Fragile XenServer won’t create new VDIs anymore

xenserver

I'm getting increasingly frustrated with XenServer. Currently I'm using 5.6FP1 and it seems to be very fragile. Canceling any VDI-related action almost guarantees trouble.

This time I tried to create a new VM using a snapshot for a template, with the fast disk cloning option disabled. It would take much longer than I was able and willing to keep my XenCenter open, so I canceled it. That took ages too, so I had to decide to "Quit Anyway."

Since, I seem unable to create any new VDI. New attempts at cloning halt with "The attempt to clone the VDI failed," and creating new VMs based on built-in templates hang at "Provisioning."

I'm in need of some advice how to solve this. What I did so far is run a xe vdi-list, which returned nothing odd to me, but I'm no expert. I assume that an incomplete VDI is blocking my Storage Repository somehow, however, how to deal with that remains unclear.

Best Answer

Have you treied xe-toolstack-restart? I have seen this issue in the past with my infrastructure. Also, have you looked at xen cloud platform? It is based on xensrver 5.6 fp1.

Related Solutions

XenServer iSCSI – Mapping VDIs Directly to Software iSCSI LUNs

Figured it out. There is an undocumented "iscsi" SR driver that will create a LUN-per-VDI SR (I found this when looking through the /opt/xensource/sm directory - see the ISCSISR.py file). You can only set this up through the command-line, including creating the VBDs and attaching it to VMs. The VBDs and VDIs don't even show up in XenCenter.

Here's a sample command to set it up:

xe sr-create name-label=san type=iscsi device-config:target=<IP address of target> device-config:targetIQN=<IQN of target> shared=true

This will automatically create an VDI for each iSCSI LUN. If you end up adding a new iSCSI LUN on the SAN, XenServer will add a new VDI for it after executing the following command:

xe sr-scan uuid=<UUID of SR>

Also, if you end up resizing a LUN, XenServer does not automatically pick up on that, so you'd have to execute the following:

xe vdi-forget uuid=<UUID of VDI that you resized>
iscsiadm -m node -R
xe sr-scan uuid=<UUID of SR>

And to create a VBD and attach it to a VM:

xe vbd-create vm-uuid=<UUID of VM> device=<VBD device #, e.g. 0> vdi-uuid=<VDI of UUID>

How to obtain a new XenServer license using only the command line

The question is probably outdated, but just reference. From the XenServer 6.1.0 Licensing FAQ:

Q: Can I apply a license without using XenCenter?

A: Yes, you can use the xe CLI. Run the host-apply-edition command. For example, enter the following:

xe host-apply-edition edition=advanced|enterprise|platinum|enterprise-xd \ license-server-address=<license_server_address>host-uuid=<uuid_of_host> \ license-server-port=<license_server_port>

Best Answer

Related Solutions

XenServer iSCSI – Mapping VDIs Directly to Software iSCSI LUNs

How to obtain a new XenServer license using only the command line

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