BRRABill's Field Report With XenServer

olivier

@BRRABill Okay so the only difference with us is they keep ended tasks for a time (how much time?)

About the progress: XenCenter uses the pure XML-RPC way of calling XAPI, which is less prone to bugs, but very CPU intensive (I mean, VERY cpu intensive: decoding tons of XML is horrible)

Using JSON encapsulated in XML-RPC made a small difference for larger infrastructure, around 250 times faster than the shitty XML (for larger infrastructure). See https://xen-orchestra.com/blog/improving-xen-orchestra-performances/ That's the only way for us to have XO working on infrastructure with 1k VMs or more (the problem starts with 100 VMs)

But sadly, they made mistakes in JSON and it's only fixed in Dundee.

BRRABill

@olivier said:

@BRRABill Okay so the only difference with us is they keep ended tasks for a time (how much time?)

It disappears when you exit XC.

It would just be nice to be able to check in and see if the task actually finished OK, or finished but with errors, or didn't finish at all.

As it stands now, you really don't know, right?

Is that something that COULD be added? Or is it useless and I"m missing the reason why it's useless? (Which is entirely, entirely possible!)

BRRABill

@olivier

Do you have to enable auto-power-on on the pool, before you can do it to individual VMs in XO?

My servers are set to auto-power-on in XO, but do not come back up when XS reboots.

olivier

@BRRABill Yes It could be added, but XAPI tasks are such a mess. We can't be sure about them, but yes it's possible to fetch them and store them somewhere. But it will be only informative and not the "truth".

About auto power on: if you did it with XO, it's normally done in both pool and VM at the same time (see https://xen-orchestra.com/blog/auto-start-vm-on-xenserver-boot/ ).

To check your current pool status with autopower on: xe pool-param-get uuid=<POOL_UUID> param-name=other-config

BRRABill

@olivier said:

To check your current pool status with autopower on: xe pool-param-get uuid=<POOL_UUID> param-name=other-config

This is what that command returned:
cpuid_feature_mask: ffffff7f-ffffffff-ffffffff-ffffffff; memory-ratio-hvm: 0.25; memory-ratio-pv: 0.25

olivier

Hmm no autopower_on activated. I imagine you already tick the checkbox on the XO GUI? Normally, this will add the right parameter in the pool. If not, I have to check this on my side too.

BRRABill

@olivier said:

Hmm no autopower_on activated. I imagine you already tick the checkbox on the XO GUI? Normally, this will add the right parameter in the pool. If not, I have to check this on my side too.

You mean the "auto power" dropdown on the VM? Yes.

Just to test, I enabled it though the CLI, and then re-ran the commands, and this is what it said. Note I did NOT adjust the parameter for the VM itself through the CLI, so perhaps XO just needed the pool setting changed. I rebooted, and it did indeed auto-start.

[root@xenserver-TEST ~]# xe pool-param-get uuid=3526ffee-1afe-6162-0afc-6362580d10cc param-name=other-config

auto_poweron: true; cpuid_feature_mask: ffffff7f-ffffffff-ffffffff-ffffffff; memory-ratio-hvm: 0.25; memory-ratio-pv: 0.25

[root@xenserver-TEST ~]# xe vm-param-get uuid=d09990ec-73ce-9946-9698-8b8ba70621fe param-name=other-config

auto_poweron: true; vgpu_pci: ; mac_seed: b3cddb7b-b5ec-f3c8-368a-2ba33059f96a; install-methods: cdrom; base_template_name: Windows Server 2012 R2 (64-bit)

olivier

AFAIK, XO would do both (activate the "autopower" on your VM but also on its pool).

If it's not the case anymore, maybe something is broken on our side. Let me check that.

BRRABill

@olivier said:

AFAIK, XO would do both (activate the "autopower" on your VM but also on its pool).

If it's not the case anymore, maybe something is broken on our side. Let me check that.

Let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

BRRABill

@olivier said:

AFAIK, XO would do both (activate the "autopower" on your VM but also on its pool).

If it's not the case anymore, maybe something is broken on our side. Let me check that.

They did in recent versions apparently remove the "auto power on" from the GUI due to issues with HA. I wonder if that broke something on your end?

olivier

Don't know.

But we are doing this in the code:

    if auto_poweron
      yield xapi.call 'VM.add_to_other_config', ref, 'auto_poweron', 'true'
      yield xapi.setPoolProperties({autoPowerOn: true})
    else
      yield xapi.call 'VM.remove_from_other_config', ref, 'auto_poweron'

So in theory, this should work.

BRRABill

On my Server 2003 VM, whenever I go to console, it loads the following dialog box. I hit CANCEL and the console shows up.

Does not do this on my Server 2012 eval box.

Any thoughts on why it does this? Is this standard?

Dashrender

@BRRABill said:

On my Server 2003 VM, whenever I go to console, it loads the following dialog box. I hit CANCEL and the console shows up.

Does not do this on my Server 2012 eval box.

Any thoughts on why it does this? Is this standard?

Yep...Because the older version of RDP doesn't have authentication like the new one. So assuming you're using Windows 7 or newer on the client side, the RDP client in Win7 or newer is looking for that authentication - which it gets from Server 2012, but not from 2003 - and it's warning you of such.

BRRABill

@Dashrender

Is the "console" tab using RDP?

Dashrender

@BRRABill said:

@Dashrender

Is the "console" tab using RDP?

No the console tab in XC is using whatever protocol Citrix decided to use to pull the console in, it's completely outside of Windows.

Open mouth, insert foot - apparently I don't know what I'm talking about he has a picture where XC is demanding RDC info.. the above show picture..

BRRABill

PROOF!

scottalanmiller

@BRRABill said:

@Dashrender

Is the "console" tab using RDP?

Might, it is an open protocol. Lots of things use it. I assumed VNC as that is the standard, but RDP is totally possible.

scottalanmiller

@Dashrender said:

No the console tab in XC is using whatever protocol Citrix decided to use to pull the console in, it's completely outside of Windows.

All of this is absolutely true... except possible the "no" at the beginning.

BRRABill

I thought using RDP to manage servers was a ML no-no.

scottalanmiller

@BRRABill said:

I thought using RDP to manage servers was a ML no-no.

You aren't using it to manage the servers, you are using it to install them and you aren't connected to the server with it, but to the platform.

And it IS a no no regardless, you should not be managing a server post install from the console at all. RDP is a no no because you should not be at the console.