SUM 307: How your business can benefit from the exciting new features in XenServer 6.1

Mark Butterly, Senior Readiness Specialist, CitrixGiovanni Di Tizio, Technical Relationship Manager, Citrix

Tuesday, October 16th, 2012

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Headline Features

Storage XenMotion SMI-S Adapter

Cloud Enhancements

Network Enhancments

XS Conversion Manager

Aka Storage XenMotion

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Architecture: Intro to VHDs• Most SRs implement VDIs as VHD trees

• VHDs are a copy-on-write format for storing virtual disks

• VDIs are the leaves of VHD trees

• Interesting VDI operation: snapshot (implemented as VHD “cloning”)

A

CB

D E

SS #1

SS #2

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Storage XenMotion

SOURCE DESTINATION

root

VM

no color = empty, gradient = live, blue = read only

copy

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• WLB cannot yet utilise Storage Migration

• Destination must have plenty of disk space or migration may fail

• Temporary storage is required on the source (and destination) SR

• IO performance inside guest will be reduced during migration due to

synchronous mirroring of VDIs

• Storage Migration not supported >1 snapshot

• VMs with PCI Pass-through (NIC, GPU) unsupported

Points to Remember

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Storage XenMotion Features

• Unique to XenServer – Mixed Storage and Pool-2-Pool migration

• Transfer & Destination networks can be selected

• Extra network IO won’t interfere with Xapi’s management interface

• Migration doesn’t interfere with VM power state ops

• Up to 3 concurrent Storage Migrations per host

• Up to 6 VDIs on each VM

• Supported on all VHD based SRs (Local EXT, Local LVHD, NFS, iSCSI, FC)

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Feature Overview: CLI Reference

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Feature Overview: API Reference

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Helpful Information

• Check logs: /var/log/{xensource.log,SMlog,messages}

• Note: xensource.log and messages both implemented with syslog to ensure

consistent timestamps

• xn command: CLI to xenopsd

• Try ‘xn help’ for documentation

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StorageLink Enhancements

• Expanded Support

○ NetApp

○ Dell EqualLogic

○ New - EMC VNX SMI-S connector

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Converting with Export and Import

XenServerXenServerSourceSource

ManagementClient

ManagementClient XenCenterXenCenterStorage

• Extra Storage

• 2 Tools

• 2 Copy operations

• 1 VM attended

Virtual MachineVirtual

Machine

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Converting with XenServer Conversion Manager

XenServerXenServerSourceSource

XCM ConsoleXCM Console• 1 Tool

• Many VMs unattended

• 1 Copy

• No Extra Storage

vCenter 4/4.1ESX 4ESX 4i

Virtual MachineVirtual

MachineVirtual MachineVirtual

MachineVirtual

MachineVirtual

Machine

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Design

XenServerXenServerSourceSource

XCM ConsoleXCM Console

VPX

XML RPC

xapi

VDI

VDI

Virtual MachineVirtual

MachineVirtual

MachineVirtual

Machine

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Configuration

• Import Conversion VPX

• Configure Conversion VPX from its console

• Root Password

• Hostname

• Domain suffix

• IP Address Assignment

•Install XCM Console on Windows• Requires .Net Framework 4

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• Convert one VM at a time (in order of submission)

• Source VM must be off

• Source VM cannot reference an ISO

• Supports vCenter 4/4.1 and ESXi 4/4.1

• No Linux “Fixups” yet

Points to Remember

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Troubleshooting

• Full log in /var/log/conversion/convsvc.log

• Audit log in /var/log/conversion/audit.log

• Conversion VPX logs with configurable level

• XCM Console log with configurable level

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LACP Bonding (tcpudp_ports)*

Virtual Machine

Virtual Machine

Bond

Virtual Machine

MultipleTCP/UDP Traffic Flows

* Default for LACP

LACP 802.3AX Stacked Switches

LAG Group

Physical NICs

Re-balanced every 10 sec

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LACP Bonding (src_mac)

Virtual Machine

Virtual Machine

Bond

Virtual Machine

MultipleTCP/UDP Traffic Flows

Re-balanced every 10 sec

LACP 802.3AX Stacked Switches

LAG Group

Physical NICs

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LACP – Faster Storage? No

Virtual Machine

Bond

Virtual Machine

MultipleTCP/UDP Traffic Flows

LACP 802.3AX Stacked Switches

LAG Group

Physical NICs

Re-balanced every 10 sec

NFS/iSCSI Flow

iSCSI, NFS SAN

1234

Domain 0

Storage traffic is treated as a single stream & LACP doesn’t offer packet reassembly

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• Two new bond modes in XenCenter wizard:

• LACP with load balancing based on IP and port of source and destination

• LACP with load balancing based on source MAC address

• CLI commands:

xe bond-create mode=lacp network-uuid=… pif-uuids=… \

properties:hashing-algorithm=src_mac

xe bond-param-set uuid=… \

properties:hashing_algorithm=tcpudp_ports

Configuration

create a LACP bond

specify hashing algorithm

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Useful Commands•CLI command:

xe bond-param-list uuid=<uuid of the bond>

•vSwitch commands: • ovs-vsctl list port

• ovs-appctl bond/show bond0 (lacp_negotiated: false/true)

• ovs-appctl lacp/show bond0 (actor and partner information, hashes)

•xensource.log – network daemon entries, including DHCP

/var/log/messages – vSwitch entries, including hash shifting

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Points to Remember

• LACP supported with the Open vSwitch, not legacy Linux Bridge

• EtherChannel/Cisco Port Aggregation Protocol (PAgP) not supported

• Static LAG not supported

• Switches must be stacked

• Now up to four NICs per bond for all bond modes (Open vSwitch)

• Only two NICs per bond supported for Linux Bridge

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What else is in XenServer 6.1?

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By PresenterMedia.com

• vmhostd Support for SAP Certificationvmhostd Support for SAP Certification

• Windows PV drivers are now msi basedWindows PV drivers are now msi based

• Automated Vendor Self-Certification KitAutomated Vendor Self-Certification Kit

• CPU Performance EnhancementsCPU Performance Enhancements

• More guests (Centos 6.1/6.2, Ubuntu 12.0.1 LTS ….)More guests (Centos 6.1/6.2, Ubuntu 12.0.1 LTS ….)

• IPv6 Guest SupportIPv6 Guest Support

• Updated ovs buildUpdated ovs build

• Xen 4.1.3Xen 4.1.3

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•Conference surveys are available online at www.citrixsummit.com starting Thursday, 18 October

○ Provide your feedback and pick up a complimentary gift at the registration desk

•Download presentations starting Monday, 29 October, from your My Organiser tool located in your My Account

Before you leave…

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