BRRABill's Field Report With XenServer
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@BRRABill said:
Does XS support reclaiming/compacting space in a virtual disk?
I know it says it does not support shrinking a virtual disk, but can you reclaim (compact) that space?
am I mising something? Isn't shrinking the same as reclaiming?
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@Dashrender said:
am I mising something? Isn't shrinking the same as reclaiming?
I don't think so, but I could be wrong.
Reclaiming is adjusting the size of the virtual disk on the host to accomodate for deleted data.
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@BRRABill said:
@Dashrender said:
am I mising something? Isn't shrinking the same as reclaiming?
I don't think so, but I could be wrong.
Reclaiming is adjusting the size of the virtual disk on the host to accomodate for deleted data.
And shrinking is?
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@Dashrender said:
And shrinking is?
Actually changing the provisioned size of the virtual disk.
So if you set it up for 50GB, you could expand to 60GB, but not shrink to 40GB.
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So you're asking if, assuming a thin provisioned disk of 50 GB has 40 GB in use, then you delete 20 GB, leaving you with 40 GB actual file.. is there a way to release that now free 20 GB space, reclaiming the RS space.
good question.
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@Dashrender said:
So you're asking if, assuming a thin provisioned disk of 50 GB has 40 GB in use, then you delete 20 GB, leaving you with 40 GB actual file.. is there a way to release that now free 20 GB space, reclaiming the RS space.
good question.
Right. You can do it in Hyper-V (I think). There is a COMPACT option.
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@BRRABill said:
@Dashrender said:
So you're asking if, assuming a thin provisioned disk of 50 GB has 40 GB in use, then you delete 20 GB, leaving you with 40 GB actual file.. is there a way to release that now free 20 GB space, reclaiming the RS space.
good question.
Right. You can do it in Hyper-V (I think). There is a COMPACT option.
yeah I'm not surprised.. you can do the same with SQL and Exchange DBs, though it normally (if not completely) requires taking those systems offline.
when i needed to to this for SQL in the past, I just do a backup and restore.. was faster than a compact
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I found it interesting that XS stores the virtual hard drives in VHD format.
Opens right up in Hyper-V/Windows.
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@Dashrender said:
yeah I'm not surprised.. you can do the same with SQL and Exchange DBs, though it normally (if not completely) requires taking those systems offline.
Yeah the system/VHD definitely has to be offline.
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I have decided to give XenServer a try in the production environment.
I installed it for reals on our new server.
Had another install question...
If you have more than one partition and select both, it says it will span the storage repository across them. Is that ever a good idea?In my situation here, I have a SSD array and a SATA array, so I assume spanning them would be a terrible idea.
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huh... what is the plan for the two different arrays?
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Well, as of now, unknown.
The SSD is more than I need. I might just end up not using the SATA array.
My thought was use it for storage for backups and stuff, but that probably would be best done on another machine.
But, I was just curious as to that option.
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Another question:
When you do a fresh install, and there are, say 20 updates available, with a service pack being the last one...can you just install the service pack? Or do you need to install all the updates up to the service pack?
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This article seems to say the SP includes all previous updates.
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX142355
Just want to be 100% sure.
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Nope.. some include some older ones.. but not all.
You can start with the newest and work backwards, refreshing the list of needed updates each time.
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@Dashrender said:
Nope.. some include some older ones.. but not all.
You can start with the newest and work backwards, refreshing the list of needed updates each time.
Sorry, I did not ask a complete question.
I meant to ask can you just install the SP to cover all the updates previous to that.
Which I think from the link I posted and what you said will be OK.
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Another question...
Somewhere in the middle of updates, I started getting the following error.
My first question is:
before this error .. where was the updating "migrating" the VM to?And the second questions is ... why did it stop? Out of disk space or something?
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Well, everything was going OK until I tried making a new pool tonight.
Then my server stopped responding.
So, that is that until I go into the office tomorrow.
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NOTE TO SELF:
should probably start using iDRAC with this new system -
@BRRABill said:
NOTE TO SELF:
should probably start using iDRAC with this new systemYes, out of band management is a really, really big deal.
