate a clean install since the default partition layout has changed and you won't be able to move to it with an upgrade. Good luck!
Yep I did mean xenserver 6.5, just changed that typo. I might just backup VM's and start a fresh then if the partition structure is different.
Yeah, if you've got the means (and the time) to do a backup / restore I'd do that. The downside is the time it takes to do the whole backup/restore operation... Can't remember which version changed the partition layout for xenserver, think it was with 7 but wouldn't swear to it. It hasn't been a issue so far that I can recall but my memory isn't the best at this hour on a Friday either
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@stuartjordan said in XenCenter to XCP-NG Upgrade using Bash:
I use XCP-NG but someone is using Xenserver 6.5. I'm not happy them using that old hypervisor. I'm going to export them VM's as precautionary backup anyway, But I wondered if anyone on here a successfully use the upgrade script built into XCP-NG?
I wouldn't upgrade xcp-ng from the shell. The recommended procedure is to do an upgrade using the ISO.
Partition layout is different from version 7 and up, but it will either be automatically upgraded to the new layout (if there is space) or kept the same using the old partitioning scheme.
That said, there are things to be careful about. Some old guest OS might have problems running on a newer version hypervisor. It's not just the guest OS but also the virtualization modes (HV,PVM, HVPVM etc). Some modes are not available anymore.
Another problem is that the old hardware on the server might not have drivers in the newer hypervisor. Some things have been deprecated.
Xenserver 6.5 was released January 2015. Assuming the server hardware is the same age, I would strongly consider getting a newer server and then reinstalling / moving the workloads from the old to the new server. That gives you time to move the workloads without causing disruption if you encounter problems.
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@pete-s said in XenCenter to XCP-NG Upgrade using Bash:
@stuartjordan said in XenCenter to XCP-NG Upgrade using Bash:
I use XCP-NG but someone is using Xenserver 6.5. I'm not happy them using that old hypervisor. I'm going to export them VM's as precautionary backup anyway, But I wondered if anyone on here a successfully use the upgrade script built into XCP-NG?
I wouldn't upgrade xcp-ng from the shell. The recommended procedure is to do an upgrade using the ISO.
Partition layout is different from version 7 and up, but it will either be automatically upgraded to the new layout (if there is space) or kept the same using the old partitioning scheme.
That said, there are things to be careful about. Some old guest OS might have problems running on a newer version hypervisor. It's not just the guest OS but also the virtualization modes (HV,PVM, HVPVM etc). Some modes are not available anymore.
Another problem is that the old hardware on the server might not have drivers in the newer hypervisor. Some things have been deprecated.
Xenserver 6.5 was released January 2015. Assuming the server hardware is the same age, I would strongly consider getting a newer server and then reinstalling / moving the workloads from the old to the new server. That gives you time to move the workloads without causing disruption if you encounter problems.
Hey @Pete-S, Have you run across anything missing in doing upgrades? Honestly wondering 'cause we've got a substantial fleet of older machines that we use with xenserver. Haven't hit any situations where it falls apart, just that some of the older processors are no longer supported. Things still work OK, it's just not a supported config from Citrix anymore since the older gear isn't on the HCL for the newer release.
But to come back to the OP, if upgraded HW is an option then yeah, go that route at the same time. If it isn't an option well, there are other virt platforms that the other folks on here are better situated to help with.
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@notverypunny Upgrades have been fine for me unless you used to install the OS of Xenserver on an USB Drive which is a nono.
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@dbeato said in XenCenter to XCP-NG Upgrade using Bash:
@notverypunny Upgrades have been fine for me unless you used to install the OS of Xenserver on an USB Drive which is a nono.
I don't think this is supported with VMWare ESXi or any other hypervisor either.
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@dustinb3403 Yeah even Hyperv
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@notverypunny said in XenCenter to XCP-NG Upgrade using Bash:
Hey @Pete-S, Have you run across anything missing in doing upgrades? Honestly wondering 'cause we've got a substantial fleet of older machines that we use with xenserver. Haven't hit any situations where it falls apart, just that some of the older processors are no longer supported. Things still work OK, it's just not a supported config from Citrix anymore since the older gear isn't on the HCL for the newer release.
No, we haven't upgraded servers using 6.x. But we've had issues on 7.x that I'm sure must have worked fine on 6.x. Both on the hardware side and on the software side.
If you run very plain hardware with a plain installation of xencenter, using recent guest OSs, I don't expect much problems with an upgrade from 6.x. I think most installations in SMB installations fall in this category.
But on older systems it's also likely you'll find a surprise such as a VM running Windows 2003 server or something like that. Things like that might get you into trouble.
